photo by Rustee Pace
Anyone who claims that brevity is a virtue is obviously a fan of Seattle’s Unnatural Helpers, a band that can fit 15 songs onto one album barely over 25 minutes. While that feat might not necessarily make for a great album, drummer/vocalist Dean Whitmore has learned how to whittle down a song to its core thanks to years of playing in various noise offenders like The Intelligence, Mars Accelerator, Idle Times, among others, and through collaborating with a quickly changing lineup of local artists -- in fact, the band members of Unnatural Helpers change so fast that even during the month of the album’s release, several of the members who helped record Cracked Love & Other Drugs had already left. Though often under a mere two minutes, the songs surprisingly manage to seem complete. Recently, Whitmore and the current Helpers packed a tight punch -- a few jabs, really -- as they performed mostly new songs live in the studio at KEXP with Cheryl Waters. Check out the videos here:
