Forty Feet Tall

Childhood friends Cole Gann (lead singer/guitar) and Jack Sehres (guitar) started Forty Feet Tall as Los Angeles teens. Influenced by grunge, post-punk and alternative rock, their hard-edged, expansive sound and high-energy performances scored them slots at venues including the Troubadour, Roxy and the Whiskey. Bass player Brett Marquette joined in 2017; later, drummer Ian Kelley solidified the quartet’s formidable rhythm section. Forty Feet Tall released a self-titled album in 2014, followed by the Red Dressed EP. Yet the band’s new material, recorded with Portland polymath Cameron Spies (Radiation City, Night Heron), eclipses their previous accomplishments. Songs like “BOIL” and “Can’t Go Back To Normal” abound with ideas, yet stay sharply focused, a la Archers of Loaf, the Killers, Pavement, or Pixies. But the biggest buzz around the band is its live show; gigs routinely climax with incendiary showstoppers that find Cole tangled up in mic cords or diving into the crowd. But their outrage is anchored in hope, and a drive to do better. Their memorable music may sound loud and confrontational, but the community they’ve built around it resonates with positivity.