Mildred - Fenceline

An egalitarian collective sharing songwriting duties equally, Mildred’s slacker americana sound feels naturally formed, likely due, as the band explain, to a “shared rhythm and camaraderie in our lives that comes through in the music.”

And, musically, it’s wistful, introspective, and laced with sweet guitar licks capable of taking you back to another time. Fenceline emerges from a similar folk-infused furrow to the finest moments of Bonnie “Prince” Billy and, with a US tour alongside Naima Bock in the works, they’re going to be strumming their way into a great many hearts in the months to come.

Mildred is a band from Oakland, CA of four equal parts. They don’t have a lead singer, no one person writes the songs. The songs that make up their debut album, Fenceline, come together as a group with their genesis sprouting from any one of their members each time.

This wonderfully easy bond between four friends just hanging out and writing songs is so palpable it’s intoxicating. Summed up neatly by Clash Magazine saying, “imagine if Pavement went Americana and you’d be close”, Mildred make music that is pure and poetic, gently addictive and never overwrought. They describe the creation of the band as being born from “deciding that playing/talking about/thinking about music together is fun and something we want to structure our lives around as best we can”.
 
The sound is warm and organic rather than polished or ‘perfect’. Mildred slip effortlessly into grooves and perfect harmonies on songs like ‘Charlie’, ‘Fenceline’ and the extended rolling free association of ‘Mumblecore Melody’ while on the like of ‘Cobwebs’ with its racing pulse and distant, roomy vocals or closer ‘Hardcore of Beauty’ which tumbles from steady drum-machine languor into yelping, shouting crescendo, you can hear the thrill of more left-field ideas taking shape live in the room. When the recording week had finished, only one song didn’t feel quite right, ‘Fish Sticks’.
 
Songs dance back and forth over the line between crystal clear snapshots of the real world and hazy poetic embellishment, to create a dream-like version of life that is both intensely relatable and tantalizingly out of reach. It’s hard to put your finger on exactly what it is about this band that makes the atmosphere they conjure so enticing but it’s impossible to step away from.

For Fans Of: Bill Callahan / MJ Lenderman / Pavement / Jason Molina / The Golden Dregs / Whitney K