This past Friday night, Sound on the Sound — friends of Another Rainy Saturday — hosted a 5th anniversary bash at the Columbia City Theater. Headlining the show was Pickwick, a band that has been quickly building a following around Seattle, and one that I decided it was about time I saw for myself.
I’m happy to report the rumors proved true: Pickwick is really, really good. The band has a sound unlike any other band currently in Seattle, but their sound is as familiar as your formerly favorite worn-thin t-shirt that currently resides at the bottom of your drawer. You put it on and you’re taken back to another time.
Pickwick is modern-day soul. It’s as if Motown has taken up residence in the Pike/Pine corridor. The band is led by Galen Disston, a bespectacled, afro’d (of the Jewish variety), deep-voiced crooner whose ability to channel Marvin Gaye, Otis Redding, and even a touch of Sam Cooke is simply unreal.
Backing up Disston is a collection of 7 guys — bearded, plaid- and glasses-wearing in ample portions — who, if seen on the television with the sound muted, you would think were playing your everyday Seattle-based indie rock. They were tight, as if they’d been practicing every minute of every day for weeks on end. Working from left-to-right, the band comprised of: 2 backup singers complete with tambourines; a xylophone player standing in the background; a keyboardist / sequencer, a traditional drummer, and a lead guitarist (all equipped with a mic for backup singing themselves); and an electric bass. Disston played nothing but his mic and his voice, but what a voice it was.
If you’ve got some time, I suggest watching the collection of videos from the performance, lovingly recorded and made available for us all to enjoy time and time again. And head over to their bandcamp page to download songs from their series of 45s, called Myths, Vols. 1–3. Then catch the band at the KEXP Mural series on August 26 or at Bumbershoot over Labor Day weekend, and get the fix of soul music you didn’t even know you were missing.
on 
on 
on 
Dear Royal Stuart-
Thank you very much.
Galen, Pickwick