| The Orion Songbook | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | November 6, 2008 | |||
| Genre | Folk rock | |||
| Language | English | |||
| Label | Quite Scientific Records | |||
| Frontier Ruckus chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [1] |
| Under the Radar |   [2] |
| Crawdaddy! | (Favorable) [3] |
| [Hear/Say] | (A-) [4] |
| Real Detroit Weekly | [5] |
| Metro Times | (Favorable) [6] |
The Orion Songbook is the debut album by Frontier Ruckus, released on November 6, 2008.
The album received positive reviews, with Allmusic stating that it is "about as good a debut as a band can hope for." [1] Crawdaddy! praised the album's musical and lyrical landscapes, marked by the "desolate beauty of Matthew Milia's poetry and the quiet intensity the band brings to every note it plays." [7] The album received similar applause from Under the Radar regarding the interplay of musicality and language, described as "white-hot folk music" paired with "dank and smart turns of phrase." [8] Hear/Say called The Orion Songbook "the year's best alt-country album," establishing the band as a "formidable outfit with a sound to reckon with and an easy confidence to match." [9] Likewise, Metro Times stated that the album "establishes the group as already one of the very best sounds to come out of Michigan this entire decade." [10] Inland Empire Weekly commended the record for its consideration of memory "without the cloying nostalgia or self-consciousness that derails so many attempts to turn back the clock to allegedly purer times," going on to state: "...by looking the present straight in the eye, Milia’s created something timeless." [11]
Adult Swim used "Dark Autumn Hour" for four ads in their well-known series of bumps, first airing in September 2011. [12]
All songs written by Matthew Milia
Lake Orion is a village in the northern outskirts of Metro Detroit in Oakland County, Michigan, United States. The population was 2,973 at the 2010 census. "Lake Orion" can refer to either the village or the much larger Orion Township, of which the village is a part.
Orion Charter Township is a charter township of Oakland County, Michigan, United States. The population was 39,816 as on July 1, 2019.
Crawdaddy was an American rock music magazine launched in 1966. It was created by Paul Williams, a Swarthmore College student at the time, in response to the increasing sophistication and cultural influence of popular music. The magazine was named after the Crawdaddy Club in London and published during its early years as Crawdaddy!.
Brother Rice High School is a Roman Catholic all-boys non-residential college prep school with approximately 590 students located in Bloomfield Township, Michigan, United States in Metro Detroit. The school shares a campus with the all-girls Marian High School, Saint Regis Parish and the K-8 Saint Regis School.
Black Lungs is a side project of Alexisonfire's guitarist and vocalist, and current Gallows frontman Wade MacNeil. MacNeil created the side project similar to his first punk rock band Plan 9, a more relaxed and melodic sound than Alexisonfire.
Elio Pace is an English singer, songwriter, pianist, producer, and arranger.
Burnt Hair Records was a record label involved with Michigan's space rock alternative music scene in the 1990s. The label is said to have been most responsible for cultivating the Detroit sound of this period. Burnt Hair recorded artists in various experimental genres also known by appellations such as indie pop, indie rock, ambient music, drone music, dream pop and electronica. The label was founded by Larry Hofmann in Dearborn. Burnt Hair released recordings by artists and bands including Windy & Carl, Hopewell, Mahogany, Ten Second Dynasty, Miss Bliss, Tomorrowland, DELTA WAVES, Starphase 23, Füxa, Auburn Lull, Monaural (Band), Gravity Wax, Asha Vida, Flowchart and Alison's Halo.
The Sights are an American rock and roll band from Detroit, Michigan, formed in 1998. The band has toured in the United States, Canada, and the UK.
Delta Spirit is an American rock band from California, United States. The group consists of Jonathan Jameson (bass), Brandon Young (drums), Matthew Vasquez, Kelly Winrich (multi-instrumentalist), and William McLaren (guitar).
Soundtrack 08 is a series of indoor nightly music events that took place in the POD Complex in Dublin, Ireland. The event was composed of forty-five acts, performing over nine days from 25 May – 2 June 2008. Promoted by POD Concerts, it was billed as the presenter of "past, present and future soundtracks" combining a series of early shows in the Tripod and Crawdaddy venues in Dublin's Harcourt Street as well as DJ sets taking place in late night clubs. Various music styles including indie rock, hip hop and folk were featured, bringing the newest acts of note emerging in the international music scene to Dublin.
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.
Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes is the seventh and latest studio album by American punk rock band Social Distortion, released on January 18, 2011. It is the band's first album recorded with bassist Brent Harding, their first album of new material since 2004's Sex, Love and Rock 'n' Roll, and their first release on Epitaph Records. Work on the album began in 2006 and it was originally forecast for a 2007 release, but was pushed back several times while the band continued touring and writing new material. After four years of writing, Social Distortion recorded the album from February to July 2010 at Ocean Studios in Burbank, California. Drummer Atom Willard left the group during the recording sessions in favor of his other band, Angels & Airwaves. He was temporarily replaced by Scott Reeder before David Hidalgo, Jr. joined as the band's new permanent drummer. Despite being listed as a band member on the album, Hidalgo did not actually play on it; instead, the band hired session musician Josh Freese to record the drum tracks.
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.
Deadmalls and Nightfalls is the second full-length studio album by Frontier Ruckus, released on July 20, 2010 by Ramseur Records.
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."
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."
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."
