Nervous Verbs + Ed Crawford Duo (fIREHOSE)

Nervous Verbs plus Ed Crawford Duo It would be reductive to say that the latest Nervous Verbs album Moments of Riot is just another installment in singer-songwriter Mike Montgomery’s deep discography. From his quarter-century in the formidable post-rock trio Ampline, to his decade-plus run co-leading R. Ring with Kelley Deal, through countless production credits at his Candyland Recording Studio, and finally arriving at the debut of his most personal project, Nervous Verbs’ Pony Coughing in early 2025 (Don Giovanni Records), Montgomery has consistently conjured inventive, emotionally resonant songs. And while Moments of Riot shares some of the aural intimacy found in his recent work, this understated collection suspires with a tragic beauty borne out of hospitals, bereavement and, ultimately, hope. “Tapping on My Skull” opens the album with a stately acoustic guitar figure scoring graceful traces across a rolling, woozy sea of Kate Wakefield’s (LUNG) cello and Adam Pleiman’s pedal steel. And like any good overture, the song establishes the greater whole’s emotional landscape. When the distinctly lofi vocals swim up in the mix, Mike makes a devastating disclosure: “With my fingers interlaced I dream I’m any other place.” The listener is simultaneously invited in but made aware that mortality looms large over these songs. The evocative collision of emotional openness, rough home recordings, and gauzy instrumental overdubs is expanded on the next song, “To Tripwire Arrows.” Montgomery explains, “The acoustic guitar track and my vocal heard here are my very first time playing through the song. All other tracks were added to the original voice memo recording.” The result feels like a frayed, decomposed rock song briefly urged aloft with Seth Kauffman’s (Floating Action) flutes and Betsy Wright’s (Ex Hex / Bat Fangs / Superchunk) ethereal backing vocals on its two bridges: “Dare me to run but words aren’t enough now / I’m not scared of blood but it’s really coming now.”