what mittens on strings is “about”, by two eyes.
my first answer was “nostalgia”. it seemed like a natural response, with the drone adding that extra touch of melancholy to folk rock songs, a genre already inherently steeped in mourning past events.
we’re children of the 90’s, and our music reflects that. remember these crusty dudes named kirkwood taking the stage with nirvana to play some songs you’d never heard before but perfectly understood? was neil young just another old fogey name-dropped for ages until you sat down and actually listened to something besides ‘mirror ball’ or that so-so unplugged performance? is the term “DIY” ingrained into your consciousness, whether you adhere to it or not? did you wait for ‘dgc rarities vol 2′ just like the rest of us?
a friend of mine told me recently that she thought “mittens on strings” had something to do with the heartstrings. which I thought was a little fruity, but a little true too.
badger’s response was that mittens on strings was about “friendship”. and after spending four years with this group of its six - three of which with these same five people - I realize how right that dude is. the geographic divide alone would break nearly any other band if it wasn’t for the camaraderie. everytime that we get together is a celebration, a reunion of old friends, and that joy seeps into the music. people like joe, whitely, and caitlin come and go as their lives permit, and it’s always better to have them along. not to mention the fact that a great many of our songs deal with friends and loved ones, in one form or another.
that or daydreaming.
Mittens on Strings are:
David Badger
Jacob Daneman
Bill Grubb
Alexander Preston
Jonathan Schenke
some people say:
[Let’s Go to Baba’s] contrasts moody chamber-pop with a hedonistic edge. The record swims in distorted guitars and cascading spirals of psychedelic sound, while lyrics explore both everyday mundanity and the extraordinary. Cello highlights an autumnal current drifting through meditative tunes, but despite the Good Book references and existential undertones, a communal sense of humor shines through… Singer Alex Preston apes Lou Reed’s warbly drawl to fit his own indie intentions, but to accuse him of biting the notorious curmudgeon would be disingenuous. We can’t imagine Reed ever having this much fun. - Arief Sless-Kitain, Time Out Chicago
The strange and beautiful pop songs of this quintet range from hints of rambling country to a rush of trippy electronica. - Mary Houlihan - Chicago Sun-Times
Mittens on Strings, the band, have a song called “Big Brother” that seems like standard lo-fi rock at first, until the gang vocals kick in and demand your attention, and the guitar solo combines notes that surely have been combined before in a way that seems like they’ve crossed galaxies to meet in a totally unique formation, and a second listen reveals that the entire song is silly-awesome. Slawesome? - Popmatters, Tyler Gould
[Let’s Go to Baba’s] is full of iridescent, laid-back folksy rock. From listen one, you can tell Mittens members majored in the bygone narratives of Neil Young and Lou Reed, studying up on the fuzz folk atmospherics of Sparklehorse and Lambchop as extracurriculars. The whole album is full of little nuggets of fool’s gold, with tunes about lonely birds, lumbering giants and flaming pigs. It’s the kind of clever music you’d expect from the Case ranks, with an innovative business model to boot. — Keith Gribbins, Cleveland Scene
Chicago’s Mittens on Strings is an indie band that likes to jam. Or a jam band that dabbles in weird pop. Or maybe just a group of dudes who listened to a lot of Jonathan Richman and Neil Young while taking hardcore psychedelic drugs. Ok, it’s clear we have no idea what it is, but we do know the band likes to have fun: MoS’ latest album, Let’s Go to Baba’s, contains songs about flaming pigs, lonely birds on vacation and a Velvet Underground dig called “Lou Reed Says.” This isn’t a joke act, though. The musicianship is solid and varied and the lyrics, while often humorous, also pack a definite punch. Before long, you’ll find yourself mouthing the words “a burnin’ hog ain’t fun” without even cracking a smile. - Ben Rubenstein, Centerstage
Mittens on Strings have recently self-produced and recorded a new album of accomplished, varied pop music. At times it feels a little K Records, at times a little Half Japanese, but the whole record has a pervasive sense of lightness and whimsy that helps it sit nicely in between the worlds of pop, folk and rock. “La Middle Ages” is a slower, more elegiac turn for MoS that highlights the tension as well as the symmetry between the various stringed instruments in play. Enjoy, and stay tuned for bigger moves in the near future. - Tony Plunkett, RCRDLBL
7.3 / 10 - Look Up the Sky!! manages to create and sustain a brand of irony that somehow implies connection and investment rather than detachment and distance. Mittens on Strings’ characters are outsiders who remain sympathetic even as their desperation lends itself to dark humor… That the band takes these characters and situations seriously lends these songs a considerable gravity, which makes this tongue-twister-titled album familiar yet inventive, smart-ass yet endearing. - Stephen M. Deusner, Pitchfork
“Look Up To The Sky”, is the latest album by … Mittens On Strings. The album does contain some strange and beautiful pop, no more so than on “The Most Complete Skeleton Ever Found”, a rather fine piece of writing that deserves to be heard. More of the same can be heard on the vitriolic “Prez’s Folly”, which reminds me of Lou Reed, whilst “Confrontation” has a lilting country feel that is shattered by the high-energy stomp of “Badge’s Folly”. For some reason track eight is not listed on the cover (it jumps from 7 to 9), a shame as it is a brief but glorious mess of electronics, voice samples and noise that bleeds into the far more gentle “Last Shot”, closing the album on a melancholy high. - Terrascope
The members of this “Kentuckiana” collecive are firm believers in collaborative songwriting - so much so that they’ve even designed a flowchart illustrating how they go about it. That approach led to the fiversity of styles that popped up throughout the group’s early singles and EPs, which in turn flowered into the full-blown schizophrenia of Look Up the Sky!! (Emperor Jones), their full lenght debut. There’s a swirling, churning, Paisley Underground feel to ‘G.I. Dirt Races’, a dark, hypnotic quality to ‘The Most Complete Skeleton Ever Found’, and a trippy back-porch simplicity to ‘Enter Mothership’. The biggest danger with a band like this is the tendency to fall back on quirkiness once the ideas start running thin, but so far Mittens on Strings haven’t taken a wrong step. Like Califone, their jamminess is playful and melancholic enough that the patchwork holds together like a warm and trustworthy coat. - Monica Kendrick, Chicago Reader
From the first thwack of deep drum to the last flecks of distant banjo this is a very enjoyable ride. Wearing its heart on its sleeve ‘Look Up The Sky’ is a tapestry of pop beauty held together with a country tinged weave. The seemingly fluffly mood is often cut through on repeated listens as a darker content is revealed elevating the album to a higher and more serious level as the poppy outer shell is cracked to reveal once hidden depths. - Ed Newton, Tasty Fanzine
Mittens on Strings effervecently bask in a sonic daydream glow of folksy, experimental, semi-psychedelic Alternative Pop Rock. It’s a sound that the Matador and Drag City labels would have enthusiastically embraced in the 1990s, and I find it to be a fuzzy, tingling, softly titillating sensation deep in the soul of my ears. Yep, Mittens on Strings immerse the listener in a dreamy, buzzing, shimmering haze of aural resplendence that’s as gentle and calmative as the breeze-swept sway of trees or a mind-tickling abundance of childlike kaleidoscope daffodil hallucinations. Look Up the Sky!! is a fantastically magical experience through and through! - Moser, Under the Volcano
To The Slow Start: Don’t get worried when the song appears to stop about 2 minutes in. This is just a deception, or for the band to gather their thoughts and start again. I adore this song. I really like the Thom Yorke-like vocals over the loping banjo and quiet drones. It’s a wonderful little piece of laze to fill out your Friday afternoon. The tiny, rolling hi hat in the background, and the plink of the mandolin all bring it together, as cymbals delicately crash. It’s a beautiful song, and a hell of a way to end a record. - Mark Willett, Music for Robots
It’s very Olympia, in the K Records way, but in a more organic, lustrous sense, probably because of the melody swells and the banjo, mandolin, cello and violin on top of all that normal indie rock stuff. The feeling is of a very dreamy, half-drunk Midwest in the way it can be when it’s sunny in January. - Jess H., INtake
Dark-toned, deep-voiced, multi-instrumental free-for-alls, illuminated by periodic eruptions of hair-raising accidental harmonies. - Monica Kendrick, Chicago Reader (about Pushing Buttons)