By Tommy Cha
It’s the Battle of the Bands! On Wednesday, May 9, AS Productions hosted an event at The Underground Coffeehouse. It was called “Sounds of the Underground Round 1” and is their fourth annual “Sounds” event. They invited four bands to perform at the Coffeehouse, to battle out against each other for a chance to perform at Western’s largest concert, Lawnstock! For the first round, the four bands featured were Cat Valley, Animal|Inside, India Glover, and Katerina Moran.
The four bands played their sets beautifully and really well. Cat Valley is a feminist, surf pop-punky trio that writes songs about cat-calling, misogyny and trying to get off in our modern-day patriarchy. Hearing them, you can hear the message they are conveying to their listeners with a guitar, a bass and a drummer. Listening to their voices, it feels soothing!
Animal|Inside is a band that is based here in Bellingham. You can hear a variety of styles involving tech and a keyboard. I guess you could say it brings out the animal inside! They played amazingly!
India Glover, a Sophomore here at Western, is a singer-songwriter from Seattle based in Bellingham. She offers a mix of pop and alternative acoustic sound, with an acoustic guitar of course! Glover played her heart out really well at the Battle.
I was able to get in a quick interview with her. We talked for a bit about Glover’s history with singing and performing, she told me, “I accidentally wrote my first song!” I proceeded to ask her how, and she said that she was learning how to play a song, but she ended up making her own song! Very awesome, I would say.
Glover then mentioned that it was a “good opportunity to show my music!” I then asked Glover what she would describe the genre of her music would be, but I guess it was also kind of hard for her to describe too, as it can be “Acoustic-pop and kind of folky,” Glover explains. You will have to listen to her music yourself! To end the interview, asked her what she would like to say to her fans. Glover responded, “I am forever grateful! Thank you!”
Katerina Moran is a classically-trained musician, who doesn’t write classical music. Moran played with a keyboard as she sang along with it. You could tell the music has a lot of feelings put into the work by listening to it. The music is very different compared to what mainstream folks would listen to. It was very well-done!
By the end of the evening, the winner was announced and voted on, by choice of the audience. The winner of the First Round of the Sounds of the Underground was Cat Valley! Along with the winner, there will also be a wildcard pick to be chosen next week. Everybody at the Battle played their best, and the audience enjoyed their best as well.
If you would like more information about Sounds of the Underground, or discover more about these bands mentioned, you can contact AS Productions.
VU 422
360-650-6803
as.productions@wwu.edu