The Soft Hills

It’s easy to lump all these new harmony-singing bands from the great Northwest (I miss you Seattle!) together. They all look like sensitive lumberjacks, seem to have some unexplained fondness for Graham Nash and they make those vampires from Twilight seem tough (fuck her already, Count!). What separates the Soft Hills from groups like Blitzen Trapper and Fleet Foxes is their incorporation of David Gilmore-esque psychedelic slide guitar and big time dynamics. They are defiantly on the same branch of the tree, but the Soft Hills have obviously worked hard to create their own space on it.

If anything, their minor-keyed arpeggios and the open-throated tenor of lead singer Garrett Hobba sound more like Austin TX’s Shearwater than anyone who still roots for the Supersonics. Leadoff track “Phoenix” works as a summary of the rest of the album; close harmonies, haunting guitars and a Crazy Horse stomp groove halfway through. The Bird is Coming Down to Earth is a perfect title for this album, in that it evokes the romance of the forest, but reminds the listener that the woods are where wolves hunt and that soaring bird has to return to land. (Tapete Records)

- Performer Magazine

L’avenir des Fleet Foxes est en question, on n’a pas eu de nouvelles de Midlake depuis quelques lunes, mais tout n’est pas perdu pour les amateurs de joliesses boisées, de chœurs splendides soufflés sur les braises d’un feu de camp romantique, pour les âmes chamallow qui aiment se perdre dans des arrangements piqués à la belle étoile 70s, qui se délectent de mélodies taillées dans les hautes branches de séquoias millénaires. Tout n’est pas perdu, tout est même gagné : qu’ils jettent une oreille, et pourquoi pas les deux, sur l’album The Bird Is Coming Down To Earth de The Soft Hills, Américains de (tiens tiens) Seattle, et leur cœur, s’il n’est pas encore sec, devrait se remettre à rebondir comme un heureux cabri.

TRANSLATION of the review: Fleet Foxes future is uncertain, we haven't heard from Midlake for a while, but there is sti...ll something for people who like beautiful "woodsy" music, amazing choirs bellowing around "a romantic camp fire", for "marshmallow" souls who love to get lost in 70's arrangements, who like melodies built amongst old Sequoias. Nothing is lost, everything is fine: let's listen to the album The Bird Is Coming Down To Earth by Seattle band The Soft Hills, and our hearts, if they are not dry yet, will leap like happy children. - Les Inrocks

Aufwühlend
- Eine Mischung aus leichtem Psychedelic und anklingendem Folk – Monique Schmiedl begrüßt dankbar ein Album, das in diese verträumten Wintertage passt.

Es ist grau. Fast schon dunkel. War es jemals hell? Den ganzen Tag das Licht an. Draußen gibt es Dauerregen. Der Blick aus dem Fenster ist deprimierend. Die Welt ist deprimierend. Das Leben ist deprimierend. Und jetzt ist auch noch die Musik deprimierend.

Im CD-Player liegt das neue Album von The Soft Hills. Das Seattler Quartett veröffentlicht mit „The Bird Is Coming Down To Earth“ zum ersten Mal in Europa und bringt schummrig-traurige Klänge zu uns. Klänge, die sich durch den Raum bewegen und an den Wänden zurückprallen. Sie werden von rechts nach links geleitet und finden keinen Weg raus. Sie sind gefangen im Zimmer des Hörers, umschwirren ihn und werden dadurch stärker und stärker.

The Soft Hills haben den Soundtrack zu Schlechtwetter-Tagen geschrieben. Ihr Album ist beruhigend bis deprimierend. Dunkle Wolken wirken auf einmal größer, der Regen scheint noch nasser zu sein, das Kuschelgefühl verstärkt sich. Nicht zuletzt die leiernde Stimme des Sängers Garrett Hobba lässt einen wehmütig denken: Herrjeh, was für eine Welt.

Die vier Musiker haben mit „The Bird Is Coming Down To Earth“ ein Album geschaffen, dass unendlich beruhigend ist, einen fast schon depressiv werden lässt und doch aufwühlender nicht sein kann. Die Mischung aus leichtem Psychedelic und anklingendem Folk lässt eine eindeutige Zuordnung nicht zu. Die hohe Singstimme, die im Laufe des Albums immer leiernder und schläfriger wird, wird unterbrochen von choralen Einsätzen und experimentellen Elementen. Der Hörer wird beinahe gezwungen, seinen Gedanken freien Lauf zu lassen, die Musik zu vergessen und sich ganz sich selbst hinzugeben. Und dann kommen klitzekleine Einsätze, verschroben anklingende Töne, rockige Klänge, die einen immer wieder ins Hier und Jetzt zurück befördern. Man ist gefangen, genauso wie die Klänge in den eigenen vier Wänden gefangen sind. Gefangen zwischen Gegensätzen, festgehalten von den Tönen, den Klängen und den Gedanken, die durch die Musik ganz automatisch zu entstehen scheinen.

Das neue Album von The Soft Hills lässt sich schwer greifen. Es ist perfekt für einen Tag wie heute. Ein Tag, an dem man sich solch träumerischen, ruhigen Klängen hingeben kann und will, ein Tag, an dem Gedanken frei sein können, ein Tag, an dem man nichts zu befürchten hat. Wie „The Bird Is Coming Down To Earth“ wohl bei Sonnenschein klingt?

Monique Schmiedl

- CULTurMAG

If the word “soft” appears in the title of something music related, it’s often a pointer to just how good it is: The Soft Bulletin, The Soft Moon, The Soft Boys, Soft Machine…errr, soft rock? So, Seattle’s The Soft Hills have a lot to live up to with their new album The Bird Is Coming Down To Earth. Their music is a blending of cosmic folk and psychedelic country, formed and honed over the course of two previous releases, the Painted Word EP and the Noruz album. The four-piece – Garrett Hobba, Brittan Drake, Randall Skrasek and Brett Massa – belong to simpler times, be it the Laurel Canyon of the ’60s and ’70s, or the burgeoning gold prospecting days on the US West Coast; their music is yearning, with a sense of loss but also rebirth; and to be honest, you’re going to hear many worse records in 2012 than this little nugget of psych pop.

The finest example of the band’s songwriting is found on opening track ‘Phoenix’. A mix of druggy early Eagles and classic Neil Young, it’s a beautifully keening song beginning as a gentle pastoral with Hobba pining for a getaway (“You can ride with me anytime you want, we can journey to the end of the night/We can look for treasures of our own delight”). As the harmonies build the song slows down and a tension builds, the change in mood reflected by some crackling Crazy Horse style electric guitar and foreboding lyrics: “Fire and ashes; this whole town’s gonna bleed/The fever passes, but I’m still down on my knees…darling please”. However the mood lifts and we return to the optimism of the beginning of the track, the titular phoenix rising with hopefulness. In a trippier analysis of the song, it could be seen as a vision quest, a rebirth of consciousness, and a new beginning.

- The Line Of Best Fit

With The Bird Is Coming Down to Earth, Seattle's the Soft Hills come into their own with a well-honed, softly psychedelic indie sound. Following an EP and their 2010 full-length Noruz, the group went through some lineup changes and made a decided effort to streamline their sound somewhat. Based around the tender yet unsettled voice of singer/guitarist Garrett Hobba, the songs have grown rich with continued experimentation. This, the band's second full-length, fills out the sound with subtle electronics and a focus on huge vocal harmonies. At first the layers of vocals bring to mind contemporaries Fleet Foxes, but the Soft Hills wander down darker, more angular paths with their combined voices. The spookier vocal melodies mix well with earthy guitar grit, landing the band in a territory far more Crazy Horse (or deeper still, the eerie drug haze of David Crosby's If I Could only Remember My Name) than any 2010's indie. The production here, handled by Lucinda Williams' producer Matt Brown, guides the songs to their best possible destinations. Brown's adventurous choices lean always toward extremes in noise and almost Pink Floyd-like touches of classic acid rock trippiness, capturing the most spontaneous and interesting readings of the Soft Hills' already strong songs. A different production style could have rendered The Bird Is Coming Down to Earth sterile or cloying. "River Boat" floats along on distorted drums, cartoonish synth runs, and a genuinely sad detached vocal, coming off like a bizarre Flaming Lips/Carter Family collaboration from an uneasy dream. The atypical drum sound, big and crumbling, shows up on several of the songs here to great effect, driving things into a bubbling tension. The album grows stronger as its second half wears on. Mesmerized ballad "Return to Eden" sounds like Grizzly Bear on a backroads hunting trip or Neil Young playing "Cortez the Killer" on a spaceship. By "Falling Leaves," the albums' mellow Crosby, Stills Nash & Young-inflected last track, the Soft Hills have taken us down many strange country roads. We've checked out farm houses full of Moog synthesizers and waded in forest streams while softly creepy love songs boomed out of a mysterious intercom system set up in the trees. It's never been clear if we've been in loving hands or in serious danger the entire time, but the ride has been so interesting it didn't really ever come up.

- All Music

Score: 8.2/10
The Soft Hills
Tapete Records
In the 1991 Oliver Stone biopic, The Doors, Jim Morrison leads Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger, John Densmore and Pamela Courson into the California desert to take peyote. Out of their minds, they marvel at a hawk crossing in front of the sun and dance over the wind-waved dunes. At one point, Jim separates himself from the group to follow a hallucination, an Indian on horseback, and he meets the memory of a shaman in a cave. The Bird Is Coming Down to Earth could have backtracked this scene.
Stone used that aimless wandering to explain that Jim was lost as he tried to build up his creative confidence. Seattle’s folk four-piece The Soft Hills use that same idea in their latest album, The Bird Is Coming Down to Earth, to understand how to deal with death and loss. The record consists of warm, beautiful folk with a twist of psychedelia and dark thematic overlay. Throughout the album, Garrett Hobba’s voice is delicate and reverberating, and his backup’s airy harmonies (Brittan Drake, Randall Skrasek and Brett Massa) fill out the songs the way smoke swirls and expands to fill a glass sphere. The slight country accent combines with steel guitars to set the album in rural America. The melodies are simple, many of them mostly harmonies over finger-picked guitars (“Falling Leaves,” “Days When We Were Young and Free”), which leaves space for the challenging content. Thematically, the album is dark, but the lyrics are balanced by the warmth that flows through much of it.

Hobba opens the album with the idea of wandering with “Phoenix.” He wants to find something new; explore like Beatniks with his unnamed companion. The life of “Phoenix” parallels that of its eponymous mythical creature. The fire bird lives, dies in flames, and is reborn from the ashes. The song is driven forward by percussive verses, paused during beautifully harmonic bridges (which invoke fire imagery, “Fire and ashes/this whole town’s gonna bleed/The fever passes/but I’m still down on my knees”), and restarted with the closing verse. But the ideas of brokenness and loss are first conveyed here (“…it always comes down to you/When you look inside you’ll see you’re broke in two.”), and they continue through “Midnight Owls” and “River Boat.”

“Tidal Waves” is a needed contrast between the two halves of the album. Distortion and dissonance control this heavy song. It’s largely instrumental, with the scant lyrics speaking of falling from the edge, gaping holes, and being crushed by tidal waves. They suggest this is the point when Hobba is the most confused and torn. But he seems to get through it in the second half of the album, with songs like “Purple Moon” and “It Won’t Be Long.” “Falling Leaves” closes the record: “See the rainbow amongst the clouds/Clear the timber fallen down…Suddenly, the raven calls/Leads me back to my home.” The song recognizes the loss, acknowledges the pain, but finds the hope – the rebirth of the phoenix.

- SSG

In the first minute of “Pheonix,” the opening track on their third album, The Bird Is Coming Down to Earth, Seattle’s The Soft Hills show off all their strengths: the beautiful reverb-drenched vocals of songwriter Garrett Hobba, lush backgrounds, and the deft use of silence to highlight perfect harmonies. Everything here is relaxing. It’s perfect music for shutting your eyes and just getting lost for an hour.

“Quietness” is thematic with The Soft Hills, and water, night, and darkness are touchstones for song titles and lyrics on this album (“Midnight Owls” “Purple Moon,” “River Boat,” “Tidal Wave”) and much like they have been in the past on songs like “Radiant Dream” from Noruz. The heavily influence of Eastern philosophy and American and European writers like Hemingway and Hesse puts a magical realism spin on their psychedelic isomerism. Check out these lines from “It Won’t Be Long”:

You make me free again
As we let up our kites and run through the wind
I’ll come to you again
I’ll crowd your hair with silver
you fill my sails with glitter

The Bird is Coming Down to Earth ends with the gently fingerpicked “Falling Leaves.” A line from this song “Hear the cool river flow” is a good way to describe the experience of listening to this album of intense beauty.

- The Owl Magazine

Listen if you like: James Taylor, Cat Stevens, Tom Petty, R.E.M., The Shins, The Flaming Lips, Radiohead.

First Impressions: So you get home after a long day and plop yourself down in a comfy chair on your front porch. It’s quiet and warm, and you do nothing but sit there and watch as dusk sets in and everything goes dark. You’re not happy. You’re not sad. You’re kind of numb, actually. It’s a beautiful feeling. You’ve checked out. You’ve removed yourself from the equation. You’re as quiet and still as the air around you. Time stops for a moment and the world is put on hold. All that matters is breathing in and breathing out. The rest can wait until tomorrow.

The nitty-gritty: I can’t think of anything bad to say about The Soft Hills. They are a bizarre but wonderful combination of James Taylor, Tom Petty, and The Flaming Lips. Yes, that is, in fact, possible. The Soft Hills are nothing if not unique, and their newest album The Bird Is Coming Down To Earth demonstrates both unity and range. Want silky smooth harmonies? They’ve got it. Want captivating guitar riffs that run the sonic gamut from folksy to psychedelic to indie? That’s in there too. Want enlightened lyrics with serious literary influences? Yeah, you guessed it: They do that as well. This Seattle-based foursome has got it goin’ on.

Other recommended tracks: Oh man, where do I start? Album opener “Phoenix” is an infectious, folksy anthem complete with wailing slide guitar, and “Chosen One” runs in the same vein. Meanwhile, “Purple Moon” and “Falling Leaves” are mellower tracks driven by their beautiful lyrics. “Midnight Owls” is trippy and moody, while “Tidal Wave” is a jangly march. It’s really hard to go wrong. The Bird Is Coming Down To Earth is an album you can let play from start to finish.

East Coast tour dates? Not at the moment. The Soft Hills are playing one show on the west coast this month, then jetting off to Europe in May. But these guys love performing, so it probably wouldn’t take much to convince them to head our way sometime soon. Keep tabs on them at www.TheSoftHills.com. By Allison Arteaga



- ESM

As a reader of music criticism, I usually distrust blatant comparisons in record reviews, which often seem only to obscure any accurate description of the music itself. As a writer of music criticism, I try to avoid loaded juxtapositions at all costs. In the case of Seattle indie band The Soft Hills -- whose latest album The Bird Is Coming Down To Earth was released by German label Tapete Records on February 14 here in the United States -- I'm indulging in the problematic practice of comparison, as if exorcising a demon, in hopes of illuminating the distinctive triumphs of The Bird.

On the surface, The Soft Hills is a group both blessed and cursed by the artistic milieu it occupies, and irrevocably so. The similarities to fellow Seattle folkies Fleet Foxes, for example, are unmistakable: the clarity of the melodies, the florid harmonies, and the warm instrumental tones are inextricable aesthetic ties linking these Northwest ensembles in style and mythos. Rather than obscuring the band, however, the commonalities serve instead to draw the subtle differences of The Soft Hills to the surface.

Undoubtedly, the band's vocals are its most prominent feature. Lead singer Garrett Hobba's tone carries like a perpetual entreaty to some secret and intimate place. Indeed, Hobba proffers an invitation in the album opener "Phoenix": "You can ride with us anytime you want/We can journey to the end of the night/We can look for treasures of our own delight."

Like with Fleet Foxes' singer Robin Pecknold there is an inspired simplicity, a lightness that allows the melody in each song to take over. In Pecknold's voice, though, one hears age but not the world-weary experience that typically accompanies it as a rite of passage -- a contradiction that seems eerily disingenuous beside Hobba's paradoxically young but wise voice.

The harmonies themselves are idiosyncratic without being unfamiliar. And unlike the chorus of voices that surround Pecknold in Fleet Foxes, Hobba's backers are essential to the musical dialect. As in the music of Brian Wilson, the harmonic language of The Soft Hills is firmly rooted in the vocals. With the Foxes, the backing vocals serve ultimately as ornamentation, because the harmonies that drive their songs are contained in the instruments. In contrast, if you were to remove the backing voices in The Bird, you erase the songs.

What truly sets The Bird Is Coming Down To Earth apart is its architecture, the sense of space that permeates the sonic environment. As in the song "Purple Moon," the album is at its most poignant when it eschews the use of guitars in driving the harmonic progressions, instead relying on the vocal harmonies to fill the caverns carved by the steady, mid-tempo locomotion of drummer Randall Skrasek and the reverberant washes of multi-instrumentalists Brett Massa and Brittan Drake. Elsewhere, crystalline vocal duets make the balladic "Days When We Were Young and Free" and "It Won't Be Long" absolute stunners. What results is the alluring soundtrack to a desert road trip taken at midnight.

by Daniel J. Kushner

- The Huffington Post

Anacortes lo-fi pop engineer Karl Blau headlines this evening, but the night belongs to the Soft Hills, the Seattle band that will be celebrating the release of its third album, The Bird is Coming Down to Earth, a quietly transcendent collection of laid-back, patient songs that find the band dabbling in ambient psychedelia, bedrock four-part harmonies and sweetly weeping pedal steel. When the band sings that “The whole world is changin’ from pain into bliss” on the song “River Boat,” you might just believe it.
- City Arts Magazine

The bearded gate-keepers of Seattle's folk scene have birthed a few national stars (most notably Fleet Foxes and Head & The Heart), and it seems that in all likelihood, The Soft Hills will be joining them. The first singles from "The Bird Is Coming Down To Earth" are psychedelic remembrances of childhood wonder and sweetness, always melodic, and at times ambient. - DList Magazine

The Soft Hills have always been a band I’ve marveled at ( or at least for the last 2 years). I’ve marveled at the incredible talent that lies behind the band, I’ve also marveled at how such an incredible band has been overlooked ( in a certain sense) by their own people? Was it because they weren’t running in the same circle as “the others?” Nevertheless, the band has been snatched up by Tapete Records out of Hamburg, Germany and has released an absolutely beautiful album titled “The Bird is Coming Down To Earth”. Its been over a year since last seeing them, so seeing them play for their CD release was met with great anticipation for me, and to say the least they delivered. It was highlight of the night …there is no doubt a band like this shouldn’t be playing the likes of the Showbox Market and quite frankly The Paramount Theater. I hope we don’t treat them as we did with Carissa’s Wierd, and come to realize after the fact just how incredible this fucking band is. I hope we start to take notice in 2012. - Seismic Sound

Seattle, WA foursome Soft Hills have a great deal going for them. Most striking is their ability to make their influences sound cohesive. Blending post-rock and folk isn't the easiest thing to do, but that to do so in such a seemingly effortless way is nothing to scoff at. Opening track, and first single, "Phoenix" is a fairly pleasant, straightforward homage to the Fleet Foxes' brand of folk rock that's en vogue right now, but the band are more interesting when they expand their sound. Highlight "Tidal Wave" has its titular theme represented sonically by crashing drums and a rolling guitar line that evokes raw beauty as much as power, while the slightly psychedelic bridge of "Purple Moon" mesmerizes with layered harmonies and unconventional chord changes. The Bird is Coming Down to Earth is also consistent, while contemplative finale "Falling Leaves" brings the enjoyable record to a close, ensuring that the band don't draw out their full-length beyond its welcome.
- Exclaim! Magazine

“Seattle’s Soft Hills voyage through harmony, reverb, melody and psychedelia to create this platter of odes to space folk. A hallucinogenic fairy tale crafted by the other-worldly hands and minds of a group with a true exploratory vision.”
- Open Ear Music

“The Soft Hills wander around the same territory of dreamy, soothing folk rock as Wilco, the Cave Singers, and Fleet Foxes: soft, high, slightly trembling vocal harmonies, slow strums on bright-sounding guitars, pastoral lyrics. If the owl and the pussycat had a boom box as they set out to sea, the Soft Hills would probably be on heavy rotation.” - The Stranger

“Veering towards the 70's FM-nostalgic end of the Americana spectrum, Seattle’s Soft Hills provide familiar but atmospheric pleasure. This second album [The Bird Is Coming Down To Earth] mixes haunting harmonies, Crazy Horse guitars and echoing production to balmy effect”. - UNCUT Magazine

I have a problem with The Soft Hills' name: it could just as easily name a landscape painting in a dentist's waiting room. Actually, it could be the name of one of my mom's old landscape paint-by-number projects, which, with all due respect to my mother, are not art. But The Soft Hills make music that is undeniably art--not business, not pop machine, but art. If these sounds were a painting, their warm, psych-folk glow would be the light of the surrealists. They would have borrowed Grizzly Bear's canvas, Beach House's colors, Sigur Ros' brushes and returned them all ruined. And the soft hills stretched across the image would not be some overdone, unmoving pasture, but a spiraling, swarming, swirling desert expanse. With Karl Blau, The Pica Beats.

MARY PAULINE DIAZ

Fri., Jan. 28, 10 p.m., 2011

- Seattle Weekly

Q&A with The Soft Hills, Garrett

Q: How and where did the band meet?
A: I moved from Santa Fe to Seattle in the summer of 2007 to pursue music and posted an ad on craigslist with links to my music saying that I was looking for musicians to collaborate with. That’s how I hooked up with Caleb Heinrich. We then began working on arrangements and auditioning musicians. It wasn’t until we hooked up with Drew Dresman a few months later that we fully began to realize our vision as a band. Brett Massa and Brittan Drake were old college buddies of Heinrich’s—they joined in the spring and fall of 08 making it a 5-piece project.

Q: What has been your most memorable show you all have played and why?
A: Playing the Knitting Factory in LA was my most memorable show because I felt a deep sense of connectedness with the band and audience that I hadn’t experienced before.

Q: When did you see yourself actually playing in a band, the "A-Ha-Moment?" Like this is what I am meant to be doing, dah.
A: When we began performing shows at better venues in Seattle and people seemed to be genuinely enjoying our music I remember feeling for the first time that we were doing something meaningful, and that we weren’t just wasting our time chasing after a mirage without substance, but that there was a purpose and beauty to what we were exploring as a group.

Q: What is your goal for the band right now? For example what festival would you like to play in and why?
A: Goals for the following year include: signing with a reputable label, promoting our new record, touring the US and Europe, licensing our music for film, booking music festivals such as Bumbershoot, and recording our 2nd full-length album.

Q: What band would you like to jam with?
A: Radiohead or The Flaming Lips

Q: What band do most people compare your band with? And do you agree with them or find it false, and why?
A: Some people compare us with Sigur Rós because of our high falsettos; many people have mentioned Sun Kill Moon because of the mellow reflective melodies of our songs; and there have been a few comparisons to Fleet Foxes and Grizzly Bear because of our group harmonies. I’d like to think there’s some validity to these comparisons. I hadn’t really listened to Sun Kill Moon before, but when people kept comparing us to Mark Kozelek’s music I had to check it out… and I love Sun Kill Moon now!

Q: What have been the biggest benefits being in a rock band? What have been some drawbacks and how have you worked to improve that situation?
A: The benefits are that we get to devote our energies to artistic expression which is a privilege and real joy. It’s also nice to be able to come together as a group and collaboratively carve out arrangements. I like to think of the process as a sort of metaphysical journey. One must surrender and touch the unknown, becoming the integral instrument of a dynamic vehicle. Every idea for a song beckons the musician to become a miner, as it were, and dig out the rare gems that can be used to build a beautiful vehicle. Hence, writing songs and working out arrangements is a process of self-discovery and illumination. It is an act of making manifest our imagination.

Some of the drawbacks are that we sometimes see things differently, and it can feel like a painstaking struggle to come to a mutual understanding about things. Another drawback of being in a band is that we are often broke! - Stic-of-the-Week

I just recently met Garrett Hobba of The Soft Hills when he came by my office to bring me their EP for Eden's Hour. Garrett is fairly new to the Seattle area so I hadn't heard of his band before, but I am wholly impressed by what they have on their EP, Painted World. EEK, I can't believe I'm about to do this (I hate comparing bands to one another) but Painted World is reminiscent of The Album Leaf, Sigur Ros, Iron & Wine and Fleet Foxes, but it's also entered into a realm all unto its own and that realm sounds and feels wonderful and I am glad that these guys have decided to call Seattle their home.

I had a chance to interview Garrett, who spoke on behalf of his bandmates Drew Dresman, Caleb Heinrich and Britton Drake (all pictured above). The Soft Hills are working on their new full length album right now which they will be adding more harmonies and a variety of instrumental tracks to.

But Garrett, an incredibly nice, soft-spoken bookworm, also provided some juicy insights into what he draws inspiration from, including Classic Eastern Literature and his long-term girlfriend and alien soul-mate, Yali, whom he met in a dream years ago [He confessed in the interview that this might sound weird, but this does not sound weird to me at all. Does that make me really weird? If it does ...oh well]. Garrett also mentioned some of the local Seattle artists whom he is really into, including Ross Beamish and Johanna Kunin -both of whom will be on Eden's Hour soon :) ...in the meantime, Johanna emailed me a beautiful version of her string-theory inspired song Bowline to include in this show.

~Erin Skipper
- Eden's Hour Radio

Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Week 25, Music Recommendation: The Soft Hills

The Soft Hills are an American band hailing from Seattle Washington. This band has made what I would describe as one of the best ‘under the radar’ albums of which I’ve ever heard. Some great bands on early releases base a certain commonality of sounds within all songs within a said release, but this newer band captures something uniquely different within their sound from song to song, within practically every song. I foresee that fans of the album(s), Kings Of Convenience “Quiet is the New Loud”, Coldplay “Parachutes”, Radiohead “Kid A”, Radio Dept “Lesser Matters”, may certainly be fans which find complete joy in the hard work displayed on The Soft Hills full length release “Noruz”.

Recommended if you like: Kings Of Convenience, Radiohead, Radio Dept, Vashti Bunyan, Nick Drake. - Even In The Future Nothing Works

Welcome to another crunk review. last weekend at mars bar was slightly out of hand, it ended with me eating a lamb gyro and side of rice in record time. I email notes to myself continually throughout the night and literally the first sentence said was: I just noticed I was stirring my drink in a similar way an Amish man would churn butter. Obviously. Not. Sober.

Roughly this was between the 2nd and 3rd bands so I had even more time on my hands to get loose like a goose. Push play on this song below and keep reading.

I think this song of theirs is great, you can turn it up, close your eyes,and it takes over. It has so much sound vocally and instrumentally that I just want to SIT and LISTEN. Their show was equally ambient and enjoyable.
Happily my friends and I sat in booth just listening and talking. These guys made music to listen to. Listen to the Instruments, the lyrics, the progressions. The fucking goofy sounds make you feel like you’re rolling around on heavy amounts of painkillers.

My notes made it sound like I was annoyed at the fact that i didn’t understand/expect what I was hearing. The previous bands had much energy and life but the Soft Hills changed the whole mood. Look at how stupid drunk people are:
the lead singer is barefoot and nobody knows what this is. I’m not sure if this is even them.

I don’t really know what that meant. So make something up. Its almost like this article came from a drunk man was talking to himself :) But look at this:
he just mentioned that they were playing mostly new songs. my mood has changed.

Almost coming around. At the end I remember liking a couple songs quite a bit, I found out one was called silver wings:
that song was real sick. made me want to smoke weed. and fall in love. deep shit. bass you can’t deny. guitar solo you cant deny. even my stinky ass can’t sit still for this. good really shit.

Good REALLY shit? or really GOOD shit? is there a difference? After the last song of the night, Ross(from yuni) yells “Hey can you play that again!?!?!” and the guy is like “uhhh sure if you got a capo i can do it acoustic”

wow. the second/acoustic version of this song is fracking hypnotic like biggie. happy for staying too the entire show. probably the only song i’ll remeber of the night.

obviously i have no idea what it was, and don’t remember a second of it. but it must have been good!

Check out their dirtspace for some more sleep/sex/chill/do-drugs/relax music. and their album release on the 15th at the sunset tavern! - Seattle in High Def

Today we're kicking off a new, weekly series in which up-and-coming bands share with us the lyrics and stories to their songs. This week's entry comes from Seattle's The Soft Hills, telling us the story behind their song "The Great Undiscovered."

The Great Undiscovered is about play, innocence, and gaining a new vision of wonder. The first verse: “gotta race car gonna go far you’ll see” conveys the pure enthusiasm of a child who is eager to begin his day’s adventure. When I was a kid I loved spending my time in the woods in northeastern Louisiana, exploring, dreaming, climbing trees, and just stumbling upon whatever came one’s way!

Verse two, “in a moment you’ll be growing leaves”, hints at the magic of nature and a child’s ability to get lost in the whirl of his own imagination. In another sense, we all return to the soil after we die and transform into something new, like a tree.

The next few phrases, “trade in your comfort/ for the great undiscovered/ and a bright glowing seed”, state the fact that humans pay a dear price for their desire for comfort and security which hypnotizes the modern world. We are afraid to embrace freedom and the unknown. Yet we don’t have to live the way we do. A transformation is possible. And when we give up our comfort and let go of our fear, then a new growth begins to blossom inside us.

The final two verses of the song: “a brand new day is drawing near/ the golden age is calling here” is an invitation to rediscover the joy in life and enter again into a state of child-like innocence. There is another world that we can inhabit. We don’t have to accept the one we’ve made for ourselves, with all its greed, violence, conditioning, and social prejudice.

At the end of the final phrase “the golden age is calling here” the music changes and flows into a completely new direction, signaling a sudden transformation in consciousness. The idea is that our enlightenment is not a gradual process that we work on over time bit by bit, but rather it is through one’s direct awareness which brings about a new sensitivity in our brains and allows us to experience timeless beauty. The vocals during the end of the song are mostly wordless melodies. A couple words however can be deciphered: “today” and “play”. Do we want to put off our own bliss or can we experience it now today? It seems that by bringing a sense of play into everything we do we would be happier because we wouldn’t be taking things so seriously.


Lyrics for The Great Undiscovered:

gotta race car gonna go far you’ll see
in a moment you’ll be growing leaves
trade in your comfort
for the great undiscovered
and a bright glowing seed
a brand new day is drawing near
the golden age is calling here

today play
play today

Written by Garrett Hobba - BestNewBands.com

Seattle has often been a hub for talented musicians and artists to join, gather influences and produce original results. With the rise of indie music over the last few years, many of these artists have become lost in a sea of names, making it hard to find a band that displays noticeable influences while still maintaining a solid level of originality. The Soft Hills, however, is one Seattle group that achieves this feat seamlessly.


Radiohead’s ambience, Bread’s guitars, a splash of Flaming Lips’ rhythm and some fabulous songwriting skills add up (remarkably) to create that poppy, indie sound that has managed to enchant music lovers and hipsters. The Soft Hills’ second release, Noruz, shows improvement from their older songs in most facets. The songwriting, instrumentation and production are tuned more finely, showing off the experience the group has gained since their debut release. Even fans of the “slop-rock” scene — which to most would include groups like Pavement and Sonic Youth — could find comfort in frontman Garrett Hobba’s vocals, which at times possess a jittery feel not unlike those found with fellow Seattle rockers Girls.


I guess what we’ve learned from all this is that leaving multiple variables open to influence can create a single outcome that isn’t half bad. And for those like me who don’t really understand math: The Soft Hills prove to be a smorgasbord of influences and originality, so don’t be surprised if you hear some familiar sounds shine through. The Soft Hills and The Stagger and Sway play at 9 pm Sunday, Sept. 5, at Cozmic Pizza. $5. — Andy Valentine - Eugene Weekly

Seattle’s The Soft Hills have a soft, psychedelic sound that brings to mind the lighter touch of the piano-heavy Radiohead songs and “Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometimes” by Beck. Their Painted World EP is exceptional. The Soft Hills perform at The Tractor Tavern with The Oregon Donor and The Horde and the Harem. Tonight will be very interesting at the Tractor Tavern. - Seattle Show Gal

Recording their Painted World EP in an elementary school, West Coast ambient popsters The Soft Hills lent an innocent naiveté to their airy folk tunes, using toy instruments that they found at the school in addition to their grown-up equipment. The simple charm this lends is quite powerful, adding depth to the band's bittersweet melodies. This five-song collection is ethereal and atmospheric, like the soundtrack to a melancholy movie. The Soft Hills are gentle and sincere – think of them as Seattle's chilled-out answer to The Shins.

Opening the disc with the sweet, delicate ballad "Apples," The Soft Hills layer sublime melodies with captivating, rich vocals. There is a distinctly otherwordly feel to this song, drawing you into their dreamscape as the music soars. Taking a folkier turn on "Spent," the soft guitar and child's xylophone craft a warm, homey sound. "Hills Like White Elephants" has a more upbeat tempo than the first two cuts, pensively narrating about a woman who dreads her impending future, despite hollow reassurances from her companion.

Ambling along an undetermined path on "Wandering," this soft, slow piece has beautiful instrumentation and sums up the nomadic feeling of the EP. "Gone with the flow, we begin," declares vocalist Caleb Heinrich. Continuing on this theme is the final track, "Diamond Road," which clocks in at almost seven minutes as the band take us with them on their journey, starting off with a quiet acoustic feel and building into a crescendo of guitars and drums.

The Soft Hill's introspective lyrics are optimistic, if tinged with a bit of sadness. Reading like poetry, they tell involved and somewhat mysterious stories. The music is evocative and genuine, and really makes the listener care and become involved in their world. The lush, harmonious compositions of The Soft Hills are thoughtful and appealing, although there are times when the music wanders a little too much, running the risk of losing the listener's attention. But overall, Painted World is experimental in a way that is both musical and compelling.

~Beeb Ashcroft - Indie-Music.com

The Soft Hills new EP, Painted World, depicts the serene soundtrack to what is quite possibly one of Wayne Coyne's day dreams...

The first song, Apples, is sweet and haunting. As the words remark on the past and present you are taken on a slow melodic trip. the music sifts back and forth, and the long notes of the harmonica creates a soft, hypnotic sound.

Apples' finishes, and you wake up to "Spent," a happy melody, written so sweetly that at first you wonder why you feel so sad. This song is written almost perfectly, it measures a careful balance between beauty and sadness.

Almost as soon as the words begin, the song ends, and the third song, "Hills like White Elephants" takes a somewhat indie style, with a happy tune and slightly peculiar lyrics .

Slowly, the music drifts on into the fourth song, "Wandering." which seemed strangely reminiscent of Jonathan Stark's, "England'.

As the album came to a close, Diamond Road finished like a lullaby. The song ends, and leaves you in the mellow of your thoughts. ..or Wayne Coyne's....

For those of you who enjoy listening to Sigur Rós, Jonathan Stark, City and Colour, Margot and the Nuclear So and So's, The Flaming LIps, or Elani, I would highly suggest The Soft Hills.

~Rachael Perrell - The Levee Breaking

The Soft Hills is a band with big plans for its future. Since breaking onto the Seattle music scene just a few short years ago, the guys have worked hard to develop and focus their cozy, comfortable sound. And for a band whose influences incorporate everything from folk and psychedelic to indie and experimental, it must have been quite a feat to keep a cohesive vision intact.

With a well-received EP in their arsenal, The Soft Hills moved on to embark on the next big challenge – their first full-length album. The final product, Noruz, is an impressive collection of 13 songs that are surprisingly interconnected. Lead vocalist Garrett Hobba’s tranquil voice lures the listener into the quiet reverb of their music.

At some moments, like during “Ghosts” and “Yali”, Noruz sounds like a trippy, circuitous jaunt into space. The rest of the time, Noruz grows into itself in a very steady, deliberate way. “The Great Undiscovered” showcases what should be The Soft Hills signature juxtaposition - the point where Hobba’s delicate vocals meet the unhurried meandering of harmony. Noruz decrescendos with the soft and succinct arrangement “Dawn at the Devil’s Golf Course” – the ideal resting point for an album that consciously took its time making an impact.

-- Brigitte B. Zabak
- Amplifier

Seattle indie folk pop band The Soft Hills blend dreamy melodies and sublime harmonies wrapped around introspective lyrics and seductive, rich vocals. While not completely obscure within the indie music circles, The Soft Hills' new EP, Painted World, has somehow slipped by the more popular music sites and blogs.

Painted World features five solid songs that demonstrate the best of the ethereal possibilities of experimental indie folk mixed with pop. The EP is not overly produced or reliant on musical gimmicks - an increasing, and often unfortunate, trend in pop music over the past decade.

The raw talent of The Soft Hills is evident on the opening track, "Apples," an airy and meandering ballad that takes to heart the power of original songwriting and production. The next song, "Spent," is smooth and sublime, graced with low-key acoustic guitar and piano, almost absent of extraneous percussion. As the song flows gently along, singer and songwriter Garrett Hobba unveils the somewhat ironic lyric, "you've been drifting too far."

Hobba draws inspiration for his lyrics from 20th century literary artists, Eastern philosophy, and symbolic dreams. Fans of Mark Kozelek, the prolific singer and songwriter of San Francisco indie folk bands Sun Kil Moon and Red House Painters take note; the likeness of The Soft Hills' sound and story-telling is, at times, remarkably similar, whether intentional or not.

The sprawling track "Wandering" features ambient, rich harmonies, and the Belle & Sebastian-esque song "Hills Like White Elephants" is easily the EP's most up-tempo song. The record's last song, "Diamond Road," paints a lush Mojave 3-like sonic experience with hints of the folksy charm of Band of Horses. The only draw-back is that the song is a bit too long, clocking in at just under seven minutes long.

The Soft Hills began their journey in 2007 when Hobba moved to Seattle and met up with drummer Caleb Heinrich. Soon the duo were joined by fellow Seattle musicians Brittan Drake on piano, Drew Dresma on guitar and bass, and Brett Massa on guitar, bass and vocals.

~www.indierockcafe.com - Indie Rock Cafe

The tag “labor of love” is more than a bit clichéd when it comes to music. It brings out the cynic in some of us, with its promise of profitable goods beneath the so-called blood, sweat and tears of creation. Then again, sometimes it is the ideal descriptor. Sometimes an album comes along that is clearly the work of a handful of passionate perfectionists. The Soft Hills have quietly released such a work.

The Seattle-based group’s first full-length album, Noruz, is a painstakingly deliberate pastiche of thirteen beautiful tracks. The Soft Hills’ influences listed on MySpace bridge a wide gamut, ranging from Bread to Mogwai, but their psychedelic brand of space rock is most reminiscent of a powerful triumvirate: Radiohead, The Flaming Lips and Pink Floyd. The record’s first track, “Molten Change,” provides the initial taste of this remarkably mature sound. After a couple of sparkling verses punctuated by a dynamic rhythm section, the song shifts into a sonic prayer, administered by one of the group’s guitar heroes over a wordless chorus of angelic vocal harmony. “Noruz,” picks up right where the opener left off, as singer Garrett Hobba delivers the lines: “Take me to a place with no name/To be alone for a while/Break free from the burning wheel/And be still.” The title track eventually evolves into a euphoric melding of high-octane guitar work with Hobba’s reverb-drenched aerial adventures.

The record continues its mystical progression with songs like “Unborn Mind,” “Moon on Water” and the Soft Bulletin tinged “Radiant Dream.” The emotional valleys and peaks of the album never lose any momentum in the second half as they go from the delightful indie-pop of “Two Stars” to the extra-terrestrial train whistle of “Sunrise” and the album’s post-rockish swan song, “Dawn at the Devil’s Golf Course.”

Noruz was preceded by an EP entitled Painted World, which was released a year and a half prior. The excitement garnered by that recording has come to full fruition with this fifty-three minute gem. Songs like “The Great Undiscovered” present a band that possesses a rare affinity for undeniably gorgeous rock music. These entrancing sounds are made even more intriguing by the philosophical and religious explorations in the lyrics; the album title comes from an ancient Zoroastrian festival while the character of “Yali” takes the name of a Hindu mythical creature. A fascinating band that has worked too hard to remain tucked away in Seattle, the Soft Hills deserve national recognition. No longer should they themselves be “The Great Undiscovered.”

Posted by Ben Tully - Seattle Show Gal

A few years ago Garrett Hobba rediscovered a passion that had been stifled and suppressed in the banality of competition. The play of music rejoined him upon his arrival in Seattle, urging him to form a band and leading to the inception of The Soft Hills.

“I found the music community to be very supportive [in Seattle],” Hobba said, referring to the catalysts of his reborn musicianship.

The resulting project brought to life a kinship between melancholy and revitalization; a soothing texture enlaced in multi-facetted depth. The Soft Hill’s newly released freshman LP titled Novrus (referring to a Zionist concept of cosmic rebirth) draws a careful pattern between swelling warmth and an involved tenderness.

A west coast tour covering California, Oregon and Washington recently concluded last night with a show at Neumos in Seattle. Performing between the striking James Apollo and highly entertaining Karl Blau; The Soft Hills delivered a hypnotizing set of patiently paced melodies and weaving harmony – moving from the light pluck of indie folk to washed-out acid rock.

“Our music is diverse enough to be available to everyone,” Hobba said.

The young band is still in the process of consolidating their sound and persona. Their second album, which I am told may be available in the winter (only half a year after their first album) could very well showcase a fully-fledged congruency within the band members.

“I see the songs heading in new directions… Randall [the drummer] has brought a new direction to the band… we are more of a tight band in the new record,” Hobba said.

What we know from their existing work is that the components of their sound, in both the abundant tunefulness and ranging ambience, has a virtual patent on explorative potential. In certain ways the musical quality exemplifies studied introspection, the sound is concerned with itself – it takes its time, it’s very careful and unrushed. It oddly harkens to the largely unused adage of ‘if music made music’ questioning the relevance of presentation and appeals to common appropriation in the face of considered musical attention.

If someone were to put a gun to my head and demand to know who The Soft Hills sounded like, my initial (and startled) response would probably be Radiohead. Upon further reflection I would be inclined to submit Pink Floyd and Sigur Ros. If further deliberation was necessary I might mention their likeness to The Flaming Lips. However the ambience of The Soft Hills is a more pronounced feature than the above examples and the conceptions that they explore are quite different.

“The sound and feeling are the first things I think about when writing a song… it is personal and all ultimately comes from introspection,” Hobba said.

Garrett Hobba assured me that the band is very keen on touring a lot. Currently there aren’t any upcoming shows set up; however I imagine that further live performances will be prepared in the not too distant future.

Written by Daniel Burnett - www.BestNewBands.com

These Seattle artists create wondrous songscapes, featuring affecting vocals, sweet harmonies, gorgeous melodies and sensitively sparse instrumentation. The tunes from their new “Painted World” CD will envelop you in ethereal magic, colored with psychedelic swirls. This is indie folk-rock at its finest.

~Paul Freeman - Palo Alto Daily News

I grew up playing in many different musical experiments. I was always in awe of the talent that the people I met had. In particular, my friend Garrett Hobba who could sing so damn well. As we grew our lives diverged and reconverged because of music. Recently I have been able to help him record a few of the songs that appear on the E.P. of his new musical adventure, The Soft Hills. I played a little Weissenborn on it as well. The group's theme's of philosophy and playful narratives infuse the atmospheric, songwriter soul of the music. They are based in Seattle WA. The music is available through their myspace. - The Transfatal Express

Noruz is the first full-length album from the SOFT HILLS, a Seattle quintet whose previous release was the enormously promising Painted World EP. While it may seem like a cliché to say it, that promised is fulfilled here, many times over. Led by singer/songwriter GARRETT HOBBA, the band works with elements fairly familiar to discerning rock fans – the tenor vocals, reverbed guitars, languid tempos and heart-on-sleeve songwriting might bring to mind everyone from BAND OF HORSES and FLEET FOXES to MY MORNING JACKET and BUILT TO SPILL. But I get the feeling this isn’t deliberate on Hobba’s part – he’s just painting with the same colors because he likes ‘em, not because everyone else is doing it. Regardless, Hobba’s creative muse is every bit the equal of that of JIM JAMES or BEN BRIDWELL – cuts like the pastoral “The Great Undiscovered,” the dynamic “New Alchemy” and “The Unborn Mind” and the shimmering title track revel in songcraft as much as sound, melody as much as atmosphere, beauty as much as melancholy. There’s a warmth to Noruz, an open invitation to share in its creators’ emotional processes that gives the record a life beyond its influences. - The Big Takeover

These fine men are tremendous composers of music, while spitting poetry out in every verse. Listening to their music is comparable to viewing a beautiful painting, with soft melodies across the canvas, accented with heartrending lyrics, and all the while possessing that mysterious quality that keeps you awestruck. As a listener you come to appreciate the fact that each note is undoubtedly from the artist’s heart. “Wandering” and “Hills Like White Elephants” are brilliant examples of quality and fresh music from this extraordinary band out of Seattle!

~written by Deeben, itunes customer review - Deeben

From Seattle, sedately. On Painted World, THE SOFT HILLS take inspiration from their environs, fusing the understated melancholy that runs through a city with so much rain and the fresh joy that comes with the sun after the clouds part. With oft-uplifting melodies given a gentle treatment more in keeping with twee artists associated with the United Kingdom, “Hills Like White Elephants” is the perfect folk pop hit single, at least in the universe I inhabit, while the other four cuts insistently drift in a moodier but just as melodic and satisfying direction. This kind of overtly emotional pop can feel false if done incorrectly (see: more Pitchfork-approved indie rockers than I can count). Armed with a finely crafted blend of acoustic and electric guitars and the keening voice of GARRET HOBBA, the Soft Hills get it quite right.

Written by Michael Toland - The Big Takeover

Fans of soft indie rock will find Painted World to be a relaxing foray into lo-fi musical tranquility. The title for the album is appropriate, as the reverb-heavy vocals and swelling instrumentation lend themselves to the notion that the world as depicted in this 5 track EP is not rough like our own, but has been worn down to a smooth finish, or perhaps covered in a thick layer of glossy paint.

Perhaps the most beautiful thing about this album is its pacifying subtlety and understated arrangement. One could easily use this album as background to a yoga session or meditation without fear of being interrupted by a single dissonant note or chord. Hobba's warm voice is sad while at the same time soothing, and blends very well with the whole vibe of the production.

All the songs hang together well, and with such cohesion that a listener could understand the album as one song divided into five parts. One highlight is the gritty, legato ballad "Wandering," which, appropriately enough, actually gives one the feeling of wandering in a light sandstorm, and calls to mind America's "Horse With No Name"

~written by Tyler Suard -MuzikReviews.com Contributor - MusicReviews.com