The Preservation

The Preservation

Despite playing dusty bluegrass suited for Deadwood, the Weary Boys were still somehow ahead of their time. The local ramblers called it quits years before Mumford & Sons and the Avett Brothers brought a modern railroad revival to the masses. After two solo albums, the Preservation's Two Sisters marks the welcome return of Boys' leader Mario Matteoli, though there's little evidence of his former musical self here. Recorded at Spoon drummer Jim Eno's Public Hi-Fi studio, the local quintet's debut offers breezy indie folk with light Sixties psych-pop overtones and the homemade ingenuity of early Dr. Dog. Matteoli's yearning "Just Wanna Be Loved" and "West Texas Never Ends" are obvious highlights, but he's helped along by his wife, Cayce ("Fantasmagoria," "Blackbird No. 3"), and Baltimore transplant Andrew Bianculli, whose piano pop on "Backstreets" and "Happiness" bounds with summery nostalgia. That pinwheel rotation lends Two Sisters a refreshing balance that warrants a closer look.