Band Review: Matt Lande

One reason I reviewed Hot Apparatus yesterday is that they have a Dracula song, and I knew that I was going to want to make it a song of the day as we got closer to Halloween. Similarly, as Matt Lande does stand-in and double work on "Grimm", as we approach the season premiere on October 24th, it seemed like it was time to get to him.

That is how we ended up with such Portland-focused reviews, but it still seems like a pointless story, except for a thread of little things leading together and combining that seems relevant to Lande's music.

The music is not forceful, but there is a quiet strength to it that builds. It was something I had noticed, but not really thought about until watching a short video where Matt speaks about his music, available on his Youtube channel.

Without intending it, Matt started learning how to play guitar. In pursuit of a girl, he ended up in a Christian rock band. Starting to sing and getting into his next band, Heaven is Where, by his telling almost sound more like things that happened to him than things that he did. However, each step led him to the next thing, working together, so that he can now play guitar, sing, and write music. It now includes writing songs for a novel written by a Twitter connection.

There is often religious imagery from the Christian tradition in the music, but at the same time it does not really feel religious, but kind of more Zen. He could have easily stopped or resisted at some point, but it appears to have been a good path. My overall impression is of water gradually carving and wearing down stone, which feels like the most Portland part of all.

If some of the signposts on the path were girls, perhaps it is not terribly surprising that the songs seem to come from the heart of a romantic, and you will hear that on many of the tracks

Personal favorites for me are probably "Ease Disgrace", "Beautiful", and "It Was You", so I think one of them will be the song of the day on October 24th, but I'm not sure which yet. There needs to be a little suspense.

http://www.reverbnation.com/MattLande

https://www.facebook.com/mattlandeofficial

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCV8HjXuX_L-z_OvDZ8yWvTw

https://twitter.com/mattlande