100 Bands in 100 Days Presented by Verity Credit Union — Day 39: Black Ferns
Music fans of the Pacific Northwest, hello and welcome back to our third annual year-end daily countdown, 100 Bands in 100 Days, where every day until December 31st, we’re showcasing a new band or artist you have to know about, presented by Verity Credit Union. Follow the #100Bands100Days hashtag on Twitter to stay on top of all the bands featured and make sure to follow Verity on Twitter as well. Some days the featured act could be an established and locally-adored northwest-based musician that perhaps you haven’t been turned onto yet, and other times they could be a band with a small following that just hasn’t had their deserved time in the sun yet. Either way, we’re fairly confident you can come away from this daily segment with plenty of new favorites. For this spooky scary Halloween edition of 100 Bands in 100 Days, we’re once again bringing our journey to Seattle to take an in-depth look at one of the shining stars of the dark and mysterious underbelly of the city’s massive post-punk scene, Black Ferns!
The origins of Black Ferns date back to the fall of 2014; local singer-songwriter Zoran Macesic is just putting the finishing touches on a small handful of songs that he’d written, before deciding he wants to flesh out with a full band, and shortly after, Macesic ultimately finds successful collaborators in fellow local musicians Chris Jordan and Riley Geare, the latter of which being most famous for his contributions as the former drummer of Portland-via-New Zealand indie-psych darling Unknown Mortal Orchestra. After the three worked together on these songs at Geare’s Portland home studio, the trio found an immediate spark in their performances, and thus, Black Ferns as we know it were born. With a simultaneously dark and instantaneous approach to rock music, inspired by both new and old, at their disposal, it wouldn’t be long before Black Ferns would put this great formula they concocted to good use with a nine-track, self-titled studio debut, released independently in May of the following year. Across the nine songs Black Ferns had to offer, listeners could get a sense of the wide array of styles that the band were pulling from and updating for a modern audience — everything from subversive, dance floor-centric post-punk, Joy Division-worshiping goth rock, and completely filthy, unapologetic noise pop jams made an appearance throughout the sharp and well-produced record.
With the amount of talent and artistic expertise that Zoran and his band displayed on this record, it was no surprise that local tastemakers started giving their record glowing endorsements right out of the gate, with KEXP giving Black Ferns plenty of love and airtime, and one of the album’s lead singles, “She Said,” was featured in the radio station’s highly-influential Music That Matters podcast. The band’s music has a little something for rock music fans from all across the spectrum — “Factory Worker” is among the poppiest on the record, a straightforward post-punk song with a great four-to-the-floor dance beat and subdued, Kevin Shields-esque vocal delivery, “So Cold,” one of the later tracks, kicks ass and takes names right from the opening notes, with a shrieking, dissonant guitar lead that’s sure to turn your listening space into a full-on mosh pit, “She Said” is a catchy-as-hell, muscular piece of indie rock, with upfront lead vocals and a guitar lead so sharp it could kill — but the band’s music has a certain uneasy, almost otherworldly wash of psychedelia throughout, and has a deliberately unpolished sound that connects all the tracks and makes the album feel like a surprisingly consistent listen from front to back. Black Ferns are planning to head back to Geare’s studio sometime this season to begin work on their currently untitled sophomore full-length record, an album that we can’t wait to be able to sink our teeth into.
Those of you looking for a new rock band that pushes the limits of Seattle’s post-punk scene and takes it in all sorts of twisted, but endlessly enjoyable directions, you absolutely have to check out Black Ferns.
You can follow Black Ferns on Facebook and Twitter, and find their music available for purchase or streaming at blackferns.bandcamp.com. Watch the music video for “Everything Always” below via YouTube.
Submissions for 100 Bands in 100 Days are still open to any Pacific Northwest band interested in submission. If you would like to have your band submitted for a chance to be featured in this segment, consult this link for more information on how you can do so.
