River City Extension

River City Extension (Credit: Pat Furey)

Road weary and run beyond its years, indie rock's onetime dark horse is finally down for its dirt nap.

The dead weight of the alt-country subgenre is boxed and buried … and Joe Michelini and his band River City Extension are leaning on the shovels.

With the Ocean County-based band's latest release, "Nautical Sabbatical" frontman Michelini and his cohorts drop a shot of mescaline into the neo-folk/Americana soup, elevating the genre ever closer to a sound that transcends designation.

"It's been said that as a musician, all you need to do in order to secure an audience is to fill a void,'' Michelini said. "I've been mulling that over for a while, and I've realized that it's true. If there is a need for music or a need for change, it doesn't really matter what you're
doing. You're going to fill that void, and people are going to accept you for it.

"But I think that's sort of the cheater's way out. I think around here, for us to be able to say we accomplished something, it's when we can say we've created a void. It's when we're giving listeners something they didn't know they needed and find themselves needing after they listen. I think just filling a void is no accomplishment; it's just a matter of being at the right place at the right time.''

If Conor Oberst were struck by lightning and then eaten alive by the Electric Six, the post-meal bacchanal would sound something like River City's ""Nautical.''

At seven songs, the album is an M-80 of agnostic spaz-folk epitomized by its title track, a hyperkinetic, four-minute crescendo that powers the album to life with a thrashing kick to the face.

"We had to bring in some people to do some stuff on the record; obviously that's going to translate differently live, having different instruments, playing parts that were available in the studio but weren't available to the band full time,'' Michelini said. "We make an effort to bring in as many people as possible in order to keep things fresh and interesting for the listener.''

Performers on the album include Dan Melius on trumpet and mellophone, Nick Cucci on vocals and djembe, Mike Costaney on bass, drums and percussion, Jenn Fantaccione on cello, Michelini on guitar, vocals, mandolin and banjo, Desiree Hartman on vocals and Matt Goold on mandolin and banjo. For its live shows, the band recruits a rotating lineup of backup performers that has included
bassist Matt Lonergan (George Washington's Revenge) and guitarist Matt Goold (Wood Goold).

"Biff Swenson did some live percussion at the record release show, but both those guys (Swenson and Goold) are already in a band, a good band,'' Michelini said. ""Biff's in two bands. I'm not going to hold them down you know? We jam when we can and that's that. It's love all around.''

Members agree that their divergent backgrounds and musical tastes often result in creative collisions that only benefit the band during the writing process.

"What we work with aren't so much ideas but themes,'' Costaney said. "We always try to leave room for collaboration and experimentation.''

"Mike, as well as the other members, have been able to make this interesting in ways that I didn't even imagine,'' adds Michelini, who views himself as a writer and lyricist first and musician second. ""I have stories to tell. I have things that I want to say, but Mike has … the whole band has … allowed me to sit back and say what I want to say, taking that sentance and embellishing it musically and throw ideas back at me that I wasn't expecting to be comfortable with. If you listen to anything that I did by myself before this, it's just bland. Lyrically, it tells a story, but what's another guy with a guitar telling a story?''

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