Posted on: March 3, 2008 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

Spin.com : “There’s no such thing as too much reverb for Chicago’s Sybris”

Chicago’s Sybris is a quartet of powerful grace, the sound of a battalion of Valkyries astride winged horses bound for Valhalla. The sweep of giant white wings in the wind, the creak of the saddle beneath the weight of warrior goddesses in full regalia, the dreamy, gauzy, glittery haze of the ghosts of the warrior dead behind them floating towards eternal glory. I mean, um, it’s not metal. Rock has got to reclaim all the cool Viking shit from metal. But Chicago winters can be as extreme as those in Nordic lands and Sybris carries all of that on their latest album, Into the Trees. Propelled forward by singer Angela Mullenhour’s sugar coated knife-edge voice, a unique entity in itself, brimming with shattering potential and weighted with its own world-weariness, elegant, bruised but never defeated. In fact, the whole outfit is tough as shit, Chicago in a way nobody’s seen for awhile.

Into the Trees is the band’s second album, recorded with Grammy-nominated engineer John Congleton (Explosions in the Sky, Mountain Goats) in the backwoods of Minnesota at Pachyderm Studio. The supposedly haunted studio is the same one used to record Nirvana’s In Utero and P J Harvey’s Rid of Me. The album is also their first with new label Absolutely Kosher Records, following a 2003 self-released EP, A Time for Hollerin and their 2005 self-titled label debut on Flameshovel. Into the Trees explores themes of perception, relationships, and decay with a salt of the earth perspective that flows through the band both in demeanor, sound and appearance.

Sybris has spent the last three years bubbling under, touring with the likes of The Fiery Furnaces, The Walkmen and The Hold Steady as well as dates at Lollapalooza and Virgin Fest. An early posting of one of the album’s songs, “Oh Man!”, received impressive reviews and prompted Pitchfork’s Brian Howe to write the following: “they haven’t tinkered with their style– “Oh Man!” is of a piece with Sybris’s “The Best Day in History Ever”, from the blocky yet aerodynamic drums to the nervously chiming guitar lead. This is a good thing, since the band’s anthemic indie rock was refreshing precisely for its unabashed classicism.”

Sybris:

Eric Mahle – Drums
Angela Mullenhour – Guitar, Vocals
Shawn Podgurski – Bass, Vocals
‘Phil Naumann – Guitar

SXSW Official Showcase

Friday, March 14th At Maggie’s Loft (Entrance on Trinity)
With: Pidgeon, The Gang, 60 Watt Kid, Little Teeth, Chet
Sybris 1AM

The Hometapes + Absolutely Kosher/Misra Day Party

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