Last Thursday, a Palo Alto squat off of Alma Street became the site of a live show with Chicago's melodic pop wonders Seam, Merge Records' Spent, and Cain, a Palo Alto group made up of members of Mindslam. The bands set up in a converted two-car garage in the back yard. Around 30 people gathered to bathe in Seam's glorious pop trajectory. The band ebbed and flowed in its trademark buildup before exhaling like a billowing, humid dry-ice cloud.
People have a fresher outlook on what they like.
A lot of music is centered in New York, and tastes are determined by that. Out here, it's totally different. For Seam, a modest Chicago band with a healthy underground following, the landscape is changing, as evidenced from the popularity of Pavement, Sebadoh and Superchunk. Park said that Seam is in the middle-age period, where the members have to decide whether they're going to commit to being career musicians or just release records and play shows around their Midwest home. They've considered bigger labels but are wary of the shift.