Treeclimbers: At the edge of Seattle’s new wave

Again, I apologise for the delay…those “couple of days” were more like two weeks. I’ll keep my promise about one thing though, that I will share my knowledge about the Treeclimbers with you.

The band formed in the early 80’s in the glory days of the Seattle’s post-punk. They recorded a self titled Ep in ’85, released by Larkin Record. And while I was expecting this record to be, maybe a little bit boring, I was surprised to be proven otherwise. The record is amazing. It contains four tracks, in which, the band managed to modelate a warm, but rhythmic, popish post-punk. “Greener” is probably the best song on the record followed by “Longing” (check out the killer sax!!!), “On Location” and “Seconds n Counting” which may be the outsider because of its darker influences, like an early Siouxsie and the Banshees rip-off.

Studying the back cover of the EP, we find out that the band is composed by: Jonathan Poneman - bass, Gary Thorstensen - guitar, Loren Evans - vocals, Jeff Lindeman – keyboards and sax and Peter Barnes on drums. The songs were recorded and mixed at Triangle studios in Seattle.

Treeclimbers were a “rotating cast of characters” as Jonathan Poneman recalls: “…some real "characters"! - who played in a band whose nucleus was Gary Thorstensen (ex of TAD) and myself. We were around for 5-6 years and managed to put out one ep, produced by Peter. While I have a fond place in my heart for that EP, Gary and I were always striving for a more nuanced, textured sound that neither of us could adequately convey to our various bandmates”.

Regarding shows, bills and gigs, the Treeclimbers may have been more of a “studio band”, and please correct me if I’m wrong, the comment section is at your service.

See you next time. Enjoy:

Greener

Longing