Search - The Echo Falls :: The Echo Falls

The Echo Falls is a folk-rock trio from the San Francisco Bay Area. For the past five years, The Echo Falls have been playing unplugged in their living rooms, discovering a new sound. They've captured that intimacy on their debut CD.
The Echo Falls' music conveys the feeling of an organic and secluded place. Mandel's songs reflect a love for acoustic Beatles and early Cat Stevens, Elliot Smith and Fleet Foxes, while the group has a natural chemistry and a palette that draws from an eclectic array of genres while emphasizing the visceral warmth of acoustic voice, strings, wood, skins and metal. Their first gig was with Brett Dennen, and their second with Gary Jules.
The three band members represent an intersection of the rich music scenes in the San Francisco Bay Area: indie folk-rock, film scores, concert music, and improv/experimental music. Mandel's songs and lyrics are informed by his soundtrack work -- including his eclectic score for Pixar's short film "Your Friend the Rat" -- and years fronting indie-rock quartet The Fingers. David Arend's elegant stand-up bass parts embody his Juilliard training, work with the San Francisco Symphony, and electronica collaborations with Masonic (aka Mason Bates). Drummer Dave Brandt's subtle rhythms reflect his regular performances in the local improv scene, where he's performed with such luminaries as Oghene Kologbo (Fela Kuti) and Ralph Carney (sax on classic Tom Waits records).
The disparate influences seamlessly blend on their debut, an album in the classic sense that flows from beginning to end. Mandel's lyrics reflect the perplexities of becoming an adult in a 21st century moving "at a pace that cannot be sustained/and isn't going to last" (Fire Down Below). The theme continues in "Watchtower": "I had a dream/I had a nightmare/you were in both of them"; and "You Still Have it All": "You're the pretty face on the screen/you're the bullet in the magazine...you're the nightmare and the dream/the climax and the scream." Still, the album lyrics suggest a hopeful path through their depictions of fatherhood ("Little One"), love ("Love Over Time") and carrying on in the face of adversity ("Road to Parnassus", "There is Time Enough"). The striking album art is by local artist Jason Munn (aka The Small Stakes), whose designs have graced silk-screen posters by The Shins, Beck, and Grizzly Bear.