Back from the Land

Many instruments, including lap steel, mandolin, Mellotron, and swarsangam, play a part in the fuzzed-out farm rock of MV & EE. The linchpins of the band are Matt Valentine and Erika Elder, who dig deep into the loose but sometimes hard-edged electric folk traditions of the 1970s: Her voice is Hope Sandoval on sinsemilla, his is a vintage Neil Young tenor. If the comparably inspired Brightblack Morning Light is spaced-out and glossy, MV & EE is freaked and woolly with its feedbacky spaz jams. Elements of this band remind us of Port O'Brien, but the extended space rockouts are far more psychedelic than those Alaskan fisherfolk. Must be the difference between boat life and the Vermont mountains that house MV & EE. A new recording on Thurston Moore's Ecstatic Peace label, Gettin' Gone, finds the pair rounding up an interesting crew called the Golden Road to back them up, including J. Mascis on drums.

MV & EE perform with Jack Rose and Mike Bones.
Wed., Nov. 7, 9:30 p.m., 2007