THURSDAY: Falcon Arrow
It’s been over a year and a half since post-rock duo Falcon Arrow released their debut album Axehandle Hound, and listening back to it so much later, you can definitely tell that the guys were on to something. Whereas that record was a little gritty and a little less polished, their new Anti-Matter finds them really honing in on their style. It’s clean, explosive, and, at a basic level, awesome. “Rom & Moogie” is a great way to start this album off, almost as if Matt Reints and Dav Kemp are reintroducing themselves to the community. And they also deserve a hat-tip for making post-rock sound so dynamic. Whereas many bands get lost in the same ol’ routine, Falcon Arrow really is giving a fitting ode to their predecessors like Do Make Say Think. Consistently on tour, it’s a welcome surprise on my desk to see this second record getting made considering the amount of time Reints and Kemp have been away. [Local Current, 10/12]
Recommended If You Like:
Paragraphs, Because of Ghosts, Do Make Say Think, Big Black, Gustov Holst, Equus, Cam Butler
FRIDAY: Damien Jurado
“Do not disturb me, let me be,” Damien Jurado sings in quiet resignation over a gently-plucked guitar on penultimate track Silver Joy. It’s these pit-stops of brilliant clarity scattered through the existential fugue which have defined his past three albums – records of transient beauty. With each Richard Swift-produced release, Jurado climbs further into the rabbit hole, becoming bolder with his musical choices, more attached to his themes and detached from his past. […] These past three records have found him chasing himself around his own head, musically and thematically. And on Brothers and Sisters… the textured production, layers of echo and oases of ethereal beauty frame Jurado the dreamer, the paranoiac and the stray in glorious Technicolor. [Finbarr Bermingham, The Slant (10.0)]
Recommended If You Like:
Mark Kozalek, Pedro The Lion, Phosphorescent, Denison Witmer, David Bazan, Jason Molina, A.A. Bondy
SATURDAY: We Are The Willows | Joey Ryan & The Inks | Fort Wilson Riot
As they tumble out of the back of a maroon minivan into clubs, bars, living rooms and festivals across America, Fort Wilson Riot are liable to become a favorite local band, no matter where you live. Splitting their time between unstoppable touring and incessant recording, the Minneapolis-based duo of Amy Hager and Jacob Mullis have no shortness of ambition.
For ordinary guys, Joey Ryan & The Inks have a habit of making extraordinary music. Over the past five years, Joey Ryan, brothers Matt and Chris Mitchell, Ryan Mach, and Tim Dickson have solidified their place on local airwaves and stages and as the go-to band for catchy pop tunes with ’60s sunshine beats, with slivers of doo-wop on top of smart instrumental progression, topped by Ryan’s crystal-clear, bittersweet vocals.
We Are The Willows is an Orchestral-Indie-Rock band from Minneapolis, MN that writes simple songs that take musical hints from folk/pop singer/songwriters like Bob Dylan, Randy Newman, and Paul Simon that leave room for exaggerations and embellishments that may nod to contemporary indie rock bands like Grandaddy, Sigur Ros, and Sufjan Stevens. [89.3 The Current]
Recommended If You Like:
Halloween Alaska, The Daredevil Christopher Wright, The Heavenly States, Eulogies, Rufus Wainwright
