Manishevitz

Chicago-via-Virginia's Manishevitz are a group of smart-alec musicmakers that embody the inbred concepts of growth and change.

It's an adolescent struggle carried well beyond, that only dies with the dearth of knowledge and passion. And for a band like Manishevitz, who have quietly amassed one of the more important and engaging musical histories in recent memory, the process is never close to completion; for in their work, they also embody two other inbred, symbiotic terms, reinvention and inspiration.

Manishevitz truly came to be with the 1999 Jagjaguwar release of "Grammar Bell and the All Fall Down," an affair of bluesy bedroom murmurs and lyrical high-jinx that showcased singer and songwriter Adam Busch's broad range of expressive, romantic musical tricks. With delicate layering by second guitarist Via Nuon, "Grammar BellŠ" was a seasoned debut indicative of promise. Bolstered by that belief, Busch and Nuon left Virginia to settle in the expansive urban environs of Chicago, quickly shedding their old small-town skins for new.

Convening in a neighborhood populated by perpetually frowning Eastern European immigrants, Busch and Nuon sought out members to aid in the recording of what would become 2000's "Rollover." With a magic ease, a cast of characters who also happened to be stalwart Chicago musicians appeared, including bassist Ryan Hembrey (Edith Frost, CanKyRee, etc), saxophonist Nate Lepine, drummer Joe Adamik (Califone), and the revered cellist Fred-Longberg Holm. "Rollover"

cast aside the bedroom aesthetic almost entirely, showcasing an evolving song craft, and more importantly, emerging band-unity that resulted in a tightly focused, esoteric record of increasing confidence and presence.

And they continued to transform themselves. With Nuon and Busch both feeding off of one another and contributing equally to songwriting, and the band coalescing into a cohesive whole, Manishevitz emerged as a completely new and distinct entity. First heard on 2002's "Private Lines" ep, and fully realized on 2003's "City Life," the band has abandoned the oft-times sparse arrangements on their previous releases, and created themselves as a grand production, in terms of scale, ambition and vision. "City Life" is a record that thematically touches upon tales of urban anonymity, urban awe and the wide-eyed longing innocence that leads up to finding it. Manishevitz craftily enhance these themes with elegantly arranged textures of sax, cello, flute, cornet, piano, jazz squalls, and sing-along anthems. Think Roxy Music at their most triumphant, Sonic Youth at their most psychedelic, Brian Wilson at his most tortured and the Fall at their most playfully abrasive. There are not many bands making music as meaningful as this today, and like the endless city which they inhabit that always begs the inspiration to reinvent, they continue to do so with themselves, through their never-ending growth and change.