The Milk Carton Kids, a Los Angeles-based folk duo, will be playing the Bluebird Theater Thurday.
The duo recently made a name for themselves after releasing their latest album, “The Ash and Clay,” on March 26. They’re back playing in the states after finishing the European leg of their tour.
(Photo Courtesy Michele Stephens/Milk Carton Kids)
“It was surprisingly good,” said Joey Ryan, rhythm guitarist. “We expected that it felt like it would be going back to the beginning of something, but instead, the response was overwhelming.”
Ryan said the band’s European shows were similar in capacity to what they experienced on their first tours in America.
“It’s [usually in] the smallest church or building in town, but most of them are filled to the brim,” he said.
On “The Ash and Clay,” there is a noticeable amount of harmony – more than the band’s first two records – that make it seem like more of a group effort than before. Ryan noted that being on the road and touring so much allowed for a stronger sense of companionship with his fellow Milk Carton Kid, Kenneth Pattengale.
“I think the natural result of having played so many shows [175]… allowed for the collaboration to feel that much more intense,” Ryan said. “There are only a couple of songs where we aren’t singing every syllable together.”
The Milk Carton Kids took a different route in marketing the new album. Rather than making their first records, “Retrospect” and “Prologue,” available only for purchase, fans could either download the album for free or purchase a physical copy of the album. Ryan said that it was mostly a decision about the aesthetic and accessibility of the band.
“The central thing for us is that we considered ourselves, from the beginning, a live band – we wanted to go on tour right away and we wanted to be on the road a lot,” he said. “That seemed like a good way for a small, burgeoning fan base to grow itself.”
Ryan said that the band wrote the music “for its own sake” rather than try to make something that would sell a million copies.
“The process of commoditizing it can quickly spoil, ruin or cheapen it,” he said.
One of their songs, “Charlie,” is about Pattengale’s non-existant daughter.
“I think it is a rumination on all of the fears, hopes and desires to someday be a father,” Ryan said of the song. “I think it stands as an exploration that a lot of us go through. As you come of age, you start to realize that you are going to have to play the role that your parents played. You start to consider, maybe, how you are going to play that role.”
The Milk Carton Kids blend the lonesome folk songs of yore with modern pop sensibility into what ends up sounding a sadder version of Simon & Garfunkel.
The Milk Carton Kids come to Colorado on Thursday to play at the Bluebird Theater in Denver.
Contact CU Independent Entertainment Editor Patrick Fort at Patrick.Fort@colorado.edu.
