The debut disc, Bottles and Bones, is the culmination of guitarist/songwriter Fortin’s search for like-minded performers and his success found in Jon Assam, a singer-songwriter who fits with Fortin and generates manic energy with the best of them. Produced and recorded by Noah Cole, Sean Morin’s collaborator on Daro, the album actually shares more sounds with Morin’s full-time gig, Cambiata, than it does with that warm alt-country effort, with touches like tortured talking behind impassioned vocals that just about push you aside with their bulging neck muscles.
The band, rounded out by guitarist Glen Capen, bassist Jason Elvin, and drummer Aaron Lachance, never quite let you get comfortable, with the guitars buzzing around each other and never settling into anything purely rock or pop, and the drums firing out snares and cymbals just when you’re getting settled.
There is passion here, and art, and a mind toward the progressive, though the raw sounds are in many ways the polar opposite of prog-rock’s structured underpinnings. There’s a raw nerve present that’s attractive and a reminder to keep listening for new things and to never be satisfied.
~The Phoenix
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