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Laura Leebove is a Brooklyn-based music journalist whose writing has appeared in various publications including Billboard, Spinner.com, Venus Zine, Critical Mob...more »

03.05.11

Indie-folk frontmen have a blast outside of the spotlight

2011 | Label: Partisan Records

The middle child is typically not the one who gets the attention. It's fitting, then, that this indie-folk supergroup of sorts — comprised of Delta Spirit's Matt Vasquez, Deer Tick's John McCauley and Dawes's Taylor Goldsmith — call themselves Middle Brother. On their first outing together, the three frontmen are careful not to upstage each other.

Middle Brother's self-titled debut is more or less exactly what you'd expect if you've ever heard any of the members' regular outfits: acoustic guitars, twangy harmonies and southern-rock romps. Some of the best moments come from high energy and a sense of humor ("Middle Brother," "Me Me Me") and soulful, '60s-girl group "ooohs and "aahs" ("Someday"). While the sounds might not be a drastic change from their normal gigs, there's no doubt that these guys are having a total blast when they aren't always in the spotlight.

folk of monsters

A more fully realized and visceral effort than The Monsters of Folk experiment. There's some Gram Parsons here ("Middle Brother"), as well as other great ghostly voices culled from the grave (try John Lennon, "Theater"; or Crosby, Stills and Nash, "Million Dollar Bill"), and you'll swear "Someday" (Janis Joplin?) is a long lost soul cut from the Jerry Wexler archives. The arrangements are so simple they're almost forgettable, but that leaves even more room for the salt-dusty-grain of John J. McCauley III's soulful voice. He's a could sing the phonebook kind of singer. But his voice is closer to the folk origins and characters alluded to in Greil Marcus' "The Old, Weird America: The World of Dylan's Basement Tapes." It's a voice like that of Howlin' Wolf, who Sam Phillips describe as the place "where the soul of man, never dies."Taylor Goldsmith's plaintive approach and thoughtful songwriting provide a nice balance (see "Thanks for Nothing") and sprinkles a bit of Elvis Costello grit.

Really enjoying this one!

I've been a big, big fan of Delta Spirit for a couple of years... especially aftering seeing them live last year. And, while I enjoy Matt Vasquez's songs on this album the best, I don't skip any of the tracks. It grows on you. I've been through it about ten times, and it just keeps getting better.