![]() ![]() ![]() Shortly after the Huron show, I hit the HypeMachine showcase to catch Phosphorescent, a band that has fared better among indie tastemakers. The band commandeers various virtues of the Shins and the Foxes, yes, but with an undeniable voice of its own-and a very welcoming one indeed. Drummer Mark Barry fixes a tambourine above his hi-hat (a smart technique and one I’m surprised more percussionists don’t use) and tends to lean in when he’s layering beats within beats on the toms with a pair of mallets. On slow-jams “Ghost on the Shore” and “In the Wind,” the band stretched its legs without ever noodling, the guitars urging each other up the fretboard and twining into a wail as plaintive and memorable as Schneider’s own stratospheric voice. Fellow axe men Tom Renaud and Karl Kerfoot are capable of the hard-grind sonic breakdown one expects from Wilco, but they also create upper-register textures so rich that there’s no need for organ-the band doesn’t have one. But Schneider’s band is so good that his occasionally inscrutable lyrics about the splendors of nature, etc., come off as a conscious counterpoint to the very electric propulsion of the music. ![]() Yes, the Foxy touches are undeniable: slow, incremental guitar melodies that sound like Aaron Copland lost in the forest, and soaring, reverbed vocal harmonies that belong in a cathedral. That, at any rate, was the reassuring sense I got at last night’s show. What’s so annoying about the hyper-referential haters is that they rarely consider the possibility that perhaps frontman/founder Ben Schneider is drawing not on Robin Pecknold or Jim James, but on a plenty worthy muse of his own. Pitchfork damned Lonesome Dreams, the group’s 2012 debut, with whisperingly faint praise, invoking the Foxes (and My Morning Jacket) wherever possible and rating the record a glum 5.6/10. Also, I have now basically seen Fleet Foxes #twobirds #SXSW.” What I didn’t realize then was just how bluntly the comparison had been used to bludgeon the band into spinoff status. "The totality of the experience was like being on hand for a combination drum circle, chamber performance, and Calypso street party," wrote LA Weekly.Some of the larger shows the band has performed at include Lollapalooza (2011) and Outside Lands (2011), as well as a marathon ten shows in four days at the SXSW (2011) music festival.I owe Lord Huron a partial apology: During the band’s grandiose, enveloping set at the Austin City Limits Moody Theater yesterday I dropped a lazy tweet: “Entrancing performance from Lord Huron at ACL Theater. Pop & Hiss, the LA Times Music Blog, described Mighty as "full of lush acoustic guitars and Midwestern-accented harmonies as warm as a winter fireplace, but it's the Caribbean-influenced percussion that fans Lord Huron's folk sound into flame,"and Pitchfork could only classify it as "a stylistic superball, bouncing off any wall you put around it." NPR's World Cafe wrote "the band's lush harmonies are backed by a hazy whirlpool of polyrhythmic tropical drums and folk guitars."ĭespite the fact that Schneider played all of the instruments on both EPs, he has gathered a band for live performances, which have also gotten positive reviews. Lord Huron released two EPs in 2010, Into the Sun and Mighty. Each of the band members of band hail from Michigan. The first to join him was his percussion-playing childhood friend Mark. Upon his return to L.A., Schneider set to work putting a band together. At Lake Huron, he developed songs for the first Lord Huron EP. In the spring of 2010 Schneider traveled from Los Angeles to Northern Michigan. Read Full Bio Lord Huron is an American indie band founded by Ben Schneider, a Michigan-born visual arts major. ![]() Lord Huron is an American indie band founded by Ben Schneider, a Michigan-born visual arts major. ![]()
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