…and spilled my cocktail on the edge of the merch table at the Akron Family show the other night. Man, I’m never that guy – luckily they had a rubberish tablecloth so it spilled right off, no damage done, other than a drop that spilled on one or two of Greg Davis‘s CDs. Seeing the look of perturbation on his merch-girl’s face, I kindly asked to buy one of the narrowly dampened discs.

Now I couldn’t remember if I had ever really seen Greg Davis perform live before. I know he opens up at numerous local concerts I attend, but I’m notoriously late for everything so I don’t think I’ve ever caught his set. Wait, maybe once. I know I saw Akron play when he was with them. Anywho, I had a vision of him being some completely aloof noise manipulator guy without any depth, and I have to apologize. For I really enjoy this album I picked up.

Northern Songs with Chris Weisman and Greg Davis only touches on the aloof noise manipulation scene. It’s really more of a modern folk-sonic vibe with a touch of bipolar psychedelics. It drifts, but never gets dull or too self-indulgent. A few tracks remind me of mellow Animal Collective or maybe an Akron Family meets Blind Melon feel. There’s moments of Byrne-ish Africana, and flips of 8-bit burnouts, and sometimes the weird sounds seem thrown in just for the sake of being weird. The tunes are at their best when they’re more straight forward folk, and “It’s All Too Much” works a perfect balance of everything they’re trying to do. However, the few times they take it out in a more layered, cycling, and focused rabbit-hole drop, it really makes me want to get out to some of these shows earlier.