Unlocked: Katie Frank’s “False Alarm,” then and now

The first time I saw Katie Frank, it was very simply just Katie Frank. The BITBY crew sent me a black and white video they shot of her strumming an acoustic guitar after dark one summer evening in “a dirty backyard in south Philly.” The song she plays is “False Alarm” – the track that opens Counting Your Curses, the new album from Katie Frank and the Pheromones that we’re spotlighting all week on Unlocked.

Frank wasted no time in ditching the solo acoustic persona. She got together guest players for her debut EP, Covered Bridge Road, and many of those players remained to form her band. “False Alarm” as The Pheromones play it is pounding and urgent, built around a hammering kickdrum, accented with touches of pedal steel and punctuated with Frank’s unbridled vocal on the refrain.

In the early BITBY video, the song is there, but in skeletal form. It’s  hushed and sensitive, like she’s trying to reason with someone through whispers. In the album version, she puts her foot down. Check out the growth of “False Alarm” below by comparing the BITBY video to the recorded version on Counting Your Curses.

Counting Your Curses is the featured album in this week’s edition of Unlocked. Download “Halfway Gone” in Monday’s post, read Tuesday’s album review and check back the rest of the week for an interview and more.