In the mid-Nineties, it was safe to purchase any CD or record you found in a store from any band from the Louisville scene. There wasn't a lot of overt hype about this scene the way there had been about Seattle and grunge earlier, but then again the music itself wasn't the kind prone to that sort of thing. Rather, the music of Tara Jane O'Neil and others was deliberate, sometimes glacial in its progression, but always full of a potent force that nothing else at the time seemed to possess.
The second album from The Sonora Pine, II is being reissued this week via Ryley Walker's Husky Pants imprint, and the record still impresses in its own subtle ways. Following the departure of Lungfish (and June of 44) musician Sean Meadows, The Sonora Pine continued as a three-piece outfit. While Meadows may have drawn some attention to the band given his previous stint in a Dischord Records band, this was really still Tara Jane's deal. The Sonora Pine produced music with the liquidity of Rodan, and the precision of contemporary classical, though none of these musicians would have probably leapt at that label in any way. What's on II transfixes, and it still takes us back to an era when slowcore was the kind of lazy label journos threw at this kind of material. I guess it was too early to say post-rock, but whatever you call this, II remains a beautiful album.
Opener "Eek" unwinds and allows not only bassist Tara Jane O'Neil moments to shine, but provides some for drummer Kevin Coultas and violinist Samara Lubelski too. "Cloister" is more introspective, the tune winding around and the instruments approaching it from different angles. It's like a jazz piece being slowed down and taken apart, even as the shifts in tone convey the emotional beats of the piece. Elsewhere, "Baby Come Home", feels like folk in spots, but the cut swells and contains a real power that seems barely coiled. The epic closer "Linda Jo" is a beautiful composition, one which transitions from rudimentary chords and into something as lush as you can imagine, even given the fact that there are only three instruments at work here.
II remains as significant as the first album from The Sonora Pine, and it sounds great still here in 2022. It's a record that demands a careful listen, but it's hardly pretentious. This is, instead, a reminder of how a kind of naturalness can be used by players in the same way punk had done earlier. The moods are different, and there's nuance here, but in DIY attitude, The Sonora Pine inspired even the most casual of follower of the Louisville Scene. Kudos to Ryley Walker for bringing this one back out.
II by The Sonora Pine is out now via Husky Pants Records.
[Photo: The Sonora Pine Bandcamp]