Knife & Fork Band, Cold Cereal & Juice (GD207) The Knife & Fork Band (KFB) follow up 2000's Almost Friday Night CD (Chapter 7 Records) with their first release for Groove Disques, Cold Cereal & Juice, a 7-song EP showcasing the band's stylistic scope and grasp. Recorded at Longview Studios over many nights (while the young children of KFB lay sleeping at home in their little beds), the band took the time to get it right. With production by newest band member Topher Horner (guitar, viola, mandolin; formerly of Go to Blazes, The Low Road, Sway), Cold Cereal & Juice captures great performances with richness, clarity, and vibrancy. Dig in and enjoy 7 essential musical surprises: "Crazy" is a devilishly, heavenly meeting between Karen Carpenter and Kurt Cobain. The jumpy chamber pop of "She Was Sad" and the elegiac "2000" are adaptations of works by Philadelphia poet Daisy Fried, who probably made the coffee at the first KFB rehearsal. There's a shout-out to the great local bands now gone in "MHB RIP". There's love in the laid-back jazz shuffle "Sun, Moon and Star" and loss in "Diamonds". Prominent throughout are the brother-sister harmonies of Denis Murphy (guitar, vocals) and Meg Murphy (button accordion, vocals) and cello and fiddle work of Cammy Voss. The right amount of swing and rock dynamics are provided by longtime rhythm mates George Shirley (bass; Secret Kidds, the Stickmen, Rich Kauffman, Manayunk Homeboys) and Jon Kelsey (drums; Rolling Hayseeds, Rich Kauffman, Manayunk Homeboys). You may hear echoes of early Fairport Convention if, through time travel, they developed a love for the Mekons...an older and rougher Belle & Sebastian...a less-neurotic Glass Eye... What they wrote about Almost Friday Night: "...[the band has] that rarest of qualities: to sound endearingly familiar yet...unerringly unique." - The Bob "...sturdy songs...that celebrate traditions without slavishly copying them...and reappropriate old forms...to tell unexpectedly bitter tales." - Tom Moon, The Philadelphia Inquirer "The group deals with various aspects and hardships of life, but never in an overly serious or preachy way. The music covers so much territory and the group's approach is so much fun that...that you certainly won't be bored." - Dirty Linen "If there's such a thing as 'garage-folk' this was it; the slickness and restraint that makes so much contemporary folk a yawn was exchanged for a scruffy exuberance and DIY charm." - John Terlesky (aka Brother JT), Allentown Morning Call