About this user
the New Messengers, Cyclery e.p.
Co-founded by Clarence Fraher and Joe Nio, two survivors of the 90's Richmond, VA indie rock scene, and named after an early Fassbinder propaganda film, the New Messengers (members of the Rainy Day Collective) are almost a collective in themselves. Anchored by bassman Jamison Spencer and Jessica Fitzgerald, a piano prodigy who trained as a child deep in old-bloc Eastern Virginia, and with a rotating cast of collaborators - the latest, drummer Chris Schneberger + re-joined on vocals by former drummer Kris Scott.
"Rocking, reflective, and sometimes raunchy the New Messengers make a righteous racket on this - their first - "Cyclery". Joe Nios Mountaintop opens the 5-song e.p. Nio and the band take the listener through an appalachian tent revival for the latent folky. The next, Cyclery, is purportedly a second life for a song previously abandoned song - re-purposed here for the listener with lyrics and melodies fresh from scratch. Simple, graceful rock arrangements and instrumentation with sweet vocal harmonies and lyrics like ...summer swells bugs dominate, sounds of someone coming in the gate. An homage to youthful carelessness. Boom follows with a lusty rant about herbal homeopathy, sex dolls and commercial rocketry. The fourth track, Dust, is a less poppy affair more of a gaunt and plodding dialogue between lovers grappling with their mortality. Clarence and wife Kym Fraher duet on this one. The last piece is Regalia. Mixed as though over the AM dial through a pocket transistor radio, this blatantly apes easy-listening all the while oozing the gentle melancholy of miscreants seeking absolution, all the while coming off more like an urban hymn than sentimentality.
Recorded by Clarence Fraher at Taxi Recordings this is the first joint offering between Taxi and Rainy Day Collective."
-- Cotton Percy Release Magazine
