Murder By Death

With such a sunshine-and-rainbows band name, it’s no wonder Murder By Death‘s first album since ditching its former moniker, Little Joe Gould, has the doom-and-gloom title Who Will Survive, and What Will Be Left of Them? The Bloomington, Indiana, quintet had little to be cheery about last fall when thieves helped themselves to the contents of the band’s van, including Sarah Balliet’s cello and Vince Edwards’ piano. But MBD is again flush with gear and back on the road to support the Cursivesque cello drone and artful vaudevillian crash of Survive, which tells the charming story of a small town plagued by Lucifer himself. Not exactly the most happy-go-lucky of concept albums, but then, MBD isn’t the type to carelessly shove the weight of the world off its shoulders.