Faun Fables, Festival preview

Faun Fables | Festival
Schubas | Empty Bottle, Chicago
Friday, August 15 | Monday, August 18, 2008

Two psych folk groups, both female-fronted and predominantly female-filled, and each with some level of connection to Drag City (Faun Fables is on the label; Drag distributes Festival’s music) play Chicago within three days of each other. We’re thinking supergroup.

Inspiration comes from almost anywhere for Faun Fables’ Dawn McCarthy. Her last release, 2006’s delightfully whimsical The Transit Rider, was a concept album about riding the train, and she chooses what seems like an even more mundane topic on A Table Forgotten, a four-song EP about “the age-old practices of tending a home and its immediate impact upon our day to day lives,” or more simply put: It’s culinary-themed. “It is an invitation to return to our kitchens and homes with reverence, to enjoy a largely overlooked sanctuary in the modern age,” the press release reads. That said, the clanking silverware and whistling tea kettles McCarthy and longtime collaborator Nils Frykdahl (of the equally out-there Sleepytime Gorilla Museum) employ on the percussive opening track, “Words & Cake,” are fitting. The title track reminds us the dining-room table isn’t just where we feed our faces – it’s also loaded with history. It’s the place place families have gathered for generations to talk, reminisce, and spend time together.

Festival knows about family. Sisters Alexis (who has been studying as a vocalist since she was a youngster) and Lindsay (who has released solo records under the name Cake Bake Betty and is a member of the rock band Skyblazer) Powell started making music together in 2005, but it wasn’t until the following year they got serious enough to enter a Nashville studio with engineer/co-producer Jeremy Ferguson (Be Your Own Pet, De Novo Dahl). The result, Come, Arrow, Come! (Language Of Stone), isn’t so unlike Faun Fables’ brand of psych-folk, if McCarthy had an equally adventurous sister to harmonize with. Festival became an even more family-friendly band when brother and drummer/violist Mike jumped onboard in 2007. He and cellist Youri Choe complete the touring version of the band.

— Trevor Fisher

Click here to watch the music video for Faun Fables’ “I’d Like To Be.”

Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly