Perhaps The Canoes should have waited until winter to release their debut LP, Roger, because the record is brilliantly warm. The Chicago band’s folky take on melodic garage rock slowly simmers but never boils over. Overdriven guitars seamlessly blend with breezy tempos for a laid back approach that’s pleasantly intoxicating.

Roger‘s cover art pretty much sums it up as it connects three medals shaped like the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois. The Canoes (Sam Durkes, Rory MacPhail, Alex Teller and Elliott Teller) are stolidly Midwestern in their sonic delivery as their songs drip blue-collar folk and Americana from every fuzzy guitar lick, acoustic strum and downright earnest croon.

But what makes Roger work is that the songs never get too weighty. Guitars still rip glassy solos, and the songs offer a quirky, youthful approach. Take the fun, summertime rhythms of “American English,” which opens with the squeaky proclamation, “up those school punks, lose those swim trunks; take me to the lake/ your legs my legs, my hands your hands; let’s be each other’s first mistake.”

Roger starts off with bang as the explosive hits of “We’ll Meet in Minnesota” greets the listener before settling down into a dusty, contemplative groove for its verses. “Great Lake Mistake” takes flight with an off-kilter, Pavement-like guitar lead before a manic vocal delivery enters brimming with an obsessed urgency, “when i see you tonight on the t.v. screen/ and in my mind you’re still sixteen/ when i think of you tonight, Kathleen.”

But Roger isn’t all dynamic shifts and glittery guitar. The Canoes’ folky, Americana leanings can definitely be heard though out in the sweeping grandeur of the horn-driven “Tom’s Bomb,” twangy flair of “Bobby Goat” and even the chugging riffs their hometown tribute “Illinois, Chicago.”

There’s something to be said in a band that take pride in their geographic location. And there’s even more to be said for a band that turns that pride in to finely crafted melodies that rock without abrasiveness and roll with a soulful feel. The Canoes do just that, and the end result is Roger – an album that celebrates the Midwest with a refreshingly simple outlook.

Download Roger for free at The Canoes’ Bandcamp page.
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THE CANOES
9:00 p.m., Thursday, June 30
Quenchers, 2401 North Western Ave.
Free, 21+
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