Ravenna Woods @   Black Lodge |  01 / 23  |  9PM  |  ????

Listening to Ravenna Woods is kind of like listening to the indie acoustic soundtrack to the Temple of Doom. Imagine yourself running through a jungle somewhere from some sort of danger; let’s say a troop of crazy monkeys.  And all of the sudden you hear an acoustic guitar being played in an urgent frenzy to match the  pace of your sprint.  Then, some heavy, ominous percussion kicks in accompanied by  oddly hopeful xylophone chimes.  At this point you start to think you may have over reacted about the monkeys.  But then you hear someone sing “I want you to wake up at the bottom of a lake,” and you start to realize these monkeys are serious.

Ravenna Woods gets a lot done for a three piece using minimal instrumentation.  There are hints of strings, piano, and bass on the recordings, but mostly the band gets by with a guitar, mandolin, and drums consisting of what seems like floor toms and hand percussion. It’s a particularly sparse sort of arrangement, and it works fantastically.  Vocally speaking, Chris Cunningham and Brantley Duke team up to give the thoughtful lyrics a strong place to stand inside complex songs that could have otherwise easily overpowered them. When it all comes together what you get is beautiful music that is oddly up tempo.

The video for “Ghosts” is an educational homage to the tragic outcome of Government nuclear testing on Bikini Island, in the South Pacific.  Two thumbs up for good music that makes you think.