Mockingbird Wish Me Luck

Goodbye Debris (2009)

Brian Shultz

Though a year old now, Mockingbird Wish Me Luck's Goodbye Debris EP continues to teem with both homespun craftsmanship (the whole original self-released package must be from recycled materials) and musical promise.

Musically, the band sounds kinda like where Attack in Black was going with their Widows EP before really dipping heavily into prairie punk with 2007's fantastic Marriage. The vocals go by way of the post-Hot Water Music, shredded emotional growl, but it's really just a harsher component to a deliberate and stealthy melodic punk sound with a perfect level of careful twang that presents itself with opener "Survival and Defeat." The band plays along that rugged, moderately up-tempo frame often and able, and always with plenty of recognizable heart.

They know how to keep the worn tension going even when the pace is picked up, however, as "Orphans of a Storm" seems to prove. The chorus is big without being forced, transitioning with a jolting jump and adding subtle nuances of backing "whoa"s to it--before more obvious frontal "whoa"s help carry the song out.

This EP was actually reissued by Dine Alone this past summer, which makes perfect sense. Hopefully it's just the foundation for a bright future--and I'll likely be accepting of whatever musical adventures Mockingbird Wish Me Luck wish to go on, too.

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Goodbye Debris EP