Cig Bros.

Cig Bros., ironically enough, are not smokers. Well, not all of them anyway. The name emerged as the result of an inside joke, a sort of "hey wouldn't it be silly if we called ourselves this," kind of moment that stuck with them. Comprised of four Seattle natives (only one of whom goes to Seattle University), Cig Bros.' sound is unpredictable. One of the band's two main songwriters, guitarist and drummer Michael Beswetherick, says the band intentionally tries to avoid a ho-hum verse-chorus-verse-chorus pattern in their music. Trumpet and synthesizer player Synthia Chious says their sound is "more cute and fun than weird," and they all agree they are not trying to be "experimental." That may be true of their sound, but their lyrics, while cute and fun, certainly approach the surreal. "She parked her seahorse at the foot of the door, is she everything I've been looking for," croons lead singer John O'Connor in the band's new single "Lecture Hall." But you get the sense that what they're saying is perfectly clear to them, and if you stick around long enough you might learn to speak their language. Indeed, the meaning comes through not unlike Lewis Caroll's Jabberwocky. You don't need to know what "decest" means to know what "she's the decest chick in the land," means. This quartet is sure to find a niche at Seattle U if it has not done so already.