Lo Talker Make Themselves Heard

Florida’s Roadkill Ghost Choir were a late entry into the brief “ethereal Southern alt-rock” trend sparked by the emergence of Band of Horses, My Morning Jacket and the like. From that kaput quintet, singer Andrew Shepard has retained his bass playing brother Zach Shepard and traded in the other three for fresh recruits Rhett Fuller, Jeremiah Johnson and Alec Stanley. The resulting Athens-based outfit, Lo Talker, was all primed to make its live debut at the Georgia Theatre last April until the Slack Plague wiped out a third of the earth’s population.

A year after that catastrophic event and the ensuing migration of survivors into underground shelters and caverns, Lo Talker are cautiously emerging, bearing their debut album A Comedy of Errors. Out March 19th on Arts & Crafts, the 11 songs share certain intangible qualities with the RGC sound, cascading about your cranium with a sort of spiritual grandness and splendor. The most striking difference between the two bands, aside from Andrew’s pink hair, is Lo Talker’s robust embrace of sunshine pop accessibility, and by that I mean at least half the album sounds like The Monkees, in the best possible way. That said, the lengthiest, sturdiest and best song, “Silvery,” somersaults across six minutes with nimble ease. An impressive first volley from a bunch of Bernie bros.