Words: Scott Harrell

The unsigned-band grind is traditionally pretty rote. You get some friends together. You write some songs. You bash 'em out as quickly as you can in whatever studio/friend's spare bedroom you can afford. Then you get in the van and drive until A) you attract the attention of someone who can properly distribute your material, or B) you get sick of it and either parlay your self-taught computer skills into a job or take up your Pops' offer of a warehouse gig with the family business.

That's all fine and good for vagabond twentysomethings and reincarnated pirates. But some folks are still driven to create music – and have it heard beyond their hometown – long after things like family and career become more of a priority than getting scabies from a friend's carpet after playing to 14 drunks in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

“The reality of it is, I'm 37, we're all about that age,” says Edwin Paroissien, guitarist/vocalist for Portland, Oregon's Little Beirut. “I've got two kids and a wife and a job ... we can't pack everything into a van and tour the country. In a way I wouldn't want to, I've done a bit of that and I'm not exactly there at this point. But we're also sort of bummed. We have a sense that if we could get around and play, we really could get somewhere with this.”

Paroissien and singer/guitarist Hamilton Sims have already gone that route. The two met while attending New Orleans' Tulane University; after relocating to Portland, their band Silkenseed worked the indie circuit to acclaim and major-label interest. When things didn't pan out, however, Sims headed east for graduate school.

“He had in his mind that if he hadn't 'made it' in music by a certain time, he'd go to medical school,” Paroissien says.

But neither friend ever lost the desire to play. They began collaborating immediately upon Sims' return, crafting the songs that would ultimately become Permanent Kiss, the duo's coming-out as Little Beirut. With the eventual addition of drummer Alex Inman and bassist Jonathan Trause (both found through Craigslist.com, making Little Beirut perhaps the first group in history to come together successfully through online classifieds), they attained actual-band status and began methodical preproduction for what Paroissien calls their “commercial debut.”

The resulting full-length, High Dive, is a lush, finely wrought collection of  atmospheric modern-rock tunes whose extraordinary details and orchestration never overshadow their hooks and occasional muscular bite. Since its emergence in early spring, the CD has garnered positive reviews in a swath of media that's astounding for a self-released disc, bolstering the group's faith in the idea that the traditional unsigned-band grind is no longer the only way to get the word out on music that truly deserves to be heard.

“In the digital age, you can actually get your name out there pretty far and wide just sitting in your basement,” says Paroissien. “We're serious about our craft, and dedicated to trying to make something happen with this.”

littlebeirut.com