Briar Rabbit w/ Milk & Eggs
The Mill – Thursday, Jan. 23 at 9 p.m. ($8)
With the new year (and the resolutions that come with it) and with Valentine’s Day looming less than a month away, it’s here, folks — breakup season. It’s the time of year where you are most likely to be dumped! Fortunately, Chicago’s Briar Rabbit is coming to The Mill this Thursday, and with a bunch of sad-sack love lorn songs in tow, it’s the perfect soundtrack for licking those wounds.
Briar Rabbit has proven himself to be a master of breakup jams with his latest album From Your Bones. Taking cues from artists such as Bright Eyes and Death Cab for Cutie, his lyrics are given center-stage within his songs. He describes his sound as “thought pop” and his words are poetic and obviously labored over. But as a Berklee graduate, he also clearly has an ear for arrangement, with powerful, crashing drums and floating, heavenly organs framing his folk guitar.
As B.B. King’s nephew (yes, that B.B. King), Briar Rabbit has blues royalty in his blood, and it’s easy to see his uncle’s influence on his sound. His previous EP — 2012’s The Great Routine! — was released in honor of Black History Month and took lyrical inspiration from African-American Minstrel shows, drawing parallels between fame, racism and self-degradation.
Briar Rabbit’s songs are powerful, soulful and worth a listen. The show begins at 9 p.m. on Thursday, with Milk & Eggs opening.
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