The Farewell Bend...

Hope everyone had a nice holiday. Mine was surprisingly stress free, which is unusual around this time, especially when I am surrounded by my family. I managed to eat the best that I probably have all year. I imagine I will be feasting off of leftovers for a week or so due to all the food. I’ll find ways to get creative with the leftover turkey. Anyway, back to what this whole thing is about and that is the music…

The Farewell Bend was a great, however short lived, trio that released one album during their time together in 1998’s In Passing along with a seven inch single, and a split seven inch with Shiner. That’s all I know about at least. Anyway, making up the band were former Boy’s Life members Brandon Butler and John Rejba along with Giant’s Chair drummer Paul Ackerman. The Farewell Bend sort of sounded like what you’d expect a band made up of such members to sound like, it’s very Kansas City/Midwestern sounding however shares a bit of its sound with the DC 90’s post-hardcore set. However, throughout the album it’s not hard to hear instances of each member’s former band and they gel extremely well as evidenced in their one and only album on Slowdime. And as to be expected, Brandon Butler’s vocals are one of the focal points of the band, barely edging out the always impressive drumming of Ackerman for the spotlight here. It’s maybe one of the best resulting products from a band that contained members whose pasts were so deeply rooted in the Midwest.

In Passing:
The Farewell Bend – The Pen Ran Out of Ink [MP3]
The Farewell Bend – South for the Summer [MP3]

Self-Titled 7’’:
The Farewell Bend – Predictability [MP3]
The Farewell Bend – On-3 [MP3]

Although it appears to be out print, there are still used copies of In Passing available through the usual source of Amazon. For those that enjoy the tunes posted or just enjoyed any of the members previous bands, definitely pick this up it won’t disappoint.