QUICK HITS: New Projects From Newbies & Cemented Favorites
there’s something really special goin’ on right now with local musicians, and your earholes desperately need to hear it
Orchid Eaton, a passion project of heavy hitters and Eau Claire natives Brian Moen (Shouting Matches, Peter Wolf Crier, Laarks) and Matt Leavitt (Emot), is rolling out a three-EP project this year following the magic-making duo’s 2021 albums, Where All Ends Meet and the two-track Keep Your Head Up. If you’ve paid any attention, you’ll have already relished in the first of the three EPs of Recreational Music ep1-3, which was released in May and features three songs for a 13-minute runtime. The first tune, “Rejoice,” is the rebirth of a 2013 voice memo, now having evolved several times through the DIY recording Orchid Eaton is known for. “(It’s) mainly about gratitude,” Leavitt said. With the lush, layered sound of strings, synthesizers, and keyboards, this first taste of the full project displays Moen and Leavitt’s experimentation with Pat Keen, Shane Leonard’s mixing, and Holly Hansen’s production. Learn more at orchideaton.com and listen wherever you prefer, including Bandcamp.
Singles dropped throughout 2023 were the breadcrumbs leading up to Dog Paulson’s debut album, POG DAULSON, at the end of the year. More recently, the music collective (Cade Eliason, Godwin Agbara, Joey Mayer, Jonah Hummel, Batty Maby, and Oliver Matte) headlined a show at Abraxas Wax, and I listened to their album while driving to get a coffee and writing at work. Kinda hard to do when it rips so hard, but I did it, and I gotta say – This group of Eau Claire transplants is something special. POG DAULSON is an 11-song lovechild (with four bonus tracks on the CD) with crazy cool production. Inspiration from the likes of Brock Hampton, Jaden Smith, and Flower Boy-era Tyler, the Creator were clear (think electric but melodic, synthesizers and guitars, vibey but well-thought out), but this is no copy-and-paste album. Track six – “Jump!” – might say it best: “Askin’ what kinda music we make / The good kind / Are you stupid?” Dog Paulson’s debut album POG DAULSON is available at Abraxas Wax and Revival Records, as well as wherever you stream music.
Eau Claire has the chance to be part of a true moment this fall when Bizhiki – a newly-formed trio of Dylan Bizhikiins Jennings, Joe Rainey, and Sean Carey (S. Carey) – performs live for one of the first times ever at Micon Downtown Cinema this fall following the release of their debut album, Unbound. Two singles dropped at the end of June – “Unbound” and “Gigawaabamin (Come Through)” – teasing what is sure to be a soul-rocking debut (releasing July 19, after this issue goes to print). As described on their website, “The collaboration first began at the Eau Claires festival in 2015, which was being organized on Ojibwa’s ancestral homelands, and the organizers didn’t feel right without the inclusion of the native community who lived nearby.” Already in just two songs, you can feel S. Carey in the bones of them. But his musicality doesn’t cover nor confuse the vibrancy of Bizhikiins and Rainey, Bizhikiins’s adopted brother, as anything but themselves, making for what feels like a completely new experience as the three come together. Don’t miss the Sept. 14 performance in Eau Claire, which promises to be a visual-musical experience. Listen to Bizhiki's debut album Unbound everywhere you stream music beginning July 19.
