05.29.03 - The Bulletin. Bend, OR
By DAVID JASPER

Seattle band The Plains is coming to Bend
With just one album under its belt, Seattle indie rock band The Plains has already caused a stir in its hometown. The group is on its first tour and is stopping at off-the beaten-path towns like Bend, where the group will appear at Players on Saturday.
`That was part of the point,` says singer and guitarist Aaron Semer by phone from a roadside stop. Semer and his bandmates were en route to a show last weekend in Fallon, Nev., a small town an hour from Reno. `We wanted to play a lot of towns like Bend and Fallon, go to places that don't necessarily get a lot of touring bands. Truthfully, we'll do better in places like that than L.A., because L.A. gets 500 bands a day.`
Seattle went on the music map with the grunge movement, and though grunge isn't the force it once was, Seattle is still a destination for musicians like Semer.
The Plains may be a lot of things, but grunge it isn't. The band is equally at home playing rambunctious power-pop and twangy alt-country. Semer writes clever, jaunty pop songs like `Firefly,` and `At a Party` that will get the crowd pogoing, but he can turn around and deliver a melancholy acoustic song like `Black Hills, SD` with lines like `Black Hills, South Dakota 1998/Crazy Horse is still under construction/Seems like it's gonna stay that way/We try to fix the history of the world that's been mistaught.`
That song could have been written as Semer headed out to Seattle four years ago from his native Ohio. Bassist Josh Atkins is also from Ohio, and lived in Bend for a while.
The buzz began in Seattle two years ago when Semer circulated a demo recording under his name with many of the songs that would land on the group's debut `On Earth as it is in Heaven.`
`I started circulating (the demo) around, and I got a lot of good feedback on that,` says Semer. When the label Global Seepej Records wanted to release a full-length album, Semer re-recorded the songs, playing most of the instruments himself, and released it as The Plains.
Jonballs Kilian made an appearance on a few `On Earth` tracks and is the band's drummer.
As a Seattle Stranger writer put it, `These Plains are great.` The group is enough of an original that the Seattle press has been hard-pressed to make the obligatory comparisons, likening the group to anyone and everyone, seemingly: The Pixies, Uncle Tupelo, Beck and REM.
Semer says his songwriting is `definitely diverse. It is indie rock, but I take a lot of
influence from country, folk, blues and traditional American music. As far as a lot of the chord progressions and song structure goes, it's a lot of traditional music. But then we infused a lot of modern sounds into that.`
He thinks smart, ironic alternative rock band Cracker makes for an apt comparison.
The hardships of being on the road are probably easier than what the members deal with in their day work: Semer, Kilian and Atkins all work at a facility for runaway teens.
If that's not enough, Semer has his hands full doing promotions for the year-old group, so his songwriting is on hiatus till after the tour.
`We plan on taking about two months off of playing out live, and just focusing on music,` Semer says. `I've got a ton of ideas, I just need to solidify them all and get them laid out so we can start working on them.`
Bend is the last stop on the two-week tour, which means Central Oregonians get the last chance to see them anywhere for a while.
`It's our last show,` Semer says, `and it'll definitely be fun.`

David Jasper can be reached at 541-383-0349 or djasper@bendbulletin.com.

If You GoThe Plains will perform at Players, 25 SW Century Drive, Bend, at 9 p.m. on Saturday.
Admission is $3.
Contact: 389-2558.