Wiretree

Following up a breakthrough LP ain't easy. Make Up, Wiretree's third album, launched the Austin quartet into the top tier of guitar poppers both local and national on the strength of its songs and performances. Get Up, the difficult fourth album, solidifies its predecessor's success while building on its gains. Bandleader Kevin Peroni allows folk influences to infiltrate his usual pure-pop writing, giving "Doctor" and the title track an ethereal earthiness in the vein of the recent acid folk revival. Though the folk flavor gets toned down, the winsomeness carries over to "Marching Band" and the lovely "When You Were Young," pop gems both. For purists, Wiretee also hits a new peak of power-pop mastery, as "To the Moon," "Out of My Mind," and "So Bold" represent the band's best, loudest, and catchiest tunes yet. The disc further features Peroni's first full-scale epic with "In the City (Rail)," a multi-sectioned journey through its creator's musical consciousness that demonstrates the band's hard-earned musical facility. Less immediately gratifying than Make Up, the ambitious, eclectic Get Up reveals its pleasures through repeated spins, insinuating itself intellectually at first, but eventually settling permanently into the heart. - Austin Chronicle

The clipped guitars and easy '70s singalong feel of the title track of Make Up sum up the engagingly out of sync feel of Wiretree's latest, a kind of prelapsarian college rock before grunge broke big and transformed expectations. In that regard, the band continues as before, but it's definitely a case where a little can go a long way -- songs like "The Shore," another in the line of jaunty and jumping songs that have roots via Motown, the Smiths, the Strokes and beyond, the quartet can easily strike gold at its best. - All Music Guide

"In a town so saturated with gimmicky bands, it's refreshing to come upon Wiretree's honest, unironic power pop. In fact, the group's music reminds me of Big Star's "Ballad of El Goodo." The band's third LP, Make Up, contains great ditties, including the sweetly rollicking stomper "Broken Foot," the ominous-feeling "Tonight" and "Dakota" a cahartic and wonderful sample of what makes Wiretree so good. Sometimes with all the electric bleeps and bloops in music, you just want some good, honest rock n' roll."
- Austin Monthly - Austin Monthly

Austin's Kevin Peroni has been writing songs under the moniker of Wiretree since 2005, when he released his first EP. The latest album, Bouldin, is a nine song testament to American chords, everything that was good about real folk music, bridging the gap between The La's and late '70s George Harrison with ease. Peroni's vocals are at times extremely Elliott Smith-ish, but that's not a bad thing. The songs are reminiscent of all those great bands the people who are slightly older than you are remember buying: Smithereens, Squeeze and the the Posies all make their appearances in the influenced-by department, but so do Tom Petty, James Taylor and Brendan Benson. "Big Coat" is the stand-out track, featuring big hooks and a hummable chorus that sticks with you (and begs to be a Cingular commercial). Bouldin is, at the end of the day, a sweet, inoffensive collection of tunes that are perfect for drives to the lake, first date dinner at my house evenings and chilly fall morning mixtapes for boys and girls that don't know you exist yet. - Austinist

Wiretree's sound is so big, your ears would have a hard time believing it was the work of just one man - Kevin Peroni. Citing influences such as The La's, ELO, Brendan Benson, and Sparklehorse... his music has a twist of Elliot Smith meets Matthew Sweet with a touch of The Shins. Kevin's voice is just simply divine. - Who Needs Radio

Wiretree is a great new project from singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Kevin Peroni. This full-length winner melds a variety of influences with an acoustically-based sound to form an instantly enjoyable, bright and catchy listening experience. We've heard Wiretree's sound compared to The Smithereens, Tom Petty and Brendan Benson. But we also hear Dear 23-era Posies and early (i.e. good) Goo Goo Dolls. This is really an exciting new Indie Pop release! - Whitsbrain

Things start off with "Big Coat", an excellent shuffle that's instantly catchy. Meanwhile, "Secret Law" sounds like Tom Petty meets The Pernice Brothers; "Feel Me" has that "Blood and Roses" feel to it; "Don't Need It" is an untempo marvel that has an early Posies sound; "Notion" is a great keyboard and acoustic guitar-driven number; and I'm not sure I'll hear a more beautiful melody the rest of the year than the one belonging to "Whirl", although the closing track that follows it, "Summercity", comes damn close." - Absolute Power Pop

Deli Magazine - Live Review
Wiretree kicked off the show to a crowd smaller than what their playing deserved. The four showcased a sound different from their first album’s showing, now slipping into a more nerd-rock-meets-rockabilly sound that echoed of Nineties bands like Weezer, leading me to half expect one of their songs to lead into “Surf Wax America.” One thing for certain about Wiretree: their onstage personality is quite a different beast than their album one. Whether it is just an attitude change between the two albums or something else, ‘Tree had me rocking along with them a lot more than their peaceful first-album fare. Impressively dominating the stage given the size of the band, lead-singer Kevin Peroni takes care of the vocal work all on his own while switching effortlessly between electric and acoustic – the acoustic which, interestingly enough, didn’t do the regular slowing down of the concert, but rather kept the intensity and momentum of the show up while giving a different taste. After an impressive cover of a Dylan tune, Wiretree showed that their new sound was a definite razor-sharpening of their early, butter-knife edge. New album drops in the next couple of months.

http://www.thedelimagazine.com/wp/?p=626 - Mitchell Mazurek

The BLURT staff put our heads (and ears) together and we have the May-June pick for our Blurt/Sonicbids "Best Kept Secret": it's Austin combo Wiretree.



Fronted by Kevin Peroni, the quartet includes Joshua Kaplan, Rachel Peroni and Daniel Blanchard. Their debut, a self-titled EP, was released in 2005 under their own independent label, Cobaltworks Music. In January of 2007, Wiretree released their first LP entitled Bouldin. A 2009 LP is due out later this year. They describe their music as being "largely influenced by Britpop and musicians along the likes of George Harrison, Elliott Smith and the La's."



But there's a lot more than those namechecks might suggest - echoes can be heard of everything from vintage ‘60s pop-sike and Velvet Underground-esque choogle to paisley underground-tinted ‘80s stylings and latterday indie rock with a distinctive anthemic edge. There's an urgency afoot in the Wiretree music, and a naked honesty as well.



We'll have an interview with the band posted to the site shortly. Meanwhile, you can check our BLURT radio if you want to hear an MP3 ("Big Coat," from Bouldin) by the band - just click on the music player image on the right hand side of our homepage and scroll down for the song. Also check out the band's MySpace page for more song samples - they indicate a new album is about ready to drop - as well as tour dates and more. And congratulations to Wiretree. They're one of the good ‘uns, trust us.

http://blurt-online.com/news/view/2461/ - Blurt Magazine's - Fred Mills

Meet Kevin Peroni, from Austin, TX. He's been writing songs as Wiretree since 2005, and is a perfect example of a little stone making a big splash in the indie pond. - Amie Street

Not sure what they said, it's in Croatian. They gave our album "Bouldin" 9 out of 10.

http://www.terapija.net/mjuzik.asp?ID=5416 - Terapija

Call it pure pop, or Beatlesque, or anything you like – but whatever you call this kind of smartly crafted, beautifully created, insanely catchy music, WIRETREE has it down on Luck the way TV pundits have hate speech. Led by songwriter Kevin Peroni (who also does a TODD RUNDGREN in the studio), the Austin quartet conjures up a luscious mix of JASON FALKNER, the POSIES, ELLIOTT SMITH and the LA’S, drawing elements from the best pop the last couple of decades had to offer. But for all the familiar signposts in “Information,” “Days Gone By” and “Across My Mind,” there’s nothing here you’d call a rip-off of other work – beside having a sure melodic touch, Peroni has the remarkable ability to absorb his influences without regurgitating them, adding to the legacy of great indie pop rather than imitating it. The proof is in this delectable pudding: Luck gets better, richer, more satisfying with every spin. - Michael Toland

We could easily play the influence game with the Austin, Texas indie rock foursome Wiretree. There are traces of Britpop's cool factor and The Shagri-Las' lilt and sway on the piano-tinkler "Satellite Song." Despite these tap roots, this quartet of misfit lovers craft pretty dang solid pop tunes, regardless of their touchstones. Now Wiretree's preparing the way for Luck, the follow-up to 2007's quietly disarming Bouldin. - Under the Radar