This post is from Out the Other's 2010 Bonnaroo Artist Previews, where I will be posting previews of all the musical acts playing the 2010 Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival. Please check out and subscribe to the full site to learn more about all of this year's performers.
Sometimes when checking out a new band it only takes a record label to pique my curiosity - for example in the case of Bonnaroo performers The Moondoggies, who call Hardly Art home. I'm no stranger to Hardly Art - they've brought us delightful releases by Le Loup, Arthur & Yu and The Dutchess and the Duke, to name a few - so I definitely went into The Moondoggies 2008 debut, Don't Be a Stranger, with a high set of expectations. And I was certainly rewarded, because they bring the kind of musical goodness I've come to associate with Hardly Art bands.
The Moondoggies are a Seattle four-piece, and they play the kind of loose, shambling, almost Southern-sounding rock that I've been loving lately - easy-going three-part harmonies gilded by the golden warmth of a Rhodes organ. It's laid-back and relaxing, and Don't Be a Stranger is the kind of record that doesn't push itself upon you too strongly, it just spins along lazily and gives you a healthy number of "wow, that sounds good" moments without knocking you off your porch rocker. A lot of bands are trashing this kind of sound these days - without that certain something, sounding a bit like The Band will only take you so far - but the Moondoggies shuffle along not just inoffensively but pleasantly. It's enough to make you hit "repeat," and enough to make me want to both check out their Bonnaroo set AND their new EP, You'll Find No Answers Here, which will be out June 8 in advance of a second full-length later this year. With the band currently in the midst of a tour supporting Blitzen Trapper, I can expect we'll be hearing more and more about The Moondoggies in 2010.
"Old Hound"
"Bogchiel Rain Blues"
The Moondoggies will play the Troo Music Lounge on Friday at 6:40 p.m.
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