SPLENDEDZINE (online)
Tension, release. Tension, release. The book on modern rock could begin and end describing that rush-to-the-edge-and-pull-back dynamic (with perhaps an appendix for the quiet verse/loud chorus/quiet verse). Lincoln, Nebraska's Her Flyaway Manner have read the book well, and they prove themselves ready to add a few chapters of their own. The evocatively-named band has been playing together for five years, and the extended apprenticeship pays off in this complex debut, wherein layers of sound become more appealing with each listen. As much as the band's core components are readily identifiable (a little hardcore here, a bit of post-punk there), HFM nurture a restraint and caution missing in most "look at me bleed" emotion-fetishists. Luckily, HFM isn't nearly as bad as their worst lyric, which opens "Good Day Travels": "And I'm found on one knee/One last apotheosis/And I spent energy worried over wasted time." The prosaic lyrics don't push themselves too hard toward profundity; there's a simple compactness to them that evinces an appreciation of the everyday. Many of the songs deal with obliquely negative emotions and doses of light at the end of the tunnel. "My words unsaid, it's been a long hard week for both of us," states the plainspoken "My Words Unsaid", before concluding hopefully, "We'll just push each other through it and do it, better than before." HFM do the job more than well enough here, so watching them do it "better than before" should be a treat. - (review by rt)

INK 19(online)
Caulfield is one of those labels that manages to hook me and make me smile every time they put out another record by another band that too many people have never heard of… Her Flyaway Manner is no exception. Driving guitars that cut across in minimal bursts between steady bass and drum heartbeat groove with almost spoken sung lyrical rant style vocals. Sometimes music just makes me feel so much. There's an edge that reminds me of Fugazi, but more upbeat. The notes pull out feelings, leaving you raw and vulnerable, letting the lyrics dive in and grab your soul.
(review by Marcel Feldmar)

Ken Frederick @ BUDDYHEAD.COM
Top Ten
1) Ethel Meserve - the classics never die
2) Cursive
3) Her Flyaway Manner
4) The Minus Tide - wheeling, wv never had is so good
5) Midvale - shoulda, woulda, coulda been rock stars too late now though the get up kids are, speaking of which ...
6) get up kids - disgust in the fact that two of their guitars are being auctioned off on ebay for $600+ how punk rock is that?
7) ink & dagger - drive this wooden an oldie but goodie
8) Bluetip - polymer, their new album although not as impressive as previous efforts ... holy shiite, Jason Farrell is a packaging genius
9) Dayton, Ohio
10) realizing that my top ten consists of bands ... the most interesting thing I've done in a long time was going to [see no. nine] to eat vegan tacos and go to pawn shops

DELUSIONS of ADEQUACY (online)
Sometimes it's good to get a visual in mind when trying to imagine the music of a band as difficult to describe as Her Flyaway Manner. So let's take the cover of this album. Sheer white with a line-art sketch of a dove in mid-soar. That's something like this band's music. Stark at times and yet soaring and ambitious with clearly defined boundaries and the ability to push those boundaries. That probably doesn't help at all.

Let's say, then, that Her Flyaway Manner play a style of post-rock meets emo-hardcore that's really quite unlike anything I've heard. The instrumentation is sparse at times and crashing at others, with loose, almost free-jazz drumming behind thick, crunchy and textured guitar. Throw in a host of time changes, bursts of sound and then silence, and add over it all, singer Brendan McGinn has this kind of spoken/ shouted/ drawled vocal style that puts the stamp of originality on this release.

The opener, "Thunder Rattles," shows off the band's ability to fill in crescendos of crashing guitar and drums with empty space for effect, while "Fireside" demonstrates McGinn's tremendous guitar talents, which are at times all over the place while still tight. The band manages to blend songs in some cases, like "Fireside" into the stutter-step bursts of "Plain Jane." On "Our Evolution," McGinn does more singing than sing/speaking, and it adds a different kind of intensity to this song.

The band proves they can rock out on the instrumental "At Rest," in contrast to "Pitter Pat," probably the best track here, which uses plenty of silence and rapid breaks to convey a kind of moody intensity. On "Celebrate," McGinn's vocals are at times whining, at times screaming, and on "Ready, Set, Go," the instrumentation takes the lead, with some driving and squealing guitar. "My Words Unsaid" is more sincere and quiet, with stark guitar and light drumming, and the closer, "Hypocrite," is probably the most chaotic track, stopping and then blasting, stuttering and shouting, quiet and obnoxiously loud.

This is strange stuff. It's primarily the vocals that made it hard to digest the first few times I listened to it. But, really, they work for the band. In addition to providing a unique and almost jazzy sound, they are also at times quite emotional in a way that we're not so used to hearing. Couple it with some amazing musicians, and you have a very interesting and strong release. It's definitely not something you can appreciate in one or two listens, however. -(review by Jeff)

BASEMENT LIFE (online zine)
Blasting out of Lincoln, NE (which seems to be the heart of indie rock's new mid-western fertile crescent) Her Flyaway Manner's debut recording is a solid chunk of heavy rock with enough intricacies to give it some character. Rhythmically driven by a solid core of bass and drums, Brendan McGinn's screaming guitar and driven speak/ singing propels the band towards a diversely dissonant sonic territory. The album's simple recording and energetic approach is reminiscent of previous Midwestern heroes like Vitreous Humor, but the use of more complex guitar noises and overall arrangements makes for a somewhat original recording. The chugging 12-track effort does seem to run out of tricks by the end, but when it rocks it rocks, and tracks like "pitter pat" are the restrained explosions of a powerful group who have undoubtedly dedicated themselves to their craft. Her Flyaway Manner are a refreshing alternative to the more pop oriented projects in their genre insomuch as their outside influences point more in the direction of abrasive guitar based indictments than upbeat musings or yearnings. Probably not the answer, the group and their record are at least a hint at the direction in which hard post-rock needs to go to garner a more respected reputation. (pd)
Her Flyaway Manner's "Pitter Pat"
is #5 on this week's soundtrack

AIDING AND ABETTING (online music source)
Yet another byway of the emo revolution. Her Flyaway Manner is three guys. Guitar, bass and drums. The sound is basic; the writing and playing is anything but. This is astonishingly deliberate fare. The three players rarely mesh. Instead, the instruments wander around, daring listeners to put the pieces together. This approach is not tailored to the Musicland crowd. And, indeed, it probably sounds awfully strident to those just now getting used to the emo/power pop merger. Her Flyaway Manner uses the minimalism of Mineral and fuses it with the practical fury of Jawbox. Most of the time, it works. When it doesn't, of course, entire songs break down. But that's just growing pains. Her Flyaway Manner is really reaching for something here, and the goal is within reach. A little more work, a little more live playing, and this sound could really become something. One to keep an eye on, to be sure.

COLLECTIVE.CO.UK (online zine from the U.K.)
Dammit, I took a spill today in my room and sprawled all over a chair which my remote was sitting on. The remote went flying off, and I thought nothing more of it. I recovered the thing later, sans a battery. What the fuck? I've searched high and low and the battery is nowhere to be found. This sucks. I can't do that neat function on my stereo where I look to see how much of the record is left to play. Because I think HFMÕs album is about 37 minutes or so, but I wanted to check. Can't be giving out false facts. So now, 2:19 seconds into opening track "Thunder Rattles", which noodles on in with a lot of bass and a subtle almost jazzy mood that recalls Hoover, I am having to fumble around with this opening paragraph that isn't really heading anywhere. Where HFM really score is the excellent vocal work. Brendan McGinn has a hugely distinctive voice that rolls nicely between emphatically spoken, sung and strained screamy parts. Meanwhile their post-hardcore DC rock oozes out of the speakers an into your abode. If Bluetip had good songs on their last album, and they added an early Boys Life influence, then they would have actually put out a decent album instead of that lame waste of plastic I spent £7 on the other week. Other tracks featuring here, such as "Plain Jane", introduce a Van Pelt flavour, with superb the talky vocals adding a whole extra layer of texture to their music. So what you have is a rather finely rounded album of DC influenced rock music that never quite reaches genius levels, but certainly never falls below the 'decent' line either, and I've actually found myself listening to this rather regularly. Maybe you'll like this one.
Rating: 7.5/10 (review by Andy Malcolm)

DARREN (a local lincoln kid)
Hi brendan, I just wanted you to know about somthing weird that happened today...I came home from school, and my dad was listening to my Her Flyaway Manner CD, and I said "what are you doing?", and he said..."oh man, these guys sound just like Lou Reed." that's kind of wierd, at least I thought so. see you the 13th.
okay, bye, Darren

ACTIONATTACKHELICOPTER (online zine)
The vocals stand out the most to me on this one. Clear understandable composition. Kind of like chocolate
cake. Or writing in cursive. Creative guitar ensembles.
(review by Shauna)

LOST AT SEA (online zine)
Guitar! It's way out in front, and it's nasty. Much of the time it's a good kind of nasty. The guitar strings are like high voltage cables being strummed with a frozen pork chop. Lousy, fat, and disgusting. I love it. There is a hardcore theme here, and it's laced with some distorted and feedback-ridden pop melodies. It's not what I expected from a band called Her Flyaway Manner. I envisioned yet another whiney, boring emo-pop record that I would fall asleep during the second song. Nope. I was pleasantly surprised to hear that trashed-out six string churning out noise. Unfortunately, it's drowning out everything else on the record. What can be expected from a $500 recording
that was taped to eight-track?
The drums sometimes appear to be playing a different song than everything else, and sometimes it just happens to sound interesting that way. This music is hard to follow. It changes tempo every four measures (not really). Once again, sometimes it turns out cool, but usually I find myself wishing they would dwell on a part a while longer. Track five, an instrumental called "at rest", is the most structured of all the tracks. From it's broken intro, to it's serrated midsection, it demands attention. Then, just past the halfway point, the music doesn't really change but the feeling does. The accents come on different beats. There are stops and starts and ebbs and lulls and mayhem. Finally ending on a sweet note that leaves the door open for the next tune,
"pitter pat". This is the highlight of the record.
Some bands may pride themselves on there unpolished recording but this one would probably benefit from a little production. Good studio recording could fold that wonderful guitar sound into the doughy basslines and bring those off-kilter drums out of the cardboard box and into the mix. A little knob-tweaking could help out the vocals as well. I understand that budget issues may have been present here, so I will
patiently await the sophomore release form Her Flyaway Manner and smile every time I think of that abrasive guitar racket. (Reviewed by Ryan Guffey)

IMPACT PRESS (on-line zine)
I imagine Nebraska is not the most exciting place to live, which explains the despair that comes across Her Flyaway Manner's debut album. Brendan McGinn's vocals are soft and inviting, only to change into a scream, as if chastising you for paying attention. Boz Hicks's drumming is very free-form and far from
flawless, with off-time beats at various times. McGinn's guitar and Adam2000's bass complement each other, with plenty of tempo changes. This post-hardcore record will appeal to those with a taste for the unexpected.