Futurebirds – “Ski Chalet” (live)

Pairs Well With…Band of Horses, The Band, My Morning Jacket

This year saw alt country soft rockers Futurebirds release a live record, Seney-Stovall, which continues in the tradition of bringing out the space in such a traditional format.  The record is welcomingly a more experimental live take, while still remaining grounded in their original voice.  Side note: what’s with everyone covering “Wicked Game” these days?

2012 Review: Futurebirds have found a unique niche with their psychedelic-tinged alt country.  Their sound reminds me of early My Morning Jacket, finding the subtleties embedded in the country genre and creating something sounding completely current out of it.  The band utilizes multi-part harmony that resembles Band of Horses, but with an extra level of distance between the voice and the ears.  Futurebirds keeps the pace at a pretty slow crawl, focusing more on waves of steel guitar than any sort of driving rhythm.  From some of the live clips online, the band has some barnburners in tow as well.  Futurebirds will most likely be featuring new material at SXSW to follow up their 2010 debut Hampton’s Lullabye.