Review: Frontier Ruckus – Deadmalls & Nightfalls

8.5 / Ramseur Records

It takes a fair amount of guts and perhaps a bit of foolhardiness to try to make it as a new alt-country act these days. The genre is definitely a few years past its Wilco-inspired peak, and now rather than riding on the coattails of its popularity, novelty bands have to really work to distinguish themselves from the throngs of other bands making similarly twangy, sleepy-sounding music. It is somewhat appropriate that the one band I’ve heard recently that has managed to do this is from Michigan, a state where the economic downturn has left many people feel like they have nothing left to lose. With nothing to lose, why not try your hand at tackling this already-crowded musical genre?

The economic hopelessness is right there in the title of the album. There are plenty of dead malls to be found in Michigan these days. Driving through the commercial district of my hometown of Grand Rapids, one is confronted by a seemingly endless landscape of abandoned strip malls, empty storefronts, and the parasitic fast food joints that stubbornly refuse to die, like weeds in the lawn of an abandoned house. It’s pretty bleak, but it’s also the perfect sort of environment for rolling down the windows on your beat-up old car and cranking Frontier Ruckus on your radio.

This is not to say that Deadmalls & Nightfalls is bleak, oppressive music. Quite the opposite. While it is certainly austere and full of lyrics about heartbreak and disenchantment, there is a beauty behind it that makes it more hopeful than self-pitying. Lead singer Matthew Milia’s wary-sounding voice is complemented by the buoyant banjo playing of band co-founder David Winston. The effect is to tug on the heartstrings while providing just enough slack to not break them.

Unlike lesser alt-country acts, Frontier Ruckus also know how to change up the tempo on their songs enough to keep the album engaging throughout. Too often, similar bands are content to have one sluggish, barely distinguishable song after another, making it more of a chore than a pleasure to listen to their album from start to finish. Here we are treated to songs like the upbeat, horn-infused “Ringbearer,” a nice palate-cleanser between the more melancholy tracks surrounding it. It’s nice to see a band that still puts some thought into the track arrangement on their album.

There are a lot of sad songs to be sung about Michigan right now. It has the highest unemployment rate in the country and an economy based on a dying automobile industry. If the resulting feeling of hopelessness leads to music as beautiful as Deadmalls & Nightfalls, though, then at least it won’t all have been for nothing.

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About the Author

Jeremy Clymer lives in Michigan with his wife and kid. He shoots his writings out into the ethers of the Internet in the hopes that someone will pick up on his transmissions and shower him with money and/or praise.

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