Bands like Giants Chair, Cap'n Jazz, AmericanFootball, Compound Red, Boys Life, and Braid are reference points forthe sound with which the Miners flirt. In fact, vocalist Dan Burton'sbaritone sounds similar to Braid's Bob Nanna. Both have a stony andprimitive sound, unmolested by the effects of any formal training. It'shard to tell if Burton's voice (or Nanna's, for that matter) ispleasant or not, but it does give shape and substance to what wouldotherwise be music pretty enough to be heard, but not forceful enoughto be compelling. The more perspicacious listener will realize that theband is actually from the Midwest (Bloomington, Indiana: home of theHoosiers and the town which kindly lent itself to the simple beautiesof "Breaking Away") and that Burton was once in Ativin, a cohort in thelegion which made the initial assault for the prenominate mid-90s,Midwestern sound. So the appropriation of the sound is less fromappreciation than actual practice. "Errance" has an archetypalMidwestern sound trope: at the inception of the chorus, the tempo slowsand the instrumentation falls away and evaporates, leaving only thelightly brushed snare drum, the softly enunciated vocals, and thesparingly plucked guitar. The guitar is almost an afterthought. Thesong's title is curious since the Miners are anything but errant. Theguitars hover and swirl in orbits which revolve around each other,attracted by some musical centripetal force and never shooting off inan unforeseen exit velocity. They might meander, but they never getlost. Speaking of guitars, they are what the band does best. The Minerswrite intricate, delicate, and lovely guitar parts which fit togetherseamlessly. The band is expert at crafting catchy six-stringedmelodies, almost overshadowing or overpowering the rhythm section. Itcertainly doesn't help that the rhythm section is never seriouslychallenged by any of the songs. Actually, "Comfort/Guilt" approachessomething close to rhythmic complexity. Playful drumming mixes withcascading guitars which teeter off the edges of notes, threatening tofall into a cavernous abyss. "Precious Blood" also percolatespromisingly for a few short-lived instrumental minutes but soon enoughrecedes into the next track, "We Know In Part," a more typical slowdrawl from the Miners' canon. Transitions such as this show that theMiners are content to pick-axe their way along quite deliberately,remaining in shafts where it is dark, where everything moves a littleslower, and where the threat of black lung is everywhere. When theMiners do poke their heads above ground, the sunlight is blinding andthey quickly duck down again, comfortable in their Midwestern andmidterranean realm. samples:
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