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Israel Nebeker (vocals, guitar) and
Ryan Dobrowski (drums) are Blind Pilot. Friends since
college, Israel and Ryan have traveled many a mile to
get to where they are today literally.
Last year,Israel and Ryan embarked
on a West Coast bike tour. This wasn1t a tour where they
road bikes, and had a van haulingthe equipment. They
hauled everything on their bikes. No gas. One hundred
percent leg-powered.With big signs on the back of their
bike trailers that read "BLIND" and "PILOT",
a lot of concerned motorists screamedabout the "PILOT" leaving
the "BLIND" guy behind. Playing little towns
that don1t often get shows by "touring bands" they
were able to share their brand of music with people who
weren1t particularly familiar with indie pop, or indieanything.
But they found that heartfelt lyrics and beautiful music
appeal to just about everyone. In fact, they completelysold
out of their EPs
They returned to Portland anxious to complete their
first full-length album. The long road to this album
has paid off inspades.
Blind Pilot sounds something like
a wistful mix of The Shins with a bit of Iron & Wine folksiness. But
these comparisonsdon1t give a full representation of
the unbelievable beauty of this album. As Willamette
Week1s Casey Jarmanproclaimed, "Front man Israel
Nebeker sounds like a less theatric version of James
Mercer: every bit as sincere andcaptivating, with vocal
control and style to spare. And this band has songs coming
out of its ears: deep, clever guitardrive tunes fleshed
out with soaring horn arrangements. Listening to and
thinking about these songs has kept me
awake at night lately." |
