Celebration, Florida

Palenville, NY’s most famous alt-country band are stretching their reach with *Celebration, Florida*. The group members have always carefully aligned themselves with their Woodstock neighbors the Band and their graceful sense of Americana, while cautiously steering their own sound towards a vague contemporary feel more in line with their relative youth. While the album title pays tribute to Disney’s development near Disneyworld, a song such as “Cus’s Catskill Gym” sends them back to the Catskill, NY of their youth, where Cus D’Amato once coached Mike Tyson. “Fire at the Pageant” throws in a vague hip-hop rhythm next to the band’s celebratory offering. “Back In the Dancehalls” is a sparse work that sounds like a meeting of old-time country, hip-hop beats and ambient synths. “Oliver Stone” is the sound of Bob Dylan’s 1960’s ghost finding its home in a nearly broken ballad. “River Jordan” is the epic you expect from these secular Pentecostals.

The latest detail-heavy record from this folk-rock group examines the dark side of American spectacle.

The puritanical streak that runs through The Felice Brothers’ work like a preacher in a whorehouse zigzags thrillingly off-course on the deeply, profoundly weird Celebration, Florida. “The honeymoon is over,” bassist Josh “Christmas” Clapton slurs over a listless drum machine on “Back In The Dancehalls,” a menacing…

Celebration, Florida is a planned community just a stone's throw from the Walt Disney World theme park that was initially developed by the Disney corporation as an experiment in moving the corporate brand into the ultimate in lifestyle marketing.