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Send "Damn Seagulls" Ringtones to your Cell 
THEY<#8217;RE A BIG BAND. Not Count Basie big. More like big heart and big ideas. Big emotion and big gestures. Big-time intensity and, most importantly, a big-ass sound. A big mixture of rock and soul. Big ambition, too. Progression, what with its tendency to offer no guaranteed returns, is rare in today<#8217;s world.Rarity makes paying witness to an artistic arc spanning several albums during which a band is allowed to grow into its ambitions a real treat.
That<#8217;s why the Damn Seagulls, from Helsinki, Finland, make heads turn.
After a mission statement of a first album and a prodigious branching out on their second album, the band has found what is doubtless the first of many treasures on <#8220;Hunting Season<#8221;, their third album for Fullsteam Records. The success of the explorations that preceded it, gave the band the confidence to self-produce the album, with the exception of the vocals, which were produced by Miikka Koivisto of label mates Disco Ensemble.
So where are we now? <#8220;Hunting Season<#8221; is not a radical departure or an attempt at reinvention. It<#8217;s condensed soul. Take the introverted urgency of the Afghan Whigs and combine it with the extroverted bombast of the E Street Band at the height of their powers. Add a touch of storytelling magic á la The Hold Steady. If a connection can be drawn between the personal and the political, Damn Seagulls has drawn one between the intensely personal and the blindingly epic. Raw emotion, served stadium-size.
It<#8217;s a long road to travel and it took what started out as a ska-punk trio over a decade.
A lot has changed in ten years, but the band<#8217;s voracious appetite for combining these and other seemingly disparate flavors remains intact, the bedrock on which everything else rests.
You can pack a hell of a lot of hours playing shows and rehearsing into ten years. . There<#8217;s a loose-limbed grace to the playing on the album that can only come with time.
It<#8217;s easy to love a confident band and that<#8217;s what Damn Seagulls are. After two successful albums and the third one an obvious step forward, they<#8217;re aware of their upward arc.
They can feel it and you can tell.
ALBUMS:
One Night at Sirdie<#8217;s (Fullsteam, 2005)
Soul Politics (Fullsteam, 2007)
Hunting Season (WILL BE RELEASED Jan 28th IN FINLAND, ELSEWHERE LITTLE LATER) (Fullsteam, 2009)
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