The Moondoggies

It may not be difficult to find an indie-folk band worth listening to today. It’s a lot less difficult if you’re willing to trudge through the cliches and lyrical buzzwords that now unfortunately overwhelm the genre.  But if you’re looking for music inherently melancholic, reinforced with a kind of compositional purity and substance lacking in the mood and mission of most groups (think Mumford and Sons), it can be a challenge. The payoff? Music that’s more than cheap melodies and recycled ballads — music more than music. 

     

via www.hardlyart.com

The Moondoggies, out of Everett, Washington, come together as what I like to call “that dreary force that will fill the silence.” You’ll read elsewhere that they fit the urban-folk rock genre, or something along the lines of rustic and “vintage,” in league with Fleet Foxes or Grizzly Bear — broad strokes of Americana with surges of Indie. But there’s something not as easily identifiable about the group. And that translates to something not so normal. Only really good bands can impart real feelings, powerfully and even oversaturated, through their music. For this reason, The Moondoggies will grow and change, fast.     

Jumping into Adios I’m a Ghost, you’ll notice two things: first, the exchange between the tempo and the shade; second, the way you feel about its content, which will likely be complicated. While the bleakness is both soothing and haunting, there are moments of rigid, almost contextually absurd brightness and, let’s say, rejuvenation. And it might take some time to be okay with that contrast.   

  

via www.hardlyart.com

Sorrow is a potent method to use for approaching absence and regrowth. That’s what this album is about — coming out of existing in the background. It’s about feeling that something isn’t quite right, and being okay with that. And the big picture of their music? An irrational hope that things are moving and changing, but a blunt understanding that in fact nothing is changing, or things are changing too slow to notice. It takes force and subtlety, at exactly the right moments, to pull that off.

via www.indiemediamag.com

It might be worth listening to The Moondoggies, because they offer more than what you can usually take away from an all-around pretty good folk band. It’s poetry; effective and clear, but maybe not so loud.