December 9, 2014 | 0 Comments

SAMA DAMS – COMFORT IN DOUBT is charting at Top 200 Radio Now!!

Portland’s Sama Dams is the best. I met them earlier this year in Seattle when they opened a show my buddy Corey’s band Oh! Pears were playing, and man am I glad I did. Their music reminds me a lot of Dirty Projectors, or Xiu Xiu, or OK Computer-era Radiohead. Glitchy, experimental-y pop with vox heavily influenced by R&B. The band is named after the lead singer, Sam Adams, with the space moved over one letter to make it a band name because the band’s not just him, but now it’s pronounced to rhyme with “Alabama Clams”. Sama Dams. Try it. You’re gonna love it. Now it’s time to get this spinning!! A bunch of you are on board this train already and know how great this band is. Radio 1190 (aka KVCU, in Boulder) had a sweet session with them recently when they passed through on tour, which you can check out right here. (S/O to James!!); they also had a good time stopping in to Radio Boise and also doing a Daytrotter Session on the tour they just finished up! In fact, enough of you are already loving it that it made its debut on CMJ’s Top 200 last week, at #191! Woo!! That one will still be a big priority for me in early 2015, as well (since this week is the last CMJ charting week of 2014, aah!), so I’m glad to know it’s off to such a solid start already!!

SAMA DAMS

COMFORT IN DOUBT

Self-Released

Comfort in Doubt, the second full-length from Portland, OR avant-garde three-piece Sama Dams (pronunciation key: “Sam-uh-Dams”, or pronounced to rhyme with “Alabama Clams”), sings with the keen cry of innocence lost. With the first track “My Ears Are Ringing,” an impossibly catchy and sparse masterpiece of glitch R&B, the listener embarks on a journey through darkness akin to the trip audiences took with Radiohead’s OK Computer. Striking the fine balance between edgy experimentation and caramel sweet pop, this uncompromising trio drives into the desert with only an unerring musical compass to guide them.

The band is straightforward about the challenges surrounding their sophomore effort. “We were very busy between constant touring schedules and juggling personal lives, which resulted in a lull for writing new material,” says drummer Chris Hermsen. And yet, the time scarcity that is a stumbling block for many bands on their second album may have opened the door to creativity from an unforeseen source: Lisa Adams, organist, vocalist, and partner to frontman Sam Adams.

While Lisa had been collaborating musically with Adams since they moved to Portland in 2010, the new album marks her first foray into songwriting. After recording and touring the band’s first album No Vengeance, she stepped away from a full-time career teaching music to devote more energy to the band. The shift was undoubtedly fruitful for the band—the cutting cynicism of her ingeniously hooky “Dirty Work” belies her inexperience, and the sweetly soaring melody of songs like “Maggie” provide a counterpoint to Sam’s angular style.

Whether introducing a song or selling tee shirts after the show, the band shows a good natured and Midwestern charm that rarely accompanies the kind of moody, boundary-pushing rock that Sama Dams makes. Hailing from Indiana, Ohio, and Iowa, the band has been at the forefront of a movement in Portland’s music scene away from twee chamber pop and toward something more expressive. What is striking in their music and in their performance is that nothing is added for effect; there is the sense of an exploratory process that is occurring before our eyes and around our ears. And nothing is more exciting than discovery.

RIYL: Xiu Xiu, Radiohead, Dirty Projectors, St. Vincent, Nicholas Krgovich/No Kids

Start With: 1, 2, 6 FCC CLEAN EXCEPT FOR THE VERY STRICT: 1 (“Damned”), 2 (“Ass”)