Martin says, "This is my favorite press ever."
Local songwriters Martin Carpenter, J. J. Alberhasky, and Cory Hutchinson-Reuss have united to sweep the dusty floors of folk-pop and alt-country with wispy vocals and muscular strumming. If Guster and Jump Little Children were raised together in a cabin in Johnson County, they would probably have beat the Sleeping Planes at kickball.
Kansas has the Jayhawks. Nebraska has Bright Eyes. Now Iowa gets on board with the Sleeping Planes, who toil at the indie-folk end of the alt-country spectrum. The Planes' dramatic, inverted rhyme schemes recall their contemporaries in the lo-fi school, while anguished harmonies remind listeners that misery loves company.
regarding Martin's solo release, Sheepish...
"First off, this is one helluva debut."
A pure pop understated beauty not to be missed.
Sheepish is grade A midwestern power pop, full of catchy riffs, guitar arpeggios, and a wonderful, insistent urgency that leads to the repeat button. Carpenter's vocals are unhurried and earnest-often oddly achingly beautiful...Napoleon Dynamite times 10.
What Carpenter has captured and brilliantly executed on his debut is the crystalline essence of Midwestern power pop. File this one under intelligent, well-crafted pop rock.
Martin Carpenter, must have an awful good record collection.
Regarding Martin's previous project, The Little Acheivers:
Missouri's Little Achievers are the sonic equivalent of a can of ice-cold beer after an afternoon digging ditches. Songwriter Marty Carpenter channels Wilco (before they got weird) with a nod to power pop savants such as the Replacements (before they sobered up). They rock with heart, soul, and intelligence, and that is no small achievement.