Once For Kicks

Once For Kicks has been infusing the scene with its sonics for six years. Originally formed in 1996 by the tandem of vocalist Bill Coury and guitarist Tom Cummings, who’ve been playing music together since 1991. On their latest release, In the Dollhouse, their third full-length album, they’ve elevated their sound with rock chops that expand further into a sunny pop realm, buoyed by Coury’s illustrious high register, tamed only by the slightly melancholic edge of their latest outing. After a year fraught with personal hardships, the death of a close friend of the band, changing relationships and the transitions, trials and tribulations that define the human condition, they chose to take their time with the new recording. Not hassled by an urgent release date or limited by strict studio time, they were able to craft each nuance and to hone the sound of In the Dollhouse. The title signifies a handful of specific life stories, almost like different rooms, and like all good literature, inhabits a half-fiction, half- autobiographical realm. The current lineup consists of Bill, Tom, Seattle legend Kurt Bloch (Fastbacks, Pure Joy, Young Fresh Fellows) who played bass and guitar on In the Dollhouse, drummer Mike VanBuskirk (Note: David Gleza played drums on the In The Dollhouse album)and bassist Bryan Gorder. The album also features Rachel Flotard of Visqueen and singer Jon Hyde. The scintillating feel of the new record is apparent from the get-go on “Pieces,” a classic slab of GBV-laced rock with a dose of vintage Shudder To Think, the wonderfully titled, hurdy gurdy-like propulsion of “Sure Enough, I’d Forgotten the Future,” the angry irony of “Flowers” with its pretty melody and biting lyrics, the full speed ahead heft of “Chemical Gem,” the epic aspirations of “Sea Forever,” which reaches from poise to psychedelic reverb and drum stutter, and culminating appropriately with “Sunsphere,” a bright song tempered by a near album-summation wistfulness encapsulated by the lyric: “And so this love comes and goes.” For OFK, it’s the pursuit of the perfect pop song that rewards, that makes them conclusively say: “Sure Enough, I’d Forgotten The Future,” and you should too, because in a perfect world nothing else should matter right now but this band. Once For Kicks.