Hey Marseilles

To Travels & Trunks (Onto Entertainment)

By Jonathan Shipley
Published: June 29th, 2010 | 1:00pm

If you follow Seattle music, you know Hey Marseilles. They released an album by themselves and then played the marvelous songs on it endlessly wherever they could throughout the city. From record shops to Bumbershoot to taverns to bus stops—they just wanted their music out there. Hard workers, they are, and it’s finally paid off: Their album is now being released nationally so people outside of Seattle, from Sacramento to St. Louis, Scranton to Sarasota, will be able to discover them.

In a recent interview, Matt Bishop, the 7-member band’s frontman, noted that their music is “a bit of Baroque Europop with a slice of accessible melody and contemplative lyric. That sounds super douche-y.” He’s right, though. The songs they weave are elegant with oftentimes melancholic storylines, complete with cellos, violas, guitars, accordions, and whatever else they happen to have around.

Formed in 2006, taking root on the University of Washington campus, the songs are lush, earnest and passionate, sometimes to a fault. Eager to impress crowds and themselves, they’ll cram as much poetic lyric with equally crammed melodic and instrumental wonderments which at times get in the way of what they’re truly good at—tight songs with tighter musicianship. Perhaps it’s because, as Bishop sings on the title track, “All I want is love, eternally / With your heart facing me.” Hey Marseilles loves a lot, too much at times, but you can’t fault the young group for trying.

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Hey Marseilles official Web site

Hey Marseilles MySpace page