1. Very mysterious. 2. We possess abundant noodling capacity 3. but we'd like to be able to rehearse more. 4. We play music for people who like boats 5. for those, Ak Ak 6. is not very mysterious....
Villiage People meet Carlos Castaneda on a Vision Quest....
“Pardon the dude-speak, but Akron/Family's got a wicked riff going on this guy. Since 2007, the avant-folk/rockers have lost a member (original member Ryan Vanderhoof left), changed labels (from Michael Gira's Young God to the Secretly Canadian imprint Dead Oceans), and continued to expand their sound. In May comes Set 'Em Wild, Set 'Em Free, their first album as a trio. A dram of cowbell kicks things off on the six-minute album opener "Everyone Is Guilty"-- is this what Animal Collective would sound like if Avey and Panda turned down the synth faders and slapped on a fresh coat of Americana?-- and then when the guitars taper off, a bundle of strings zips the track closed. Akron/Family's got a near-anthem on their hands, and the track is a neat preview of the subdued hooks and hollers that come later; from the fleeting hinge on an "Iron Man" riff on down, most everything in this psychedelic track is Freaking/Awesome.” – Pitchfork
“Let’s just say this up front: Akron/Family killed. They were the best show of the night—edging even a reunited Dinosaur Jr. and flat out demolishing everyone else. No breaks between songs, no real differentiation between songs, no pauses, no banter, just one continuous freakout that touched the highlights of their new record, easily their best, without slavishly replicating it. A bit of “River”, an exhilarating chant of “Higher Higher”, the percussion-mad long intro to “Everyone’s Guilty”, the plaintive campfire sing-along about hard years gone and better ones ahead—it was all there, all mixed and spliced and conjured into something else again, something living and breathing and dancing its ass away. (Mine is smaller today, I checked.) Do you know that feeling you get sometimes, that “I’m so glad I’m still alive so I can still go to shows and be blown away?” feeling? I was overcome by that feeling. It felt good.” – Popmatters.com
“It was Akron/Family that got the venue jumping, though, with cuts from their upcoming Set ’Em Wild Set ’Em Free record, which promises to be huge. Since the departure of guitarist Ryan Vanderhoof (to a Buddhist retreat, no less), the band has really settled into playing as a trio and last night’s set featured twinkly West African–sounding grooves, tribal chanting and stomping, and some serious white noise and shouting.” – Time Out NY
“How come nobody told me this would be my new favorite band? Borderline obsessed after last night. Lead singer looks like Teen Wolf or Walton on the Trail Blazers, which come to think of it, was the obvious inspiration. Already making plans to see them tomorrow at the Don't Mess With Texas Party. Biggest surprise of the week, and along with DP's, the best I've seen thus far.” – LA Weekly
“What It Was Like: Probably the most engaging performance I've seen so far this week. The band and its audience both gushed with energy during this set--which also featured the first stage-dive I've seen at this year's festival. Verdict: I'd never seen Akron/Family live before. Now I think I want to see them live every day for the rest of my life. You know when you see a show and there comes a point where you just give in and commit to the fact that you're really enjoying yourself? For me, that came during the band's performance of the chant-y and high-energy "Ed Is A Portal". From there on out, I was pretty much puddy in the hands of the band's freak-y, worldly, frenetic, folk- and world-influenced sound.” – Dallas Observer
“Last year, it was Jens Lekman who blew my socks off, but at this year's spotlight on the indie label Triforce it was the hippies in Akron/Family, which played an abbreviated in the interest of getting to the evening's headliner—"special guest" and recent Jagjaguwar signee Dinosaur Jr. Akron made the most of its limited time, giving in to drum circles and other shenanigans while showing off songs from their upcoming Dead Oceans release, Set 'Em Wild, Set 'Em Free. The record's bookends served as the set closers—the nervy "Everyone Is Guilty" turned into a brief noise jam that then gave way to an a cappella version of the pastoral "Last Year." I left with a newfound appreciation of Akron/Family. Ah ha! A discovery! SXSW still works.” – The Onion/AV Club
Experimental freak-folkers Akron/Family have certainly evolved: what began as a wildly experimental college-rock act (see the 2006 collab with fellow experimenters Angels of Light) has become a forum for epic jams. Since losing its fourth member, Ryan Vanderhoof, in 2007, the group has molded its live act into a winding road of sound, crushing harmonized vocals into powerful acoustic chords; on the brink of releasing its fourth studio album, Set 'Em Wild, Set 'Em Free, the Family may be a little more out there than you remember, but it's as easy to love as ever. – Rachel Brodsky
“Pennsylvanian avant-folk trio Akron/Family make the jump from Young God Records to Dead Oceans with their fifth LP, Set 'Em Wild, Set 'Em Free, this spring. With a rubbery groove and motormouth chanting, opening track "Everyone Is Guilty" is the album's schizophrenic monster jam. Seth Olinsky, Miles Seaton, and Dana Janssen go on all sorts of funky tangents here, melding sludgy solos with a lumbering brass breakdown and, in the final minute, some really pretty orchestration. Best part: when the song abruptly stops and restarts four and a half minutes in.” – Stereogum
“"Everyone is Guilty" gives us our first taste of Akron/Family's Set 'em Wild, Set 'em Free, and what a big, wonderful taste it is. The nearly six-minute track taps into the frenetic, zealous noise of the band's live show, but also reveals the trio as something more tight than chaotic, more intricate than jammy. With the stick-and-slide guitar riffs and slippery bass lines that open the track, the band is just getting started on this giant funkfest. The layers of group vocals that shout then chant then glide then shout again fight for space over the guitar heroics and tumbling strings that bring the song to a frightening peak halfway through. Then the bottom drops out and leaves nothing but the dirge of horns to hold up Seth Olinsky's brilliantly strained guitar solo. After working back to its funky start, most of the track fades out and leaves the strings and horns to clean up the beautiful mess. The song has all the band's strengths on display, with tighter shifts in rhythm, bigger, more infectious hooks and subtly intricate but train-steady percussion. In short, it's one of the best songs they've ever made, and a hell of a way to get your going when you hit that mid-afternoon slump. Akron/Family beats the hell out of drinking a Red Bull, don't they?” – Prefix Mag
"Akron is fifty bands in one. There's psychedelic rock, folk, free-jazz, hip-hop, punk, dance, gospel and heaps more, and they throw their back into every minute of it, creating a wickedly raw, exposed form of music that is absolutely impossible to cage up and put into a category box," - Jambase
Akron/Family is writing a 21st century non-denominational hymnal, free of any New Age stink or hippie laziness. What they did in San Francisco was tap into the great currents of the universe and share that energy and unfiltered beauty with us. Their constant desire to obliterate the line between audience/consumer and performer/musician shares something with the Dead, Phish and others who've introduced participatory elements into the mix. However, those bands rarely gave so freely or vigorously to those who stood before them. Akron/Family are a very special band and you cheat yourself with every minute you wait to wade into their waters. - Dennis Cook
Do you guys want to make a stop in Columbus,Ohio to play a small bar with a tree in the middle of the room on August 18th on the way from NC to CA? I still have an opening, lol!
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