“A folk collective of oddballs, loons and hooligans via West Philadelphia” – that’s the description that appears on the Bandcamp page of On the Water. Originally, the solo side project of Fletcher VanVliet, the frontman for weirdo avante-rock outfit Da Comrade! and Chernobyl Collective conspirator, has amassed members from other artistic walks of life and local music acts like TJ Kong and the Atomic Bomb, Ghost Light, etc. to expand to a full-blown eight-piece tour de force with VanVliet (acoustic guitar and vocals), Dan Martino (accordion and vocals), Morgan Jamison (toy piano and vocals), Barrett Lindgren (drums), Stephen Landis (violin), Robin Carine (electric guitar and vocals), Taylor Jamison (bass), and Sean Cox (banjo).
On their latest release Anchor, the folk outfit chose to record all the album’s tracks live at Sex Dungeon Studios capturing the warmth and vibrant energy that you might experience from their live performances. “Goldfish” opens the EP with gentle acoustic guitar strums that morph into a unified sonic outburst before VanVliet’s raspy, slightly eerie storytelling voice states – “I woke from a dream just now where all just seemed just so” – as Landis’ violin adds old world mystery to the story. You find the protagonist of the tale battling with his own demons in his “dream world” – a place often linked to joy and escapism, but not for the song’s main character. “Some unseen torrent is punishing me. I’ve grown to love this burden, the thrill of drowning in the change.” He struggles to “put everything into its right place” though “everything is as it should be.” Coupled with the steady marching instrumentation of Lindgren’s bass drum joined by the tinklings of the toy piano, succinct plucks of the banjo, and long, languid strokes of the violin, the dream moves towards the light and hope where he knows that his love is out there just waiting for him to wake. “Goldfish” is filled with breathtaking imagery which culminates with a sing-along and a spiritual awakening on the imaginary open waters. Bravo – what an intense journey On the Water has taken us on the EP’s opening track! The band follows it up with the bluegrass-tinged, upbeat road-weary “An Elephant Memory” that plays out like a Kerouacian travelogue. “We were searching desperately for something, anything and now you’re back on the west coast, that’s where you belonged after all…So it was me and my buddy loose on the streets, we were kids again and it felt like the very first time I’d bled. Getting lost every night, too fucked up, I was blind as I watched a good friend dying.” The next track “Cat” is a swaying, lonely, touching description about a man in bed with his furry friend which honestly could very well be mistaken or actually be about a lover (now, get your mind out of the gutter). It jams and shifts into hoedown mode with a piece called “Patience” and its anthemic closing line “we are free in the most wonderful of ways.” The band keeps us buried in the Deep South as VanVliet changes his vocal inflection mimicking a hillbilly drawl in the peculiarly titled track “I’m a Boy Made of Atoms.” The album closes out with the song “Farmhouse,” but unlike the album’s opener “Goldfish” where the protagonist is asleep and knows that his love is waiting for him in the “real world.” In “Farmhouse,” he is wide awake, and it’s only in his “dream world” where he can have that love he once possessed back again. “If I can rest my head in memories, I can let myself begin again. So why can’t we let ourselves begin again?”
Besides the wonderful lyrics (which I have shared plenty of them with you) and simply stellar songwriting, what stands out most to me making Anchor a beautiful piece of artwork is the chemistry that can be felt through each performance of the songs. But what may explain the somewhat intangible chemistry that I am referring to best strangely enough for me has nothing to do with the performances of the music. It’s the humorous intro of the closing track “Farmhouse” that captures the “oddball” comfortable nature of a band that truly enjoys being together and playing with each other. That’s the x-factor that you will not most likely find from any Craigslist ad or television contest making the album a must have for eccentric folk music lovers.
You can listen to and purchase On the Water’s Anchor EP HERE. They will also be performing this Sunday at Kung Fu Necktie with Pearl & the Beard and Auctioneer. – Q.D. Tran
