Akron/Family, Mi and L´au, Shearwater

After sending freak-folk king Devendra Banhart off to the greener pastures of V2 Recordings, Michael Gira's Young God Records continued to show its impeccable taste with the signing of Akron/Family, quite possibly the most original new band to make its mark on 2005. Like a backwoods Animal Collective with better songs, Akron/Family employs guitars, banjos, organs, computers and bric-a-brac to create a unique sound that conjures everyone from the Band to Will Oldham to Spiritualized, often in the space of a single song. Their newest release, a split LP with Gira's Angels of Light (released just a few months after Akron/Family's excellent self-titled debut), contains perhaps their finest moments yet, including the tribal vocals and noise-rock of "Moment" and the absolutely scorching "Raising the Sparks," which has surely torn the roof off many a club in the past 12 months. Label mates Mi and L'au open the show along with Okkervil River side project Shearwater, who'll bring their own brand of pristine chamber-folk.