Waukesha’s Watchbirds call their music garage-folk. If the first word in their descriptor infers simplicity and the second word, gentleness, the co-ed quintet with at least one children’s book author among their ranks nailed it. The three songs comprising Singles evince the sort of uncomplicated arrangements and melodies that make for memorable kids’ music, too, even as Jenny Stahl sings with a smile of resignation earned from a defeat or three too many. Songwriting guitarist Dan Krill’s acoustic strums, and Emma Koeppel’s minimal piano figures frame the wistfully melancholy lyrics Stahl assays. A rhythmic section moseys, shuffles and sprints with equal facility on this small sampling of their work.
Should The Watchbirds incorporate more from more acerbic influences from the garage side of their aesthetic ledger, such as The Pixies and The Jesus and Mary Chain, they could become an even more multi-textured act to, ahem, watch. Singles documents the promising first flight of a fledgling band.
