There Is No Mountain (formerly The Ascetic Junkies)

“Owl Hymn,” the slow-burning first glance at the duo’s new direction, showcases the husband and wife team’s continued knack for churning out folky pop tunes, albeit with a twist. The four-plus-minute cut bashes barebones percussion and frenzied acoustic guitar evoking the African influence seen in major indie acts like Vampire Weekend and the Dirty Projectors. The subtle handclaps and Harmon’s bouncing guitar complement Giaritta’s soft vocals, giving the song a serene vibe despite the moments of quick, brash handwork. Although the song is definitely a refreshing taking on traditional Americana—embedded with more than a little modern pop sensibility—the tune doesn’t wander far from remnants of music’s past. (I’m thinking a touch ofGraceland perhaps?) - Willamette Week

Full of stop-and-go buoyancy, [There Is No Mountain] is as lively as ever but engagingly different with its malleable rhythms—it’s a new sound from recognizable voices. - Oregon Music News

...As songs ended and applause ensued, the words “just beautiful” were uttered by several people in the crowd on a regular basis.... - The Source Weekly

[The Ascetic Junkies] have never pretended to be anything other than playful, and that playful irreverence makes their frenetic virtuosity all the more impressive, most especially in concert… [the Junkies] demonstrate a proclivity for pop gymnastics, not unlike the variety which has earned the Dirty Projectors some of their praise. - Joe Clinkenbeard, Spectrum Culture

"This Cage Has No Bottom" has the feeling of a modern life put to song, hymns made for and among good friends doing their best in the here and now. - Portland Mercury

...[The Ascetic Junkies have] a sound that combines the rootsy cool of neo-bluegrassers The Avett Brothers, the radiant charm of Mates of State's fluttery indie-pop, and the carnivalesque racket of early Of Montreal, wrapped loosely in Portland's DIY ethos. - Ben Salmon, Bend Bulletin/Frequency Blog

With more and more bands in town learning about the power of acoustic instruments, we should be thankful they can wrench some great sounds out of them. The quintet known as the Ascetic Junkies does just that by introducing the stomping joy of bluegrass and country into its navel-gazing pop (à la Tilly and the Wall but without that silly tap dancing thing). The resulting music, as heard on the band's debut, One Shoe Over the Cuckoo's Nest, has quickly marked it as one of the best young groups in Portland. (by Robert Ham)
- Willamette Week

[Windows Sell the House is] a great example of the modern bluegrass music that's been growing all over the country, from the deepest deltas of bluegrass country to the edges of the country, like Portland, Oregon... One of the things I love so much about modern independent music is that there are no genre restrictions. You can have a song called "Dracula" and not be goth. You can be from Portland and play bluegrass. It's a cool new world, as far as music is considered... The Ascetic Junkies have solved the problem of always being locked out. They now have no doors or walls. (by Lola Strickland) - Cerulean's Love of Music

As playful as The Tom Tom Club and just about as prescient as Phil Ochs singing "Love me, love me, I'm a liberal," Kali Giaritta and Matt Harmon have the chops to sing out the sacrosanct and dig a little deeper into the psyche of lovers and citizens and post-punk Amerika. The arrangements on this acoustic album are just this side of Bela Fleck good with all the imagination and invention a listener wants without just sitting around being impressed. This is folk music recorded in two bedrooms with the intimacy you might expect and an art rock complexity applied to down home warmth. This is whip smart folk gone beautifully wrong and decidedly elsewhere. This pair puts the hip back in hippy for a take on living through our current calamity might keep you smiling in the unemployment line.

Right out of the package, this CD has a ton of energy. These songs are arranged with the drama and dynamics, first rate picking, and imagination worthy of Eno in the execution. Chances are you'll smile from the rush being taken first by the hand and lead somewhere you haven't quite been before. Now, this album found me in a lazy week with lots of dishes and house cleaning to do. I didn't write a thing, but made a home for myself and listened every day. So I've heard this album like normal people with dishes being done and the disc spinning in the stereo. It was with a soapy dish in my hand this album finally seeped into me. The dazzle of the break neck pace cracked open like a geode and I found myself crying over the sink. Kali and Matt lead me to the military cemetery and introduced me to one good man lost. They questioned my earnest protest, and pulled the curtains on my isolated complacent self-righteousness. They became my friends.

The Ascetic Junkies write first-person story songs, as did Phil Ochs with "I Ain't A Marchin' Anymore" and many other songs. The value of such a song stems from a depth of empathy. If AJ were preaching to the converted and pummeling the presumed guilty, they wouldn't be worth a review. They did it right. The left and right get equal time in passionate parody all with enough sympathy to keep them from being cloying. Walking the streets of Northside in Ohio, I see the characters of these songs living out their own respective flavors of damning certainty in distorted enlightenment. As my father once told me, "Every time you point your finger, there are three fingers pointing right back at you." So, I'm stung by the song Amsterdam. If I can't help but think I'm right about the world, despite a nod to humility, the words of the song slap me upside the head. "Am I too naïve to change the world?"

I'm old enough to be taken back to the days of Phil Ochs and Jack Clement when I was too young to protest but thought at the age of six I could go door to door for Bobby Kennedy. Now I'm 53 and living in Ohio. Along comes The Ascetic Junkies, and I'm feeling naked listening to The Ascetic Junkies. They rip through a song with heart and humor as dazzling in the insight as the arrangement. I was smarter when I was younger, and had more hope. Matt and Kali have opened up my heart again. It hurts but I feel more alive. I wonder if that six year old I was would be proud of me. That's what "One Shoe Over The Cuckoo's Nest" has left me feeling. It's time to love again.
- www.billysbunker.com

...The Ascetic Junkies did not fail to deliver either. I knew that Kali Giaritta and Matt Harmon could harmonize on an album, but I've often seen such harmonies fall apart miserably in concert - not here. And nothing gets a Portland crowd moving like some good old fashioned foot stomping and banjo playing (of which there was plenty)...
- http://www.portlandlocalmusic.com/profiles/blogs/ascetic-junkies-derrek-wayne