On The Verge

Frontier Ruckus

Orion, Mich.
Viral Americana
www.frontierruckus.com

Frontier Ruckus formed in the aftermath of the economically prosperous 1990s. “A central theme [of our songs] is a mall where my mom used to work, used as a metaphor for a huge container of memory,” says songwriter Matthew Milia, who started Frontier Ruckus with banjo player David Jones. “These huge vacant buildings that are now just empty, full of memories of the vibrancy that they once had.” The latest addition to Ramsuer Records, Frontier Ruckus draws as much from The Band or Neil Young as it does Walt Whitman and Sherwood Anderson. “It’s really just any American literature. That experience—dealing with the memories confined within a certain very specific and haunting locality,” Milia says of the vivid literary influences in his songwriting. Live, the band’s show is stripped down, folksy and showcases Milia’s wavering tenor. “This is what I want to get back to,” Ryan Adams tweeted about the band’s latest album, Deadmalls & Nightfalls. “Those tunes go forever.”