review: Schooner Duck Kee Sessions

Schooner
Duck Kee Sessions
CyTunes, 2010

Schooner: "Feel Better"

Schooner is haunting my thoughts, it's got this distant reverb in the vocals, like that Jens Lekman character. Though nothing of Schooner is really haunting--instead it is classic, jangly folk rock, non-cheesy 60s surf with these clear melodies. "Feel Better" is the standout, though "Lose Yourself" is a close second, with its little twangish pull in there.

Schooner is from Carrboro, NC and led by Reid Johnson and that's his voice I can't get out of my head. Some nice bells in "Duck Kee Nights," this time the crickets echo in my mind and the wind rushes, rushes--it's nice for Schooner to carve out a folk-pop niche in all this grandiose noise of the world. "In All Probabililty"--that's a good one, as well.

Duck Kee Sessions can only be purchased at CyTunes.org with 100 percent of proceeds going to brain cancer research in memory of Cy Rawls.

Here is the full band lineup I just copied off of CyTunes:

"Maria Albani plays bass, sand blocks, and percussion. Billy Alphin plays drums and percussion. Kathryn Johnson plays keys, djembe, and percussion. Reid Johnson plays guitar, ukulele, xylophone, synthesizer, harmonica, toy piano, vibraphone, and percussion. Jerry Kee plays 2-inch tape machine."

The EP is in collaboration with a bunch of artists who created various artwork for the EP, including my favorite (above) from Shirle Koslowski. All the other art, from peeps like Will Hackney and Catherine Edgerton of Midtown Dickens and John Harrison from North Elementary can be viewed here.

Word is that a full length is coming sometime later this year as well.

Go pick this up.