We chatted with Johnson-a fellow as congenial and warmly thoughtful as the music makes-in anticipation of Fruit Bats’ headlining festival spot. Revival Fest (appropriate, huh?) is one of the first stops on the reunion tour. Johnson-former frontman of space-rock band I Rowboat and an eventual collaborator with The Shins, Califone, and Vetiver-Fruit Bats released four well-loved LPs before calling it quits in 2013.Īfter a couple of years of playing solo, Johnson has decided to bring back Fruit Bats, a decision he announced quietly though a simple Instagram post. With the slow-burn success of 2003’s Mouthfuls, "When U Love Somebody," a gently catchy, sweet-but-kinda-dark love song found its way on all matter of mix CDs and playlists, and Fruit Bats suddenly become known as Sub Pop's most underrated band.Ī project that grew around the four-track recordings of Eric D. IN THE midst of the early-2000s indie-folk haze, a little band called Fruit Bats came quietly wafting to the top of the ranks. The fun part of recording for me is coming out with something that you didn’t expect.” JOHNSON: “Honestly, when I go in the studio, I like having a concept and totally throwing that out of the window and walking down a lot of hallways. Still, when an album is as effortlessly warm and pretty as this one is, it's hard to begrudge the band a return to more familiar sonic pastures, and even more so when Mouthfuls suggests that the Fruit Bats' next album will be even more winning.ERIC D. Toward the end of Mouthfuls, the Fruit Bats return to the country-folk fusions of Echolocation, and while they're still very pretty, they don't quite capture the imagination the way the album's earlier, more experimental tracks do. From beginning to end, Mouthfuls radiates laid-back contentment, but it's to the band's credit that this vibe rarely dips into laziness or complacency, even on relatively simple pastoral interludes like "Track Rabbits." Actually, there's a lot going on within the album's serenity, especially on tracks like "Union Blankets," which features an intricate mix of programmed and live percussion underneath its strummy acoustic guitars and close harmonies, and on "The Little Acorn," which begins as a drifting, Radar Brothers-esque ballad before adding sparkling synths and soft rock-inspired backing vocals. The lilting vocals and bittersweet harmonies on "Rainbow Sign" and "Magic Hour" call to mind the Fruit Bats' labelmates, the Shins, although the Fruit Bats' brand of summery, psych-tinged pop is much mellower. Most of the songs have sunny, winding melodies and arrangements that twist and turn until they end up in a completely different place than where they began "A Bit of Wind" starts out as a simple, jangly singalong and gradually adds a brass band, strings, and flutes until it becomes a sweeping pop symphony. On Mouthfuls, the Fruit Bats tone down the twang of their debut, Echolocation, and offer something closer to a mix of late-'60s/early-'70s folk and bubblegum shot through with unpredictable electronic elements that, paradoxically, make the group's music seem even more homemade and organic. Recording information: Engine Studios, Chicago, IL. Johnson (vocals, guitar, banjo, keyboards, drums, percussion) Gillian Lisee (vocals, guitar, mandolin, keyboards, percussion) Brian Deck (guitar, xylophone, drums, percussion).
Recorded at Engine Studios, Chicago, Illinois. Additional personnel includes: Dan Struck, Colin Studybaker (electric guitar). Fruit Bats: Eric Johnson (vocals, guitar, banjo, keyboards, bass, drums, percussion) Gillian Lisee (vocals, guitar, mandolin, keyboards, bass, percussion).