Kevin Bronson on May 27th, 2010

2

Teenage wunderkinds Moses Campbell – it’s a six-piece band, not some grizzled folk singer that the name might conjure up – seem to have bottled up the exuberance of youth and the dreariness of aging on one calamitous album. “Who Are You? Who Is Anyone?” (just out on the Smell’s olFactory Records) embraces the present as only kids can but also reinforces the notion that the best way to eye the future is to cast wary glances over one’s shoulder. Singer-guitarist Sean Solomon’s woozy tenor is perfect for such musings, and the sextet (including Pascal Stevenson, Miles Wintner, Daniela Jiminez, Pauline Lay and Andrew MacKelvie) frames them in bursts of unvarnished garage-pop, frayed folk and caffeine-spiked freakouts. You might have heard some of these chords before, but as playdough in the cherubic hands of Moses Campbell, it’s fun to see what shapes they can become.

||| Download: “Swing Sets and Neighborhoods” (newly remastered)

||| Live: Moses Campbell performs Friday night at the Smell, June 4 at Echo Curio and June 5 at the seventh annual Cochina Festival at Higginbotham Park in Claremont.