“Kara Seen It All” is a consuming rocker from the band Saugwa, formed in Albuquerque, New Mexico sometime in 2012. Currently, the band has members spanning from Portland, Oregon to New Mexico and Colorado. The track kicks into gear with sludgy guitar distortion complementing a grungy vocal presence. The “smells like gasoline,” refrain plays engagingly alongside the suave guitar distortion. “Kara Seen It All” touts a convincing rock-forward aesthetic with doses of alternative, grunge, and punk.
“Kara Seen It All” is the title track from the band’s EP Dweller, releasing prior to Saugwa’s reunion show in Albuquerque on 1/9. They note that the track is “a play on saying ‘Kerosene it all,’ or a person named Kara who’s seen of a life of hardship.” “Dweller” was originally recorded live to tape in an analogue studio in 2016 of Denver, but not released until now.
Percussionist/bassist Zach Gerzon elaborates more on the band’s background and that of the track below:
In 2016, Zach Hinchcliff and I were both commuting to Denver to practice from different parts of Colorado, me from a small mountain town and “Hinchy ” from Colorado Springs. We would practice and write music in a rental space called the rocket space on Larimer in an industrial artsy part of Denver. In between practices we’d talk our latest record purchases and tell stories over rolled cigarettes or next door for a beer at Larimer lounge. Around the time of Kara Seen It All we were listening to a lot of Pavement and both going through transitional periods in life, trying to figure it all out. Kara Seen it All is a play on words written to be interpreted in a few different ways depending on how the listener experiences it. Kara either being a person that’s seen a lot of hardship in life, and also saying ” smells like gasoline, kerosene it all. As in burn all the worries, doubts, hardships and oppression you’ve experienced. In this form in Colorado of the band we were a guitar drum duo.
—
“Kara Seen It All” and other memorable tracks from this month can also be streamed on the updating Obscure Sound’s ‘Best of January 2020’ Spotify playlist.
