When 20-year-old Redmond native Spencer Sult was a kid, his
grandfather told him stories about a cold-blooded monster named
Generifus who ate unsuspecting children. “I guess he just came
out of the woods and from under decks and ate kids,” Sult recalls. The
monster stuck with him, and when Sult began writing music in 2005, he
adopted its name as his own for the stage.
Sult’s interest in making music began in 2001, when some kids at the
skate park played him the Microphones song “Sand (Eric’s Trip)”
from It Was Hot, We Stayed in the Water. “The percussion and
vocal melodies were really cool,” says the typically understated Sult.
His explanation of that initial listen might not sound so inspiring,
but a strong connection was made. Since then, Generifus has become one
of Seattle’s most earnest and exciting young songwriters, releasing
CD-R after homemade tape of painfully honest, tear-you-apart-inside
lo-fi in the vein of K Records heroes Phil Elverum and Karl
Blau. Recently, Generifus played a couple of shows opening for
Blau, and the prolific Anacortes musician was so impressed that he
offered to record and collaborate with Sult on an album.
The result, Solstice Songs, is Generifus’s most cohesive
completed work, full of expressive guitar play and deep, captivating
songs—from the disheartening drone of “If I Try” to the island
shake of “My Own Way”—about being lost in life and in love.
Blau’s presence is audible, both in the booming, classic drumming style
that initially drew Sult to the Anacortes sound, and in the pair’s
experimentation with jangling keys, random knickknack sounds,
and recording techniques that shake the tape buzz off Generifus’s
bedroom rock. Working with Blau has clearly been a turning point for
Generifus—Sult describes the experience as simply “amazing.”
Over the course of a single recording, Generifus has transformed
from easily passed over acoustic sob songs to vibrant ballads. The
record will be released at a free show on September 13 at the Old Fire
House (where Sult got his start playing shows), and it will be a show
that devotees of What the Heck Fest as well as any fans of sad, sad
songs simply shouldn’t miss.
ALL-AGES calendar
Sat 9/13
Generifus, Seahouse, Masters and Johnson, Jeff Stillwell, and Gio
Ricci at The Old Fire House,
7 pm, free.
Drunken Boat and Git Some at Squid & Ink,
8 pm, $5.
Wed
9/17
Japanther, Strong Killings, Shearing Pinx, the Raggedy Anns, and
Flexions at Vera Project,
7:30 pm, $9/$8.