Monday, December 2, 2013

First/Last-Us and Us Only


"Us and Us Only is a sharp combination of sleek indie rock with a hint of folk styling. Their songs contain a dichotomous divide between crunchy guitar riffs and smooth violins, but the two coalesce with brilliant results. Vocalist Kinsey Matthews seamlessly weaves his tumbling melodies into the instrumentation, drawing as much attention to his heartfelt lyricism as there is to the grandiose arrangements." -  Grant Golden PASTE

Check out the band on Facebook, Tumblr, SoundCloud, Last.fm and BandCamp. I am chilling in Maryland today with Baltimore's Us and Us Only as featured on the Paste 50 States Project. Compared to Okkervil River and Cursive, their last release was "Dark Cloud Past" from 2012. Many thanks to Kinsey Matthews (Guitar/Vocals) for taking the time to participate in this edition of First/Last.

The first album you ever bought?
Green Day "Warning"… ugh.

Your last album bought?
I found Sade's "Promise" and Thom Yorke's "The Eraser" at this place called Teen Arena records in Maine. Both are totally perfect albums.

Favorite album of all time?
Mount Eerie's "No Flashlight." A wonderfully engineered album that touches on this weird relationship that we, as mostly comfortable adults, have with nature.

Least favorite/most disappointing album?
I guess I wish I understood what people enjoy so much about Drake. I tried to give his latest album a few listens and it just didn't float at all.

First concert attended?
I saw Meat Loaf when I was a few months old, so technically, Meat Loaf. Otherwise, Saves the Day and Blink 182 in fifth or sixth grade. I saw Tre Cool on the street as I was walking in and he flipped me off when I waved.

Last concert?
Tera Melos and Zorch in DC. Lots of kids in baseball hats. The bands were good.

Favorite concert ever?
There was this one time where Jason Anderson's set was cut short, so we went into this girl's art studio above the venue and he played one of the most incredible sets to just a few folks standing in a circle, all singing together. Some real peace and love shit. I might have cried, I don't remember.

Least favorite concert?
I went to see Roomrunner, Ed Schrader's Music Beat, and a few other bands last week, but then the Baltimore city police came and shut down the show after the first band like the champions of justice they are. So yeah, by default, least favorite concert for sure.


Any thoughts, experiences about Pittsburgh?
I've only played Pittsburgh once, but it was great. It was at some punk house in 2007 and these kids showed up with two or three trash bags of bagels and donuts. It felt like heaven, but a lot more filthy. The show went until 4 am and I felt asleep to some doom metal band playing songs from the Star Wars movies.


Thanks, Kinsey. Trash bags full of bagels and donuts... if that's not Pittsburgh, I don't know what is!

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