CD: Misra Records, Amazon
Digital: Amazon, eMusic
The Band: David Bentley, Matthew Brown, Joseph Marrett, Eric Meyer, Brian Rutledge, Ryan Walsh
Guests: Evan Sicuranza, David Michael Curry, Lilian Belknap, Derek Mueller, Deirdre Ilkson
The band's ensemble structure (cello, trumpet, and melodica) and learned lyricism echoes the stage-packing sounds of Arcade Fire, Danielson, Bright Eyes, and Decemberists, while its shambolic, maximalist barroom aura recalls Robert Pollard, another songwriter infrequently at a loss for words.
There’s something intimate about this album — it feels as if you’re in a room with these guys, and they laugh at your jokes, and they play a few songs, and you applaud, then you all go out and get drunk together.
It's the sound of music without limits, made by a band reveling in its own vast creative potential and the cumulative collision of its early influences.