Song of the Day: Greylag - Yours To Shake

Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. Today’s song, featured on The Midday Show with Cheryl Waters, is “Yours To Shake” by Greylag from the 2014 album Greylag on Dead Oceans.

Greylag - Yours To Shake (MP3)

Portland's Greylag have spent the last four years refining a blend of folk rock and indie rock influences into a dynamic, powerful style that transcends the reputation of their home region. Andrew Stonestreet, Daniel Dixon, and Brady Swan first met in Kentucky four years ago before individually relocating to Portland and subsequently continuing their musical collaboration. A series of local gigs led the band to record "dozens and dozens" of songs, officially releasing eight of them on 2012's The Only Way To Kill You EP. After playing SXSW 2013, the band became connected with Dead Oceans and began work on their full length debut, this year's Greylag. Greylag is produced by Phil Ek, a Northwestern stalwart who's production resume includes a number of Cascadian greats (Fleet Foxes, Modest Mouse, The Shins), but those references never overshadow the amalgamation of rich instrumentation and vocals that defines Greylag's debut. The opening lyric on "Yours To Shake" – "It isn't all bad/it isn't all good/but I wanna die trying to make it better than we could" – captures a spirit of optimism and progress that runs throughout the album's nine songs. Fittingly, after a verse where cleverly-paced guitars languidly fill the space behind the vocals, the song erupts in tempo and intensity in the chorus, making a smooth, on-a-dime transition that the band repeats throughout the song. "Yours To Shake" shows all of the band's strengths across its four minutes, and although it would be easy to pick out the stylistic antecedents of the song's elements, it's far more rewarding to enjoy the skill of how they're all executed in harmony.

After finishing up a European tour this week, Greylag are taking some time off the road, but if they announce any new tour dates in the future, those dates will be on their Facebook and website. Below, watch the video for "Yours To Shake".