Ezra Furman with Valley Fair and Sarah Krueger

Ezra Furman

Americans have an undeniable and insatiable appetite for voyeurism. Readily feeding them hearty portions is front-man Ezra Furman, who makes no qualms about peddling the deeply personal to the public and draws no drapes between himself and an audience thanks to his pulsating, confessional songwriting style. Through his eponymous Chicago-based quartet, Ezra Furman & the Harpoons, Furman employs the same open-chest honesty that drew ire for Ginsberg’s Howl and spawned speculation of Cohen’s Chelsea Hotel as he pines for his Wild Rosemarie and recounts bouts of transience during the making of the band’s upcoming third studio LP, Mysterious Power.

With lyrics featuring the fittingly dualistic motif of blood – representing both the humor d’amour and the stomach-turning stains of tragedy – Furman’s music madly swings between wide-eyed sentimentality and brutally truthful accounts of life’s grotesqueries. Forging ahead with Furman’s brazenly rust-tinged croons, the band solders rollicking rockabilly rhythm and love-struck doo-wop sensibility with punk-rock ferocity and immediacy. In a musical alloy as unlikely as it is engaging, Furman finds release for bleeding-heart sensitivity and bloody-knuckled brawls of conscience as he “declares open warfare on jadedness, cynicism and irony.” (Greg Kot, Chicago Tribune)

Ezra Furman & The Harpoons are putting forth their tautest album to date with Mysterious Power, as produced by Doug Boehm (French Kicks, Starsailor). There is an impressive range of styles and sounds in this newest set of songs, but there is also a palpable cohesiveness that can in part be attributed to the full incorporation of guitarist Andrew Langer. A veteran of the Chicago-area outfit The Redwalls, Langer was used only in guest spots on the band’s second album; however, his being woven into the fabric of Mysterious Power, along with the eruptive energy of Adam Abrutyn’s drumbeats and the volatile McCartney-wails of Job Mukkada’s harmonies, lends a complementary sonic counterweight to Furman’s lyrics that drives the music forward.

Don’t Turn Your Back on Love and Wild Rosemarie are so intensely delicate and gorgeous they have a haltingly powerful presence. The anthemic catharsis of Teenage Wasteland and the frantic crescendos of Blood Sucking Whore reveal piercing vulnerabilities beneath their bold arrangements. The Harpoons deftly toy with dynamics more like the Pixies than a folk-rock group on tracks like Heaven At the Drive-In, while mixing in Is-This-It-inspired guitar hooks on Portraits of Maude and Blue-Album-style backing harmonies on I Killed Myself but Didn’t Die. This third LP puts a stronger emphasis on beauty, building on earlier releases that toyed more with the irrepressible energy of youth. This progress is perhaps best showcased by Wild Feeling and the album’s title track, Mysterious Power.

Ezra Furman & the Harpoons have made numerous album of the year lists with their debut Banging Down the Doors and sophomore release Inside the Human Body. They have gained critical acclaim for performances with Lou Reed at South by Southwest, Alec Ounsworth of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, The Walkmen, Spoon, and Delta Spirit, as well as at major festivals such as Lollapalooza. They have attained international notoriety by soaring to the number-one spot on European radio stations and playing to thousands at Barcelona’s Primavera music festival. Ezra personally embarked on the quixotic feat of recording an original and personalized song for every person who bought a special self-released EP. On top of all of this, Ezra Furman & the Harpoons deliver live performances that will leave you buzzing with excitement.

Furman gallops and crashes around the stage like an asylum-bound Buddy Holly complete with endearing hiccups and frightening tics. He not only christens every tour with a nom de rock, but also titles each individual gig. Furman’s witty and effusive conversations with the audience, along with his heightened attention to the crowd’s prevailing mood and the shows named like children, creates an extremely personalized feel for every performance. The band grinds out riffs stoically and belts out harmonies spiritedly as they lay the aural ties to support the verbal locomotion of Furman as he careens and caroms about, filling the room with the boiling-hot emotional steam of a fully bared soul.

Valley Fair

Sarah Krueger

There's something about the human voice that can transcend. Whether it's transcending into our most primal emotions or back through our past memories, the power in a musical voice can captivate the impenetrable. Pair that with unadorned and relatable lyrics, and you have a foundation that will pull you in. Sarah Krueger, an emerging artist from Duluth, Minnesota first featured her signature voice with a minimalist americana and pop folk sound in her first effort, "Running EP". The six songs are laced with influences from the cold hillside city in which she lives, as well as a tasteful delve into the most fundamental themes that encompass us all.

Sarah is now taking off on her own, performing original songs as the leader of her band. Her newest full length album, "Dancing With Phantoms," focuses on combining an honest folk-rock presence with gospel and roots undertones to create a batch of songs with more breadth and depth than her previously released songs. "Dancing With Phantoms" promises a well rounded taste of Sarah's straightforward and earnest songwriting.