Orders

Over the past nine months, armed with an understated, three-track demo called "Demogogue" and a string of live appearances, Hartford's Orders has found a place in Connecticut's indie folk scene.

"We've been playing out a lot and gaining name recognition," guitarist/singer Jared Blumer, 26, said, "and it's interesting because we've been getting a lot of support from people."

Orders was a trio — Blumer, bassist Andy Tucker, who also sings and writes, and violin player Robyn Buttrey — when "Demogogue" was recorded. Drummer Dan Deutsch joined a few months later. On Thursday, Orders will celebrate the release of "Works & Days," a new EP featuring the full band, with a show at Hartford's Arch Street Tavern. (Folk musician Jacket Thor and Dr. Martino, a garage-rock outfit from Willimantic, open.)

Blumer, a Philadelphia native, performed mostly solo acoustic shows before forming Orders. "Some of these songs are ones I've been playing for a long time," he said. "This band has been a real catalyst for getting them to go where they needed to go." Tucker arrived from Cleveland to go to graduate school at UConn; he met Blumer through Blumer's girlfriend, who also studies at UConn. Buttrey and Deutsch are Connecticut natives.

"Works & Days" was produced and mixed by Andrew Oedel (Hanging Hills, Straight to VHS) at Rotary Records in West Springfield, Mass. "It's this really incredible studio," Blumer said. "We got to see each other play, because you can set it up in such a way that the booths can all look and see each other with the sound bleeding."

Orders sounds like it's been playing together for a lot longer than nine months. Blumer and Tucker sing in unison on the title track (written by Tucker), over terrific ensemble playing and pitch-perfect solos from Buttrey. (Their voices — raspy, mid-range and conversational, and unsweetened by reverb or studio gimmickry — are eerily similar.) Tucker plays fuzz bass (the signal is sent through an overdrive or distortion pedal), removing some of the low end while creating a sort of buzz-saw counterpoint to Buttrey's violin.

Tucker's "St. Rita," is a folksy love song with "well all right" intoned at the end of each verse and a whistling refrain. Blumer's songs are darker: "Kites fly toward the tides," he sings on the first verse of the somber "Strings At Her End," over just his guitar and Buttrey's violin, "Will I ever be at home with her on the ground? / Synthetic winds are rocking and all the world is crashing down." "Walking With Me" (also Blumer's) masks the singer's dour worldview ("You're walking with me / We'll be dead soon you see") with an upbeat groove and a wordless, sing-song refrain ("Oh, wa-a-oh-o-oh").

Since August, Orders has performed all over New England and plans to stretch out into New York in the near future. Next month, they'll appear at the first-ever Connecticut Farm & Folk Festival in Glastonbury.

"We're all pretty tied to Connecticut for the time being, but we've been planning some short weekend tours and ways we can make it work with our jobs," Blumer said, "maybe taking a week off at some point for a longer tour." - Hartford Courant

The term ‘folk music’ is about as generic as they come in the grand scheme of things. Much like the term ‘world music’ it’s become this sort of catch-all for a wide array of sounds and styles that have originated in literally every nook and cranny of this big, wide world of ours. But somewhere in there we have this grandiose idea of what folk music sounds like. We can’t always describe it with honest accuracy but we know it when we hear it. Or at least we think we do. The best bands of this ever-stretching pantheon are the ones that do just that – stretch and bend and morph our ideas of what should be included under this auspicious and audacious concept of ‘folk music’. These days some of the best folkies are those willing to take huge sonic risks, and Connecticut’s Orders certainly fit the bill in that respect.

On their debut EP, Works & Days, Orders have stuck true to the description on their Facebook page of “Strange Folk for strange folk” for sure. This is about as eclectic a grouping of influences as you’re going to hear on any album that somehow, when woven together, still maintains the integrity of being dubbed a Folk record. Plenty of Folk acts employ a drummer these days. Fiddle? Pretty sure that’s a prerequisite now. Fuzzed-out, electric bass? Wait a minute. All of the above combined with solid lyrics and gritty vocals to reflect a sonic stew where Folk music is the broth and everything from alt rock to indie pop is added in dashes and snifters for seasoning? Now we’re cooking with gas.

The opening, title track is honestly, without hesitation, one of the catchiest tunes you will hear this year. It’s a toe-tapper of anthemic proportions and one that hearkens back to a time when the Folk revivalists of the 1940s and 1950s held specifically tight to the desire to continue to incorporate various elements of European folk music. Picture a raucous and rollicking Irish tune laying on a bed made from pillows of fuzzy bass lines and that gives you a close approximation. Intended or not, it’s a modern day reel, the funkiest and most tripped out jig you could ever ask for. It’s followed up by the somber “Strings At Her End” which serves as a beautiful reprieve as Orders launches immediately into the mid-paced “St. Rita” and then ramps it up again to close out the album with another dance-inducing number, “Walking With Me.” It all plays out perfectly, like the remarkable satisfaction of placing those final pieces into an imaginative and expressive puzzle.

Orders are a band on the come and one to certainly keep an eye out for if you live in and around their home state. The hope here is that they continue the folk traditions of ample touring and massive discographies. It may be ‘Strange Folk for strange folk’ but the guess is that they will some day soon find out there are more strange folk enjoying their Strange Folk than they could have imagined. At the very least the songs on this EP would suggest as much.

Works & Days is due out on May 14. Orders will host their release party the same night at Arch Street Tavern in Hartford. You can also catch them on June 6 at the inaugural Connecticut Farm & Folk Festival. In the meantime you can check out this video for the track “Strings At Her End” recorded live…in a barn…because it’s folk music after all. - Lonesome Noise

“If you’re faltering / while your notions fall away / it’s okay / you’ll overcome this,” sing Jared Blumer and Andy Tucker midway through “Works and Days,” the first track to Orders’ new EP, also titled Works & Days. An inventive soundscape blooms around them: Robyn Buttery’s violin levels out the vocalists, building a platform for them to launch into the chorus; Dan Duetsch keeps a persistent, danceable beat, and the singers raise their voices in return.

A mixed but promising first release, Works & Days is at its best when channeling groups like The Poem Adept and Vanity Project, a hint of Steven Page sneaking into “St. Rita” as well as the title track. With Blumer leading members forward like a tentative but knowledgeable tour guide, the pieces are wholesome in a toe-tapping sort of way: an ambivalent garage band vibe is superseded by the urge to dust off your dancing shoes and take them for a spin or two. Buttery is a welcome and utterly delightful surprise in this capacity, shining especially bright in “Strings At Her End,” where the instrumentals carry Blumer’s wavering, almost Meloy-esque voice.

Blumer’s lyrics, meanwhile — fully in touch with his rich inner world, as well as the listeners’ outer one — are what make the EP so much his product. Indicative of his strong and shifting moral compass, they were also the driving force behind INDIEpendence Day, an all-ages benefit concert for the ACLU of Connecticut that will be held at The Space this Thursday. - New Haven Independent