EARLY DAY MINERS
All Harm Ends Here (Secretly Canadian)
Reviewed by Erick Mertz

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Calling the Early Day Miners anything other than a fantastic band would be selling these denizens of the suddenly fertile Midwest underground sorely short. They're darkly transcendent and moody, and already on their fourth album (not counting a bushel of singles and EP's), a band of considerable accomplishment. Yet the favorable comparisons to early Cure and the Church they've garnered aren't quite adequate.

The sum of merit displayed by the songs on All Harm Ends Here is far too great to mention in one simple review. A hushed masterpiece of restrained progressive rock, "Errance" is the album's undulating introduction. Full of ghostly tender vocals and recording technique, it is the interplay between guitarists and longtime collaborators Daniel Burton and Joseph Brumley that is the Early Day Miner's strongest suit. They grind together beautifully on "All Harm," the album's dark conscience, as well as treat their audience to the infectiously catchy power pop of "Union Trade," a song that dares to be as exalted as any other in modern music. If there was any trepidation regarding how the new rhythm section (Matt Griffin on drums and Jonathan Richardson on bass) would respond, all worries should cease here; the bass is cohesive, while the former is a creative force without peer behind the kit.

The influences can be felt throughout All Harm Ends Here, and they have been duly noted. To make the point that it is the answer to, or they are the second coming of, would be an assertion beyond ludicrous. The Early Day Miners are virtually peerless in plying their songwriting wares. The little band from Bloomington is a delightful masterpiece of a grain belt gothic that transcends any collected influence that brought them here.

© 2005 - Erick Mertz