Middle Brother

Phenomenal alt-country rock from members of Deer Tick, Dawes, and Delta Spirit. At times brilliant, hilarious, and tragic songwriting mostly about being young, bummed out and horny. I'm a sucker for Goldsmith's (Dawes) vocals and writing, and all his songs here stagger me. McCauley (Deer Tick) provides a distinctive grit. Vasquez (Delta Spirit) doesn't do much for me, but lends some ok numbers. RIYL Phosphorescent, Wilco, Old 97's, any of the above bands.
My picks: 3, 8; FCC 4, 11. —Andy

*1 (4:50) - Gentle backing for McCauley's raspy-voiced unrequited love-ballad
2 (4:05) - Energetic multi-voiced honkytonk rock
**3 (3:44) - Midtempo sad-sap folk-rock led by Goldsmith, great images
**4 (3:12) - FCC: "dick so hard"; Rowdy, fantastic self-destructive character sketch with some vicious jabbing at top-40-country-mentality
5 (4:40) - Slower, pining indie-rock with Neil Young-imitator vox
*6 (5:06) - Replacements cover led nicely by McCauley, simple upbeat backing
*7 - (2:43) More Goldsmith heartrending, just voice and acoustic guitar
**8 - (2:57) Rock and roll! McCauley scores again, great backing vox
9 - (3:40) Soulful rock with nice 50's touches to the arrangement (horns, ooh-ahs)
*10 - (6:00) Mopey Goldsmith over sparse electrics; builds to angry love ballad
11 - FCC: "shit" (4:02) Folk rock; McCauley's dynamic vocals, nice electric guitar
*12 - (4:03) Each vocalist takes a turn in a simple, mature, folk number; reminds me of Billy Bragg's Mermaid Avenue stuff