Brandon Wiard

Painting a Burning Building
by Jamie Kiffel

Take a handful of power chords and grip them until they half-wilt into something slightly countrified; add a friendly, half-spoken male vocal, and mix with a dash of slightly drunken, slightly horny revelations, and you have the new record from Brandon Wiard. This is easygoing stuff, not the kind of thing that always pings the note on the head or works the lyrics into high art, but it is catchy and summery, and has some good, roughened guitars. Noisy, yes. Honest, probably. A little bit garage band, for sure. Like a small, collapsing star, Wiard's music relaxes in on itself. And perhaps, like a small, collapsing sofa on that star, it will draw you in with it.
(www.brandonwiard.com)