The (Local) Fresh Five: Verdin Brothers, Larry Wish, thank you, i’m sorry, Shiloh, Forever, and Burning Peasant
For the Fresh Five we pick out five great new(ish) jams that we’re currently obsessing over. All of these songs come from local (Minnesota) bands/artists.
Though at Reviler we’ve been trying to tune into the local music scene for going on 15 years now, it still happens all the time that you hear about a local band that is great and has also somehow been around for years without your noticing. Verdin Brothers are a trio of actual (?) brothers consisting of Andrew, Mark, and Peter Verdin. They play a singular style of Americana that combines primitive and psychedelic influences utilizing fingerpicked guitar, hammered dulcimer, upright bass and field recordings. The brothers Verdin recently released a new EP Arcana and it’s just stunning. No firm live shows listed currently but we’ll be watching.
One of our favorite local experimental music weirdos is back! Larry Wish (the brainchild of Adam Wish-Werven) have been around long enough and are so prolific that you start to take for granted just how great they are. The new record The Mind is the Builder will be released on 4/5 and it sounds like quite the undertaking. Featuring contributions from over twenty local musicians, Wish-Werven says that the new work will focus on more serious themes of “love & kindness, consciousness, and reflection” (though it’s probably pretty reasonable to expect that the band will also stay true to its off-kilter funhouse pop aesthetic as well, especially as evidenced by the first couple songs available.
We’re a few weeks late in terms of their record release show, but recently caught up on local quartet thank you, i’m sorry’s latest EP Repeating Threes. The new songs aren’t a huge departure from past work, further refining and maturing the band’s excellent emo/indie rock approach. the genre generally isn’t my jam so it probably says something about how great these guys are that I am digging the EP this hard. Give it a listen.
Shiloh Forever is the project of local musician Matt Roers (recently returned after a stint on the East Coast). I’ve only heard this one tune of his so far but based on “The Man After Dark” I am definitely interested in hearing more. It’s a soft-focus take on rock/folk that has a very dreamy, almost lulluby-esque vibe. We’ll be looking to hear more from Roers (hopefully soon).
Burning Peasant are a four piece indie folk pop band out of Saint Paul. Consisting of Ilya Garelik, Mariah McMahon, Brian Carlson and Kevin Florenzano, BP combine guitar, bass, synth, and drum machine to make hazy, introspective music. Their new music video for “Sunset Wheat” just dropped today.
