Patrol Search for a Path Out of Rock Purgatory

How it normally works is a band gets on a U.S. label, then after some tours and some great reviews, a Japanese label comes knocking. This process is not how things have worked out for Seattle's Patrol, who've done it backwards and now have two albums out in Japan and no U.S. label supporting their efforts. Vocalist and guitarist Doug Lorig sees no light shining their way any time soon regarding U.S. labels, either. "It seems no one wants to put out anything, " Lorig told Noisecreep. "I don't blame them. It costs a lot of money to put a record out, and CDs don't sell as much as they did. Maybe a label that put out 10 or 12 releases a year is probably putting out four or five now."

Lorig sees the problem Patrol has had in finding a label in the States to be caused by Patrol's sound being an ambiguous one that can't be classified as a specific genre. "We're in a rock purgatory," Lorig says in a frustration that comes with a laugh. "It seems like now you need to be either really, really heavy, like metal or heavy stoner rock, or you need to be super indie folk pop. And if you're anything in between you get lost.

"Seattle is just a weird scene anyways," Lorig says. "It's a tough scene to get accepted into around here. There are no bands that draw 150 people frequently; either you draw 50 or you draw like Fleet Foxes. There are just not a lot of bands in between." Lorig mentions grunge granddad Tad Doyle's new band Brothers of the Sonic Cloth as example that Seattle has moved away from the noisy sides of rock that once put the city on the map. "They're really good," exclaims Lorig. "But they'll play on a Friday night to 60, 70 people."

Soon, Patrol's newest album, 'Zirconium,' will be seeing a digital release through iTunes. And even though the album is selling "pretty well" at stores in the Seattle area, Lorig feels it's time for the band to start changing who they play to. "We play a lot of these shows, and it's just the high-browed scenesters. And maybe we're just a little too commercial sounding than what they want to hear." After a brief pause, Lorig smirks, "I don't even know if it's a commercial sounding record, because of the 10-minute-long songs."