Two night special with Farewell Milwaukee in the Historic River Room!

Friday Jan 12th – Electric
Sat Jan 13th – Acoustic
Buy advance tickets to both shows for $25!

DOORS 7PM
TURBO PASTEL 7:30PM
FAREWELL MILWAUKEE 8PM

Minneapolis band Farewell Milwaukee releases their fourth full-length album, FM, on September 9. FM is the product of successfully achieving the balance of furthering their artistic careers with a family life. “[The album] has the first song ever written about my daughter, called ‘Hurt No More,’” says front man Ben Lubeck. “I texted my wife a few weeks ago after revisiting the album saying that this was the record I wanted my daughter to remember me by. Musically and lyrically.”

Mainstays of the Minneapolis music scene since 2008, Farewell Milwaukee embraces the role that their Midwestern towns have played in shaping them artistically, garnering them fans through their authentic lyrics, lush vocal harmonies, and an honest sincerity at live shows. It is because of this, they have gathered accolades from local and national press, landed a song placement on major-network TV, opened for the Lumineers (among others), and are featured on compilations alongside Mumford & Sons, Adele and Amos Lee.

The band’s success has given them perspective and an appreciation for their roots, which continuously comes across in FM. The album, filled with a thematic sense of grounding, was shaped by the stage-of-life lens of being husbands and fathers, and it is this concept of home base that made a concrete impression on FM’s overall flowing sound.

Produced by Minneapolis’ Jason Orris and recorded in Terrarium Music Studios, FM is the first album the band has recorded in town since their debut album, Autumn Rest Easy. Farewell Milwaukee has previously shied away from recording close to home in order to keep the flow of the process as smooth as possible; however, for this album, being close to home had a positive and productive effect on the record. “We’ve tried to avoid that [recording in town] in the past with the fear of it being a distraction and taking away from the process. But it seemed to make things very comfortable this time around in the best possible way. It seemed like the easiest record we’ve ever made. The logistics were simplified, we slept in our own beds at night,” says Lubeck.

Through the ease of the recording process, the band was able to take time to experiment with new sounds; this creativity and adventurousness brings FM to life through the addition of strings, steel guitar, and other sonic touches that the six-piece group perfected in the studio. “One of our greatest strengths is that we are all sympathetic to each other’s playing,” added Lubeck. “We give each other space to play the others’ instruments and take turns letting certain instruments take the spotlight.”

The unique sounds of the album make it difficult to fit FM into a particular genre (call it folk rock with a head and a tail, as described in an earlier album review from the Netherlands); however, genre tags are less important when projects like FM have beautifully crafted instrumentation accompanied by powerful lyrics and melodies.

“We’re making the best music of our lives while experiencing some of life’s most precious moments with our children. We’re truly living out our personal dreams and couldn’t be happier. My three-year-old runs around the house with a bedazzled pink guitar playing harmonica as loud as she can, trying to be like her daddy, and I don’t have to experience that through the screen of an iPhone,” says Lubeck.

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https://soundcloud.com/turbo-pastel

Benjamin Gordon Burwell (Turbo Pastel) has been swinging a hammer from 8 to 5 for the past two years. He worked all over the Twin Cities, restoring old houses, and honing his skills as a carpenter. His guitar, meanwhile, sat in the basement.

Burwell had been in bands since high school, studied opera in college, and went on to front the Minneapolis outfit Taj Raj, but the grind of promoting an independent band began to take its toll. A longing began to grow, in his mind and chest, for a morning routine, that dovetailed into an honest workday, so Burwell played it straight: he advanced from an apprenticeship with a local independent builder to being a carpenter with a larger construction company, learned to bookmatch wood grain, and steady his coping saw.

A lot of daily obligations can be skipped on occasion — breakfast, making your bed, calling your loved ones — but neglected long enough, those unattended tasks can start to erode the foundations of a person. They can slow you down, empty you out, and lay you out. Two years without penning a song revealed something to Ben: writing isn’t a gift, a passion, or a pastime. It is a fact of life, as necessary for good living and growth as is a good night’s sleep. So in February of 2017, after a good long break, Ben felt the need again to grab his guitar from the basement and to start telling stories again.

But, what stories to tell? The answer seems simple: His own. This wasn’t clear to Ben, however, until his car broke down for a week in late January/early February of 2017. For that week, he legged it to and from work, with two pairs of socks in each Redwing, and two hand warmers in each pocket of his heavy jacket. On the daily commute, he passed by mechanics working in their loud, dirty garages; by metal-heads smoking in front of their tattoo shops; along parkways where young lovers strolled entranced, insulating each other from the wider world. It was on these long, chilly walks, passing Minnesota’s frozen lakes — where some fished for fun, and others for dinner — that a simple point became clear. Every last one of us has a unique story to tell, and it would be a gift to hear them all. But, we can’t. So what to do? Why not just tell your own? It was then that Ben set out on the simple task to tell the stories of his life, of the people he loves and of the town they all live in. Herein is a snapshot of one man you may very well pass on the street, loading his guitar into his dusty old work truck.

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RIVER ROOM SHOW. ADVANCE TICKETS AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE ABOVE.
$25 for both Electric and Acoustic shows Jan 12 & 13.
NO REFUNDS – NO EXCEPTION

PLEASE NOTE THIS SHOW IS BAR SERVICE ONLY – NO FOOD SERVICE. IF you would like to join us for dinner, please make reservations in our Cafe prior to the show at 612-379-3138. There is a cover for the show in our Cafe, affective 8pm.

TICKET SALES END SHOW DAY 12 noon. Remaining tickets will be available for cash purchase the door. NO REFUNDS. NO EXCEPTIONS.