Opening for Deerhunter and Ben Kweller, and playing countless shows on campus has established The Milkman's Union as celebrities in the world of student bands. This week it enhanced its legacy with the release of its first full-length CD.
The well-known group is comprised of lead singer and guitarist Henry Jamison-Root '10, Peter McLaughlin '10 on the drums, Sean Weathersby '10 on the bass, Akiva Zamchek '11 on lead guitar, and Brunswick High School junior Jasper Boyd on the bass. Their album "Roads In," which takes its name from the title of the third track, includes songs recorded over the last one-and-a-half years in Studzinksi Recital Hall.
"The songs are all Henry's," said McLaughlin.
Jamison-Root wrote all of the lyrics on this album and brought songs, whether almost complete or just an idea, to the band to collaborate on. He also chose the album title, which he calls "purposefully vague...nice and pregnant with meaning."
The band members fit themselves under the blanket terms indie rock and pop-rock, but these increasingly meaningless labels do not communicate the charm of their sound. "Roads In" boasts a wonderful variety of sounds that McLaughlin said range from the second track "Emerald Flairs," which "is almost a country song," to the "almost punkish element" of the first song "Rehearse a Scene."
"Things are drastically different song to song but there's something that ties it together sonically," McLaughlin added.
Energy and mood fluctuate throughout the album, united by discretely catchy melodies.
Recording in Studzinski imbued the album with a convincingly live feel, as did "the fact that we f*** up a good bit," said Jamison-Root.
"Roads In" has a basic pop theme, yet some songs are more conceptual than others.
"Rehearse a Scene," for instance, "goes verse-chorus, verse-chorus...it's repeated so the first part is a rehearsal and the second part is a performance, and they both sound exactly the same," said Jamison-Root.
Jamison-Root's lyrics cover the usual themes—death, god and love—and sometimes they seem to take a back seat to the musical arrangement. That said, they are subtly clever and intentionally "enigmatic," according to Jamison-Root.
"The lyrics are increasingly influenced by me being an English major and independent reading...there are shreds of imagery that trickle down," he said. "I don't go into writing lyrics thinking I'll take an image...but they end up being my ideas through a filter of what I'm reading or listening to at the time."
Jamison-Root's music has grown more sophisticated since he released a solo CD in high school under the same name, "The Milkman's Union."
"I was listening to Death Cab for Cutie then...now I'm listening to Rachmaninoff," he said, laughing. "I have a bigger musical vocabulary."
The band cites San Francisco band Deerhoof as a major inspiration.
McLaughlin said the idiosyncratic, experimental group was an "influence in broadening the scope of what you can do with a pop song."
"The pop song is a pretty powerful format of succinctness...it just naturally has an ability to touch people in a different way that you can't with an orchestra or a symphony," he said. "It's about harnessing that power and seeing what you can do with it."
Other influences include first and foremost Radiohead, which McLaughlin called "a common language that we all speak," as well as Grizzly Bear, The Shins and Arvo Part. Band members have listened to everything from jazz to classical to world music and inject elements of all into their unique sound.
The group acknowledges the struggle of compiling an album, but they are proud of solidifying their own sound and releasing their first product as a band. McLaughlin, who engineered the whole album, also learned a lot about the techniques of recording music.
McLaughlin and his bandmates remain unsure of their plans after most of them graduate in the spring, but they hope to release another CD at some point.
The Milkman's Union will be playing a CD release show on Friday, October 16 in Chase Barn.
"Roads In," with cover design by Jenna Breiter '10, can be bought directly from the band members, and more information can be found at the their Web site, www.themilkmansunion.com.