Wolfgang Schaefer and his brother Benjamin are from Milwaukee WI and have released a new album entitled Typewriter. Their work is acoustically driven, but vocally centered which leaves plenty of room for the thoughtful lyrics to speak clearly to the listener. Their sound world is noted for tasteful use of bluegrass instruments, brass, piano and vocal harmony. A strength of the album is the layering of these textures which create arrival points as well as high and low dynamic plateaus.
The full album is nine tracks of intimate song writing that deals heavily in nostalgia and melancholy. The first track, Pocket Full of Pills, is an excellent representation of the album as a whole for both it's lyrical and musical content. The opening gesture of mandolin and piano pull in the audience with its engaging crescendo before Wolfgang's tranquil voice enters to spin a tale love's less than sunny side. Typewriter feels like an overcast morning with an era of familiarity and comfortable melancholy. It is that part of sadness which we can all relate to and sometimes look back at with sentimentality.
Get to know the guys in Wolfgang Schaefer a little deeper with an interview from Rock 'N Roll Ghost here but don't forget your dictionary because this blog doesn't hold back from words like ennui. Good on you guys for not holding back on the vocab. Don't forget to shed some love on the new album via Facebook, Twitter, Bandcamp while your at it.