Sunday, April 1, 7 p.m.
Triple Crown Whiskey Bar & Raccoon Motel, 304 East Third Street, Davenport IA
Praised by Pitchfork.com for her “raw, striking vulnerability” and by the New York Times for her “plantive, slender voice” with “not a hint of timidity in it,” singer/songwriter and guitarist Kristine Leschper brings her four-piece indie-folk outfit Mothers to Davenport for an April 1 Moeller Nights concert, sharing songs that led ConsequenceOfSound.net to rave of Leschper, “Her words are both what break you and what heal you.”
Mothers originated as the solo project of the Athens, Georgia-based visual artist Leschper while she studied printmaking at the Lamar Dodd School of Art. A self-taught songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Leschper’s earliest musical influences included such early-aughts rock and folk artists as Interpol, Sufjan Stevens, Joanna Newsom, the Microphones, and Neutral Milk Hotel, and she later developed a love for experimental music, math rock, and noise artists such as Lighting Bolt, Hella and Tera Melos. As a result, her earliest demos found Leschper exploring non-traditional song structures that toggled between strength and vulnerability, and were often linear in form.
Over the course of 2014, Leschper played solo shows that earned her local acclaim, with Flagpole magazine praising the performer for her “visceral, deeply personal” songs. But after garnering attention as a solo artist, Leschper decided in order to achieve her true musical vision, she would need to recruit other musicians from Athens and form a full band. Consequently, Mothers was born with Drew Kirby on guitar, Chris Goggins on bass, and Matthew Anderegg on drums, and the group quickly recorded their debut full-length album – When You Walk a Long Distance You Are Tired – at Athens' Chase Park Transduction over the winter of 2014. The work features collaborations with Josh McKay (of Deerhunter) on vibraphone and McKendrick Bearden (of Grand Vapids) on bass and string arrangements, and according to NPR.org, “These songs feel like a snapshot of a time getting left behind rather than lived in, performed by a riveting, honest band.”
Mothers' April 1 concert at the Triple Crown Whiskey Bar & Raccoon Motel starts at 7 p.m., tickets are $12-15, and more information on the evening is available by visiting MoellerNights.com.
