Fort Frances * Hidden Pictures * Y{our} Fri{end}

Hidden Pictures showcases a retro sound that emphasizes crafty hooks and boy-girl harmonies. Comparisons to bands like Belle and Sebastian and She & Him are inevitable with coed vocals at the forefront, but the band’s vinyl vault also pays heed to tunesmiths like Big Star and the Kinks as well as modern masters like Wilco and the Shins. The Kansas City band’s debut LP Synchronized Sleeping features a dozen “damn near perfect pop songs” with wide-ranging dynamics. Written by Richard Gintowt and approved by singer and glockenspielist Michelle Gaumé Sanders, the album’s wry lyrics humorously riff on the perils of love and friendship. Gintowt solicited contributions from more than a dozen of his favorite musicians, bringing strings, horns, bells, and pedal steel into the fold.

The past two years have been blurry. After tucking away in the hills of Maine to record

their debut album with Sam Kassirer (Josh Ritter, Langhorne Slim), the three voices

behind Fort Frances found themselves on-stage at festivals around the country, on-

screen at Tosh.0 and on the road for tens of thousands of miles.

“Harbour” brings the band back home. Recorded in downtown Chicago, the new release

echoes with the inspiration the band took from a winter next to Lake Michigan. But

this was not a winter of hibernating; this was a season of exploring the band’s all-

instruments-onboard playground. In the months typically marked by the nothingness

of a Midwestern winter, the band approached writing and recording with a new energy

fueled by the steady pace of the city.

From the opening pulse of “City by the Sea” to the jubilant stomp of “I Had Love”,

“Harbour” is grounded in traffic jams and bus rides, towering skyscrapers and frozen

sidewalks. It’s an ambitious collection of songs - - songs that are bound to make the

next year just as blurry as the last.