Able Baker Fox, Voices

If you haven’t heard of these guys, go ahead and put them on your short list of new favorite bands. The Casket Lottery and Small Brown Bike are both gone, but because of their chemistry in past collaborative efforts, ex-band members Nathan Ellis, Ben Reed, Mike Reed, and Jeff Gensterblum are creating amazing music together in a long-distance love affair they call Able Baker Fox. And it’s damn good (as you can tell from the 10-inch they put out together in 2002, available on Second Nature). They’re already making waves, playing one of the Hot Water Music reunion shows in Chicago in early February. Voices was recorded in 2007 with familiar name Ed Rose out in Kansas, and the vinyl comes in yellow/black, blue/orange, and a special edition yellow, only available at that Hot Water reunion show.

This is one of those albums on which you don’t want to skip a single track. “October” starts the album out and gets your fists pumping — powerful guitars, intense bass lines, solid drumming, and plenty of awesome sing-a-long anthemic vocals guide you through the variations on this album. “Face on Fire” is driving, with a gnarly guitar solo on a song that’s sure to be a crowd pleaser live (how many will be grabbing for the microphones, trying to yell “Face on fire!” with fists raised to the sky?). “Twenty Centuries” has amazing group backing vocals, with some great dueling vocals courtesy of Ellis and Mike Reed.

The lyrics speak to so many of us, probably, that have been through some years that have calloused us. And the whole album makes me feel like it’s all going to be okay — that there’s other people who are keepin’ on keepin’ on. “Whispering” reminds us as the album closes: “Hey don’t stop / Take a look at what you’ve got / Hey don’t quit / Not while you’re living it / Did you hear what your heart is whispering? / Aren’t you listening? / Why aren’t you listening?” Yeah. Fuck, yeah.