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“Although the members of Blanket Music live in Portland Ore., their hearts can be found on the southern coast of Spain. Or any other summery locale where the atmosphere is as carefree as the gentle bossa fueled rhythms found on the bands inviting sophomore album. You'll be ready for a holiday after listening the whimsical, unhurried "Costa Del Sol..." – Magnet

Move was perhaps marginalized as a novelty album; a stylized album for the “theme” cocktail party one may imagine hosting, but never getting around to. It’s a bummer, because Move featured the closest thing to a single Blanket Music had yet to release with “Hips”, and arguably there was more fusion at work, more a blanketing of Latin and pop idioms, than flash in the pan mimicry. It was that damn Parasol.

Dispensing with female backup singers, eschewing Latin music altogether, and replacing guitar leads with keyboards, the lineup at present is a leaner, meaner four piece. Chad Crouch assumes writing, lead vocal and rhythm guitar (he also operates Portland’s HUSH imprint); Greg Lind is the only other original member, a friendship harkening back to middle school in the Portland suburbs; Mike Johnson (Reclinerland) plays a Fender Rhodes keyboard; and Dave Depper is the new young Turk bass player. They practice in the basement once a week, in a good month. They play infrequent live shows. They have fun.

In May of 2004 the band spent two days tracking 16 songs at The Type Foundry (with Adam Selzer) studio for a new album. The songs were essentially recorded live to 1” tape in one day, with little separation, in a big wood room. Lead vocals were overdubbed on the second day and dumped to digital. Auxillary players were brought in to record on Crouch’s Powerbook. The finished tracks were mixed back at the Type foundry, through the board.

Voila: Cultural Norms. Once again, Blanket Music have made themselves vulnerable with their penchant for blanketing. Here we have R&B, Soul, and indiepop idioms blanketed with quintessentially American first-person narratives. Taking a lesson from Move, the cover artwork for Cultural Norms is a veritable Where’s Waldo of cultural icons leading the viewer/listener to make the complex and variable associations (we hope) one tends to associate with great works, classic works. Not cocktail parasols