On a week when I should be catching up or getting ahead (or at least working on my Middler Evaluation stuff), I've instead gravitated back towards some music I caught onto at the end of summer. I never should have found them in the summertime. The audio matches their visual: an autumnal, crisp squalor; standing in the gap between the fading burn of summer and the coming bleak nip of the winter months.
All that, and these guys are local dudes, used to play with Justin Vernon (now of Bon Iver fame), have some of the greatest and most consistent beards in the business (consistent is key when making this distinction from the Avetts' brilliant but unpredictable facial growth). No better soundtrack for my impromptu tour of the Triangle's coffee shoppes than guys you may see there (or behind the counter). This collection of songs derives most of its beauty from its eclecticism. You get the mellowness of their former bandmate (Bon Iver) and Fleet Foxes, the raucous vibe of the Avetts and Old Crow Medicine Show, and everything in between (including an almost hokey barbershop/gospel quartet sound). They tour alongside of the Bowerbirds and play relentlessly nationally and locally. They are a gem, providing both encouraging background muzak and fuel for further procrastination that provokes my inattentive attention and imagination.
track listing:
1. Bella Marie
2. Kaufman’s Ballad
3. The Fade
4. Impressions of the Past
5. Worried Mind
6. The Process
7. Solid Ground
8. Darkest Hour
9. Gather, Form & Fly
10. Columns
11. The Longest Day
12. Guns
13. Tides
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