Though formed in a folk tradition, Frontier Ruckus has shown an eclecticism across their catalog, incorporating aspects of baroque and jangle pop, alt-country, bluegrass, and lo-fi.

[7] Released on November 6, 2008 through Quite Scientific Records,[8] The Orion Songbook received positive reviews, garnering attention from Blurt Magazine, Crawdaddy!, and Under the Radar, who gave the album an 8/10.

[12] Frontier Ruckus toured the entire US and to Europe for the first time, playing Slottsfjell Festival in Norway, among shows in the UK, Germany, and Holland.

[18] Deadmalls and Nightfalls received positive critical reviews—given 9 out of 10 stars by PopMatters, who called the record "a musical map to the psyches of its performers" that "not only outdoes it predecessor, it reaches a level of top-notch songwriting most groups never attain on a greatest hits compilation.

[23] Adult Swim used Frontier Ruckus' song "Dark Autumn Hour" for four ads in their well-known series of bumps, first airing in September 2011.

[25] In May 2012, footage of Jones and Nichols performing a medley of theme songs from The Legend of Zelda—on banjo and musical saw, melodica, and Casio keyboard respectively—was circulated by Geekologie and the Kotaku site of Gawker Media.

"[28] The band released Eternity of Dimming at the 36th Ann Arbor Folk Festival at Hill Auditorium, sharing the stage with Colin Hay and Rodriguez.

[29] 2013 saw Frontier Ruckus perform at Lollapalooza and return to Europe twice, as Eternity was their first record to receive distribution from a European label, Loose Music.

Club's "Undercover" series, Frontier Ruckus recorded a cover of Third Eye Blind's 1990s alternative rock hit "Semi-Charmed Life" at The Onion's Chicago office.

[35][36] On the release tour for Sitcom Afterlife, CMJ reviewed the band's Manhattan stop glowingly, writing: "For an hour, they treated the crowd to a sampling of songs taken from their three existing LPs as well as their upcoming fourth, and transported us from New York City to a larger, intangible, folktale version of suburban America.

[39] Writing for Vice, legendary rock critic Robert Christgau gave the album a favorable review, commenting, "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.