The best way to describe post-rock duo itsnotyouitsme is simply: small band, big sound.
Itsnotyouitsme, which consists of violinist/composer Caleb Burhans and guitarist Grey McMurray, has a sound that is comparable to bands like Explosions in the Sky and This Will Destroy You. However, this band doesn’t include percussion in most of its songs, giving the music a more ambient and still vibe.
This type of music isn’t for those to rage and rock out to. The band instead prefers the audience to focus less on what they’re doing on stage and just listen to the music.
“We’ve [performed at places] like art galleries and churches, where it’s more chill and people are sitting down, to clubs where people are standing up,” Burhans said. “If people are standing up, I tend to ask them to sit down if they want to. It’s kind of a meditative environment. But we do have some songs on the new album that get pretty in your face and pretty visceral.”
The duo is set to come to Bowling Green, where Burhans said he almost attended before deciding to go to Eastman School of Music, to play a pair of shows on Feb. 8 and 9 at two very different locations: Cla-Zel Theatre and Bryan Recital Hall.
“For the more bar-type atmosphere, we’re going to be playing stuff from our last two albums, and that’ll be more like a proper itsnotyouitsme show,” Burhans said.
As for the show at Bryan Recital Hall, the duo will perform several different, more classical-based pieces from the likes of Philip Glass, Franz Schubert, Rob Haskins and John Cage.
“It’s kind of a stripped down program, but I think it reflects a lot of our roots from that world,” Burhans said of the upcoming performance at Bryan Hall.
The band’s latest album, “Everybody’s Pain is Magnificent,” is 80-plus minutes of rich, moody tones and textures, and is a bit of a departure from its earlier works.
“We really wanted to include more singing and other instruments,” Burhans said. “And we wanted it to feel more like a voyage rather than just separate songs like what our last two albums have been.”
The song “Little Wish” is one of the few tracks to include vocals, but the singing adds more timbre and textures to the sound. The vocals are mixed into the music rather than in front of the music, like most pop songs.
Itsnotyouitsme is also notable for having very interesting song titles like “The Snake of Forever” and “It Might Be Time to Leave This Place and Go Mingle With Our Heroes.”
Burhans said the song titles come from many different sources of inspiration, and that every song title “is from our own lives or about something really specific that we both share.”
The finale to “Everybody’s Pain is Magnificent,” “Always Look Up (Always Look Up)” was inspired by Burhans’ great-grandmother. And “Will the Water Save Us Now?” was inspired by a plane that crashed into the Hudson River on the day that song was recorded.
