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.

Royal Canoe is a new Canadian band I've been enjoying. They have a debut EP called Extended Play (get it?) and some cool videos you should watch. It's all a click away.