Arms Aloft - Sawdust City LP or CD KOD 085
ARMS ALOFT formed in 2007 in their hometown of Eau Claire, Wisconsin; a logging town-turned interstate exit between Minneapolis and Chicago. They were quick to self-record and -release a 5 song demo. In 2008, they released their first proper EP, COMFORT AT ANY COST on Gilead Media to widely positive reviews. MRR said, "ARMS ALOFT plays some nearly perfectly executed catchy punk" and "[ARMS ALOFT] will soon be a band to whom others will be compared as an influence." Razorcake said, "There's a glut of groups doing this type of stuff. And yet I can think of less than a half a dozen bands who are doing it as well."
ARMS ALOFT spent a large chunk of 2011 and 2012 on the road. Touring both at home and in Europe. They also holed up in a small studio in Minneapolis to record their debut album, SAWDUST CITY.
SAWDUST CITY finds ARMS ALOFT bringing more of the brand of intelligent punk they debuted on COMFORT, but expanding on it. The influence of DILLINGER FOUR and THE CLASH is still there, but perhaps more obviously filtered through the range of everything from SEBADOH to Japanese rock group THE PILLOWS or a KURT VONNEGUT book-on-tape that you're likely to hear rattling from the two working speakers in the shitty red van they call home. The album is both musically and lyrically dense, but never pretends to be more than the punk rock record it is proud to be.
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Pressing Information
500 +/- mixed color vinyl. breakdown soonish