Artist Spotlight: Salad Days

When it comes to making music, you can trace the picture and color in the spaces or you can draw the lines.  Kyle Bogue, the force behind Philadelphia/Pittsburgh based act Salad Days, knows a thing or two about drawing those lines.  Quiet As Its Kept, the result of an extended period of intermittent recording bursts that happened to take place in the bedroom next to mine, is the start of a musically-inclined mind's plunge into the wonderful world of recording.  Swirling, fuzz-laden guitar lines and the most fatalistic of piano interludes all converge with Bogue's angst-fueled songwriting to form a truly refreshing listening experience.  Closer 'Another Decembered Saturday,' takes all the right cues from a track like Bomb the Music Industry!'s 'Future 86' while adding its own spice to the mix and salt to the wound.  I'd be remiss not to proclaim 'Let Down' as one of the most engaging and accessible boy/girl duet tracks since +44's 'Make You Smile'. Its youthful air calling to mind the quintessential jealousy-mired adolescent love story.  Despite falling victim to the quality troubles associated with bedroom-based recording, Quiet As Its Kept presents listeners with a glimpse into the eccentrically musical mind of Kyle Bogue, a mind that hopefully continues to find sonic outlets for its ideas in the future.


Hear Quiet As Its Kept and download it on a name-your-price basis on Salad Days' Bandcamp.