Lake

LAKE are one of several brainy and sweet indie pop bands — such as No Kids (Vancouver, British Columbia) and the Blow (Portland, Oregon) — to call the Pacific Northwest their home. The group formed in Olympia, Washington in 2005 and is comprised of an ever-shifting cast of bandmembers, with Ashley Eriksson, Eli Moore, Lindsay Schief, Andrew Dorsett, and Markly Morrison serving as the band's foundation. In the first few years of its existence, the band released a split 7" with Typhoon (LAKE/Typhoon, via Boy Gorilla Records), a cassette tape (via Brown Interior Music), a vinyl LP (Tape, via Funkytonk Records), and a self-titled full-length album; that last release was recorded by Karl Blau and released as part of his Kelp Lunacy project. LAKE's second full-length album, Oh, the Places We'll Go, was released on K Records in the fall of 2008, followed by the somewhat more experimental Let's Build a Roof in 2009. Their next album, 2011's Giving & Receiving, was partially written in an isolated cabin in northern Sweden and recorded with Calvin Johnson and Karl Blau at Dub Narcotic Studios in Olympia. The sessions initially proved difficult, as the analog tape they were using began to fall apart. The project was shifted to a computer and LAKE proved a quick study at digital recording, in the process delivering their warmest and best album to date.