Cedar Teeth
Rustic roots rock
Cedar Teeth didn't plan to start a band around the campfires
that lit up their Oregon youths in the forests of the Cascade foothills that
form a clear-cut divide between Portland and the surrounding wilderness. The genre bending roots troupe owe their
inception to bassist Rayson Gordon, who forged a musical link between friends
and provided their secret headquarters: a cedar shed on his grandparents' 40
acre forestland on Green Mountain Road. In their new practice space, campfire
tunes turned into intricate songwriting and friendships became a partnership.
Following their 2014 debut album, Hoot, Cedar Teeth built
their reputation on stage, whether at festivals like Summer Meltdown and
Wildwood, or at clubs throughout the Pacific NW, where they have joined bands
like Fruition, Shook Twins, Motopony, Hot Buttered Rum, and Magic Giant.
On their 2017 EP, Farewell To Green Mountain, Cedar Teeth
explore everything from indie rock and grunge to psych folk and bluegrass,
reflecting the diversity inspired by their lives on the dividing line of
societal opposites. Produced by Larry
Crane (Elliot Smith, The Decemberists), the EP leans heavily on backwood
harmony, allowing complex song structures and off-kilter melodies to support
tales of love and war and the moments in between. In one sense, Farewell to
Green Mountain is a goodbye to both their formative practice space and the
vanishing wilderness and community they knew growing up; a sense of loss that
makes its way into songs such as "Cancer" and "Mama's Mourning". But then again, a voice of defiance emerges
in songs like "Winter" and "Echoes Grounding", testaments to renewal and
resilience in the face of the dying light.
While their range of sonic interests and influences defy
easy classification, it is difficult not to hear Levon Helm, Rick Danko and
company, The Band, hollering from the grave. Indeed, imagery reflecting organic
flesh and bone, mingling with gnarled old-growth roots music, is what this band
is all about. Call 'em whatever you
like: they are harmonizers and collaborators and Cedar Teeth won't let the fire
go out.
- Website:
- http://www.cedarteethband.com
- Facebook:
- http://www.facebook.com/cedarteethband
- Twitter:
- https://twitter.com/CedarTeethBand
- Instagram:
- https://www.instagram.com/cedarteethband/