News: Barely Civil Shares New Track via Substream, Tour with Bristletongue in March

Barely Civil has joined the Take This to Heart Records family and will be releasing their debut LP, We Can Live Here Forever on CS/CD/Digital March 2nd. Combining the spectral clarity of emo with the homespun storytelling of indie-rock, this first offering from these college undergraduates is a lesson in growth.

Substream is premiering second single "You with a Cape, Me with a Baseball Bat" today. Anchored by Connor Erickson's creamy riff, it's an alt-rock jammer that veers dangerously close to pop-punk's fixation on being a more significant other before exploring more sonic depth. This follows lead single "Eau Claire? Oh, Claire.," which received glowing praise from Stereogum, UPROXX, Alternative Press, and more.

 

FFO: Sorority Noise, From Indian Lakes, Manchester Orchestra

Listen To "You with a Cape, Me with a Baseball Bat"
Via Substream

Listen To "Eau Claire? Oh, Claire."

Pre-order We Can Live Here Forever

It’s easy to get lost in Wisconsin. Metropolitan centers might anchor to the Midwest, but patches of sprawling wilderness and bitter weather make for an American outlier. Barely Civil was built from this backdrop — four different dots on the state map. Despite this, their debut full-length We Can Live Here Forever plots a journey home, whatever and wherever that means. Stopovers across genre and structure keep the pace measured and lean, while Matt Riefler’s layered production explodes any breathing room into powerful statements. 

Vocalist/guitarist and primary lyricist Connor Erickson leaves plenty of signage trailing to his home base. “Eau Claire? Oh, Claire.” marries Wisco landmarks with a portrait of cautious twenty-something love. “Stark” and “Kent” — a pair of slumbering guitar tracks in the back half — gain their names from his and bassist Ben Forst’s address lines. There’s also an outward mobility as the tracks grow in magnitude, cataloging sleepless nights in Super 8 motels, in others’ houses, in the scattered silence carried through cigarette smoke and whispered confessions. The nomadic scene changes match the record’s morphing between indie-rock’s straight-laced and stratospheric ambitions in minutes. 

For Barely Civil, home isn’t really a place. It’s a collection of things — tones, conversations, milemarkers — that will ultimately find a home for you, too. 

We Can Live Here Forever will be released March 2nd on CD/CS/Digital via Take This To Heart Records.