Posts Tagged ‘ Folk ’
Blitzen Trapper delve into their bag of retro-chic-folk tricks and returns with a new ace up their sleeve. Sounding more like Dylan than ever before, “Heaven and Earth” is the first single from the upcoming Destroyer of the Void LP, to be released June 8th on Sub Pop Records.
MP3: “Heaven and Earth” – Blitzen Trapper
To be completely honest, if your car stereo hasn’t already been blessed with some Blitzen Trapper, then your driving playlists are sadly lacking. Blitzen Trapper’s eclectic mix of folk and glamorous 1970′s shimmer has been hot since their first three self-released albums made them indie-rock mainstays in the early part of the decade. The band’s first Sub Pop release, Furr, is just about as futuristic as experimental folk can get. Confused yet?
From the very get-go, “Sleepytime In The Western World” introduces you to the happy-go-lucky side of Blitzen Trapper that the band displays so well throughout their musical catalog. The bright-as-day guitar leads, southern-twanged vocals and spider-leg bass lines mix with a brightest of cymbal crashes that really beg you to roll a window down on your drive through the desert. Let’s not sugarcoat this anymore though . . . this album is as serious as they come, with absolutely zero filler. Furr might make the Portland, OR sextet sound like the focal point of Almost Famous, but the lyrics tell tales of dead men, stolen horses and whiskey. Yes, the folksters from the Northwest have a cowboy twist behind that poppy smile.
Johnny Cash would be proud of the sinister backdrops of “Black River Killer” as singer Eric Earley offers his best Bob Dylan impersonation while running through a twisted story of murder, betrayal, and lust on a SOCAL Snoop Dogg bass line. While the band’s first handful of albums let them take the folkster’s Fugazi route; taking whatever thought came to mind and laying it into tracks, Furr makes the sextet masters of one specific sound. What is the sound, you ask? A happy veneer with serious musical talent and devious minds akin to Murder by Death, with a 70′s angle.
Blitzen Trapper’s Furr showed that this band could evolve from an ingenious experimental band and refine their sound into the most addicting folk that you’ll ever want to put to ears. The cripsness of this album might dismay original listeners, but I, for one, and glad that a band like this can get the recognition they deserve. I am completely sincere in saying that every, space-synthed line on this album is absolutely stellar and makes Furr a staple. The six shooters are hot, the organ continues to play, and there’s some empty whiskey bottle somewhere behind this album and, indefinitely, you must have this album on repeat before you take the money and run this summer.
Ever since getting turned onto Mumford & Sons via their Sigh No More album, I’ve had a hard time listening to anything but. Being a country-born kid just makes you have this affinity for the stomping folk music that these guys make.
The only downside being that I could see these guys invading the US just to take our women. I’m sure it’s some English version of 300 with a folk rock twist . . . Gerard Butler with a guitar. Nevertheless, hailing from London, Mumford & Sons make the kind of authentic folk music that keeps taverns and pubs in song and dance for months. Good to see some old-school taking its place in the new wave of artsy rock.
MP3: “Little Lion Man” – Mumford & Sons
MP3: “Sister” – Mumford & Sons
So I have this friend, right? The dude smokes a lot of cigarettes and loves strippers. He’s not as scummy as he sounds . . . he just works in the snow/skate industry. All kidding aside, the dude grew up on a steady diet of awesome, under-the-radar music, just the same as I did. When there’s a band I’ve never heard of, guaranteed Jimmy T’s got it on lock and vice versa. He’s kind of like “The Smoking Man” from the X-Files but without the trenchcoat.
I’ve read quite a bit about Mumford & Sons on the internet in the past couple months but never bothered to request some preview tracks from their label. With everything moving at the speed of light on the internet, my indie-ADD apparently kept me sleeping on Sigh No More. Nevertheless, I awoke yesterday to a comment on my Facebook wall from a certain, cigarette smoking Italian, saying something to the effect of “Mumford & Sons . . . get on it!” Boy, was I missing out! Island records was kind enough to send me a couple of tracks, including this new single, “Sister”, and I’m definitely glad they did.
Here’s what I missed on TrendRobot a few months ago. Here’s James Trabucco’s “Smokin’ Mp3 Pick”. Thanks for having my back Jimmy T!
MP3: “Red River” – Rocky Votolato
Alright, alright, alright . . . so I didn’t make it through all of Votolato’s records on my recent Discography segment . . . so sue me. I made it through two of the most important records in Votolato’s catalog as well as two of the most important records in my personal collection. In the coming weeks, I’ll make sure to wind back through Makers, A Brief History, Rocky Votolato, and my favorite, The Brag & Cuss. For now, you’ll just have to settle for a review of today’s release of True Devotion, a record with a ton of hype on the internet.
Rocky Votolato’s sixth full-length, True Devotion, is going to hold a place in my heart, I can tell, despite not being his best work. On past records, there has always been a mission to accomplish, a theme to uphold, or a certain longing present, but on True Devotion, there isn’t exactly a complete thought conveyed in the lyrics or even the strumming . . . there’s more or less a sentiment of “settling down” for a singer/songwriter that’s traveled his share of county roads. Read more
In anticipation of the Feb. 23 release of True Devotion, I’ll be looking back at the extensive catalog of one of indie music’s most celebrated strummers, Rocky Votolato. I realize that I’m taking a roundabout way through his archives of inspired-folk, but this arrangement is how the singer/songwriter was introduced to me. There are uncertain starting points and lots of back-tracking, but as an avid fan, I’ll try my best to recite it from memory.
Reviews:
2/15 – Burning My Travels Clean
mp3: Every Red Cent From Suicide Medicine
Like all youth, Rocky Votolato felt the angst of alienation and found early connections with punk and indie bands in high school. Fugazi, Jawbreaker, Minor Threat, and the like, all moved Votolato to form the inscendiary Seattle rock outfit Waxwing with brother Cody (formerly of The Blood Brothers). Five full-length Waxwing albums later, and an emerging cult-following, Rocky Votolato yearned to pay homage to his rural Texas roots in his own right. After growing up on a steady diet of Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, Merle Haggard, and other country-western legends, Votolato had steel guitar running through his veins.
In anticipation of the Feb. 23 release of True Devotion, I’ll be looking back at the extensive catalog of one of indie music’s most celebrated strummers, Rocky Votolato. I realize that I’m taking a roundabout way through his archives of inspired-folk, but this arrangement is how the singer/songwriter was introduced to me. There are uncertain starting points and lots of back-tracking, but as an avid fan, I’ll try my best to recite it from memory.
mp3: Without Eyes Still Seeing
Listen to “Without Eyes Still Seeing” from Burning My Travels Clean
Gaining an early following for his frenzied, punk compositions with his brother Cody (a founding member of The Blood Brothers) in Seattle’s beloved Waxwing, Rocky Votolato’s forray into solo work began subtly and quietly. After yearning to resurrect his musical roots, Votolato channeled the influences he had gained in his formative years spent on a Texas ranch. Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard . . . before his years as an underground indie-darling in Seattle, Rocky Votolato had grown up on the clicks-and-pops of country western and folk albums in the Union’s biggest territory. What would emerge would be an indie-rock career that, through little marketing and tons of word-of-mouth, would become a blessed life of strumming and passionate prose.
Released in 2002, Burning My Travels Clean was the fourth in a line of roughly-sketched demos/full-lengths put together by the young journeyman. Travels is, at best, a sketch of what Rocky Votolato would mature into as an artist, while, at the same time, some of his most potent and moving work. Experimenting with solo piano compositions, steel guitars, fiddles, and stripped-down, minimal percussions, the singer/songwriter weaves tales of love, marriage, and sorting out the happy mediums in a blue-collar life.
At times, Votolato hides behind a subdued, quivering voice that is begging at the folk experiment he is conducting. These are not the confident vocals that we would hear in later releases, but the youthful ambiguity in Burning My Travels Clean is inevitably what makes the album so effective. Tracks like “Don’t Walk Out On Me” become the perfect measuring stick for an aspiring wordsmith, as it begs at the possibilities. It doesn’t take an educated listener to hear the emphasis put on lyrics that crack through the song’s unsure vocal lines . . . “I should be singing by now to earn my keep/I guess my throat just can’t carry the weight”.
Simply put, Burning My Travels Clean is an honest interpretation of youth. A footnote for that unsure period between angst and clarity, Burning My Travels Clean finds a young musician honing his craft as he embarks on marriage, a career, and his absolute passion for music. This collection is ultimately a prelude to the journeyman that Rocky Votolato would become on other albums, but is essential to the complete storyline. An ode to a working-class upbringing, Burning My Travels Clean is what would establish Rocky Votolato as a modern homage to every folk strummer before him.
Virgil over at Suburban Home Records has a keen eye for talent and a wide-spanning catalog of musicians. Recently, on VinylCollective, he posted this stream from singer/songwriter PJ Bond as a part of his “if you like . . . you’ll like” series.
“PJ Bond’s debut, solo album, “You Didn’t Know I Was Alphabetical”. It is one of the few albums everyone in the office can agree on and one that I personally like a lot. I hear some Elliott Smith influences, but the playing and singing reminds me quite a bit of Rocky Votolato. I have yet to see him play (missed him on the last tour), but I look forward to seeing him some day.”
The record is definitely loveable right from the get-go. Elliot Smith influences have yet to emerge on this, my first listen through the album, but Rocky Votolato is definitely in the mix. In the recent years, Rocky has morphed into more and more of a folk singer and moved away from diverse melodies like on Suicide Medicine or Burning My Travels Clean. PJ Bond sounds like a young Rocky, honing his craft. [VinylCollective]
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TrendRobot Rating: 8/10
Zooey Deschanel is one of those “dying breed” types. Any Hollywood starlet would want to be a pop-star, and probably has the means to do so. Deschanel, though, picks her roles well and her collaborators even better. Classic, horridly adorable in that “cute and natural” sense, and endlessly talented, Deschanel didn’t aim for the pop route . . . she aimed for the classically-trained crooner path. Along with solo-artiste/Monsters of Folk collaborator, M Ward, Zooey puts together a Dolly Parton act that is even more endearing than the songs of days’ past. She & Him’s first album, Volume One, lay dormant on the shelf of many a cult-follower, but the new track, “In The Sun” shows off her songwriting abilities like never before. Sultry, yet vulnerable, “In The Sun” is the prelude to more great music coming from this duo.
I just wonder when the Ben Gibbard (Deschanel’s husband) track will premiere.
TrendRobot Rating: 9/10
It seems like there is something really BIG going on with indie-rock these days. Epic horn sections, choir-sung choruses, and massive amounts of harmony going on. It’s all really turning into something great . . . perhaps a throwback to a more innovative age of music.
Old Canes is the brainchild of Appleseed Cast frontman, Chris Crisci. After releasing 2004′s Early Morning Hymns, Old Canes was signed to Omaha’s pride-and-joy, Saddle Creek Records. Just released this year, Feral Harmonics continues the Old Canes tradition of making deliciously raw, jangly rock/folk that has a decidedly positive twinge to it.
“Little Bird Courage” was my introduction to this great band. The frantic drums, lo-fi, speakerbox vocals and hyper strumming all merge into a great folksy rambling that is a road trip in-and-of-itself.
