The Posies and Terra Lightfoot
Long before busting straight outta Seattle’s University District with a widely distributed homemade cassette, the Posies were already blowing minds with their intellectual and sardonic style of harmonic pop. Their major label debut on Geffen in 1989 only confirmed what many already knew: too few musicians know how to smile up there in Washington, but the Posies would spend the next quarter century attempting to rectify that dearth of northwestern delight.
Note that keeping things lit up and shimmery can be a Herculean chore for a band that has seen two longtime members die in the past three years, bassist Joe Skyward and drummer Darius Minwalla. Their most recent album, Solid States, evinces much melancholy within the sparkling harmonies and free-flow melodic passages, filled with lament and self-criticism that only reveals itself as contemplative on closer inspection of the lyrics. Still manned by founding songwriter duo Ken Stringfellow and Jon Auer, their May 26 appearance at Soda Bar also includes Canadian roots rocker Terra Lightfoot, whose multi-octave voice and crunchy guitar chops bring to mind Florence Welch as if fronting Creedence Clearwater Revival.