Lyle was a good foot shorter than most of the kids in our grade, including yours truly. Lyle had never gotten into an altercation prior to this debacle, nor had he ever shown the slightest proclivity for violence. I couldn’t even get mad at him for devastating the major features on my face just moments before. I just gazed at Lyle in awe and utter bemusement. I never saw it coming.
Austin band Ume is little Lyle Goodrich reincarnated. I don’t even know if Lyle is dead, but if he was and came back as a band he would be Ume. Fronted by the nymph-like Lauren Larson on guitar and vocals, the trio which is rounded out by husband Eric on bass/vocals and Jeff Barrera on drums quickly dismisses any preconceived notions one might have of the group prior to hearing them. Ume’s live show is a spectacle to behold and one that deserves to be experienced. Their sound falls somewhere between the frenetic rock of Goo era Sonic Youth and the fuzzy sludge of bands like Pelican and Isis. This is hardly the stuff you’d expect to hear from a soft-spoken philosophy doctoral student, software programmer, and an art installer. Though, it might not be all that surprising if you knew their background.
Lauren and Eric met when the former was 15 and playing in a thrash metal band at a skate park in their native Houston. “He asked me for my number on the vert ramp,” Karen recalls of the initial meeting. Three years, and a few bands later, the two were joined in matrimony. While some married couples might choose to make the most of their quality time going out on date nights at Olive Garden or browsing the IKEA catalog together, The Larson’s decided theirs would be best spent in the practice room and formed what would become Ume, “plum” in Japanese, in 2002. The triumvirate was complete when friend and bassist Barrera offered to go over to the dark side and switched to the drums. They would deny the similarities, but the obvious comparisons to rock’s royal couple Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth are can be noted when describing Lauren and Eric. Like Kim, Lauren is petite, blonde, and howls like a siren dashing your helpless wreck against a punishing rock face. Eric is Kim’s Thurston, the quiet tempest that compliments his lady’s unsettling fury with intuitive and assuring bass lines and lyrics that drip with candor. Together they create a perfect storm, tempered by Barrera’s steady pulse.
Urgent Sea is the first and, at this moment, the only recorded offering Ume has bestowed upon anxious ears. The title of the album is a wry play on words, indicative of the tumultuous circumstances that surrounded its creation. At the time, the Larsons were busy in Western Pennsylvania working on additional degrees and Barrera had to fly in intermittently from Houston to play gigs and work on songs. Lauren speaks of the process, “It was so piecemeal, the way it came together. We were still learning to play together. Jeff was still learning to play the drums. I was terrified to sing. We just wanted to see what would happen.”
The words she uses to describe the situation belie the comprehensive sound that the trio ultimately ended up with. The album is aggressive and stunning, but leaves you with the feeling that it’s not the best work yet to come from Ume. The group is now priming new material for the studio that, by my estimation, will floor you like a punch in the mouth.
Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
