Everson Pines - Please Be Still

Everson Pines

Please Be Still
self-released; 2016

3.7 out of 5

By Jamie Robash

I work on a college campus but it’s been a while since I graduated college. Needless to say I am of a generation of too removed from many of the people I have to interact with on a daily basis. I cringe when I hear the word “millennials” and would punch myself if I ever heard it roll off my own tongue but I must write it here for posterity’s sake, and in order to contrast it to the time which Seattle five-piece rock outfit Everson Pines derives their sound. Founded by childhood mates Trevor Lyon(guitar/vocals) and Karl Benitez (keys/vocals) and rounded out by Nick Nordus (guitar), Eric Weinstein (bass) and Patrick Long (drums), Everson Pines traces their sound back to the days of guitar-centric rock and pop or as it is known by its eternal forename “classic rock.” 

Their debut five-song EP Please Be Still opens with the song of the same name. It’s a Rhodes driven piece of pop with happy electric guitars and a Randy Newman melody, albeit with lyrics that don’t play into Newman’s family friendliness. In fact quite the opposite is going on here as the tale of a fallen woman is told with lines like, “It was 1981, your acid washed jeans my eyes they stung / And I’m tired of you comin home drunk on a Tuesday.”

And later “You remember graduation? / Your skinny short skirt caused such a big sensation / Our auntie she called you a whore / You said ‘listen here I ain’t drinkin anymore.’” Next the boys amp it up on the thrash and bang “Black Out The Lights” a fury of rock n’ Rhodes reminiscent of The Doors “L.A. Woman.”

On “Used to Wake Up Early,” they take it back to the sunny side of pop rock with those sweet ‘70s keys backed by bluesy and psychedelic guitars licks complemented by shimmery crashes of cymbals. It sets us up for the onslaught of balls out rock n’ roll of my absolute favorite tune on the record “Soul Rocker.”  

​I have always appreciated and loved classic rock even though I wasn’t alive during its heyday though many of my best memories and likely some of my best memories I don’t remember had a classic rock soundtrack to them. With Please Be Still Everson Pines have tapped into a  powerful and well-aged genre. But let’s face it classic rock albums bore hits and misses no matter what. And in that way Please Be Still sounds like the start of something even more promising. 

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