River Thief

Artists often focus on developing a brand or a fanbase or a catalogue; others manage to transcend the clerical and instead develop a presence. Such is the story of Indianapolis’s scratchy spirit rock convocation, River Thief, a band that has printed their name on the city’s tongue even before spinning the first threads of their official body of work.

Spearheaded by the bedroom indie romanticism of Sam Mosey, River Thief has assembled a ruefully distinct sound that harkens the collegiate timbre of second-wave emo. Reminiscent of the crestfallen anthems of Armor for Sleep and The Appleseed Cast, River Thief’s clean electric guitars intertwine like glass snakes in conciliatory counterpoint to form the bed over which Mosey, in a voice both afflicted and unpretentious, delivers songs like scenes, evoking clear vignettes in unaffected meter: “I almost preferred those nights/to barely existing in the shadow of the moonlight.”

Mosey’s pale orange Midwestern reflections stack together like books on an old wood floor in the mineral glimmer of stoney togetherness. Reinforced by a premier case of Hoosier musicians, River Thief is poised to deepen their thoughtful niche in the city that forged them– after tracking at Postal Recording, their debut album “That Talk” is now available.

– Joshua Powell