Black Belt Eagle Scout is readying the release of her second LP with Saddle Creek, who keep on being one of the best current labels for all things rock music. After a successful 2018 that saw the re-release of her enthralling debut Mother of my Children, Katherine Paul has been putting the finishing touches on her new record, titled At The Party With My Brown Friends. The songs she has shared so far (“At The Party” and “Half Colored Hair“) are quite in line with the mid-tempo, singer-songwriter feel that marinated a good chunk of her debut. She is now releasing another one of them, a dream-pop influenced track aptly titled “My Heart Dreams”.

Very much a 90s-influenced alternative rock song, “My Heart Dreams” seems to be on the verge of toying with the Pixies-esque loud/quiet dynamics that defined the project’s breakthrough single “Soft Stud”. However, such a breakdown never happens and “My Heart Dreams” decides to follow a different path altogether. It becomes a dreamy jam instead, arguably even more immersive than the most subdued songs on Mother of My Children. It almost recalls Mazzy Star in its warm and lush instrumental delivery, though Katherine Paul’s vocals keep that trademark roughness around the edges. Black Belt Eagle Scout has also shared a video for the song with the aid of Portland Two Spirit Society, bringing women and LGBTQ Indigenous people to the fore. As usual with Katherine Paul’s work, it is powerful and moving stuff. Watch below.

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Never one to shy away from ruminating upon her experiences as an indigenous queer woman, Katherine Paul aka Black Belt Eagle Scout returns a year after her debut album Mother of My Children re-released last year. Whilst her debut honed in on issues of grief, loss and finding your place in the world, on the first single from her sophomore album, we hear a more quietly optimistic sound. On “At the Party”, there’s still that sense of acknowledgement of the struggles that come from navigating your own identity in the world, but it’s underpinned by a powerful air of sanguine.

The repeated “We will always sing” that the chorus consists of, coupled with the closing line “I’ll think of you from a nice place, nice place,” lends the track an atmosphere of stoic hopefulness, a message that no matter how many times life attempts to knock you back, the power of the human spirit will prevail. Compared to her oftentimes scuzzy sound, that permeated tracks such as “Soft Stud” on her debut album, “At the Party” is striking for its bare bones structure. Led by KP’s breathy vocals and leisurely guitar riffs, it possesses a softness akin to a gentle breeze, a sighing wind running through an open field.

“At the Party” is an understated yet set jaw kind of track, one that rings with determination and quiet joy.

Black Belt Eagle Scout – “At the Party With My Brown Friends”

1. At the Party

2. My Heart Dreams

3. Going to the Beach With Haley

4. Real Lovin

5. Run It to Ya

6. I Said I Wouldn’t Write This Song

7. Scorpio Moon

8. Half Colored Hair

9. You’re Me and I’m You

Portland-based radical indigenous queer feminist musician Katherine Paul, aka Black Belt Eagle Scout, has finally shared a video for “Soft Stud“. The incredible track, which is a highlight from her debut album Mother of My Children, was also part of our best songs of 2018 list. The visuals were directed and edited by Indigenous Diné transdisciplinary artist Demian DinéYazhi’ and follow on her “Indians Never Die” radiant video. Watch below.

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“Mother of my Children” is the debut album by Black Belt Eagle Scout, an Oregon-based alternative rock act that fuses the fierceness and roughness typical of the American northwest with more introspective and gentle undertones. The artist behind this moniker is Katherine Paul, who identifies herself as a radical indigenous queer feminist. Paul claims that her identity plays a big role on how she writes songs, though there’s no need to take her word for it – even a cursory listen to “Mother of my Children” will make it clear that this is an artist writing from a very specific point of view (after all, the first two songs in the album are called “Soft Stud” and “Indians Never Die“).

That being said, Paul’s music is as relatable and alluring as it gets. “Mother of my Children” is an album about love and about grief, written while she was going through harsh personal experiences. What is genuinely interesting about Black Belt Eagle Scout is how she re-appropriates more mainstream-oriented traditions and adapts them to fit her view of the world. The first song on the album and also its best, “Soft Stud” is a 90s-esque take on queer love and open relationships, Paul wistfully lamenting “I know you’re taken” during the chorus. It’s exactly the kind of thing you would have expected from an Oregon band in the 90s. Surpassing the six-minute mark, “Soft Stud” spends its last bars going on an incredibly emotional guitar jam that brings back to mind The Woods-era Sleater-Kinney, both in aesthetic and in quality. It is simply one of the best rock songs you’re going to hear this year, and it’s also the only song on the album that sounds remotely like this.

Opening an album with your best song is always a risk, particularly when everything that comes afterwards represent a drastic change. In a way, “Soft Stud” acts as a sort of false start, and “Mother of my Children”’s sudden switch to a mellower sound can make for a jarring first listening experience. Once you’ve had the time to make the adjustment, it’s easy to get why Paul felt the need to start things off with an adrenaline rush. Whether it’s desire, anger or grief, there is a lot to take in with this album, and some of those feelings are not ideally expressed through raging vocals and battling guitar solos. Instead, Katherine Paul chooses to adapt to a wide range of sounds and see which of them fits best. While not particularly innovative or original by any means, “Mother of my Children” works as a experiment by which an artist struggling with her emotions tries to figure out the most fitting musical outlet for them.

Black Belt Eagle Scout‘s Bandcamp page uses “ambient” as a descriptor, and even if I wouldn’t go that far, there is definitely something to be said about the instrumental austerity in which half of the album indulges. Accompanied by soft percussion that threatens to build up into a climax only to let it die, the second track “Indians Never Die” is a classic singer-songwriter take on colonialism, Paul’ clean guitar sound standing in opposition to the distorted rawness of the first track. The Elliott Smith-esque “Yard” follows similar guidelines, finding beauty in restraint as it refuses to go full crescendo.

While “Mother of my Children” certainly has enough high points to warrant repeated listens, its middle section fails to be as compelling as tracks like “Soft Stud” or “Keyboard”, the latter being a hazey dream pop song that sounds like if Beach House and Portishead had had a child together. Though undeniably pretty, the title track relies overtly on its guitar riff and on its attempt at a hook, while the mid-tempo rocker “Just Lie Down” takes up four minutes without doing much with them except for a not-so-successful attempt at twee charm: ‘sky looks blue / just like you.’

A fairly short eight-track album, “Mother of my Children” would have been one of the year’s best EPs if two or three of the weaker tracks had been left out. Nevertheless, Black Belt Eagle Scout’s debut is such a short and concise effort that every single song here functions as a sort of introduction letter to the band regardless of their quality. And even if it’s not consistently appealing, the album benefits from a careful and polished production that nonetheless does not take away any of its roughness. “Mother of my Children” might be imperfect, but its intermittent charm makes up for it.

Last year, we fell by chance on Black Belt Eagle Scout‘s “Indians Never Die” on Soundcloud and it totally caught us. Since then, Katherine Paul, the radical indigenous queer feminist behind the moniker, has signed with Saddle Creek to re-release her album. And we have the pleasure today to re-discover this song with an Evan James Atwood-directed video. This beautiful protest song comes also with a statement from the artist:

[su_quote]Our treaty rights weren’t being honored. Imagine hearing on the news that the government doesn’t support you as a human being and never has. ‘Indians Never Die’ is a call out to colonizers and those who don’t respect the Earth; they don’t care about the water, they don’t care about how they are destroying what is around them. Indigenous people are the protectors of this land. Indians never die because this is our land that we will forever protect in the present and the afterlife.[/su_quote]

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As you might know it, multi-instrumentalist and producer Katherine Paul aka Black Belt Eagle Scout will re-release her debut album on Saddle Creek very soon. Following up on “Soft Stud” and its amazing guitar riff, she has now shared a brand new song titled “Just Lie Down”. There’s also a long statement to go with it where she details the creative process behind her debut album and this new track:

[su_quote]I started working on the guitar line for this song at the end of a five year stay at a big duplex I was renting in Portland. This had been the longest period of time I had ever lived anywhere that wasn’t my parents’ home. I was being kicked out of the place because the landlord wanted to renovate and hike up the rent. This was the case for a lot of Portlanders at that time (and still is) as the city was on a steep course of gentrification.[/su_quote]

Black Belt Eagle Scout then added:

[su_quote]My life shifted and I ended up moving in with people I had never met to a smaller, but comfy situation in a different part of town. There was a Corgi named Dayton involved. The room in this house is where I worked on the majority of the songs for Mother Of My Children, staying up late and turning up my guitar amp volume when I could. I was in a new place and the feeling of ‘home’ was never really present when I lived there. It was a really disconnected time in my life thus warranting the initial bits and pieces of ‘Just Lie Down.’[/su_quote]

Before concluding:

[su_quote]So many things didn’t feel foundational and at times I felt like I was losing it. I remember thinking, ‘You aren’t yourself right now. What is wrong with you? Why are you acting like this? What even is this?’ and that’s where most of the questioning lyrics in the song came from. I like to find some sort of resolution in my songs be it a feeling I get from playing it, a certain part of the song that has lyrics that reflect it, something. My resolution in this song is when I sing the lyrics, ‘Just lie down, head on the ground, sky looks blue, just like you.’ To me, it was a simple poem you could say to yourself that means even though you are sad, even though there seems like there is no hope, look up and see what is above you. The sky is still blue and beautiful. Hopefully you will see that beauty and move forward.[/su_quote]

Listen to Black Belt Eagle Scout‘s “Just Lie Down” and check her upcoming live dates below.

08/31 Columbus, OH @ Wexner Arts Center #

09/01 Detroit, MI @ Deluxx Fluxx *

09/02 Chicago, IL @ Beat Kitchen ^

09/04 Pittsburgh, PA @ Spirit Lodge #

09/05 Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall #

09/06 New York City, NY @ Bowery Ballroom #

09/07 Philadelphia, PA @ PhilaMOCA #

09/08 Richmond, VA @ The Camel #

09/09 Washington, DC @ Black Cat (Backstage) #

09/11 Durham, NC @ The Pinhook #

09/12 Atlanta, GA @ Drunken Unicorn #

09/13 Tampa, FL @ Crowbar #

09/14 Tallahassee, FL @ The Wilbury #

09/15 New Orleans, LA @ Gasa Gasa #

09/17 Austin, TX @ Barracuda #

09/18 Ft. Worth, TX @ Main at South Side #

09/19 Norman, OK @ Opolis #

09/20 Lawrence, KS @ Bottleneck #

09/21 St. Louis, MO @ Off-Broadway #

09/22 Davenport, IA @ Village Theater #

09/24 Lexington, KY @ The Burl #

09/26 Omaha, NE @ Reverb $

09/28 Denver, CO @ Hi-Dive $

09/29 Salt Lake City, UT @ Diabolical Records $

09/30 Boise, ID @ Funky Taco $

10/03 Spokane, WA @ The Bartlett $

* = with Varsity

^ = with Shortly

# = with Saintseneca

$ = with Guerilla Toss

It goes “I don’t play music to write songs, I play music to process feelings”. That statement really resonated with me. Music is the language of emotion, and is able to convey and articulate the subtle nuances of feelings that words themselves can’t quite articulate. This perspective on music as a form of catharsis is truly imbued in Black Belt Eagle Scout’s music, charging it with subtle power.

Black Belt Eagle Scout is the musical project of Katherine Paul, whose identity as a radical indigenous queer feminist shapes the music they create and serves as their fuel to keep pushing forward. Black Belt Eagle Scout just released the lead track “Indians Never Die” for a soon-to-appear record, “Mother of My Children”. It’s gentle, yet powerful; a rose in a hurricane.

“Indians Never Die” is truly a haunting piece. Instrumentally, the song is fairly simple. The song opens up with the music being led by the plucking acoustic guitar chords and a simple beat from what sounds like a wood block. In the middle and at the end of the track, the music swells and comes to the forefront of the track, taking a life of it’s own. A few notes lead the way as the song crescendos, being pulled forward by percussions. There is strength and a poignant fierceness to it.

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Ethereal vocals filter through the music, like wind through some rafters. Paul’s voice is like a ghost: it’s smoky and tender, but there’s still something truly solid behind their words. You know how when you burn things, the outside tends to get black and fine and powdery, but you can still see, deep inside, there’s a cherry-red ember, burning bright and refusing to go out. That’s how I would describe this song. An almost defiant strength radiates through the gentle music, pushing outward. Something powerful is simmering just under the surface, and is just waiting for the moment to rear it’s head. It sounds like it would fit in as a rallying cry kind of song in some sort of Hunger Games-dystopian type movie franchise, but the catch is that the dystopian society is a very real America and it’s treatment of its indigenous people over its (bloody) history. I really like how the song is named “Indians Never Die”, it really fits to the feelings brought out by the song. It’s a refusal to back down in the face of adversity. It’s a refusal to die out despite attempts to wipe an entire nation of people away. 

This song is honestly really great. It’s powerful in the most unexpected way. It’s also super great to see indigenous people get the spotlight (especially in the music industry), and share music that is formulated by their identity. Black Belt Eagle Scout mentioned how music is how they process feelings, and “Indians Never Die” is the result of that.

Check them out on Facebook, or pre-order “Mother of My Children”!

BONUS:
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