The Milk Carton Kids Sign to Anti-

Congratulations are in order to our good friends, and native Angelenos, The Milk Carton Kids' Kenneth Pattengale and Joey Ryan on signing with ANTI- Records, joining an illustrious roster led by the likes of Tom Waits, The Black Keys, and WILCO.

The official announcement from ANTI-:

Anti- Records is pleased to announce the signing of acclaimed Los Angeles based duo The Milk Carton Kids. The band’s upcoming album culminates a whirlwind first year of the band’s existence. In that short time the duo of Kenneth Pattengale and Joey Ryan have built a vibrant following with the simple purity of their music: touring with Old Crow Medicine Show, the Lumineers, Punch Brothers, and KD Lang; appearing on NPR’s Tiny Desk concert series; charming audiences with their deadpan on-stage humor (riffing on the Smothers Brothers for young fans who have never heard of the Smothers Brothers); offering their debut album for free to willing fans – over 130,00 downloaded – from their website; and grabbing press acclaim usually reserved for veteran artists.

While The Milk Carton Kids most obvious frame of musical reference is the classic folk revival sound of twin acoustic guitars and close harmonies, the band both expand and contradict that rich legacy. The music strikes listeners immediately with its sweet, bluegrass-inflected simplicity, but underneath snakes Pattengales’ sinuous modal guitar lines, sounding for all the world like a jazzified Bert Jansch dropped in to jam with the Everly Brothers. Their harmonies, too, while recalling classic brother duos from the Louvins to the Everlys, achieve a richness that blends into a vivid singularity; Grammy award winning producer and musician Joe Henry writes that “upon first listen I became so seduced by the singular character that emerged from the songs, that I failed to register that there were actually two very different singers giving rise to him.” The effect is heightened for live audiences as they watch Joey and Kenneth effortlessly switch off leads and high and low harmonies, a perfect folk democracy.