Press
| Indy Band of the Month (click for image and context) | |
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from the Independent Weekly, Oct. 17th, 2007: When the 13 tracks of Fixed, the second full-length from Chapel Hill's Twilighter, tick to a close, the only thing that really matters is the pungent, bitter aftertaste of the last two takes: The couplet starts with "Coffee & Pills," which builds in five minutes from a solo somnambulant bassline to dual guitar solos where strings act like flints, setting sparks that send frontman Brandon Herndon's chemical ways into flames. For the first minute, a thin guitar chases the melody, a simple rhythm cautiously cantering as Herndon serves his own dejection notice: "Coffees and pills and lovers, tea and drugs/ pass the time/ But the bad shit never leaves/ in the morning." The second verse repeats the first, except when it's over this time, things get nasty. After verse one, the chorus simply steers to verse two. Here, it takes a hard left, veering from the road and letting the guitar solos-glimpses of feedback and fistfuls of scraped strings-incinerate. full review and context | |
| from CITY BEAT (Cincinnati, OH) Vol 8, Issue 36 Jul 18-Jul 24, 2002 Chapel Hill-based quintet TWILIGHTER brings its easygoing yet potent brand of Indie Pock to the area this weekend. The band uses Moog and farfisa keys to spice up the usual guitar/bass/drums arsenal, writing narcotic Pop songs that sound like they were concocted at the back end of a late-night chill-out session. The group is currently readying its debut CD release. Joining the band at Plush (the music space above Carol's on Main) is Mystic Dub Star, a relatively new local Dub/Electronic group that features members of Neato Torpedo (Twilighter also plays Friday at the Southgate House Parlour with NT). 513-651-2667. --MIKE BREEN [http://www.citybeat.com/2002-07-18/todo.shtml] (click for image and context) |
Police Chief Brody's dreams are a fevered hum of dorsal fins and choppy swells. Amity island's ringed in dark vibrant storm clouds, but it will not rain. Adrift on his Sunfish, Brody feels like a character in Eliot's "Wasteland." Twilighter churns like the sea, skirting and circling pop melodies tauntingly, ever moving, its jagged guitar taking chunks out of the rhythmic pulse. Dark and winding, its melodies pulling like undertow, Twilighter never sleeps nor gives up the hunt. (click for image and context) |
| They've been described as "Velvet Underground jamming with a
beaten-down Beck," which effectively conveys the mix of raw, primitive rock and folky,
downbeat singer/songwriter-type songs. There's an intimacy to singer/guitarist Brandon
Herndon's raspy tenor creak that recalls Tom Waits, as does the band's penchant for unusual
tones and percussion. Not so much morose as haunted, and piqued as opposed to
tortured, this is road music to leave town for good to. (click for image and context) |
Take TWILIGHTER, too, a somewhat un-sccne quartet from Chapel Hill writing mildly psychedelic folk songs about theology, angels, Zen, oak trees and homes
back in the woods. Multi-instriimentalist and vocalist Brandon Herndon sports a Beck-beckoning
deadpan deep into this idiosyncratic mix of three-part harmonies, synthesizer whirls,
acoustic guitars and farfisa rolls. Comparisons to both The Bruces and a reflective Mike Doughty
seem logical, but neither captures what is going on in Fortune is On. None of the parts are played perfectly, odd snippets of unintentional dissonance peeking through amid little background mistakes. Those free-wheeling intentions, combined with
Herndon's esoteric musings ("No, I'm ready, ready, ready, ready /'cause 45 xenons of the
almighty"), make this debut not only intriguing, but also the most unexpectedly captivating
record released in the Triangle this year. (click for image and context) |
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There's a sigh that runs through this music, and a sigh can hold many -things: hope, nostalgia, loss, relief, regret, resignation. All of these come through in Twilighter's music. On "Fortune Is On" the Chapel Hill band fashions Twilighter "Fortune Is On," music from the traditional guitar (Brandon Herndon), bass (Josh Sokal), and drums (Kaeri Johnson), and adds Sonar Strange's keys as well as farfisa organ, moog, shakers, and cello. The opener, If The Spirit Doesn't Move You sets the tone: life going by, time, the world ("Nowhere, nowhere/ in between here and there/something leaves"). Build A House, with its cello and off-beat piano is hazy dreaming and late- night hope ("I miss what we used to be/ Let's sneak up on ourselves"). Coolies takes its time getting to the chorus where "It's just a sigh when you're alone/ when you feel you are dying/ All we are/ It's just... that's the way/ All we are/ It's just... feel ok." A second, distorted, guitar comes fit fit(. end. the drums and bass kick up it notch and everything gains momentum reaches lot' the sky, then falls back in on itself. Though it's not explicit. in the lyrics. Ride Shotgun with its pro-tones conveys something cracked and dangerous lurking just outside headlights' reach or the narrator's own head. (click for image and context) |
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