JUNE 2008 ONLINE EDITORIALS

The Boulder Acoustic Society – The Caged Bird

By Nate Harper

The Boulder Acoustic Society get to do anything they want, largely because they say so. And by anything I mean yodeling during a rockabilly song, launching into a pretty killer David Byrne impression, or doing, in their own words, a “minor key acoustic punk version of “Maggie’s Farm.” They can get away with this rampant eclecticism because they can pull it off, and while they walk the fine line between grating and experimental, they walk it quite well.

Preferring lyrics and choruses over their onetime dedication to instrumentals, the band continues its quest to write pop songs that might come off a bit abrasive, such as the vocals on the aforementioned Dylan cover, but that the listener can warm to after a few spins. And even as they arguably get more pop, they still wear their acoustic credo with pride, doing an impressive job of expanding the definition of acoustic to “anything not plugged into an amp.” The EP features pianos, accordions and of course stand-up bass and plenty of mandolin. The quality production captures their musicianship in the live tracks as well as the studio cuts. The entire effort is a testament to the fact that people pre-Franklin likely enjoyed themselves as much as any Orange Amp-obsessed guitar junkie.

Never too serious, but far from comedy, the Caged Bird EP serves the band well by allowing them to expand their sound while still letting them keep the intellectual/weirdo mystique that made them likeable in the first place.