Feverbones

Austin gave RF Shannon and Feverbones to the American West, and the West graciously returned them to us unharmed and road-sharpened for their triumphant arrival back in our fair city. The double bill happened on Mohawk’s inside stage, and took place after an incredible of Montreal show, which we reported on last week. With as many bands and kinds of bands as there are in Austin, it’s hard to pin down who’s the most exciting or best or possesses the most promise, but I can say with certainty that I return to these two bands with greater frequency than any other pair I can conceive. The handful of cities that had the fortune to see both bands together received the most bountiful gifts Austin music has to offer.

For their homecoming, both acts sounded more tight and cohesive than ever, an impressive feat for two bands that seem to function on cohesion, albeit of polar varieties. RF Shannon wanders through murky, noodling riffs, loose and free form, but the band always punches the same beat at the right time. RF Shannon’s truest appeal lies in their brooding, moody folk itself, a sort of stylized sound that becomes a character, has a life of its own. These guys are on a vision quest.Feverbones on the other hand are locked in from the first beat to the last, a phenomena achieved only by the prowess of the individual members. Feverbones’ has a distinct sound to be sure, but their power lives in the amazing musicianship of all three members: Christopher Cox on guitar, Abram Shook on bass, and Matthew Shepherd on drums. Look if you must, but you won’t find a more talented trio of musicians in Austin’s clubs. I’ve heard rumblings that Feverbones is something of a musician’s band, which I get, but it ignores that their grooving psych pop is so damn addicting that it’ll have any casual listener ensnared.

We’ve talked a ton about both of these bands, so if you still haven’t seen them, then you’re new here or you just don’t trust us. Whatever the case, you need to rectify that as soon as possible. Neither band has their next show booked yet, so keep your eyes and ears open. In the meantime, no other bands in town are more deserving of your support in the form of purchasing the excellent releases they issued this year, both on Punctum Records. - Pop Press International (Bryan Parker)

Give a listen to Feverbones‘ self-titled EP, released in 2013 on the Punctum Records label, and it’s quite clear there’s an abundance of talent in the Austin-based trio. Perhaps you may recognize the names – Abram Shook, a solo artist with impressive albums (his debut Sun Marquee, and the equally distinctive Landscape Dream) and a contributing talent to bands like The Great Nostalgic, Monk Parker‘s avant-garde Americana outfit The Low Lows, and Jonathan Meiburg‘s band Shearwater; and Matthew Shepherd and Christopher Cox, standout musicians in their own right who have both performed with several other artists, including Dana Falconberry, The Eastern Sea, The Lovely Sparrows, and Paul Banks & The Carousels. - KUTX - Austin Music Minute (Laurie Gallardo)

Texan indie rock band Feverbones is readying to release its new album Dream Talk on February 23rd via Austin Town Hall Records. The Big Takeover has the first listen to a cut off the LP, the smoothly flowing, vocally harmonically glowing, mellow reverie “It’s Hard To Look Away”.

Feverbones first emerged with their self-titled EP in early 2014 (via Punctum Records). Abram Shook (The Great Nostalgic, Shearwater) happened across drummer/songwriter Matthew Shepherd and multi-instrumentalist/songwriter Christopher Cox when they met to collaborate on early tracks for Shook’s 2014 solo release, Sun Marquee (Western Vinyl). Around this time, Shepherd and Cox had been recording and touring as a wildly dynamic rhythm section and sometimes as hired guns for a number of local and touring acts. After a summer’s worth of meetings to talk shop and reinvent sprawling songs with questionable titles, Feverbones came together as a new collaborative channel for this trio of seasoned Austin musicians.

Upcoming album Dream Talk was written and recorded over the past three years with the band members aiming to write the songs together as much as possible, between their rehearsal space in South Austin and a winter retreat at Shepherd’s family farm outside of Brenham, Texas. The LP was tracked mainly to tape at Cacophony Recorders and Good Danny’s in Austin with the help of their good producer/engineer friend, Grant Johnson. The record was mixed by longtime friend, producer/engineer Justin Douglas at his studio King Electric.

In anticipation of the album, the band drops some details about it: “This collection of songs is a series of unreal scenes that sort of reimagines some of the more ecstatic or fucked up experiences we’ve had over the past few years. Ultimately they amounted to stories of heat-induced hallucinations, a heartbroken runaway’s foolhardy attempt to disappear overseas, mundane city life, apocalyptic nights, strange nomadic characters, waking by still waters at Balmorhea. Most of these songs lead back in some way to aphoristic conclusions, ideas that rang true for one or more of us over the past few years, or some singular thought to turn over in your mind.” - The Big Takeover