Planets Live in Houses

You may remember these guys from sometime back in November last year, when they teased us with a sampler of their upcoming EP slated to drop January 25th 2014. If so, it is most likely then with little wonder as to why I'm posting this today of all days. Indeed, today is the day that their self-titled EP finally drops. This EP includes the two songs we heard off the sampler with three other tracks and a mini track thats six seconds long, appropriately named "Never Meant".

When I first listened to PLIH back in November, immediately what stuck out to me was the drumming, and that's definitely still the case here. The grooves seem to be what really drive the band for me. Its a prominent consistency that is evident throughout the whole EP. However, that's not to say that the guitar is uninspired. On the contrary, the EP is loaded with catchy melodies played by both the guitar and synth that seem to stick with you even after you've stopped listening. That said, PLIH is first and foremost a Post-Rock Progressive band, (with a dash of Atmospheric Ambiance.) There is plenty of "rise and fall" moments throughout the EP, which is evident through the crescendos and the constant change ups in the drums. As for the guitar, it often alternates between clean and distortion, the clean parts being mellow and a fluid and the distortion helping to drive the progressive feel. Everything fits together perfectly and is as it should be.

If I had to pick a song that really sticks out to me on this EP it would be "Bare Claws". Which seems to be the only track accompanied by a sax. The song captures the Atmospheric Ambiance I mentioned earlier perfectly. This is because of a combination of synth, the reverb, and the fluidity of the guitar. Now, if that was good enough, lets top it with a soaring sax layered over everything. Now we're in business.

After a few listens to the EP, I'm really in love with it, and excited to see where Planets Live in Houses take their sound in the future.You can purchase it here:
Planets Live In Houses

Enjoy! - Devin Faddis

Planets Live in Houses’ debut self title is a progressive collection of numbers, using limitless possibilities and the fearlessness of various styles.

Wolf Computer may sound like a laptop with rabies, or a new invention Apple is coming out with called the ‘iWOLF’. Although, both scenarios represents this song’s science-fiction dreamland. Control, delays, and precision comes from the guitars and their effects. Complimenting the track, a dark melodic guitar rhythm, as well as on-point leads never coming out of synch with a downbeat mastering bass player. Last but not least, the drummer’s hands are straight and fast with full advantage with his dark symbol tone, bright shining rides, and ride-bells. With the drummers wobbling buildup, a guitar switch-off evolves in a soft clean sustain. Slightly distorted, ear pleasing riffs arrives as great background. THEN, last but certainly not least, a bolting out godzilla outro morphs into a 70’s sabbath bloody sabbath with an extra sludge of stoner rock, filling up air, on the side. Ending the track in a fantastic finisher.

Heathers begins as a more traditional math intro. Speedy drums with clean guitar rhythms that gives space to the mood of the song, but then, it allows for an ultra hard rock jam session in a 4/4 measure, a heavy but fresh breath of air and one of the best parts in the song. Then graciously, in such a perfect fashion, they continue back to their off beat time signature in great unison. With the flow of laid back math rock, building 4/4 jams in such a sneaky and effective way while going back to the math formula get pulls off very well. Beautiful, rocking, and disturbing, due to the glitch filtered sounds, of a woman crying about something that is instrumentally unknown, in the very end.

In, “Angel’s Dust and the Pastor’s Daughter” one bright, surprisingly great slide guitar intro begins in an great and effective way. Then turns into another skillful, upbeat melody with the bands steady and graceful focus. Even for heavier melodic bands like this one. Another solid track indeed, just that pretty guitar lead riff alone, that builds the entire song is worth it. Probably any musician player can dig it just by the guitar player’s technicality alone.

Then, the heaven sent and bit crushing echos roam this electronic ballad of dark synth and psyched out songwriting. It’s a definite left turn, but a risky and well put-together one. With an Eric Clapton sounding root of distinguish pain and suffering in the compelling and complicated, “My Girlfriend Died In The Fire”. Probably one of my favorite tracks due to the simplistic nature but outstanding musicianship.

The band was right on one thing, “Never Mean’t” shouldn’t had. It was WAY too long, and WAY too complicated!!! Thats all I’m saying… way too many solos…

Anyways, just when “Bare Claws” starting crawling around. I started to release, the entirety of this album had a Deftones’ anthem like thematics. Powerful, heavy, and off the way qualities. Is “Planet’s Live in Houses” a copycat of the ‘Deftones’? No.. Hell No. It’s only roots from a hybrid tree. Ending the album with mellow blues, with the dark undertones of Opeth style blues. Yes.. I know Opeth is a progressive metal/death metal band, but they have slow songs with long blues parts. You wouldn’t think of Opeth when you think of blues but, for some reason, this one does. Again not a copy cat. Just a hybrid of new music that needs to be heard. It’s almost 2014!! Most new music sucks, but as rock bands go, I have faith with PLIH. New music that has that inspiration. Injecting math-rock and progressive rock into their predecessors’ veins. Creating the dark and majestic wave of sound throughout this self title EP, an extremely and already, unique album. - David Anthony Garcia

A mysterious new group that literally came right out of nowhere and onto my news feeds. - Zarif Miah

NOTE: This is the full-interview with Fresno band Planets Live in Houses.

It’s hard to distinguish Planets Live in Houses from the songs on the band’s debut E.P.

“I moved to Santa Cruz for school and I didn’t have any friends, so I locked myself in my room and started writing songs with the intention of starting a solo project. I would use my looper pedal and write both guitars and bass parts,” says the group’s guitarist Mike Gibson.

Those songs became the impetus for a creative collaboration with several local musicians including electronic producer/singer Sahab. That collaboration in turn, spawned the band. And that band turned those songs into an album, which gets its official release 8 p.m. Saturday, with a performance at the Love the Captive Loft, 1830 Van Ness Ave.

I caught up with the group to find out more.

Let’s start with the basics. Who does what in the band?

Mike: Brian Bakalian plays drums. Bobby Griffiths plays bass. John Tucker plays guitar and I play guitar as well. We don’t really have a rhythm or lead distinction between guitars, we have more of a ‘whatever part you wrote is the part you play kinda thing.’

How long have you been playing together and how did the band get started?

Mike: We have had this lineup for a little less than a year, but me and Brian have been playing together since last November, I think. I can’t play drums for the life of me so I always knew I would need to enlist a drummer at some point.

Sahab is my best friend and one of the most talented producers in California, so I always planned on just going into the studio and recording all of the parts and having a studio drummer fill in the rhythm section. When it came time to record, I chose Brian because we had been playing as Sahab’s backup band for a while and I really liked his style. We only played together maybe three or four times before we recorded, and a lot of the drums on the album were kinda figured out on the spot. That’s Brian. He is really in his element playing on the fly. Once I realized I had a drummer that was exceeding my expectations for the project, I made the decision to put together a full band so that this stuff could be played live.

I had originally expected to just record an album because I thought the songs deserved to be recorded. I had no idea I was going to become so attached to this project. When searching for a bassist and second guitarist it was a pretty obvious choice since John plays in another band with Brian called Blind Bison, and he can play the parts that I wrote better than I can (not to mention the other parts he eventually recorded on the album, which I could never hope to play). Bobby has long been my ‘go-to’ as a second guitarist. We have played in bands and written together for years. Since I already had second guitar filled, he ended up on bass.

While the album was almost finished by the time I presented it to them, both Bobby and John ended up adding to several songs once we had become an official band.
The song ‘Wolf Computer’ is the exception. That song was written by all of us and recorded by all of us, it was kind of a tack-on at the last minute.




I’m always interested in band names. Tell me about yours? Is it ‘live,’ like it’s where the planets reside, or ‘live’ as in not dead? How’d it come about?

Mike: I never anticipated that confusion you just expressed, but you are definitely not the first person to wonder that. It’s ‘live’ as in where the planets reside. It came from an old astrology book Brian’s grandfather left him when he passed away. It was the name of a chapter describing the different houses planets can inhabit and the effects those houses have throughout the year. None of us are particularly huge into astrology, but we felt the name fit thematically with the sound and image of the band.

On that note: I’d describe PLIH as instrumental, progressive rock. Hints of math rock. Jazzier than some similar stuff I’ve heard. How would you describe the music?

Brian: Experimental, jazz infused, math-lush influenced rock n roll.

Bobby: We definitely have math-rock and progressive-rock influences, but we all have such a wide spectrum of musical influences that we draw ideas from every direction. It is difficult to describe our music to people who have not heard it, but when put in that situation I usually describe the qualities of the music instead of attempting to classify us into a specific genre. I describe Planet’s music as ‘Lush and spacey melodies with deep groves and intense rhythms.”

Mike: I love math rock to death, but I made a conscious decision to stray away from the overly technical super mathy stuff because I didn’t want to get labeled a ‘math-rock band.’ There are expectations that go along with being a band that embraces a genre, especially a fringe genre like math rock. If I want to write a simple three chord, verse-chorus-verse-chorus kind of song I don’t want to have to wonder if our math-rock fans are going to be disappointed and write us off. So, I don’t think we fit into one genre very neatly. We all love really spacey music, and since all four of us play guitar, we are definitely riff oriented. So, your description was pretty dead on actually, I think we are progressive, dynamic, a little jazzy (thanks mostly to Brian). When we have mathy moments, it’s because they seemed called for, not because we just wanted to confuse people with something that is overly complicated for the sake of being complicated.

Can you explain how a song comes together?

Mike: Most of the songs we have on the album were written in my bedroom, and then I brought them to Brian and we fleshed them out and rearranged a few things. Sahab actually helped with song structure a lot in the studio, as well. John and Bobby came in afterwards and added a few parts (which happen to be some of my favorite moments on the album, ironically). ‘Wolf Computer,’ was the first song that we wrote as a band, and if you wanted a sense of what our future releases will sound like that would be the song to look to. Again, I came in with a skeleton of a song, but it was a far less developed concept. Then we dismantled it and everybody added their own parts and ideas and it ended up being my favorite track on the album. Since then, that’s been our writing process: Someone comes to practice with a very undeveloped idea and then we all put in our two cents and turn it into something more than it started as. Anybody can come with an idea now. Regardless of how this band started, I haven’t considered it my project pretty much since the day I first jammed with Brian.

What are you trying to accomplish sonically?

Brian: To give the listener something intense and suspenseful to focus on, but overall still being able to breath throughout the music.

Bobby: Planets walks the line between beauty and complexity, sometimes swaying towards one side more the other. We are always cognizant of the balance. Our music expresses an intellectual appreciation of beauty; a reflection of the complexity of existence while in awe of existence.

Mike: I just want to write songs that take people on a journey as they listen. As an instrumental band, we obviously don’t have the narrative tool of language, but nonetheless every song is about something. We try to recreate moments and feelings that are genuine to us. We hope at least a few people can relate to that feeling and take something away from a show or listening to the album that is more than just listening to a story. We strive to write songs that are more visceral. Something less like a journal entry and more experiential and immediate. I hope every person hears something different in every song.

Tell us more about the album?

Brian: It’s been about a year in the making. Mike and I recorded the skeletons of the songs a year ago and everyone has been adding to it along the way. From high energy technical heavy riffs to slow back-beat lush grooves it has a little bit of all of it.

Bobby: This album is a portrait of a time of pain, despair, frustration, and rising from that and coming to a wider understanding and appreciation for the beauty of it all.

Mike: We have been sitting on it for a while, and it’s really exciting that it is finally coming out. It’s a really nice feeling to have something I never expected to turn into anything start to take off and really become an accomplishment that I’m extraordinarily proud of.

The album features some collaborations (most notably with Sahab). How did those come about?

Mike: Sahab is a dear friend of all of ours. He was the link between many of us initially. The song ‘My Girlfriend Died in a Fire,’ was originally supposed to be a Sahab song. I wrote the guitar parts and he asked if he could use it. We recorded it and he produced all of the beats and synths and stuff (any and all keyboard, synth or electronic anything you hear on the album is 100% him) and he sat on it for a while. It was so different from any of the stuff he was doing at the time, so I decided to use it as a PLIH song. It was written and recorded long before I had even begun working on the other songs. It just seemed like it fit with the flow of the album, so we threw it in. - Joshua Tehee

Planets Live in Houses will release a debut E.P. at 8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 25, at the Love the Captive loft, 1830 Van Ness Ave.

Guitarist Mike Gibson says it started out as a solo project.

"I moved to Santa Cruz for school and I didn't have any friends, so I locked myself in my room and started writing songs with the intention of starting a solo project. I would use my looper pedal and write both guitars and bass parts," he says.

Those songs became the impetus for a creative collaboration with several local musicians, including electronic producer singer Sahab. That collaboration in turn, became the band.

The Bee talked with Gibson to find out more. (Read an extended interview at fresnobeehive.com)

Start with the basics. Who does what in the band?

Brian Bakalian plays drums, Bobby Griffiths plays bass, John Tucker plays guitar and I play guitar as well. We don't really have a rhythm or lead distinction between the guitars. We have more of a "whatever part you wrote is the part you play" kinda thing.

I'm always interested in band names. Tell me about yours. Is it 'live,' like it's where the planets reside, or 'live' as in not dead?

I never anticipated the confusion you just expressed, but you are definitely not the first person to wonder that. It's 'live' as in where the planets reside. It came from an old astrology book Brian's grandfather left him when he passed away. It was the name of a chapter describing the different houses planets can inhabit and the effects those houses have throughout the year.

On that note, I'd describe the band as instrumental, progressive rock with hints of math rock. It's jazzier than some similar stuff I've heard. How am I doing?

I love math rock to death, but I made a conscious decision to stray away from the overly technical super mathy stuff because I didn't want to get labeled a "math rock band." There are expectations that go along with being a band that embraces a genre, especially a fringe genre like math rock. If I want to write a simple three chord, verse-chorus-verse-chorus kind of song, I don't want to have to wonder if our math-rock fans are going to be disappointed and write us off. So I don't think we fit into one genre very neatly. But, we all love really spacey music, and since all four of us play guitar, we are definitely riff oriented. So your description was pretty dead on. I think we are progressive, dynamic, a little jazzy (thanks mostly to Brian) and when we have mathy moments, it's because they seemed called for.

Find out more at www.facebook.com/planetsliveinhouses.

Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2014/01/22/3727386/artist-you-should-know-planets.html#storylink=cpy - Joshua Tehee

NOV
22
Locals Only: Planets Live in Houses - Clouder EP
Good evening everyone! How goes it? Pretty good I hope. I'm sitting here with my wife and dogs, belly full of Chinese food, trying to get my Netflix on. It's a good life is what I'm saying.

And now the battery ran out on the controller! Pssh, that ain't gonna phase me! Let's listen instead to some new music from Fresno band Planets Live in Houses!
After playing a few shows around Fresno (including an impressive set at Catacomb Party), the instrumental group Planets Live in Houses has dropped a late year surprise with it's excellent two song Clouder demo. The winding "Wolf Computer" functions like a pumped up theme and variations, up until a pulverizing rock coda bust the fuck out of nowhere to lay waste to what came before it. "Heather" provides more of the same, but with an expanded palette of mallet percussion, electronic flutters, and samples (possibly due to the involvement of producer extraordinaire Sahab). The care taken in creating something unique is apparent in every note. It's a solid first release from a band ready to do big things in 2014. - Cristobal Carillo

Fresno Math Rock band, Planets Live in Houses. Too good. They were a neat surprise before seeing This Town Needs Guns live. - Jason Bass