Hello and welcome back to our series, Three Songs To The Head, where we feature three songs that we love, three songs that are stuck in our domes, three songs we simply feel must be shared with you! This time we’re featuring work by Natalie Quist, Robb Benson and Castle Dwellers. Work that will halt you, work that will push you and work that will ease your afternoon. Enjoy! 

Natalie Quist’s “Menace” has been stuck in my head since I first heard it some four months ago. It is not on MP3 and only recently was put up on Soundcloud. It is a distorted, booze-soaked, two-minute piece featuring Quist and a screeching guitar. I can barely understand what she is saying but I don’t need the words to get it. It’s listed as a DEMO but I don’t require anything else to enjoy it. Quist will be playing at Barboza, June 29 for The Mixtape’s Aural Pleasure Tour at 7PM. Listen to the song here.

Robb Benson’s new solo record, Cursive Falls From The Sky, is an eclectic, beautiful compilation written by the prolific Seattleite. Full disclosure: I am in two bands with this dude, but I had nothing to do with his song “The Way Through” and I enjoy it even more as a result. The positive, upbeat track, which knows there is nothing determined as we go through life, tells us to “Feel our way through”. The song peaks with Benson’s huge, masterful voice 2/3’s of the way in with such supreme glory, I’m still mystified I even know the cat. Robb Benson and the Shelk’s record release is July 13^th at The High Dive in Fremont. See the video for “The Way Through” here.

A friend sent me a link to Castle Dwellers’ “Pacify” a week or so ago. It is a sweet song and very much cut from the Appalachian folk music cloth woven out of the Northwest today. In the vein of the Head and the Heart and Coho Mountain String Ticklers, “Pacify” is gentle but thorough in its quality and pretty as a beach breeze. “And when it’s raining / I still cut myself loose / Drink whiskey all night / And stare at my shoes,” sings frontman Jared Hauser. The band will be playing the Finish Line of Seattle’s Rock and Roll Marathon June 22. Listen to the track here.

—Jake Uitti, Managing Editor, The Monarch Review