Saturday, August 4 • 1:45pm • The Bowl
The Moondoggies new album A Love Sleeps Deep rattles bones with all the seismic changes of the last five years since the release of Adios I’m a Ghost. While the Washington band got lumped in early on with the woodsy folk-rock/Americana movement that sprung up in the Pacific Northwest in the 2000s, their core sound has always been rock in the more classical sense-more Pink Floyd than Woody Guthrie.
While the album on a whole is about love, there’s an unmistakable anger boiling under the surface. Lead singer Kevin Murphy captures the life-altering glory of finding real love on “Sick in Bed” and “Easy Coming,” and speaks to that special unbridled brand of parental love on “My Mother.” But the highs exasperate his counterbalancing frustrations singing with poetic pointedness about the casual racism his girlfriend has faced on “Cinders” and how we’re all ruining the planet his daughters will inherit on “Underground (A Love Sleeps Deep).”
With the passage of time, the band feels more comfortable in its own skin. Carl Dahlen’s drums sonically lead the way, crafting a stellar template for everyone else. Bassist Robert Terreberry, further helps lock in the grooves over Caleb Quick’s keys. In addition to lead guitar work, Jon Pontrello taught himself pedal steel since which adds a more cosmic feel to the heaviest tracks. What have The Moondoggies found inside of themselves that makes A Love Sleeps Deep stand out? “Rawness, like a monster singing lullabies.”