Teach Me Equals (aka Bard and Mustache) is Erin Murphy on guitar, violin and vocals; and Greg Bortnichak on cello and vocals. They “have had a thing for testing the limits of impossibility,” according to the duo’s website. Their musical style has been called “scrape rock,” but as much as it’s edgily experimental, it’s also melodic and sweepingly beautiful. This is pop music at its most haunted, crafty and spell-binding.
They’re currently on tour “until December 2014 in their Chalet pop-up camper” while also readying for a spring 2014 album release. (They’ve already recoded three EPs.) Teach me Equals plays The Odditorium on Sunday, July 28, 8 p.m.
Local band Holy Holy Vine (the project of Flora Checknoff of Metal Hearts) also performs. Earlier this year, Holy Holy Vine released indecision has gotten you (with Jamie Alexander on piano, Emma Alabaster on upright bass, Corinne Bennett on violin and Zach Dunhamn on drums). “Cracks” is spare and woozy, a soundscape that ambles and staggers, but does so with charming purpose. “Screen glow and the mountainside” is a dusky acoustic track. It nods to shoegaze and folkloric pop, turning both inward and outward almost simultaneously with hushed harmonies and gorgeous, uplifting melodies that drift on the most delicate of breezes.
