The Comforters

It’s been a really long time since I’ve posted anything here… my apologies.

I first heard about The Comforters through myspace a few months ago. I haven’t really liked the bands that have sent me unsolicited “friend requests”, but when i heard the songs on their page, i had no problem adding them. They sent out a bulletin last week announcing that they would be playing a free show at a local coffee shop, so I went to check them out.

They did a wonderful performance, which was somewhat remarkable considering there’s only two of them. Pia sang and played the keyboards, while Jason played the acoustic and electric guitar, and also tapped his foot on a tambourine placed on the floor to add some percussion. On a few of the songs, Jason’s guitar was sampled and then looped, which allowed him to play different chords, which in turn were sampled and looped, etc., essentially creating several guitar tracks on the fly, all layered upon one another. I was quite impressed. They played quite a long set that included material from their debut album, Transplants, plus a couple of cover songs (by John Lennon and Emitt Rhodes), and some new material. They’re working on a second album which they hope will be released early next year.

The Comforters consist of Pia and Jason Robbins, a husband and wife duo from Eugene, Oregon. Their songs are melodic, mellow, and smooth, fronted by Pia’s lovely vocals and backed by Jason’s acoustic and electric guitar and Pia’s keyboards. Instrumentally, their songs sound rather simplistic and “clean”, but I also find them to be quite “rich” lyrically. They currently have one album, which they self-produced at their own Big Timbre Studio in Oregon.

Links: feelthecomforters.com, www.myspace.com/thecomforters

-Randy