Enough has been made of the youthfulness of the high-school-aged The Seed Of Something. I’m always a tad uncomfortable with the need to constantly point to a teenage band’s age. Too often it’s used as a crutch: the explicit message is that it’s amazing that such young kids are doing this band thing, but the hidden agenda is to keep your expectations from getting too high and to head off criticism of a band that is otherwise not at all good or interesting — see the long-defunct Waterloo grunge band Mad Cow Disease. There were 16-year-old kids making records in the 1950s and ’60s that most of us can only dream of matching the greatness of. It’s not that special that your kid can manage to repetitively bang out a power-chord. Besides, youth is temporary.

On the other hand, when a band surprises you with skill and artistry that seem beyond their years, it’s only natural to want to point it out. Had I just wandered into Vaudeville Mews some night and heard The Seed Of Something’s music coming out of a group of mid-twentysomethings, I believe I would still conclude that this was a band worthy of my attention.

Then again, for The Seed Of Something, youth may be an advantage, and not as a convenient excuse either. One gets the feeling that if they were older, they wouldn’t sound quite like this. The Seed Of Something’s music feels like the product of kids who have discovered rock and roll but are still too unjaded to feel concerned with fitting into the conventions of a niche or subgenre. It’s refreshingly honest and sidesteps the usual hip and/or overthought bullshit in a way that only a certain kind of inexperience seems to be able to do. Those of us who feel compelled to analyze will find elements of 1960s garage rock, 1990s indie-rock, and 1970s punk, blended together so well on this self-titled debut that the distinctions fade away; the album never comes off as a collection of genre exercises but rather a band working from a wide range of inspirations from which a coherent sound arose organically.

The Seed Of Something open the album with about as good an introduction as you can get to their mentality and motivation. While the title “Soundwaves” is unlikely to be consciously referencing a long-defunct record store, the lyrics describe the joy of being immersed in powerful music. Jasper Farlow and Stone Mills trade off guitar, bass, and lead vocals in The Seed Of Something, and often sing together as they do here: “I am drowning,” they tell us first in unison then in harmony, “and there’s no place I’d rather be!”

The estimable skill of lead guitarist Dylan Lamb is the kind of high-powered weapon that a lesser band of this age bracket would be tempted to overuse to the point of becoming tiresome, but The Seed Of Something show taste in having him cut loose when it really counts. Lamb’s solos occasionally seem a bit conventionally classic-rock when set to such raw duct-tape tunes, but it works more often than not, making for lively air-guitar-worthy climaxes. There’s a nice bit of James Williamson scuzz around the edges of his delivery, and the Pixies bends with which he accents the refrains of “Debbie” are a treat as Mills’s guitar carries the simple but strong countermelody. Farlow gets his guitar-hero turn as well in the form of a mellow dual-tracked moment in “Mood Ring.” Luke Bascom keeps things swingy throughout, instinctively letting the rhythm breathe where it should.

The basement production hits a nice middle ground that, to reference one of the band’s stated and apparent influences, I would describe as cleaner than Bee Thousand but far less slick than Universal Truths And Cycles.

This album is packed with memorable shout-along moments, standouts among them being in “Lights Go Out”, “Dirty Cops”, “Ghost Town,” and especially “Downhill”, with its coda of “We’re going downhill from here!” Let’s hope The Seed Of Something aren’t actually headed downhill from here. They’ve already survived a couple lineup shifts so they might well be in it for the long haul. If so, it will be very interesting indeed to see where they go.

The Seed Of Something usher the cassette tape version of this thing into the world at Vaudeville Mews on September 10, joined by Going To Grandma’s and Dhobi Flats. It can also be streamed at Bandcamp, and I presume will also be available there in download form at some point.

Bandcamp is on fire, and so is Des Moines’s scene of youthful indie rockers, several of whom — Pocket Aristotle, The Seed Of Something, and The Chatty Cathys, you can catch tonight at Vaudeville Mews’s early show along with The Longshadowmen and Why Make Clocks.. Come out at 5pm and give the nice fellow at the door $5. And to get back on the subject of bandcamp, here’s Pocket Aristotle’s page.

Canyons, the new band put together by Des Moines songwriter Gabe Cordova, made its debut last night at Vaudeville Mews, and sounded good despite Gabe’s voice being a tad bit under the weather. Dan remarked to me that they sounded rather like Palace Brothers. Crystal City‘s winsome folk sounds got the night started, and following Canyons we were treated to really nice atmospheric electro-pop sounds from Beach House territory by Portland duo Hosannas. One guy in the place was breakdancing to them. I left too early to catch Seedlings.

The Seed Of Something, one of Des Moines’ youngest active bands and most promising in their age bracket, have become even younger on average with their recent switch in drummers — reportedly, the new member isn’t even in high school and already a solid player. The new lineup makes its debut at the Mews on Friday opening the all-ages Bad Cop show, doors at 5pm.

Samuel Locke Ward reports being robbed in Detroit last weekend. According to a Facebook posting, “Smash and grab happened during the show. Joe Jack [Talcum] and Chris [Ford] got their laptops stolen. Ipod, GPS, phone chargers, groceries, medicine… Everyone is fine. We still have our gear and the van. Got the window fixed and we are back on track and on the road still. We are doing good even.” Still, I feel for these cats. Losing one’s electronics sucks, as does losing one’s meds.

Seattle-area post-doomsters Roareth are to be short-lived. I found these guys interesting because you don’t usually hear of a band making their recorded debut with a single 45-minute track. It’s damn good too — the CD copies are sold out but you can still grab a download. Reportedly, a member of the group is moving to Los Angeles to take a job at Southern Lord Records, and the bassist, his wife, is of course going with him. Details at The Obelisk.

My work continues to be busy, so I haven’t been writing a lot here, but I do manage to find time to post various links of interest to the Centipede Farm Facebook page. I figured I should pop in here quick and talk about music things I’ve been to or done lately. Leah and I went to see The Black Keys at the Val Air with busted AC, the place was packed and probably 110 degrees. I looked like I’d been in some kind of sweat-filled dunk tank. They played wonderfully though. I’ve seen some bands tend to play their songs faster live than they sound on record; the Black Keys, at least that night, played things a little bit slower, which I think suited the atmosphere of the sweltering August night. It was pretty rock and roll.

I saw the diva of mom-glam Leslie Hall, with her band Leslie And The Ly’s, bring their celebration of all things snazzy to a rainy Tuesday morning at the Iowa State Fair. Considering the weather and the early hour, they drew a respectable crowd and really pulled out all the stops when it came to silly props and between-song skits. Hanging quilts, a giant cat, and a tractor called Glitter Plow. Grace plays drums, the only live instrument they use in the show, as everything else is on a laptop other than vocals, and I can’t stress enough the level of skill it takes to be able to stay on beat with something prerecorded like that. Grace kicks ass. They’ll be at something called Inglert in Iowa City on September 16.

We did two Why Make Clocks shows this past weekend, and there were actually people at them. Saturday night’s show was at Vaudeville Mews with Noah’s Ark With A Spaceship, a great band we previously met and played with in Omaha where they’re from. They make a loud raucous guitar-noise-pop sound that I’d place in the lineage of Swervedriver. They’re on Slumber Party Records where they’re labelmates with Thunder Power and Outlaw Con Bandana among others. We got to hang out with them some before and after the show as well, and they are a fun bunch of cats. Some variation on what used to be called The Chatty Cathys opened, a group of young fellows making a Pavementy kind of racket, and they were quite enjoyable. In between was another very youthful outfit (14 to 16 years old, I believe), The Seed Of Something, which involves Dan’s wife Kim’s son Jasper and is also currently sharing drummer Will Tarbox with Why Make Clocks while they look for another. They’re really good and we’d like to see them keep at it, so if you know a kid around Des Moines who plays drums well and likes driving indie rock sounds, get in touch.

The following night both Why Make Clocks and The Seed Of Something played a double-birthday-party show at Des Moines Social Club along with The Atudes, Christopher The Conquered, and Poison Control Center. The birthdays in question were of our very own Dan, and of Pat from PCC, both of which were on Monday. Everyone put on a great show, though the sound in the Black Box Theater room of the DMSC was as usual a bit off. Friendly vibes abounded. PCC continue their “Never Ending Tour” tonight at The Slowdown in Omaha, and tomorrow night at The Lift in Dubuque , then a whole bunch of other places. I’d suggest checking the lengthy list of dates listed on their MySpace because chances are if you’re reading this, you’ll have an opportunity or two to see them in the next few months.

Finally, just last night, we did the second-ever show of the reunited Fetal Pig, opening up for the amazing Mahogany Frog from Winnipeg. MF first came to our attention when Why Make Clocks ended up playing with them at Big V’s in St. Paul. We liked them a lot and told them to get in touch if they ever thought of coming to play in Des Moines. They do mostly instrumental psychedelic prog-rock epics with lots of keyboards. It’s partly a recreation of prog circa ’72, but also very modern; I caught a lot about their set that I think fans of stuff like Battles would get into. Hell, anybody can get into stuff this good. While they were playing I kept thinking to myself they might be the best band in the universe.

Leah got me a bag of gummy centipedes!

Tonight: Ember Schrag, Pennyhawk, Ron Wax, and Nuclear Rodeo at Ames Progressive, 8pm.