Punch Brothers are the subject of an in-depth feature article in JamBase centered around a lengthy discussion with Chris Thile and Noam Pikelny about the group's Nonesuch debut, Punch. The piece weighs in on Punch Brothers' place in today's music scene, in which, writes the article's author, Dennis Cook, "not only can we listen to the latest sounds from our own time, our own country, but also virtually anything since recorded music began from every time period, every continent, every culture." That confluence of musical sounds and styles, says Cook, is the perfect setting for Punch Brothers, "a mind-blowingly talented acoustic quintet that got their starts in the bluegrass and pop worlds but has diligently forged into mysterious waters ... [They] are sonic citizens of the world creating a unique sound that couldn't have emerged at any other time in musical history."
On an album that so seamlessly blends so many musical influences while creating something entirely different, the band members "are developing their own way of speaking to each other in their own self-defined musical context," Cook writes. "Each guy seems to be stretching himself and the boundaries of what can be done on their instrument, taking the banjo, mandolin, etc. outside of established corridors and seeing where else it might fit."
In the album's centerpiece, The Blind Leaving the Blind, the JamBase contributor sees "a group synergy that carries the music along but also conveys a sense of shared gravity, each member's efforts pulling the others forward and outward and inward, shifting from instrument to instrument, personality to personality, and subtly affecting the music as it moves."
True to form of Mark Twain, the man whose story "Punch, Brother, Punch!" inspired the band and album names, the "ideal of the learned maverick is part and parcel of the Punch Brothers," writes Cook, "each of whom is a brilliant instrumentalist and singer but never in the straightjacket way most high level musicians tend to be ... For a group equally inspired by Bach and The Beatles, as energized by Ralph Stanley as they are by Radiohead, the old formats are bound to feel constrictive after a while."
Rather than simply discard those old forms or see their diverse favorite musics as distinct genres or classes of high and low, Chris Thile tells JamBase he's looking instead for that common threads that make good music good:
You have these areas where certain things excel in each ... When a folk song really succeeds musically it succeeds for the same reasons that a Mozart symphony succeeds musically. And when a classical libretto is successful it's often touching for the same reasons as a Dylan lyric is touching. It's all the same stuff, and the higher your sampling rate the more true your product will be.
What results, concludes Cook, is "an album of deep, often fierce and frightening emotions, and anyone who's ever felt life on that level (meaning all of us) could well be touched by it."
As Chris says, "With Punch, I really took some risks for the first time, and God, the boys really took some risks, man! I've found a group of guys to collaborate with that honestly the piece couldn't have come out without them,"
To read the complete article, visit jambase.com.
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