System and Station

Recent News

Biography

System and Station is a band from Portland, OR who has moved across the country twice, been on over 23 national tours and have released 9 albums with the 10th live album and DVD on it's way- " Live at the Knife Shop"- street date October 13th, 2011.

‘A Series of Screws’ is System and Station’s 9th recording and fifth LP. The title speaks volumes about a band that has been crafting and perfecting their epic brand of rock over the past decade. Led by RFK Heise, whose song-writing acumen is both colossal and melodic, System and Station write songs that are accessible, complex and endearing. With Larry Crane (Tape Op, Jackpot!) at the wheel once again as longtime producer/engineer, ‘A Series of Screws’ can be viewed as both an evolution and a pinnacle in the story of System and Station. With a dedication to honing the songs focusing on what the band does best, ‘A Series of Screws’ delivers plenty of hooks in a tighter package, building on a trajectory that began with 2008’s ‘A Nation of Actors’ and continued with last fall’s ‘I’m Here To Kill’ EP. At the root of it System and Station are a hard-working/touring indie-rock band with plenty of arena-sized moments. Both sides of that equation are fully realized on this album which begins with a nod to Zeppelin in “Pain Pills”, ends with a resonant Pacific Northwest-type groove in the title track, and in between offers the sort of loud/quiet/loud dynamics and guitar heroics (”In The Valley”, “Pardon Me”) that have earned them comparisons to bands like Shiner, Sunny Day Real Estate and Built To Spill.

System and Station have been writing and recording their smart, angular Indie-pop/Rock for just over a decade now, and while many bands, music cycles or trends have come and gone in that time, System and Station forge ahead sounding as fresh today as they did with their earnest first recordings from Smart Studios in Madison, WI back in 1998 and 2000.

Press

[RIFF ROCK RIOT] There’s a reason System and Station has remained a local force for damn near a decade: The four-piece crafts some of the hookiest rock sounds in the city. But the band also injects melodiously experimental leanings into its primal radio-friendly rock. Were System and Station content to simmer on its excellent ear for catchy, crunching riffs and pounding drums, it’d be an excellent band. That the gents use that ear to springboard beyond the conventional without leaving us simpletons in the dust makes the band great.

AP KRYZA- Portland Mercury

System & Station have had quite the ride. From breaking down in old station wagons to being pick-pocketed by a gypsy in New Orleans, this Portland, Ore., band has spent over 10 years touring the country. The band’s catchy, hook-soaked guitar rock has placed them alongside everyone from Black Rebel Motorcycle Club to Jeremy Enigk. This Wednesday you can see the band converting fans to their quirky, indie rock in support of its new EP I’m Here to Kill. It won’t be long until System and Station’s grandiose, yet still modest music, earns recognition on par with similar bands like Modest Mouse or Death Cab for Cutie.

Omaha Reader-

I've been following System And Station for quite some time now, reviewing each one of their releases that has arrived in my mailbox, and I still can't figure out why they aren't a much bigger band yet. Their sound has all the ingredients of a popularity explosion waiting to happen; a signature sound instantly attributable to the band, and consistently good songs plus the occasional breathtaking and amazing ones, two of which can be found on their new EP "I'm Here To Kill". Do your part now and check out this criminally underrated band, you won't regret it, especially if bands like Built To Spill, Copeland, The New Frontiers, and partly Radiohead read among your list of favorite bands. "I'm Here To Kill" is a concept EP based on the true story of a woman struggling with an abusive relationship and the loss of her child at the hands of her then-husband. It's an interesting concept to start out with, but where it really gets intriguing is how the band uses diverse moods and sounds so effectively to aurally describe parts of the story. You have the EP opener, "Love etc", a rough, garage-ish punk track which sees System And Station depart slightly from their trademark experimental indie rock sound to a more frantic expression complete with distorted vocals to set the abusive-relationship background story into place. On the other extreme, you have absolutely brilliant tracks like "Highway Crawl", which highlight the band's impressive use of angular, vibrant guitars while contrasting them with the calm, but infectious vocal melody, which should immediately remind you of "Sentencing" by Boys Night Out on their also-awesome (in fact, one of the best ever recorded) concept album "Trainwreck". "Patterns" is another astonishing track following in the footsteps of "Highway Crawl" - the bright guitar melody fits perfectly alongside the desperate vocal delivery. The experimentalist instrumental passage works wonderfully as well. On top of that you also have a slow, very Radiohead-esque track "We See Ourselves Shining Brightly" where the band is at their most dreamy, but still good. Now what I don't get is how come the band is able to write songs like the two mentioned before and NOT be more known in the scene? How come people aren't discovering these guys? Why aren't they the next Built To Spill already? "I'm Here To Kill" is my third System And Station release and so far, I haven't found a single bad song or a section that has left me disappointed. People into intelligent, challenging music should be all over this band and this release by now. Make it happen, people. [8/10]

PP- Rock Freaks

Portland, Ore.’s System And Station has been touring relentlessly for a decade and has shared bills with Sunny Day Real Estate, Built To Spill, Alex Chilton and the Meat Puppets. The band’s latest release, I’m Here To Kill (Latest Flame), produced by Larry Crane (Elliott Smith, Sleater-Kinney, Stephen Malkmus), is a concept EP based around the true story of a woman’s abusive relationship with her child-murdering husband. Frontman RFK Heise: “The title comes from the stories she told me of revenge. Waking up next to her husband, watching him sleep and thinking, ‘I love you, but I’m going to kill you.’”

The Magnet-

System and Station have been around for a hot minute. A Series of Screws is the band's fifth full-length, but the band hasn't seemed to garner the most substantial fanbase. That's a pity, since they play enjoyable, plaintive indie rock akin to post-reunion Sunny Day Real Estate or a less esoteric Shudder to Think. Granted, these are comparisons SaS are probably no strangers to, meaning their style has stayed largely consistent over their 13-year course, but it doesn't make it any less interesting this time around.

Acoustic opener "Pain Pills" feels a bit like it should have been later in the track listing. It's a risky maneuver to open the album, but honestly, it does set up an interestingly subtle introduction to the record, making the followup track—the more straightforward rock/post-hardcore of "Pardon Me"—a relatively restrained treat.

That's something that's noticeable about A Series of Screws—this feels like it's very oriented in a light, easygoing groove, but with bouts of tension to liven it up. "The River" is a pretty taut example of this, while "Thieves" gets in a more psychedelic hook. The more dynamic pounds of the closing title track certainly make it a late highlight.

A Series of Screws is smart and well-done stuff. Maybe this album will finally get these vets some notice.

Punk News-

It's entirely possible that you missed System and Station's last album, A Nation of Actors, upon its release earlier in the year. It's also possible that you're still unfamiliar with the band even though they've been part of the Northwest scene (originally Boise, now Portland) for close to a decade. What's not possible, however, is you being able to resist the hook-laden guitar rock that System and Station lays down; they're not afraid to be catchy while they rock, and their expertly honed songs frequently achieve an unpretentious but inspiring grandeur. In no uncertain terms, System and Station deserves to catch the ear of the same mainstream audience that listens to Modest Mouse, or Death Cab, or Built to Spill; in many ways, the band's skyscape anthems—with their fuzzy guitars and arching melodies—are perfectly engineered to be heard from the sloping field of the annual Sasquatch Festival. Music comes in so many different flavors that it's sometimes easy to forget how good the basics are, so listen to A Nation of Actors and stop worrying about the flavor of the month. Better yet, check out the show tonight. NL

Willamette Week-