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LP
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TEN 106LP
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Keeping up the previous two-year gap between records, spring of 2019 brings Zebra Hunt's third album, titled Trade Desire. The Seattle four-piece received much praise in 2017 for In Phrases (TEN 105LP, 2017), an LP that led to a nine-date tour of Spain in July of that year. Excited and energized by the great response during that trip, they returned to the Pacific Northwest and over the next months started to work on a new set of songs at rehearsals and the occasional show. If there is a theme to Trade Desire, it might be "finding comfort and confidence". When it was time to record it, the band decided to return to the same person, Robert Comitz, who recorded City Sighs, their first album (2015). They have an easy time working with him, so it felt very comfortable. The mastering was done by Mikey Young. There is a familiarity in the sound Zebra Hunt are known for in some tracks but they also had the confidence to explore new territories. Although their main influences remain (the shimmering pop of The Feelies, the Flying Nun legacy and the Paisley Underground scene), they challenged themselves to discover new approaches in composition and feel (apart from covering "Second One To Know", originally by The Fresh & Onlys). After playing together as a four-piece for nearly four years, the band sounds like it's fully glued together on this recording.
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LP
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TEN 105LP
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2015 was a busy year for Seattle's Zebra Hunt. Drummer Mitch Leffler, bassist Erik Bennett, and singer/guitarist Robert Mercer released their debut album City Sighs on Tenorio Cotobade (2015), and supported it with shows in the US Pacific Northwest. Its marriage of the chiming pop legacy of the '80s Flying Nun catalog and the crystal-like beauty of the Paisley Underground scene was praised worldwide, and the album would be included in several "Best of 2015" lists. In June of that year, Zebra Hunt traveled to Spain for a whole week of brilliant shows which gained them many new Spanish fans. That tour also brought the addition of Aaron Sheedy to the line-up as guitarist and keyboard player. Apart from presenting their debut album, the shows served to write and test new material while the band got used to their new dynamic. The four-piece went into the studio in 2016 to record their new album In Phrases with legendary Seattle producer Jack Endino, renowned for his work with Nirvana, Soundgarden, Mudhoney, Screaming Trees, and many others. Mikey Young (Eddy Current Suppression Ring, Total Control), who has worked on several of the band's favorite records of recent years, has mastered the twelve new tracks. Marrying the energy and dynamism of their live shows with pop songs that sparkle and shine, on their second album, Zebra Hunt have delivered a collection of twelve tunes with melodic and lyrical confidence. Whether in gentle, minor-key mode on "Lonely Summer" or firing on all cylinders on the insistent and propulsive "What I Want" and Farfisa-fueled "Follow", the band thrums as much as it jangles, pulsing rhythms anchoring and framing guitars slowly unspooling silvery lines or attacking with a frantic strum. Setting scenes with a knack for lyrical evocation of times and places long gone, Zebra Hunt will leave you alternately sighing and swinging to the beat.
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