Dust Congress

This one-sided mini-LP (on baby-blue wax and housed in hand-screened artwork that looks like a hesher’s social studies notebook from 1989) reeks of rural idiot savantism and wafts in and out like a smacked-out Neutral Milk Hotel replete with banjo, trumpet, various rusty shit and probably some old mason jars filled with some kind of liquid your grandfather put in there back in the year Gimmel. Not sure what these guys have against Florida (except that it kinda sucks), but I do like these songs, especially this third track, “A Name Is a Diamond,” which is kinda awesome and reminds me of a slothier New Bad Things. There’s some 1920s flapper-type megaphone jams on here as well, for all you aficionados of the genre. Fans of Jeff Mangum would lap this excitingly-named Denton, TX group up, if they were ever to hear it. - Dusted Magazine

Featured as part of Paste's "best of 2008" in the category of "best music scene":

"Nick Foreman’s chamber-folk group—comprised of marimba, upright bass, bassoon, trumpet and Foreman on banjo, bass drum and hi-hat (all at once)—has gradually gelled into one of the most intriguing live ensembles in Denton. The band is currently hard at work on its first full-length." - Paste Magazine

"Dust Congress, with marimba, [bassoon], trumpet and the omnipresent Ryan Williams from The Baptist Generals on upright bass—and the unplugged immediacy of the band's new digs suits Foreman's Harry Smith-soaked chamber folk like a capo on a Gibson Hummingbird. "

- Dave Sims

Dust Congress is Nick Foreman, a sparkling talent waiting to be discovered. Egg Tooth is full of raw, poetic, and affecting songs delivered with an untamed delivery similar to Neutral Milk Hotel’s Jeff Mangum or Okkervil River’s Will Sheff in his less raucous moments. You don’t have to see Foreman play drums with his feet while singing and playing banjo to appreciate this, but it might help to know that he scrapped a more polished, fleshed-out recording in favor of the original batches of demos that eventually became this EP. After all, it’s the intimacy of the recording that makes it such a favorite, with the deliberate, gut-wrenching “Banal” giving way to spare, shipwrecked shards of a soul lost in the meridians, buoyed by the intuitive and skeletal bass playing of Ryan Williams (Baptist Generals), ending with the cathartic, bouncy resolution of “My Name is David.” It's the best 15 minutes of 07. (3.5 stars) - weshotjr.com

**** of 5 stars

This self-released EP (available at many local record shops or through the band's webiste and MySpace page) by Denton [five] piece Dust Congress is short -- five songs, around 15 minutes -- but it's full of gorgeous melodies that linger long after the disc is over. The sound is an indie/folk hybrid that merges Pavement's self-aware sloppiness with Will Oldham's attentive songwriting. An odd combination, but it grows on you. This should be every local music fan's go-to late-night disc this winter. - Darren White