Swarming Branch's New 'Surreal Number' Out Today

Swarming Branch is a band engaged in three seemingly disparate pursuits: elaborating folk music's four-chord strum with complex extensions and substitutions, winking at the theater of glam rock from dive bar stages around the country without causing the cynics to spray beer out of their nostrils, and inviting the droning, unbridled tendencies of modal jazz to gradually displace rock and roll's typical pentatonic shapes. You could say they aspire to become the modern Midwestern Steely Dan, even if they've only demonstrated a portion of the elder group's range thus far.

The band's name is a reference to both the nature of its membership, which is intentionally and perpetually in flux, and its sound, which features densely worded slant rhyme over intertwining, capricious, often improvised melodies. And while the group is based in Columbus, OH, it's likely that none of its contributors are inside the 614 area code at this moment. Songwriter Andrew Graham installs art exhibitions between spells of working with Swarming Branch. And if times are lean, he just might hang new drywall in your dining room. Drummer Lon Leary, the only other permanent fixture of the group, splits time between waiting tables in North Carolina's High Country and camping out in his late-'80s Toyota Van. Though pianist Dane Terry has graced every Swarming Branch recording thus far with his extraterrestrial keyboard stylings, he has seldom appeared live with the group since relocating to New York, where his 2015 musical theater production Bird In The House earned him the prestigious Ethyl Eichelberger Award.

On Surreal Number, Swarming Branch's newest LP on SofaBurn Records, the group has temporarily suspended some of its formal experimentation to create a straightforward collection of ten songs. The album was conceived with the help of a Los Angeles team comprised of engineer Drew Fischer and producer Rob Barbato (Drinks, Kevin Morby, Peaking Lights, et al) and shows the Branch finding a thicker, synthesized, and more neatly arranged sound while keeping a playful yet assertive spirit that makes every song seem both unlikely and inevitable.

SWARMING BRANCH 2017 TOUR DATES:
May 26 - Albany, NY @ River St. Pub
May 28 - Cambridge, MA @ State Park
May 29 - D.C. - @ Dew Drop Inn
May 30 - Baltimore, MD @ The Crown
May 31 - Morgantown, WV @ 123 Pleasant St.
June 2 Nelsonville Music Festival
June 6 - Cincinnati, OH - Urban Artifact Brewing
June 7 - Louisville, KY @ Monnik Beer Co.
June 8 - St. Louis, MO @ Blank Space
June 11 - Columbus, OH @ Kafe Kerouac
June 28 - Sacramento, CA @ House Show
June 29 - Eugene, OR - House Show
June 30 - Portland, OR @ House Show
July 2 - Seattle, WA - Victory Lounge
July 5 - Omaha, NE @ O'Leavers
July 6 - Chicago, IL @ Cafe Mustache
July 7 - Akron, OH @ Musica
July 8 - Columbus, OH @ Rumba Cafe
(additonal dates to be announced)

Swarming Branch's Surreal Number is out now via SofaBurn Records. Click here to order.

To post a comment, you must register and login.