Volcano Choir - ‘Repave’ + New Fashioned
Ingredients: 1 ounce rye whiskey, 1/2 ounce amaretto, 1/4 ounce simple syrup, 3 dashes bitters, orange peel for garnish.
Mixing Instructions: Stir ingredients in a shaker with ice and strain into a rocks glass. Serve neat and garnish with orange peel.
Notes: Many music fans have been introduced to Volcano Choir by way of, “another Justin Vernon band” owing to the bubbling fame of Vernon (Bon Iver). With a Spring release from The Shouting Matches, another one of his bands, it might be assumed that Vernon is restless, but I have another theory — he just really loves music. In fact, it would be a mistake to infer that Volcano Choir is “his” band at all as he provided none of the instrumentation for the group’s second album, but instead faded into the collective, contributing vocals only as other bandmates took the lead.
Made up of members of Collection of Colonies of Bees (a band Vernon says changed his musical orientation during college) and All Tiny Creatures, the band’s second album contains much of the emotional depth you’d expect from anything associated with Vernon, but cranks up the experimentation a few notches churning out a fine collection of post-rock ballads. The heart of the album, starting with third track, “Comrade” and ending with track six, “Dancepack” is where one seems to enter the engine room of a band who has created an album you’ll have on repeat throughout the Fall and one best balanced with a new twist on an old drink — fitting for an artist who seems to thrive on continually changing the recipe.