Since the release of their 2008 debut album, the songs of Frontier Ruckus have delivered a singularly detailed representation of the glorious yet grim minutiae of Midwestern suburban life. The obsessively crafted lyrical world of songwriter Matthew Milia is brought to life by David Jones and Zachary Nichols whose instrumental contributions serve as colorfully instinctive extensions. From stages at Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo to the intimate living rooms of fans, this magnetic chemistry has helped Frontier Ruckus garner a dedicated following across the United States and Europe. In 2017 the band released their 5th LP, Enter the Kingdom—co-produced by founding Wilco drummer, Ken Coomer. The record's complex rhyme schemes and winsome charm were praised by legendary rock critic Robert Christgau. After taking a hiatus, the band now preps their 6th album for release to highly anticipating fans everywhere—promising more of the magic that led AllMusic to deem Frontier Ruckus:

"...one of the best things to come out of Michigan since Faygo Redpop."
- AllMusic

"Their songs are full of rich, rural details: frozen lakes, swaying trees, highway lights glowing in the deep night."
- Rolling Stone

 "Frontier Ruckus brings a contemporary angle to its music—eschewing traditional tales of trains, whiskey, and rambling for reflections on suburbia, family and 'life on the edge of the interstate.'"
- NPR

"...a level of top-notch songwriting most groups never attain on a greatest hits compilation."
- PopMatters

"...piercingly sincere portraits of romance and youth, ripe with close harmonies and meditations on complicated, tender love."
- CMJ

"...with lyrics as dense as a Faulkner novel and intricate arrangements that transform the typical Americana twang and faded pastoral preconceptions of folk/pop into something surreal and yet familiar."
- Paste Magazine

"...the haunting voice of frontman Matthew Milia, who conjures what might happen had Neutral Milk Hotel's Jeff Mangum been raised in a log cabin."
- Rolling Stone

"...his unmistakable and emotively quavering voice...one man’s existential vision of the world through an idiosyncratic local lens."
- PopMatters

"Matthew Milia is straight-up one of the most underrated lyricists of recent times."
- Gold Flake Paint

"Milia paints pictures, in vivid imagery of American scenery, life, and love, with not a single word misplaced in its poetic grace."
- Under the Radar

"...lyrics as dense as a Faulkner novel and intricate arrangements that transform the typical Americana twang and faded pastoral preconceptions of folk/pop into something surreal and yet familiar."
- Paste

"Well-educated, literary-inclined American songwriters are hardly thin on the ground, but Frontier Ruckus' Matthew Milia's poetic inclination always sets him apart."
- Mojo

“A melting ice cream cone, parking lot driving lessons, a climb on top of the shed… a lot of Frontier Ruckus songs paint vivid pictures of times that felt simpler, and — in an era when irony is often used as a musical safety net — the band isn't afraid of being earnest.”
- CBC

"The peculiar world of Frontier Ruckus is steeped in nostalgia for some lost suburban adolescence, the verbose song-stories of Matthew Milia piled high with video rentals, alluringly sad girls and arsey soccer coaches."
- Uncut

"Milia's lyrics roll like rich literature and are just as visually descriptive."
- AllMusic

"Matthew Milia says more in one song than many artists do in an entire album."
- Chicago Magazine

"Matthew Milia sets dazzlingly impacted lines of poetry atop the homespun sway of Americana, his verbiage razor precise descriptions of home, family and memory in suburban Michigan..."
- Blurt

"Full of muted desperation, Milia conjuring a less than cosy world of strip malls, Prozac and missed opportunities with humour and pathos…"
- Uncut

"Honest songwriting...a swaying invitation into the suburban American household, offering a dreamy glance back into a past forgotten life."
- Aesthetica

"Milia could probably have had a successful career as a novelist if he hadn't decided to form the band Frontier Ruckus...but thankfully he's happy to continue making music, and Enter the Kingdom is yet another reminder that Frontier Ruckus are one of the best things to come out of Michigan since Faygo Redpop."
- AllMusic

"Milia tells these stories...with powerful vocals which tremble under the weight of expression, moving through a number of experiences and observations, at times involved and profound, at other times brilliantly effective in their simplicity."
- No Depression

"...Milia has put a new spin on the musical style known as Americana...as though Allen Ginsberg and Cole Porter had gotten together and agreed to write Americana songs about the Detroit suburbs. It's just crazy enough to catch on, and it seems to be doing just that."
- Ann Arbor Observer

"Somebody marry this winsome sad sack, whose increasingly plausible rhymes now include open-ibuprofen, gauche-precocious-neurosis, salad on the tennis court-valid passport, speckled melanin-freckled up your skin, and the very sexy errands-gerunds."
- Robert Christgau, Noisey

"Milia’s words obsess on the most suburban images possible."
- New York Daily News

"...the boy next door comes unhinged."
- Time Out New York

"Effervescent and sweetly sincere…"
- The Village Voice