American Scarecrows

Last evening, chilled music-lovers sought warmth and whisky in the cozy innards of the illustrious Turf Club and settled in for a night of anthemic tunes from Edward David Anderson, Trapper Schoepp and his band and local headliner American Scarecrows.

After walking on stage to the moody strains of Lee Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra’s “Some Velvet Morning,” American Scarecrows launched into an hour and a half’s worth of spirited rock and roll that contained elements of country/folk as well as hardcore and punk. When I first saw American Scarecrows, they opened for Soul Asylum and the Meat Puppets back in June, I unfairly wrote them off as just another Americana band. Thankfully, they proved me utterly wrong by showcasing music that was as varied as it was catchy and passionately delivered. I was also amazed at lead singer/guitarist Seth Davin’s impressive range - the man can sing!

Joining American Scarecrows’ main trio (Seth Davin, bassist Matthew Broadbent and drummer Allen Maier) was a second guitarist named Aaron Shekey and Davin’s brother Sebastian on keyboards. Near the end of the night, Seth introduced his bandmates and even added a little fun facts about each one: Matt was born in Oregon, Allen is a grill master, Aaron is an X-Men fanboy and Sebastian enjoys his fantasy football. Things took a devilish turn when Aaron jokingly revealed Seth’s status as a virgin (“Can’t you see my purity ring?”) although he assured the crowd that that particular fact was indeed fiction.

The band played a number of songs off their latest album Yesteryear (released last June) like “The Peak,” “Gods of the West,” and “Cheshire” as well as older tracks like “Stay the Same” and the ecstatic encore “Wild Hearts” from their 2011 debut Keep Your Devils Around. From the very first note, the love emanating from the crowd was hard to ignore! Folks all around me were wildly singing along, raising their drinks and hands as they cheered, yelling their approval (“that definitely did not suck!”) and one guy near me was doing some severe head-banging that required his entire body to lurch forward.

Last night happened to be American Scarecrows’ 5th anniversary as a band. Seth pointed out that they must be doing something right as he recognized fewer faces in the audience - more strangers means new fans. And more new fans means many more packed, lively shows for American Scarecrows.

American Scarecrows' next appearance is at Beachland Ballroom in Cleveland, Ohio, with Welshly Arms. - WeHeartMusic

Made up of members of the more metallic/Warped Tour-flavored bands Dropping Daylight and Somerset – hey, don’t we all grow mellower and twangier with age? – American Scarecrows come into their own on their second album, “Yesteryear.”

The record is loaded with polished, radio-friendly jangle-rock of the BoDeans variety, but there's also a nice sprinkling of violin- and pedal-steel-tinged country-rock and rowdy Gaslight Anthem-style anthemic garage-rock. Frontman Seth Davin (brother of Dropping Daylight leader Sebastian Davin) has a sandy, nice-guy voice that belies his many tattoos. He writes in a sort of Mellencamp-of-Minnesota style, evident in the love song “Chesire” and this track posted below, “Gods of the West,” in which he sings about wooing a girl by taking her fishing in his grandpa’s boat. I’d like to meet that girl.

American Scarecrows will promote “Yesteryear” Thursday at 7th Street Entry with openers A.M. Taxi and the Usual Things (8 p.m., $10-$12).

By: Chris Riemenschneider - Star Tribune

Minneapolis band American Scarecrows are going through a rebirth of sorts. The trio is set to release a new album after losing a band member and spending two years of reflection to come up with Yesteryear. The record combines flavors of indie-rock with country and pop-rock to condense all three sounds into a world of catchy hooks, but there's a surprising depth to each piece.

Before their album release on Thursday at the 7th St. Entry, Gimme Noise caught up with the three members at their newly built rehearsal space to chat about growing up since their last album and the uphill battle in writing new music.

Gimme Noise: What do you feel about having to sell other things, like being in cover bands, to be able to make money or to be able to get people to listen to your music?

Seth Davin: There's certain things you need to do to get to the place you want to be. We've all been there in our lives; we weren't making much money -- there's eight years of touring between the three of us. $140 a week was just not cutting it anymore in our old bands.

Matthew Broadbent: It's easy to do that when you're living at home with your parents, but eventually you grow up and have responsibilities, have kids, buy a house. Being in a band is not necessarily a lifestyle that supports a family or all that stuff. Now it's a balance between a day job and music -- for now.

Allen Maier: I play in a cover band with Seth's brother called the White Keys. I don't mind having to play other people's music to make money. We do the songs in an original way; it's not done the same way to a T.

Why has it taken so long to get out a new album? What do you feel has changed about the sound?

SD: Kevin [Mayer] leaving totally changed the identity of the band. We were in the position of "Do we push forward with the same name? Do we start something else?" For me, it was figuring out what to do with the with the songs and taking over the role as frontman. It's a reimagining of Scarecrows that we wanted to get right. We had to figure out how to play as a three-piece; it's a different formula now. It feels like a debut album.

MB: With Kevin leaving, we lost half of our catalog. It wasn't that we couldn't play the old songs, it was because we didn't feel right doing so.

SD: There's some old songs on this new album that I have from years ago, and I wrote some new ones for this album. I don't want to do another album like this again. It took a lot longer than it should have, but you really can't force the creative process. I mean, you can, but it's not going to be very good. It was about letting things happen naturally, but still have a fire under your ass.

We didn't want to wait forever, and after a while we just wanted to get it out. Today is the first day that I am truly excited. I had a hard time sleeping last night, because we had just finished the final mixes. I'm feeling very confident, and it's better than the first record.

MB: It felt like an uphill battle -- especially the last couple of months. Just like anything in life, when the going gets tough, if you stick to your guns and get through it, you're better off for it. We, as a band, are better. We've learned what works.

The reason it took so long was because we were going for quality over quantity. Some people rush to put something out, and it's watered down. We have to make sure we are happy and fulfilled.

Does it scare you that you might lose fans within that interim of not having anything happening?

SD: You can only be the artist that you are, so we're not really thinking how people are going to respond. For one person who doesn't like the album, there will be ten who do. The new sound is different, but it's not that far off from our old sound.

By Youa Vang - City Pages