Search - Modernstate :: The Burning Beard

"Modernstate is beautifully delicate and, at the same time, strong with lyrical invention. Schauer's dramatic ability to tell an honest story is what carries through and keeps you. It is sure, rudder-like, balanced, and moves forward with honest human emotion. It's folk, but it's also punk, experimental, lo-fi rock, and blends all of this into some sort of mutant confessional pop." -- PORTLAND MERCURY Three years in the making, Modernstate's sophomore album The Burning Beard guides us through all facets of its creator, Sam Schauer. Recorded in a large room overlooking Portland's darkest avenue, the sound of a working class city embeds itself in the content of the record. The Burning Beard is a desperate record, a living and breathing testament to self-denial, determination, and regret. Schauer's stark musical candor surfaces with lyrical honesty that is easily mirrored by brooding melodic drums and understated glockenspiel. As his baritone journeys through the sharply tragic doom-folk of the album, the city is perched on his windowsill, somehow accompanying his pocket symphony and hinting at the notion that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.