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Indie Rock Premiere Shoegaze

Premiere: Salt Lick’s “At The Corner”

Release date: June 6th, 2019

Dan Ray June 6, 2019
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Premiere: Salt Lick’s “At The Corner” June 6, 2019

Raised by a single mother in the suburbs of Detroit, Dan discovered an early passion for singing, songwriting, and the arts as a whole. She got her BA in English and music at the University of Michigan, where she reported for the school’s paper, The Michigan Daily. She worked as a Senior News Reporter on the government beat, transitioned to arts writing, and eventually became the managing editor of the social media department. She moved to Seattle in 2017. After losing her job during the COVID-19 pandemic and discouraged about the lack of press surrounding Seattle’s music scene, Dan made the decision to turn Dan’s Tunes, a fully fledged music journalism website focused on showcasing the Seattle area’s musicians, into its own startup. There’s so much music happening in the city that spawned Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and Jimi Hendrix — among others — and Dan’s Tunes is determined to find and expose those outstanding acts. The goal is to have satellites in every major US city, uplifting diverse and compelling voices and helping music communities thrive. In 2020, Dan was featured in the Seattle Times’s year-end music critic poll. Other than her musical endeavors (singing, playing ukulele, and auditioning for American Idol four times before the age of 24) Ray is passionate about food and education around the American food system, and she’s also a large proponent of eliminating the stigma around mental health. Ray loves cats, especially her own, who is named Macaulay Culkin (but she’s a lady).

Photo courtesy of Salt Lick // Photo by Jake Menne

Seattle indie shoegaze group Salt Lick released their latest EP, More Is More, in July of 2018. Now, the quintet is back with “At The Corner,” a brooding, stand-alone track about human memory.

With the opening line — “in the trees, in the smoke” — vocalist Malia Seavey references the West Coast’s growing problem with fires, and, as the track progresses, she pulls this metaphor down to reflect the feeling of being pulled apart: “at the corner of where our two paths crossed / there’s a portrait of what once was / and it splits at the seams.”

The lyrics loop and wind, ebb and flow throughout the track, weaving between fuzzy guitars and crashing drums that build as Seavy’s vocals dance around the tune. With an aura of yearning behind both the vocals and instrumentation, “At The Corner” impeccably captures a sense of isolation — like you’re standing in a room filled with people you know, but suddenly you can’t place them.

As “At The Corner” comes to a soaring, pleading climax and then fades out on record-player-crackling, you can’t help but wonder “what once was” and feel a pang in your stomach, knowing it’ll never be back.

Listen to the track below, and check out Salt Lick live at The Vera Project on June 7th, where they will be playing with Pile and State Champion.

Comments

Raised by a single mother in the suburbs of Detroit, Dan discovered an early passion for singing, songwriting, and the arts as a whole. She got her BA in English and music at the University of Michigan, where she reported for the school’s paper, The Michigan Daily. She worked as a Senior News Reporter on the government beat, transitioned to arts writing, and eventually became the managing editor of the social media department. She moved to Seattle in 2017. After losing her job during the COVID-19 pandemic and discouraged about the lack of press surrounding Seattle’s music scene, Dan made the decision to turn Dan’s Tunes, a fully fledged music journalism website focused on showcasing the Seattle area’s musicians, into its own startup. There’s so much music happening in the city that spawned Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and Jimi Hendrix — among others — and Dan’s Tunes is determined to find and expose those outstanding acts. The goal is to have satellites in every major US city, uplifting diverse and compelling voices and helping music communities thrive. In 2020, Dan was featured in the Seattle Times’s year-end music critic poll. Other than her musical endeavors (singing, playing ukulele, and auditioning for American Idol four times before the age of 24) Ray is passionate about food and education around the American food system, and she’s also a large proponent of eliminating the stigma around mental health. Ray loves cats, especially her own, who is named Macaulay Culkin (but she’s a lady).