100 Bands in 100 Days Presented by Verity Credit Union — Day 12: The Little Ships

100bands100days_banner_2016

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. Today’s artist is a transatlantic band that we’ve championed on this site in the past, a band whose lineup spans the transatlantic, but with an immense Seattle presence, The Little Ships.

thelittleships

The Little Ships are a somewhat newer name in Seattle music, having just formed in early 2014, but their potential and pedigree makes them an act you need to pay attention to. The four-piece band started out as a series of humble jam sessions in rural England, before those that took part in these jam sessions realized they’d stumbled across something they had to flesh out into a fully decked-out project, and thus The Little Ships were born. The band’s search for a core lineup ended in the addition of celebrated, long-running Seattle vocalist Ty Willman, who’s been involved in too many great projects to count since the early ’90s, but is perhaps most notable for his work in the Seattle grunge outfit Green Apple Quick Step. Bassist and multi-instrumentalist Mike McNamara, guitarist Kathy Moore, and drummer Regan Hägar (former drummer of Malfunkshun) provide sturdy instrumental backing, with instrumentals that are full of life, while not stealing the spotlight away from Willman. He fits perfectly over the instrumentation, which can go from slow and tender to loud and intense at the drop of a hat.

The Little Ships are set to release their first studio album, titled Alone Together, through Karve Music on October 31st, and with not much to the project’s name outside of one strong single, “Shiver,” the album is already one of the most anticipated Seattle records of the year. “Shiver” is a great showcase of what The Little Ships are capable of, a five-minute slow-burner that starts out with little more than somber piano and Willman’s impassioned singing, but by the end swells into a fiery rock song with heavy guitar and powerful drums from Hägar. Hägar and Willman had already proven to the northwest that they’ve still got it earlier this year, with the release of an EP, albeit under a different name, Fires’ The Litho Roughs. While Fires had way more of a distinctly Seattle vibe, with its heavy and groove-riding grungy guitars and straightforward aggression, Alone Together has way more of a tempered and paced-out vibe to it, which could be attributed to its roots in English rock music. With guest appearances from Happy Chichester and Stone Gossard also touted on the record, Alone Together absolutely should not be skipped out on when it’s released at the end of this month.

You can find The Little Ships on Facebook and Twitter, and keep up with the band in real-time through thelittleships.com.  Read our full review of Alone Together here.


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.

 photo Cherry Poppin Daddies 280_zpspibhrtre.jpg

Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!