ROUTES & BRANCHES
featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
February 11, 2024
Scott Foley, purveyor of dust
Under the guise of Frontier Ruckus, Matthew Milia is the unofficial Poet Laureate of suburban Michigan. He is the documenter of minutiae, the Patron Saint of Humiliation. And he does it to the tune of a banjo, trumpet, and the occasional musical saw. Milia's trio returns from a seven-year break with On the Northline, a collection that plots Frontier Ruckus at the artistic naivete of their 2008 debut.
The four LPs released in the ensuing years remained admirably consistent for Frontier Ruckus, even as their decidedly Michigan-focused pop-folk engaged Milia's love for power pop or his nostalgia for 90s rock. The songwriter never wandered far from the hyper local lyrics, the hopeless romantic spirit, or the intimate arrangements which have always characterized Frontier Ruckus.
For On the Northline, Matthew Milia, David Jones, and Zachary Nichols gathered in producer Ben Collins' Ypsilanti studios, recording much of the sessions live in studio with few extraneous enhancements. It's a setting that perfectly suits Milia's typically warm and intimately, excruciatingly personal work. The songs are almost exclusively acoustic, "I'm Not the Boy" is characteristic with its strummed acoustic guitar, enhanced here with Jones' spritely banjo break, Nichols' lone trumpet and his abiding musical saw. The song cruises easily between time signature changes like chapters in Milia's novella: When the stickiest answer / Is a Jolly Rancher / Passed between mouths in the night. The collection's title track adds Connor Dodson's drums on an evocative drive into the city's outskirts: The municipal golf course is strewn in October leaves.
You had the physique of a youth travel soccer coach, the writer remarks. Matthew Milia is the rare suburban lyricist who won't romanticize place, or whose songs won't restlessly obsess with looking for a way out. "Everywhere But Beside You" evokes the image of Elliott Smith set to banjo: I hit the northern suburb / Where the cashiers at Home Depot know my name. "Broomfield Marriot" suggests an expansive vista from the titular locale: Looking out over the kingdom. While his lyrics are commonly praised as literate, they skew more heartfelt than cerebral, never simply name dropping as a parlor game. His reputation as unfailingly melancholy, though not unearned, is not indulgent or wearing, even leaving space for a couple lovesongs about coming together with his wife: Nothing will ever scare me / Like the chance of something good, Milia sings on the brief, bare bones "First Song For Lauren".
As a stalwart fixture in the narrow pop-folk lane, Frontier Ruckus have been filed alongside acts like Decemberists, Blitzen Trapper, or Have Gun Will Travel. While these aren't misleading signposts, the band is distinguished by Milia's lyrical precision, as well as by the trio's truly unique instrumentation. On this return to the roots project, there remain moments of power pop and other components of the band's audio stamp. "Machines Of Summer" is a rare country ramble, adding Pete Ballard's pedal steel solo to the mix. Milia's distinct vocal delivery naturally lends itself to the pop strains of "Clarkston Pasture", with its winter verses and summer chorus: You called me the master / Of petty sad-bastardism / But that day all-in-all was not bad. "Mercury Sable" might be Northline's masterpiece, a sublimely paced lovesong that achieves an appealing instrumental and artistic balance between all these pieces of Frontier Ruckus: All the neighbors saw me laughing so hysterically / All that I could do to keep from crying ... I can't make sense / Of something so completely / Intense.
Matthew Milia has spoken of mapping emotional landscapes onto the objective surface of the physical map. Even if we've never had the privilege of spending time in Michigan, On the Northline trades in universal truths, mining personal philosophy for universal meaning in the quotidian. After a pair of engaging solo projects during the pandemic, it's a great vista from which to overlook the valuable work of Frontier Ruckus.
We continue apace, adding promising numbers of forthcoming releases to A Routes & Branches Guide To Feeding Your Monster. This week, that includes the return of Kacey Musgraves. Again alongside producer Daniel Tashian, she has given a March 15 release date for their next project, Deeper Well (Interscope). Following a very promising first single, Marcus King has shared the title cut for his next LP. Expect Mood Swings to land on April 5, via American Music. Iron & Wine returns after a too-long hiatus. Sam Beam and his cohort will share Light Verse on April 26 (Sub Pop). May 17 is the scheduled appearance for Blitzen Trapper's next full-length. 100s of 1,000s Millions of Billions will land courtesy of their Yep Roc home. Finally, we've always harbored a fondness for former Massive Attack vocalist Beth Gibbons. She has published plans for her first proper solo record, Lives Outgrown (Domino, May 17).
ROUTES-cast February 11, 2024
- Brittany Howard, "Patience" What Now (Island, 24)
- Tyler Ramsey, "We Were a Small Town" New Lost Ages (Ramsey, 24) D
- Scott Ballew, "Suicide Squeeze" Rio Bravo (La Honda, Mar 29) D
- David Nance, "Side Eyed Sam" & Mowed Sound (Third Man, 24)
- Little Wings, "Bubbles Go Pop" High On the Glade (Perpetual Doom, Apr 1) D
- Marcus King, "Mood Swings" Mood Swings (American, Apr 5) D
- Black Keys, "I Forgot To Be Your Lover" Ohio Players (Nonesuch, Apr 5)
- A Savage, "Black Holes the Stars and You" single (Rough Trade, 24) D
- Blitzen Trapper, "Cosmic Backseat Education" 100s of 1000s Millions of Billions (Yep Roc, May 17) D
- Hanging Stars, "Sweet Light" On a Golden Shore (Loose, Mar 8) D
- Laney Jones, "Stay At Home" single (AHPO, 24) D
- Madi Diaz, "Obsessive Thoughts" Weird Faith (Anti, 24)
- Britti, "Keep Running" Hello I'm Britti (Easy Eye, 24)
- Rachel Baiman, "Dominoes (ft Pony Bradshaw)" single (Signature Sounds, 24) D
- Becca Mancari, "Short and Sweet" single (Captured Tracks, 24) D
- Amigo the Devil, "Once Upon a Time At Texaco Pt 1" Yours Until the War Is Over (Liars Club, Feb 23)
- Dustin Kensrue, "Death Valley Honeymoon (ft Cat Clyde)" Desert Dreaming (Vagrant, Apr 5) D
- Shane Smith & the Saints, "It's Been a While" Norther (Geronimo West, Mar 1)
- Sam Outlaw, "Someone Quite Like You" Terra Cotta (Black Hills, Mar 7) D
- Dead South, "20 Mile Jump" Chains & Stakes (Six Shooter, 24)
- Will Hoge, "I'd Be Lying" Tenderhearted Boys (EDLO, Apr 12)
- Aoife O'Donovan, "Daughters" All My Friends (Yep Roc, Mar 22)
- Itasca, "Under Gates Of Cobalt Blue" Imitation Of War (Paradise of Bachelors, 24)
- Decemberists, "Burial Ground (ft James Mercer)" single (YABB, 24) D
- Rosali, "On Tonight" Bite Down (Merge, Mar 22)
- Iron & Wine, "You Never Know" Light Verse (Sub Pop, Apr 26) D
- Beth Gibbons, "Floating On a Moment" Lives Outgrown (Domino, May 17) D
- Angus & Julia Stone, "Wedding Song" Cape Forestier (Nettwerk, May 10) D
- Kacey Musgraves, "Deeper Well" Deeper Well (Interscope, Mar 15) D
- Kevin Coleman, "Mammut Americanum" Imaginary Conversations (Centripetal Force, Mar 19) D
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