Seraphina Lotkhamnga on July 18th, 2013

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Chris Karman is a self-proclaimed music geek. If you go to the Facebook page for his band, Historian, every post is prefaced by a random musical fact. The moniker is appropriate considering his nature as a walking music encyclopedia, but Karman’s music is also carefully layered with each piece of info he’s indulged in. There are traces of his former space rock quintet Outer 7^th, but Historian’s forthcoming debut “Shelf Life” focuses on the life that transpires with each tier of sound carefully composed on top of one another. Tracks like “The Letter” begin with pin-point instrumentation until his wandering vocals come in to play with the whirlwind of heavy guitar and dynamic drumming from Augustus Green (Thurlow). It’s all peculiarly dissonant, but even with warped melodies and fuzzy reverb, Historian’s music still aims to do the most important thing – tell you a story. Historian’s “Shelf Life” is slated for a Sept. 17 release via Gazelle Recordings.

||| Stream: “The Letter”

||| Watch: Check out the Leslie Andrew Riding-directed video for the track after the jump.

||| Live: Historian plays Saturday at Casey’s Pub with Hobart W Fink, Habits and Brown and Blue.