| Deadmalls and Nightfalls | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | July 20, 2010 | |||
| Genre | Folk rock | |||
| Language | English | |||
| Label | Ramseur Records | |||
| Frontier Ruckus chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| PopMatters |   [1] |
| AllMusic |   [2] |
| Under the Radar | [3] |
| No Depression | (Favorable) [4] |
| Real Detroit Weekly | [5] |
| Metro Times | (Favorable) [6] |
Deadmalls and Nightfalls is the second full-length studio album by Frontier Ruckus, released on July 20, 2010 by Ramseur Records.
The album received positive reviews. PopMatters stated that the record "not only outdoes its predecessor, it reaches a level of top-notch songwriting most groups never attain on a greatest hits compilation"—calling it "a musical map to the psyches of its performers." [7]
Under the Radar wrote that Deadmalls and Nightfalls paints pictures, in vivid imagery of American scenery, life, and love, with not a single word misplaced in its poetic grace...an album meant to be combed through and listed to time and again, an album to bask in." [8]
The album can be seen as the second installment in a trilogy of Matthew Milia's personal mythology set in Metro Detroit—bridging The Orion Songbook and Eternity of Dimming . Songs such as "Pontiac, the Nighbrink"—an intensely detailed depiction of Pontiac, Michigan—foreshadowed the zoomed-in specificity with which Eternity would explore further themes of memory and suburban space. [9] [10]
"Does Me In" was used in the documentary My Heart Is an Idiot which follows the love life of This American Life contributor Davy Rothbart. [11]
Ryan Adams was a vocal fan of the album tweeting: ""Loving the new Frontier Ruckus! Great band...this is what I want to get back to. Those tunes go forever..." [12]
The band performed several songs from the record for a Daytrotter session in 2010. [13]
This was the first album by Frontier Ruckus to be accompanied by music videos, with a video shot for "Nerves of the Nightmind" in Los Angeles by Michael Fisk [14] and a video for "The Upper Room" shot by David Meiklejohn in Portland, Maine. [15]
Way Upstate and the Crippled Summer, pt. 2 —an EP of five alternative country songs—was released on the fourth side of the Deadmalls and Nightfalls vinyl package in spring of 2011. [16]
All songs written by Matthew Milia
"White Houses" is a song written by American singer Vanessa Carlton and Stephan Jenkins, and recorded for Vanessa Carlton's second album Harmonium (2004). Produced by Jenkins, it was released as the album's first single in 2004.
Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain is the fourth and final album by Sparklehorse before Mark Linkous' death in 2010. It was released on September 25, 2006 by Astralwerks Records.
HoboSapiens is a solo studio album by John Cale, his first album since 1996's Walking on Locusts. HoboSapiens was released by EMI in October 2003, and was preceded by the EP 5 Tracks in May 2003. A single was released for "Things" shortly after the album's release. Cale co-produced the album with Nick Franglen of Lemon Jelly, and Brian Eno provided the drum loop for the song "Bicycle". The album was met with widespread critical acclaim.
Koufax is an American indie rock band from Toledo, Ohio.
Rise Above is an album by indie rock band Dirty Projectors, released on September 11, 2007. The album was band leader David Longstreth's reinterpretation of Black Flag album Damaged from memory having not heard it in 15 years. The album features Longstreth on guitar and vocals, Amber Coffman on vocals and guitar, Brian McOmber on drums, Nat Baldwin on bass, and Susanna Waiche on vocals. Angel Deradoorian would join the band shortly before the Rise Above tour on bass and vocals. This album is the first that presents Dirty Projectors as a fully realized band rather than an individual project of Longstreth.
Frontier Ruckus is an American band from Michigan. The project is centered on the lyrically intensive songs of Matthew Milia, and was formed by Milia and banjo player David Winston Jones while growing up in Metro Detroit. In 2008, the band released its debut full-length record, The Orion Songbook. Though formed in a folk tradition, Frontier Ruckus has shown an eclecticism across their catalog, incorporating aspects of baroque and jangle pop, alt-country, bluegrass, and lo-fi.
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The Orion Songbook is the debut full-length album by Frontier Ruckus, released November 6, 2008.
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Eternity of Dimming is the third full-length studio album by Frontier Ruckus. A double album of 20 songs, the record is nearly an hour and a half in duration. The album's lyrical text is also unusually prolific, containing approximately 5,600 words. Despite the dense and hardly immediate nature of the record, Eternity of Dimming received mostly favorable reviews—eliciting reactions of both hyperbolic praise and occasional vexation. Thematically, the record details childhood and adolescent memory within the suburban landscape of Metro Detroit.
Way Upstate and the Crippled Summer, pt. 1 is an EP by Frontier Ruckus, released in 2009 between the releases of The Orion Songbook and Deadmalls & Nightfalls. It is only available on the double-vinyl edition of the former.
Way Upstate and the Crippled Summer, pt. 2 is an EP by Frontier Ruckus, released in 2011 between the releases of Deadmalls & Nightfalls and Eternity of Dimming. It is only physically available on the double-vinyl edition of the former. The EP is the release by Frontier Ruckus most in the category of alternative country.
Sitcom Afterlife is the fourth full-length studio album by Frontier Ruckus. Strongly embracing elements of classic power pop, the record marked a stylistic shift for the band while still retaining a folk rock undercurrent. The album marked the return of harmony vocalist Anna Burch, and indefinite departure of founding drummer Ryan Etzcorn. Sitcom Afterlife is considered to be the result of a romantic breakup experienced by songwriter Matthew Milia, to which AllMusic commented: "[Milia's] not having much luck with relationships, which may be bad news for him but has certainly given him plenty of inspiration."
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Matthew Milia is an American songwriter, musician, poet, and visual artist. He is best known as the leader of the band Frontier Ruckus.
Enter the Kingdom is the fifth full-length studio album by Frontier Ruckus. Recorded in Nashville, Tennessee with former Wilco and Uncle Tupelo drummer Ken Coomer, it marked the first Frontier Ruckus album produced outside of the band's home state of Michigan. Rolling Stone announced the album in late 2016 and premiered a music video for the debut single "27 Dollars."
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Alone at St. Hugo is the debut solo studio album by Matthew Milia. It was released on May 3, 2019. Recorded on a Tascam 388 reel-to-reel tape recorder, the entire album was performed by Milia and engineer Ben Collins. In an interview with Metro Times, Milia described the set of highly melodic power pop songs that constitute the album as a result of shirking music industry expectations and remaining prolific as a writer for purer reasons, saying, "It's the writing part that I still wake up every day and want to do."