The Blakes didn’t have a big fat trust fund or rich patrons who paid for expensive lessons or rented out venues so they could build up a fan base. The Seattle band rocked it the old fashion way with lots of rehearsing and touring.



The band has been together for eight years, which is in itself an accomplishment. The Blakes are Garnet Keim (guitar and vocals), Snow Keim (bass and vocals) and Bob Husak (drums).



Garnet and Snow are brothers who named the band after an artist.



“My brother and I were living in Los Angeles, and they were doing a giant William Blake exhibit at the Huntington Library, which we checked out,” explains their MySpace page. “A few months later we had this opportunity to record, and Garnet had a dream that we would be The Blakes. If you know about Blake, you know how important music and dreams are.”



Husak says they get shoved in a room with The Beatles, The Stones, The Kinks, The Who and The Strokes, but his favorite comparison is The Kinks.

The music is highly touted by local music fans, and there is great expectation for a break-though to national status.



“I think most bands’ biggest problem by far is songwriting, followed by vocals,” explains Husak. “We work hard on both of these things, and we try to keep the music interesting without being too cluttered and hard to follow. Keep it simple, stupid. Having good simple songs is interesting because it doesn’t seem like very many bands have them.”

The band recently signed with record label Light In The Attic. Their music is on regular rotation on KEXP 90.3 FM and other indie stations throughout the nation.



The Blakes join Paris Spleen, Captain Incognito and Victory Smokes on Friday at the Alano Club. — Angela Jossy



[Alano Club, 7 p.m., all ages, $6, 17th and Market, Tacoma, www.myspace.com/thealanoclub]