Following their EP ‘East’ from last year, Seattle group The Trouble Starts are continuing their way around the globe with the aptly-titled follow-up ‘WEST’. For those of you who missed out on their post-rock influenced majesty before, then this teasing little glimpse into their world should have you wanting to investigate further. Check out ‘Faulkner’.

The Trouble Starts, a post-punk band from Seattle, returns with part two of their planned two EP release. Having released part 1, “East” back in August of 2013 they will be releasing part two entitled “West” on February 25th, putting six months between releases. Beginning with “Faulkner” the five-song EP gets off to a roaring… Read more »

An early ’90s alt-rock affair opens up this EP (EAST), and from there you get shards of grunge, punk, garage rock and modern day indie-rock from the Seattle luminaries. Guitar driven rock at its finest, the songs are introspective, detailed, sonically charged, and also contain a near post-rock beauty… At six tracks, this ends entirely… Read more »

There’s confidence and then there’s opening an album with an extended guitar solo confidence. The latter reeks of false bravado, but Seattle’s the Trouble Starts manages to pull it off without coming off as insufferable on East, the group’s new EP. In fact, a sense of subtlety pervades across the six songs and their mixed palate… Read more »

“Glaciers,” the first single off the new effort (EAST), is a great example of power pop-influenced rock that bears a slight resemblance to Brand New and quite a few others but more anthemic. I can picture kids shouting along to the vocalist, Daniel G. Harmann in a sweaty, downtown club.

Our Seattle heroes (THE TROUBLE STARTS) start off with ’90s alt-rock guitars that channels the best moments of Dinosaur Jr., but then dips into cautious, moody almost early Radiohead territory. Further on things get less charged but the balance of power and melody is still intact with nice segues into their post-punk influences that also… Read more »

This tuneful indie-rock four-piece (THE TROUBLE STARTS), led by Daniel G. Harmann, with roots in guitar bands like Built to Spill more than in the retro-folk of Fleet Foxes, could just as easily be from London as from Seattle—combining hooks with melancholy, like Mark Kozelek fronting Snow Patrol. Call it rock music for grey skies.

This latest EP from Seattle veterans The Trouble Starts is a multi-faceted compilation. Generally falling under the indie-rock banner, they begin with the release’s focal point, ‘Glaciers’. Combining some J Mascis guitars with a host of other alt-rock heroes’ influences, it’s a good choice for an opener, being an immediate attention-grabber. The backing vocals give… Read more »

As the Seattle area is the birthplace of grunge music, The Trouble Starts incorporates some of that raw, powerful guitar energy into their new album (EAST), beginning with “Glaciers” …a polished, garage rock sound like Radiohead, without all the experimentation. The Trouble Starts has a great straight-up rock sound with a hint of British punk… Read more »

“Harmann sometimes sounds like he’s throwing his vocals from some ethereal fog. But his music makes that work. This jumble of indie rock attitude and tight craftsmanship is quite appealing. There is still a piece of me that wishes he’d put a little more oomph in the singing, but the muscular lines in the songs… Read more »

“Seattle’s Daniel G. Harmann may primarily be a solo artist, but in recent years he has decided to expand his sound a bit and work with a full band. His backing band, called The Trouble Starts, provide a much fuller sound than before and enhance the mixture of styles that Harmann has chosen to utilize…. Read more »

“Daniel G. Harmann & The Trouble Starts is the result of collaboration between long time soloist Dan Harmann and his new supporting band, The Trouble Starts. Unbeknown to me, Mr. Harmann has been around for a while now, with his latest album, Risk, serving as his sixth studio effort. He fits somewhere in the realm… Read more »

“On his sixth (!!!) album, Daniel G. Harmann took a few stylistic chances, most of which pay off. With an album title so on-the-nose it’s almost ridiculous, Risk finds the singer/songwriter backed by the Trouble Starts, who add a slight influx of muscle to his melancholy tunes. The songs are still ethereal and folky in… Read more »

After just one listen, it’s easy to see Daniel G. Harmann & the Trouble Starts shows oodles and oodles of promise. The band’s new album, Risk, isn’t necessarily a risk, even if the lyrics reflect risky behavior or the desire to take some chances. Really it’s a beautifully composed album that’s perfect in many ways… Read more »

“What started out so long ago as the solo voice our community termed ‘rainy-day makeout music’ has grown into a four person band that has managed to take those heartbreaking songs and give them the context of a vast soundscape of buzzing guitars and rumbling drums. The band will be celebrating its upcoming debut, Risk,… Read more »

“Although usually a solo artist, on ‘Risk,’ Daniel G. Harmann’s 6th release, he pulled in The Trouble Starts to help him cultivate this disc that was recorded live over 5 days which Harmann describes as ‘big songs you dream about making and playing to lots of people’. Using vivid imagery, Harmann’s songs here detail personal… Read more »

“The band has crafted an album (RISK) that is difficult to pigeonhole as it lives and breathes at two separate corners only to meet somewhere perfectly in the middle between the elegant and the abrasive… On ‘Risk’, Harmann and his band have created an intriguing collection of working class art rock with a full, sweeping… Read more »

“Went out to Comet last night to see Daniel G. Harmann and the Trouble Starts and was a little blown away with how busy the Capital Hill Club District was. People everywhere, tons of street peddlers, a gigantic dodge ball game at the park and plenty of crazies. We even ran into some friends from… Read more »

“For Risk, his sixth album, Seattle’s Daniel G. Harmann has beefed up his sound with The Trouble Starts. Harmann describes the new album as a collection of ‘Big songs you dream about making and playing to lots of people.’ The album was recorded live over five days at Electrokitty Studios with Long Winters bassist Eric… Read more »

WHAT: By himself, Daniel G. Harmann is a folksy troubadour with a delightfully laconic voice and a penchant for heartbreaking melodies. With a band, he’s still a heartbreaker but with a full-bodied, sweeping consonance underlining his bittersweet poetry. The Trouble Starts includes Forrest Haskell (bass), Ozo Jaculewicz (guitar) and Shea Bliss (drums). SOLO VS. BAND:… Read more »

“What freezes you about Daniel G. Harmann’s music is the expanse. A quietly loud expanse. It scans across a highway bridge at night. Someone driving realizes the perfectness of hands. Harmann cuts from quiet and clean to loud and distorted with a crafted sense of timing. When he gets loud, it’s more a movement to… Read more »

“Over the last several years and releases, Daniel G. Harmann has collaborated with many fine musicians including Head Like A Kite’s Trent Moorman and beloved songstress Rosie Thomas to name a few. There are few signs more indicative of talent than bringing in other talent. Most striking is Harmann’s sweet falsetto and backing melodies, which… Read more »

“At first blush, your expectations are quite low for Daniel G. Harmann’s eleven-song Anthems from the Gentle War; on a label never heard of, ok album design, and the simple fact that very few acts with someone’s name as the moniker are any good. Yet, after you progress past the opening number “I Swallowed Twelve… Read more »

“The second full-length release from Phoenix native & current Seattleite Daniel G. Harmann goes on to follow the same blueprint that he has followed his entire career: just be patient, and good things will happen eventually. They do, as is made clear on “A Dying Dove”, which recalls Radiohead, if that band were willing to… Read more »

“This album is full of musical landscapes that are lush, sincere, and diverse. He’s a singer-songwriter, but one who writes songs with a larger palette of emotions than most songwriters. This is the kind of album that would be perfect to listen to if you were taking a relaxing drive around the countryside, wanting to… Read more »

“Beautifully woven atmospheres and crafty textures of sonic bliss greet the ear immediately as Anthems from the Gentle War waves its way over your body, lending a sensation not much unlike the best orgasm ever. Art rock that is unafraid of taking challenges to heart, “Anthems…” escorts you through the hallways of indie pop, rock,… Read more »

“Stuffing Daniel G. Harmann into the emo/indie genre would be a slap in the face to this compassionate artist. Just as heartfelt as rhythms from New Order, Daniel G. Harmann is a solo man that makes his music out of pure honesty. Harmann’s voice quivers with the melodies of his songs. In “A Dying Dove”… Read more »

“The problem is getting past the first impressions — the plodding monotonous rhythms (a la Red House Painters), the mossy falsetto that becomes easy to ignore after the first few songs, the chiming, echo-filled guitars that show an adoration for shoe-gazers. It’d be easy to discard it as not tuneful enough, but downbeat hey-look-at-me anthems… Read more »

“Ambitious rock and roll. Harmann has a fine sense of melody, and part of that sense is to emphasize melody over rhythm. His guitar lines, in particular, ring out with almost impossible clarity. His traditional songwriting style (anthemic; that part of the title isn’t ironic) probably informs that part of the mix, but it’s effective… Read more »

“This is a lovely, lilting record, but to call them songs isn’t accurate. For his fourth studio album, Seattleite Daniel G. Harmann has crafted nine lush dreamscapes that plod along in a slow and midtempo trance. Track to track, the playbook doesn’t change much: twinkling guitars, melancholy minor chords, distant vocals that — regardless of… Read more »

“Daniel G. Harmann’s songs drift and ache, sad but uplifting. I’d say they’re brave, but they’re more subdued than that. Feels like fall. His latest release, Anthems from the Gentle War, came out September 4th and was recorded at Recovery Room Studio in Greenwood. If the Cure were from the South, they’d sound like Harmann…. Read more »

“Do not miss out on this beautiful piece of art. This album definitely will be on my best of 2007 list.“ – IndependentClauses.com

“Quietly Beautiful.” – Hannah Levin, the Stranger

“Sometimes pathos is unbridled and relentless, something dangerous and out of control that scares us. Try as we might to look away, we can’t. Other times it’s fragile, something slow and soft that breaks us more like a virus and less like a hurricane. Over the past week, I’ve been listening to the Lake Effect… Read more »

“The clouds on the cover of Daniel’s second full length say it all: this is a thoughtful album of delicate melancholy. Each of the ten songs is a portrait of intimacy as DGH croons his personal observations and notes on life/living taken from the pages of his heart. To flush out the sound, Daniel enlisted… Read more »

“I think it’s fall. I think it’s sweater weather, even though its on the cusp of 70 degrees right now. I think its one of those days where I should lock myself in my room and gaze out the window at leaves falling from the trees. I listen to Daniel G. Harmann’s The Lake Effect,… Read more »

“Big music–you know, crashing chords, warped string arrangements, breathy vocals, etc. This could be pretentious and dull, but Harmann’s energy is unflagging. He never fails to give a song the last bit of gas in his tank, and that’s what sells this for me.” – Aiding & Abetting

“…Brimming with wistful songs that address disappointments and farewells… Harmann writes wonderful songs where aching melody and minimalist structure provide a sturdy platform for his plaintive voice. At times Harmann’s vocals recall a young Art Garfunkel or the late Elliott Smith.” – the Oregonian

“The Lake Effect grabs a lock of your hair and teases you willingly through the lush valleys of sonic bliss with its atmospheric soundscapes. Not often does an album waltz through and demand to be noticed in such a subtle way… Indeed [it] will ripple through you and unlike a skipping stone won’t eventually sink… Read more »

“Seattle shoegazer Daniel G. Harmann waxes sentimental over simple acoustic rock guitar. Backed by cinematic keyboard hazes and lullabies, this plaintive, high-pitched singer measures pitfalls while hanging onto a thread of hope.” – Michele Myers, KEXP

“There’s a lot to be said about self indulgent music. It’s honest. It’s unpretentious. It’s appealing to the ears, mind and soul. Daniel G. Harmann recorded his solo debut of a musical diary in quite an impressive manor. Beautiful, simple, powerful. Based around himself and a guitar, these songs have minimalist lyrics and structure. There… Read more »