11.14.02 - The Stranger. Seattle, WA
by Kate Pruesser

THE PLAINS, THE BAND THAT MURDERED SILENCE
(Café Venus) How to dress for the Plains' CD release party? Trim yer best boots with barbed wire, pair a ruffled gingham shirt with a spiked dog collar, braid your hair with razor blades--maybe then you'll have the sartorial equivalent of the edgy, sad, and downright sweet music played by Seattle band the Plains, Aaron Semer's latest project. Each song on their debut disc, On Earth as It Is in Heaven, defines a new position in the alt-country spectrum; I'll be at the show just to hear the album's first cut played live--"Firefly," a song that begins as a rambling jumble of disjointed vocals and whiny guitar, then sharpens to a catchy, hard-driven, rock-out-in-your-car kinda song. I wanted to avoid saying this, but what the hell, I'll beat the Times to it: These Plains are great.