While Florry’s 2023 album “The Holey Bible” literally sounded like people sitting around a campfire and singing folk and country songs together, this year’s “Sounds Like… Florry!” captures the energy of this live rock band that’s been on the road these past couple years, and it’s the best representation of their sound yet. The jammy, guitar-solo-happy band sound like the Grateful Dead and Crazy Horse at their scrappiest, with a little bit of Dinosaur Jr’s sludgefeast in the mix, and they’ve got the memorable hooks to bring those instrumental freak outs back down to earth. (There’s some Bob Dylan in there too.)
If that combo of bands sounds a little like MJ Lenderman & the Wind on paper, it may come as no surprise that The Wind member Colin Miller (who also released a great solo album this year) co-produced and engineered the album at the MJ Lenderman/Wednesday crew’s go-to studio Drop of Sun, and they also finished writing the album during a three-day session at the now-defunct Haw Creek compound where Wednesday/Wind members used to live.
The promise of a Florry show, a now familiar caravan that has been honed over ambitiously trekked zig zags across America and Europe since the release of Dear Life Records debut “The Holey Bible”, is the redemptive promise and prodigal joy of rock and roll guitar music. Bred in the crackling warmth of the Philadelphia DIY scene, and forged with the alloys of community action, queer liberation, and bedroom poetry, bandleader Francie Medosch and her absolute unit of collaborators have put in the work of sharpening their homespun tools to take up the mantle of the great lip-puckering rock and roll tradition pioneered by the likes of The Band and the Rolling Stones, but with proudly displayed Aimee Mann and Yo La Tengo bumper stickers on the rusty frame of the truck.
At any second, the wheels could come off but they are steering just fine. For “Sounds Like..”., Florry’s sophomore effort as a fully realized band, Medosch and co. decamped to Drop of Sun studios in the nest of the Blue Ridge Mountains to record with Asheville wunderkind Colin Miller, a critical voice behind the records of MJ Lenderman, Wednesday, and Merce Lemon and a powerful songwriter in his own right. Three powerhouse days in late 2023 solidified writing work done by the band earlier that summer in the now defunct Haw Creek compound under Miller’s guiding suggestion.
The result is a portrait of a ripping band cresting towards the height of their powers, uniquely equipped to capture a wildly loving, barn-burning camcorder clip of a turbulent trip with your best friends, without dipping into nostalgia bait. Lyrically, Medosch’s utterances are both careful and excessive, the product of sifting through the rubble of classic good-time media, and finding what works for both her and her community to reach the heights of abandon.
“The Holey Bible” sounded secluded from the world, but “Sounds Like…” is a melting pot of all the influence you absorb and all the places you go as a traveling band.
The Fat Angel Sings 