Description
The Felice Brothers, Ian (guitar and lead vocals) and James (multi-instrumentalist and vocals, have come a long way. Hailing from Catskills, New York, they’ve busked on the streets of New York City, and they made their early recordings in a leaking theater and a chicken coop. Hailed by Rolling Stone as “musician’s musicians,” they caught the attention of luminaries like the late Levon Helm, appearing at one of his midnight rambles in nearby Woodstock, NY. Their new album, From Dreams to Dust, is their third with highly respected independent label Yep Roc.
Typical of the band’s albums, the new record mixes somber and upbeat tunes that carry messages begging listeners to think deeply about the environment, humanity,legacy, and death. Many tracks depict the passage of time, nostalgia, transience and getting older, while others are slice-of-contemporary life, like “Celebrity X’s” look at how our news cycle has become filled with meaningless gossip about so-called stars. Throughout the record, they interweave bizarre catalogues of literary and pop-culture references with vivid portrayals of life and its kaleidoscope of tragedies and hopes. It also might be the best album this consistently weird and interesting bunch have made.
