The Long Winters

“I don’t want it said that those Seattle bands don’t care about their tuning,” stated Long Winters frontman John Roderick in the Washington Mutual hard-shell tent while adjusting his guitar. “Those days are long gone.” Judging from his appearance, T-shirts worn inside out and tucked in is the new flannel. Perhaps in Roderick’s mind, it’s more hip to sound like second-wave Death Cab for Cutie than tenth-wave Nirvana. That way, you can at least land a couple songs on The OC soundtrack. To be fair, Roderick spent more than a few restless nights Putting the Days to Bed. The Winters’ latest is their strongest collection to date and the band played to its strength well. Opening with “Hindsight,” a power pop collection of Roderick’s best one liners (“Are you still training for the big race by hoping the runners will die?”), the quartet stirring things up with “Teaspoon” and the staccato riffs of “Fire Island, AK.” New tunes “Pushover” and “Honest” were both set highlights as well, but it’ll still be a few more long winters before this band catches up with the ingenuity of their Seattle brethren, past or present.

This article appears in September 22 • 2006.

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