#forward music group

[dustedmagazine]

Michael Feuerstack — Eternity Mongers (Forward Music Group)

Photo by Anneke Hymen

Michael Feuerstack’s songs have a warm, burnished glow. His music sticks to the time-tested accoutrements of indie pop—acoustic guitars, shuffling drums, thready little melodies bolstered by lush female harmonies, occasional bursts of saxophone—but infuses them with depth and resonance. The words are simple but cleverly arranged, a workingman’s poetry delivered in a weathered tenor, but slyly subverting expectations. The best comparison, maybe, is David Bazan, whose songs feel plainly made and straightforward but reveal sharp insight and, sometimes, hidden cosmologies.

Feuerstack was one of two singer-songwriter-guitarists in Wooden Stars (along with Julien Beillard), a quirky, sometimes even mathy Montrealean indie pop band best known for its work with Julie Doiron. This solo record runs far more placidly, at least on the surface, than the Wooden Stars’ debut, The Very Same, though there are pockets of eccentricity even within these well-polished grooves.  You just have to look for them.

Indeed, Eternity Mongers’ best trick is lulling you into thinking you’re hearing garden variety indie pop, then pulling you up short. “You’re Mind’s Made Up,” an early single, proceeds with the easiest kind of flow, winding down warm currents of sax and massed vocals like an inner tube-ist on the first hot day. And yet, even here, amid the gentle contours of a song about spring coming and love ending, some existential posers rear their heads. “Am I getting through to you/If I pretend you’re someone else?” asks Feuerstack, and all of the sudden things don’t seem as clear and easy as before.

“Big Sails” likewise slouches deep in the pocket, its verse propped up by the bump of bass, the vibrato trill of organ but just barely; it seems always on the verge of drifting off into a nap. But listen to the way the guitar solo cuts right through it, or how the chorus opens up into an epic resolution. “I’ve got no particular place to go/Floating points in the distance glow/my passage is uneventful/I want to go where the big sails go,” and abruptly the song is no longer about staring off at the ocean, but instead about life and purpose and mortality.

The arrangements are integral to the way these songs pop, with Feuerstack himself singing, playing guitar and synths and occasionally weaving in some pedal steel. His core band—Michael Belyea on kit and other percussion, Kyle Cunjak playing bass and organ—grounds these melodies in an unhurried, unshowy well, while not one but two woodwind-ists blow in on saxophone, flute and clarinet.

Yet even so, the songs feel spare and unfettered, as on “Disenchanted�� where the thump of drums, the nod of bass, the eerie flare of organ enhance, rather than dilute, an essential stillness. “You try to get a leg up, mind your inner child” sings Feuerstack, as a woman’s voice wafts up and around him. “You punch the clock and do your time/but the corridor goes on for miles.” It sounds exhausting, dispiriting, discouraging, but the song lifts up into transcendence and it’s hardly sad at all.

Jennifer Kelly

[schroettner]

song of the day: “no such thing” by michael feuerstack. file under: folk rock, indie rock. this song is so good!

[donospl]

Co w jazzie piszczy [sezon 2 odcinek 8]

premierowa emisja 28 lutego 2024 – 18:00 Graliśmy: Liv Angrea Hauge Trio  “Vår” z albumu “Ville Blomster” – Hubro Music Frances Chang “Spiral in Houston” z albumu “Psychedelic Anxiety” – Ramp Local Pavel Morochovic “Intermezzo No. 2” z albumu “Harmony I” – Hevhetia Gregory Uhlmann “Mint Chip” z albumu “Small Day” – Colorfield Records Mike LeDonne “Make Someone Happy” z albumu “Wonderful”  –…

[mellotronmkll]

[mainfaggot]

i need to txt to leave hybe rn. so fucking serious like i desperately need them to leave

[blizzardfluffykpop]

You sent me an ask so I shall return the favor! What is the most recent Kpop group you’ve gotten into and how did you find out about them? I always love hearing fan “origin stories” lol

Thank you for returning the favor~ That would be The Boyz 🥰💖 I love hearing fan "origin stories" too hehe (This is gonna get long I love them sm)

Anyways I've known about them since debut? I loved Bloom Bloom Pow with my whole heart when it came out and tried to fall for them then- It didn't work. The next time was when The Stealer (TS) came out~ I had watched them perform for Road to Kingdom- because ptg was on the show too- But I really loved TS cb- sm so that I bought the album about 6 mos later with my favorite members as inclusions at the time (Eric, Kevin and Hyunjae). But nothing came about of it even after watching the weekly idol episodes... Then came Whisper era and I ended up biasing Changmin (Q) and loving that song but again nothing came out of it.

(A little backstory is that Changkyun (I.M) got me into Dominic Fike's music-) Thus, when tiktok showed me Juyeon, Changmin, and Sunwoo dancing to Babydoll earlier this year as a dance cover: I fell. And then I finally checked out Watch It~ But Hui had his solo and it distracted me completely from falling further. Then I had gotten sick and decided 'well, what if I watch their content?' And I did... I watched their hello82 interview and their reaction to fanart of them, and lastly their mafia dance. And I loved each sm that I decided to check out more.

It was the first time I had watched their content and wanted to see more. And now, I watch their content almost daily. It's kind of like they revived the joy of kpop for me? My (old) ult of ults has been on hiatus due to the military so it's been stagnant content lately for me. But then they came in like a breath of fresh air- and I simply can't get enough. This month will be 3 mos and I honestly hope I'll follow them for a long time. (I think they're my new ult of ults tbh)

And lastly now here I am as a Younghoon and Juyeon bias (with bias wrecker: Changmin... he's doing everything to be bias again). And with them having a comeback I loved with my whole heart this past month, I think it really solidified them with me. Honestly, I'm so happy with them.

[theresa-of-liechtenstein]

doing my part to combat the culture of taking photos of people without their consent by drawing cartoons from memory

[demadogs]

so many of you guys talk about watching stranger things with your whole family god i could never im so glad im the only one into scifi in my family

[chevaliermalfets]

going to a concert tonight and I'm gonna be sooooo brave about it

[mechieonu]

just finished good omens s2. i'm in so much fucking pain and agony

[akkivee]

i guess since paralive’s anime is coming out in the fall season, i’ve been seeing my fair share of posts from fans explaining how its universe differs from hypmic and one of the posts i read stated that ‘since rap isn’t a form of attack, if a crime happens they’ll just call the police to handle it like normal’ and i just started wheezing LOL

[candyunicornsateme]

ok dont look at me but I’ve been listening to this song (called Nazareth by Sleep Token) on repeat a lot and thinking about Mysterion and fuck man it’s fucking me up. I need everyone to understand I am deeply passionate about intense brooding shit like this, like I want Mysterion content where his eyes are boring into your soul 

[gaymer-hag-stan]

So I guess Heechul decided against having a career today

Not that it will ultimately matter much, I mean Seungri still has a cult following, but I don't think the public will let this go easily lmao

What's the problem with feeding cats wth

Skipping idol stuff to have fun? Miss Hwayoung's impact 🤣

Anyway, y'all should have dropped him when he was harassing Sohee while she was literally in her teens, or the moment he groomed Momo into becoming his girlfriend, or the moment you looked at his face combined with his utter lack of talent yet here we are.

[mymarifae]

but like i am so serious. the akito-honami besties agenda. you are all going to look at it and understand it someday very soon (i finally drafted out a coherent pretty long fic about them becoming friends in my head) i’m making this everybody else’s problem

[gxtzeizm]

already done listening to the whole new album of 13egin and i just want to say how i truly miss listening to their music actually 😭😭🥹🥹

[c0rpsedemon]

something abt realizing you're listening to someone sing for the last time really hits in an awful way