When the first track on Phantom Limb, “$100,” kicks in, you might think it’s Seattle in 1993. A viscous, grimy guitar skulks and creeps, but before you can say “flannel shirt” the tune takes a breath, and Justin Kinkel-Schuster’s rusty tenor bobs gently atop spare, insistent guitar and an echoing snare. The strength of this double-edged tune helped birth Phantom Limb: an almost accidental debut that started out as demos by Kinkel-Schuster (formerly of the band Theodore) and musical partner Andre Bryant (from Missouri and Mississippi, respectively). Like cousins to My Morning Jacket or former labelmates Great Lake Swimmers, Water Liars make songs that are both delicate and sinewy, intimate and expansive. It's music for late nights, summer roadtrips, or rainy Sunday mornings. There are hints of classic groups like The Band and Neil Young, a good dose of the darkest of blues, and lovely, fingerpicked guitars filled with melancholy (“Dog Eaten” is a jewel). The bittersweet gospel of Water Liars comes together most hauntingly on the curious end track, “On the Day”: a tune projecting the last day that we all face but don’t particularly want to think about.