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Akron/Family
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killingthebuddah.com | Peter BebergalCan a psychedelic rock band conjure real transcendence?On a Wednesday night in an Allston, Massachusetts nightclub, four fellows mostly hirsute, the drummer oddly clean-cut -- are setting up onstage for a gig. I practically used to live in clubs like this, and the only thing missing from the familiar smell of sweat and alcohol is the waft of tobacco, now that Boston law prohibits smoking in bars. I used to do it all, bathing in the odor of a rock club. But tonight, the sickly-sweet smell of marijuana I caught outside irritated me; pot no longer makes my heart race in anticipation. And honestly, I just don't go to shows anymore. It's 10 PM, midweek, and normally I would be in bed. I always feel a little guilty leaving my wife home alone with our son. Once everything is plugged in and tuned, the four band members sit on stools arranged in a kind of semi-circle, evoking the communal sensibility of a prayer group. The set begins with what sounds vaguely Americana, acoustic guitar under a kind of gospel-laden vocal -- a knowing mix of Bob Dylan and Jeff Buckley. Then, as the drummer slowly comes alive......
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Akron/Family | Live Review
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Neumu.com | Jennifer Kellya gorgeous mix of pop melodies, blues-folk guitar and literally anything else the band could get their handsA Psyche-Folk Heat Wave In Western Massachusetts On a mid-July evening in western Massachusetts, the main street is dotted with the detritus of college town life < bars, ice cream vendors, bookstore, comic and record stores. A table of ethnic percussion instruments has been set up in front of a small, unassuming brown church, set back from the sidewalk. This seems odd and out of place in fact, this New England meeting house looks like the sort of place where you might think you could go months or years without hearing a sitar or amp-wracked harmonic, where music might tend toward "How Great Thou Art," and perhaps, if guitars are allowed, an acoustic version of "Amazing Grace." Yet on this muggy, lazy night, Amherst's Unitarian Church has gathered musicians from the outer reaches of the psyche-folk movement for an evening that is strange, moving and intermittently beautiful. The setting is unusual. The church's scallop-shell-shaped stage has a way of sculpting and preserving sounds, so that overtones and undertones sustain themselves over weirdly long intervals. It is, however, recognizably a church......
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Akron/Family
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Slightly Confusing To A Stranger | kalebthinking of you, there's lightning bolts in my chest"thinking of you, there's lightning bolts in my chest" Young God Records, and Michael Gira for that matter, has crafted their own unique corner of "folk(lore)" over the past few years (in the music released and their packaging) and much has been made over Akron/Family, the latest young gods. While Akron/Family feel right at home on this roster of success (Angels of Light, Devendra Banhart), they throw in their very own instrumental ingredients (hear the 'spaceship landing' opening of "Part of Corey") to separate themselves from the immediate family. And Ryan Vanderhoof, the main source of vocals, sings with such a soothing presence you'll likely want to invite him over to get you to sleep on restless evenings. The gentle creek of "things" accompany some tracks (see: "Italy" for many embedded, random sounds.. .spoons maybe? Gira is credited with "change"), as if the band is playing while seated on grandmothers rockers. You will not pick it all up on the first listen (it may take five full rotations) - I even hid this one for about 3 months out of fear of not quite describing it......
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Lisa Germano | Review
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Magnet Magazine | Kenny Berkowitz It's a painful thing of beauty July/August 2005In The Maybe Word (highlighted review)If you're headed towards a desert island and can only take one bitter, depressed, broken hearted multi-instrumentalist, take Lisa Germano. She's a first rate musician who switches between guitar, piano, keyboards, and violin, playing them all with a sharp, brooding intensity. As a writer, there's no one else like her when it comes to crafting barbed, brittle songs of yearning, loneliness and betrayal. Germano is an acquired taste: Even on a good day, she's pretty pissed, and those good days don't come along very often. In the past, she's sunk too deep into self loathing and her albums have been difficult listens. But now, at 48 years old, she's somehow cut a deal with herself. The words still wound, but never fatally, and for all her pain, the melodies have never sounded prettier or her voice more vulnerable. Whether she's wishing she could disappear ("all along I want to go into oblivion") or singing both sides of a lover's quarrel (" Go to hell/Fuck you/I love you/I love you, too") the songs on In The Maybe World have a deadpan, droning resilience, with little more......
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Akron/Family | Live Review
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MetroLand - Albany Alternative Weekly | John Brodeurbeautiful four-part harmonies that were face-melting It’s about 20 minutes to 2 AM. On a Monday. Late. But it doesn’t feel that way, not after what just went down inside the club. The music fans the ones who came to get their heads transformed; the ones who, with patience, got what they were looking for are beginning to file out of the old White Tower, the last notes of Akron/Family’s fine set having dissipated only moments ago. Try finding a complaint around here right now. It just won’t happen. On the self-titled record by the peculiarly named Brooklyn quartet, the spirits of Nick Drake and Syd Barrett inhabit moderners like Idaho and the Flaming Lips. Medicine-mouthed folk tunes are interrupted by white noise and synthesizer bleats; really well-miked wind chimes trample over spacey sound effects and slo-mo jams. It’s among the more promising recordings released this year, but would their live set be worth waiting for through a multiband endurance test on a Monday night? The run-up made that a tough call. The noodlescapes of Matt Valentine, Erika Elder and Samara Lubelski meandered on and on under a din of air-conditioner noise and......