One Track Mind

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When Doug Martsch of Built to Spill wants to play guitar and sing background vocals on your song (as he does on The Prids‘ “In the Fall”), chances are your band is doing something right. Of course, after a decade and a half of touring and recording, the quartet isn’t exactly wanting for fans. Now based in Portland, The Prids have released a scad of singles and EPs in addition to two LPs; their third, Chronosynclastic, will see a June 11th release on Velvet Blue Music.

Formed in 1995, the band has seen its share of tumult over the years. Its founding members, David Frederickson and Mistina Keith, married one another, then got divorced but continued their musical collaboration à la Fleetwood Mac. In 2008, everyone in the group was injured in a highway wreck that cost them their van and equipment (although the financial blow was cushioned by donations which streamed in from fans across the globe). The Prids’ have even survived the hazards of geography, keeping things together in transitions from their original base in Missouri through stints in Nebraska en route to Oregon.

However, a great backstory means nothing without the music to back it up, and thankfully, The Prids deliver on that front. “In the Fall” is the ninth of ten tracks on Chronosynclastic, a succinct, compelling statement at just under two and a half minutes in length. It’s difficult to not think of Ride’s classic “Vapour Trail” when listening to “In the Fall,” as both share the same churning guitars underscored by a subtle secondary melody. Elsewhere, there are shades of the boys from Stockton, The Weddoes, and even The Cure at their synth-washed finest. There is a smart mixture of tunefulness and noise on “In the Fall,” which never favors either side of the equation too heavily. Instead, The Prids bridge both sensibilities with ease: vocal harmonies float cooly over shredding guitars in a blissed out marriage that is tough to resist.