Israel Nebeker and Ryan Dobrowski are Blind Pilot. Friends since college, Israel and Ryan have traveled many a mile to get where they are today–literally. Last year Israel and Ryan embarked on a West Coast bike tour. This wasn’t a tour where they road bikes, and had a van hauling the equipment. They hauled everything on their bikes. No gas. 100% leg powered. Playing little towns that don’t often get shows by “touring bands” – they were able to share their brand of music with people who weren’t particularly familiar with indie-pop, or indi anything. But they found that heart-felt lyrics an beautiful music appeal to just about everyone. In fact, they completely sold out of their EPs. They returned to Portland anxious to complete their first full-length album. The long road to this album has paid off in spades.

As Willamette Week (the very first publication to receive a copy of the album) immediately proclaimed: “Every once in a while a band comes along that knocks me so flat on my ass that I wish I was in the PR business or an A&R guy instead of a critic, so I could throw myself wholeheartedly behind it. Blind Pilot [gave] me that sensation. Frontman, Israel Nebeker sounds like a less theatric version of James Mercer: every bit as sincere and captivating, with vocal control and style to spare. And this band has songs coming out of its ears: deep, clever guitar-driven tunes fleshed out with soaring horn arrangements. Listening to and thinking about these songs has kept me awake at night lately.” It would be hard to imagine a better review, but “3 rounds and a sound” is just that good.