Biography Wikipedia
from Wikipedia:
Frontier Ruckus is an American folk-rock band from Michigan. The project is centered on the lyrically intensive songs of Matthew Milia, and was formed by Milia and banjo player David Winston Jones while living in Metro Detroit. The band released its debut full-length record, The Orion Songbook, through Quite Scientific Records in November, 2008. In February, 2009, it was announced that Frontier Ruckus had joined North Carolina-based label Ramseur Records.
Biography
Milia and Jones formed the band while attending high school together at Brother Rice in Metro Detroit. They began by playing a mixture of Milia's early compositions and traditional bluegrass songs that Jones had collected. Around this time they also recruited Eli Eisman as a bassist. While Milia attended Michigan State University—where he studied poetry under Diane Wakoski—and Jones attended the University of Michigan, Frontier Ruckus expanded into a six-piece with Zachary Nichols playing trumpet, musical saw, and melodica; Ryan Etzcorn playing drums; and Anna Burch singing harmony vocals—all of whom Milia met while in Lansing.
In the beginning of 2007, shortly after the release of I Am The Water You Are Pumping, Frontier Ruckus began to receive attention in Michigan, with Metro Times considering the band "already one of the very best sounds to come out of Michigan this entire decade," and Real Detroit stating: "This is the best band you haven't heard and Milia is the most impressive wordsmith I've listened to in a really long time. I'm not sure If I can recall a voice as untreated and honest as Milia's ... ever. His is a voice whose timbre carries as much meaning as the words that come through it."
Frontier Ruckus was named "Best Folk Group" in Detroit by Real Detroit Weekly, who were also among the first to laud The Orion Songbook prior to the album's official release, during an eMusic advance feature.
Released on November 6, 2008, The Orion Songbook received positive reviews, garnering attention from Blurt, Crawdaddy, and Under the Radar, who gave the album an 8/10. Hear/Say called it "the year's best alt-country album."
In 2009, Way Upstate and the Crippled Summer, pt. 1, a six-song EP, was released as the fourth side of the double-vinyl edition of The Orion Songbook. Frontier Ruckus toured the entire US and to Europe for the first time, playing Slottsfjell Festival in Norway, among shows in the UK, Germany, and Holland. The band was also featured as Paste Magazine's Live MP3 of the Week and recorded several videos in their studios.
In 2010 the band toured extensively, including a month-long European tour and a performance at Bonnaroo Music Festival, for which Rolling Stone listed the band as one of their Essential Sets. It was also announced that Deadmalls and Nightfalls, their second full-length album, would be released July 20 via Ramseur Records. Versions of several new songs were released through a Daytrotter session on February 14, 2010.
