Snowden February 22, 2008

Noisy guitars of fuzz and echo thread through this group taking its name from Joseph Heller's satiric Catch-22. Heady vocals and lyrics from principal songwriter Jordan Jeffares coerce even the most pretentious into tapping toes. Hands clap and drums trip over flashy rhythms while guitars stutter through unique melodic progressions. Snowden, largely follows the evolution of Jeffares' post-collegiate home recordings in Athens and Atlanta. Impressed with his bedroom demos, Jeffares' brother put Jordan in touch with likeminded players and the band was born. Having self-recorded and released its first EP, the group immediately charted all over indie radio in their home state of Georgia, prompting Jeffares and company to brave the long, monotonous drives up to New York for shows. The traveling quickly paid off with Snowden opening for groups such as the Unicorns, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Xiu Xiu and Arcade Fire. The group's Jade Tree debut, Anti-Anti, expands studio credit to include some tracks engineered by Erik Wofford (The Black Angels, Explosions in the Sky, My Morning Jacket) as well as a few helmed solely by Jeffares. Although Snowden grew from a rather isolated situation and mood, ironically those same conditions are what continues to draw listeners in.