The Avett Brothers
I And Love And You
Released September 29th on American Recordings
This band grew from a side project consisting of brothers Seth and Scott Avett, of the rock band, Nemo. During Nemo’s downtime, Scott began experimenting with acoustic music, thus launching what was known as the Back Porch Project, or Nemo Downstairs. It first started off with some friends of Scott, with his brother joining in soon after. They later brought in upright-bass player, Bob Crawford, of the Memphis Quick 50, and the rest was history. The Avett Brothers are often joined by a full backing band in the studio and on the road, which includes cellist Joe Kwon.
They combine many styles of music like bluegrass, country, folk, pop, punk and ragtime, which has often been referred to as “indie roots”, “folk-punk” or “grungegrass.” The San Francisco Chronicle describes their sound as “the heavy sadness of Townes Van Zandt, the light pop concision of Buddy Holly, the tuneful jangle of the Beatles and the raw energy of the Ramones.” They’re typically viewed as a “live band”, with their soulful three-part harmonies, intense energy and Southern rock feel.
Although they’ve only been playing for about nine years, they have quite a bit in their discography. Thirteen releases in all, which also includes two live albums and an EP, while their last three releases have made the US charts. They’ve worked and toured alongside several other artists like the Dave Matthews Band, Widespread Panic, Wilco and My Morning Jacket, as well as having some television appearances on David Letterman and Craig Ferguson, and a song featured in the television series Friday Night Lights. They’ve also hit the festival circuit heavy the past few years, with appearances at Bonnaroo, Austin City Limits, Outside Lands, Newport Folk, South by Southwest, MerleFest and Forecastle. In 2007, they won a couple of awards like the Americana Music Association’s Group of the Year and New Emerging Artist of the Year.
Their latest release is entitled, I and Love and You, which peaked at #16 on the Billboard charts. I was really quite surprised with the sounds I was hearing the first time I listened to this album. I think I went in expecting more of an old-timey bluegrass sound, and not as much piano-driven, drum pounding, pop-rock. Most of the songs on this album follow pop-rock song structures and sounds, while there is really only just one that really shows that old-timey feel I was expecting (“January Wedding”). Even with the use all those old-timey Americana and bluegrass instruments (acoustic guitar, banjo, violin), they manage to create a sound that can bring together fans of many styles of music.
Most of the songs seem to be driven by the piano and drums (“I and Love and You”, “And It Spread”, “It Goes On and On”), which is perhaps the biggest shocker I think, but all of these styles mashed together works too incredibly well, there’s just not a song on this album that isn’t solid. I was expecting to get a lot more in the vocal harmonies department, as there are only a few tracks on here that really represent that well (“Ten Thousand Words”, “Laundry Room”, “Ill With Want”). There are even a couple heavier songs on the album, like “Slight Figure of Speech”, and a Bowie-like influenced “Kick Drum Heart.” At times throughout listening to this record, I often pictured this is what it might be like had Ben Folds (minus the quirkiness) teamed up with someone like Old Crow Medicine Show or Yonder Mountain String Band.
This album is already a lock for my twenty best of the year, but should it happen to creep into my top ten, I wouldn’t be surprised at all. Have a listen to the title track below, a song which sounds like a single, a song that starts the album off strong.
Other Artists I’d Recommend: Old Crow Medicine Show, Langhorne Slim, The Everybodyfields