MySpace: The Upperhand
Recommended if you like: Hands, Piano, Crocodile Relations

Usounds listens to all 196,345 bands on MySpace. Yeah, I know, you’d think there’d be more, right? Well, there will be, and we will listen to those too.

For our first installment of The Best of MySpace, we would like to direct your attention to Seattle, WA band The Upperhand. Band members Nate, Ricardo, Luke and Seth are mysterious to me as there is limited info on the band website upperhandband.com or MySpace page. However, my investigatory research concluded that Ricardo is probably not Mexican which may be disappointing to some.

My favorite song streaming on the MySpace page is “No Oceans in Kansas”. You’re fucking A right there are no oceans in Kansas, but there are some nice tributaries and the Verdigris River historically had numerous trading posts along its route because of the fur trade in 1818.

The Verdigris River in Coffeyville, Kansas

There’s really no way around the fact that Nate Hill’s voice sounds like David Gray’s. But this is okay for two reasons: I was (fondly) impregnated at least four times while listening to Gray’s “Babylon”. I guess something about that song makes me wanna bone whoever is nearby. (I should probably just get my tubes tied after I get my hands on a copy of the new Upperhand album.) And secondly Hill’s interesting vocals are integrated with unpredictable time signature changes, a rabid pianist, and layers of guitar and bass that might make you think of The Dismemberment Plan or Minus the Bear.

So, check out The Upperhand. The band has a cd release party on September 9th at The Rendezvous where alcoholics go to die. So you know it will be fun.