Seven Storey Mountain is, by far, one of my favorite bands from Arizona. The best compliment I can pay is that they don’t sound like a local band, if that makes sense.
The band has undergone plenty of turnover, but the one constant is singer/songwriter/guitarist Lance Lammers, the brains of the operation. Seven Storey Mountain (which, for a short time, truncated its name to Seven Storey) has made several appearances on Deep Elm’s Emo Diaries collections. But I’m hesitant to label it “emo.” If emo is about baring your soul and getting in touch with feelings, Lammers is more about relieving the burdens of emotions in sonic thrusts. It’s relationships and reality gone awry, then examining the wreckage. Catharsis defined.
The band’s first LP, Leper Ethics, released on Art Monk Construction, is engaging and introspective. Deep Elm released the follow-ups, “Based on a True Story” (an EP) and “Dividing By Zero.” (All available through Stinkweeds.)
A new LP is due for release this year, and Lammers has posted four demos at the band’s spot on My Space. There are MP3s at the band’s Web site, and I have a few of my favorites to add (all recommended, including the scathing “Politician.”)
Seven Storey Mountain: Last Time (from Leper Ethics)
Seven Storey Mountain: Politician (from Based on a True Story)
Seven Storey Mountain: Halfway (from Dividing By Zero)
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Found this site by chance and just reminiscing about that AZ scene… now 16 years from the original post and 26+ from when it actually happened. Since the country and the world is now disintegrating, those better days seem not just a lifetime ago, but an actual world, or galaxy, away. Yes, Seven Storey Mountain was unlike any other AZ band at that time. Lance made an immediate impression on me when I saw them open for Jesus Lizard and Girls Against Boys at the old Roxy downtown – when they went by the name Driver. And a while later, after seeing them play with several other local bands including some new band fronted by Jim Adkins (maybe it was in the attic of the Nile in Mesa) – out of all of them, I was sure Lance’s band would be the ones who would break big. Comparatively, they just sounded like they were on another level. But for whatever reason, that didn’t happen. Still, the records Lance would put out in the upcoming years were electric – particularly the tremendous “Based on a True Story.†Like I said, those were better days. With better bands, of course.