HEADLINES

THE RISE OF PANTHER BEACH FEATURING SINGER KATHERINE PARK


By Jerry Thompson

Think Oranges and Sunshine

Like a beautiful day, instead like kisses behind fingers dancing on the wings of new landscapes in voice, poetry and rock spilling over in the coolness of being alive… for the first time / in a song in a silence or a shimmie shimmie on Saturday afternoon.

Panther Beach, the new alternative band featuring the delicious and breezy vocals of Katherine Park splashed into the hearts of bay area this Summer.   She is supported in strength and wisdom by Bryan Aguirre on guitar, Tod Mori on bass and harmony vocals and Kevin Morrison on drums. Together they are  Panther Beach and they feel and sound eternal.
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Think oranges apples and sunshine and a road of yesses. Ms. Parks has a voice like an angel riding the wish of all seasons, moods and moments,  traditionally left to poets, painters, to dreamers and lovers. Think Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory of Goldfrapp, meets the silky tones of Marilyn McCoo from the Fifth Dimension and layers of sometimes electric washed tones over bass lines that give the rain fingers.

Guitarist Bryan Aguirre and Katherine Park met through a mutual friend while walking other musical and artistic paths.  Instrument repair, acting, performing jobs… talked about their experiences and influences. Ms. Park says,
I feel the most important musical ingredient for me as a songwriter when collaborating is an incredible bass player,    
Bryan introduced her to his friend and musical collaborator, Tod, who plays with an emotional style she immediately responded to. They realized quick that they needed a drummer, and Tod suggested Kevin. Tod and Kevin knew each other from local practice spaces and San Jose gigs where they both played in various bands.  Getting together felt easy, organic, guided. Katherine remembers her favorite rehearsal spot as ‘ messy and awesome, where the white-haired caretaker Harry smokes weed in the office w/ his friends. Harry's two pristine VW beetles bright as crayons live a couple of inches next to the stage, the afternoon sun comes in through the open garage door.

One day Kevin said, 
You know how you can hear a name of a place, and it becomes so much more than that, like Panther Beach..." And that's how we became Panther Beach.
The power of their music transcends the redemptive frequencies of a keyboard touch screen generation.  High speed and careful bass and guitar solos from Bryan and Tod push the blue in the sky a few light-years further into musical unknown territory… and yet to watch them perform is like watching a puzzle made of dreams come together. Their music resonates with a timeless desire to say hello in new ways on dance floors, on playlists, and in the present moment experience in living color.  

There is a suspended sense of time and place from the careful abandon for romance, evoked from Panther Beach members, led by Ms. Park that is truly an artistic musical experience you cannot download.  Seeing them on stage feels like the moments after the turntable was created.   

So let’s put the needle on the record. Like a beautiful day, instead like kisses behind fingers dancing on the wings of new landscapes in voice, poetry, and rock spilling over in the coolness of being alive… for the first time / in a song in a silence or a shimmie shimmie on Saturday afternoon.  Panther Beach has arrived to take our breaths away.

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