The Modern Savage's live shows have a reputation for being anything but bland.
"I don't think we're the kind of band you hear in the back of the bar and you glance at and go back to your beer," said Jenni May Toro, frontwoman for the Anchorage rock quintet.
The goal in recording "Subtle Advances," the band's first full-length album, was to replicate the energy that not only turns heads but riles audiences into a sweaty fervor.
"It's pretty high-energy but there's a sexy element to it too that people get into at shows," said guitarist Matt Eley.
The Modern Savage will bring that sound to the public in live and recorded forms at their release party for "Subtle Advances" this Saturday.
The band was originally formed by Toro and guitarist John Cripps after a band they were in dissolved. Eley came on board along with bassist Ivan Molesky.
"The early formation really took a while," Cripps said. "We were looking for the right people. Bands break up and a lot (of others) are just formed. A lot of musicians are friends with other musicians. We didn't want to go to that pitfall. We wanted to make sure it wasn't just that, (that) it was a whole other thing."
Drummer David Devlin, who cut his teeth playing jazz, was added later to round out the rhythm section. "If he wasn't going to play drums in this band, I was going to hold my breath until I passed out," Molesky joked.
After establishing themselves as a force on the live music scene and recording an EP in just three years of existence, a full-length album was the next logical step. The band began writing songs for the album, with Toro often bringing lyrics to the remaining members for them to build upon.
"That sort of sets the direction," Cripps said. "Sometimes it's a simple idea and we put our flavor to it and formulate it and work it until we're all happy with it."
The band replicated its live sound with the help of producer/engineer James Frazee, who generally insisted on recording the group as a whole and doing less individual tracking.
"He was phenomenal about drawing that out of us and telling us point-blank it sounds more energetic live," Toro said.
The album's opening track, "Filed Teeth," slowly sets a quiet, reticent scene before exploding into a full-on rock assault. It's a sonic ebb and flow that's evident throughout the entire album. "Surrender," the 10th track, is more pop-centric, and a driving rhythm produces a dance club feel.
"It's kind of like our name, modern and savage," Toro said. "We have some things that are harder, more rock 'n' roll than pop. And then we have some things that are lighter and more dancey. I think right now, it's nice we don't have to choose between the two. We're still kind of finding a middle ground, but we're really happy with how eclectic some things are on the album."
The bulk of the album was recorded at Studio 2200 in just three weeks, due in part to what Molesky called "a 12-hour-a-day rock 'n' roll boot camp."
"We all showed up at 8 or 9 in the morning and worked all day," Cripps said. The band finished the album with the help of a Kickstarter campaign, which raised precious funds for production costs.
"The goal was $7,000, which covers for a lot of the costs we didn't already have in the bank for paying for the producer, engineer, studio and reproduction of the album," Eley said.
The band plans to forgo heavy touring, with plans to produce music videos to promote the songs instead.
"We're actually more planning to gear towards doing video because we think the Internet can do a lot, because it is really expensive to tour from Alaska," Toro said. "We do have plans to do something more localized (with touring), a residency somewhere or a more focused Northwest tour eventually."
The Modern Savage album release party
10 p.m. Oct. 11 at Tap Root
with Smile Ease, The Sweeteners and DJ Alex The Lion
$10 advance/$12 door