Tallboy

Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.' -Percy Shelley Clint and Cody are brothers. They've been playing music together since before they knew what whisky was. But now that they know, the only fair description of their music is that it's like, well, whisky. Golden, smoky, dark and sublime, gentle and subtle, but it'll knock you on your ass if you let it, break your heart if you're not wary, cull your tears and keep them, steal your breath, remind you of your heartaches, harvest your sorrows, and distill them all into the finest elixir that soothes your soul. Where whisky and music are concerned, you want to find the best distillers, you want the deepest draughts, you want the best and oldest friends to share. Music gets better with age, the best stands the test of time, and so from the oldest barrels pours the sweetest liquors. For the brothers Phipps, life began with music. From a family like a musical entourage, they began performing before they could properly hold a guitar. Rural Maine encouraged the music, the rhythm of the tides, the boom of the surf, the wind through the woods, the angst of the seasons. Their previous bands evoked the natural rebelliousness of the world, rock music, alternatives to the mainstream, independent always. With their new acoustic project, the Pitch Black Ribbons, they return to the roots of their knowledge. A style that draws from all genres epitomizes the philosophy that there are two kinds of music in this world: the good, and the rest. People mistake the band as country all too often, thanks to the visual cue of the cowboy hats, but the brothers revel in such miscategorizations that illuminate more about the mentality of the surrounding world than any individual within it. We all rely on caricatures and generalization to get by, but sometimes stereotypes crack and explode and you see the complexities within the gloss. Pitch Black Ribbons is like that, a current at depth, deep waters fluxing through the world, unmitigated and irresistible, seeking meaning, seeking truth, encompassing the varieties of human experience, from love to revelry, from anger to happiness. Their music sounds like a downhome distillery, but their soul is steeped in rock n' roll.