Blitzen Trapper: Wild Mountain Nation

Blitzen Trapper: Wild Mountain Nation

2007

Sub Pop Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Devil's A-Go-Go  2.Wild Mountain Nation  3. Futures & Folly  4. Miss Spiritual Tramp  5. Woof & Warp of the Quiet Giant's Hem  6. Sci-Fi Kid  7. Wild Mtn. Jam  8. Hot Tip/Tough Cub  9. The Green King Sings  10. Summer Town  11. Murder Babe  12. Country Caravan  13. Badger's Black Brigade


I missed out on this one when it came out...I didn't hear Blitzen Trapper until 2008's "Furr," so I kind of slept right through their big acclaimed album. Shortly after hearing "Furr" I put a parrot on my shoulder and pirated a listen to "Devil A-Go-Go" and it kind of turned my head around a bit...

"Furr" was mostly down-home country rock with indie rock overtones, but "Devil's A-Go-Go" sounded more like a straight-up indie rock that had been broken apart with a big-ass hammer and glued back together all side-cocked...I was very interested and kept my eyes open but I couldn't find a copy until suddenly I started to see these early Blitzen Trapper albums appear on the shelves again.

Hot damn, this album is all over the place...Luckily, I have a soft spot for schizophrenic albums that spill kaleidoscopic ideas in a gazillion directions all at once. Although, there are a couple predominant influences that I can pick up on...A lot of early "Westing" era Pavement lo-fi skronky-rock ("Miss Spiritual Tramp" and "Hot Tip/Tough Cub" in particular) and freak-out LSD era Flaming Lips...Check out "Woof & Warp of the Quiet Giant's Hem" it sounds like a cross between "Hit to Death in the Future Head" and those mad filler songs the Who used to write on "A Quick One" and "Sell Out"...

And let's not forget the southern rock undercurrent that ebbs and flows and shit throughout the album... Most notably on the title track where you can feel the band look at each other wide-eyed in a  "Look what we pulled off!" type of moment...All the disparate styles and genres suddenly snap together and it's BLITZEN TRAPPER IN ALL CAPS!!!! I can't blame them for pursuing that style on the subsequent albums...It feels classic yet it's undeniably their sound...The other shining moment is "Futures & Folly" which is also country-rock but it's done in a style that I don't think they've attempted since...A sweetly sung folk stomp that works in siren-toned keys...Listening to it, it's  easy to hear an alternate future where the band decides to follow this path instead and ends up a spacier counterpoint to the Shins.

Y'know, I can see how their subsequent albums might have alienated some of their earlier fanbase...Its unique "up for anything" style likely plays to a different audience entirely: Folks who are into multi-faceted albums that you can revisit  it endlessly and  hear new things upon each listen... Maybe when the band traded it all in for a shot at the classic rock pantheon, the indie rock world did lose a little something special.  In the end though, I still find myself leaning more on the side of  their more accessible albums like "Destroyer of the Void" and "American Goldwing" so I don't know what the answer is...

Let's check out "Wild Mountain Nation" by Blitzen Trapper...Enjoy...

Blitzen Trapper: American Goldwing

Blitzen Trapper: American Goldwing

2011

Sub Pop Records

Format I own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Might Find It Cheap  2. Fletcher  3. Love the Way You Walk Away  4. Your Crying Eyes  5. My Home Town  6. Girl In a Coat  7. American Goldwing  8. Astronaut  9. Taking It Easy Too Long  10. Street Fighting Sun  11. Stranger In a Strange Land


What an apt title for the album...When you're listening to this ramblin' classic rock, you can easily picture yourself riding a big, fat 1978 Gl-1000 ...

...as the image of the Grand Canyon fades from your rearview mirror...



...Desert dust in your lungs, wind a-blowin' through your hair (Hey! Shouldn't you be wearing a helmet? And aren't Goldwings Japanese bikes? Shouldn't you be riding a Harley or something?)

Somehow this seems even more AOR than "Destroyer of the Void." They've cut back the kitchen -sink eclecticism of their previous albums, and  pump up the hard, southern-fried rock aspect...The lingering indie rock influence is starting to fade, and when I listen to the album opener "Might Find It Cheap" I get the same distinct feeling that I get when when I unearth some long forgotten 70's album from the dollar bin...



Like maybe one of the post-Joe Walsh James Gang records for example...And I love that feeling...

But you may ask yourself? If Blitzen Trapper re-enact 70's album rock so effectively, why don't I just pick up an actual James Gang record? Why buy a Goldwing,when you can buy a Harley?

It's a fair question,...I think these guys always have a good pop hook handy...When you listen to this back to back with an actual 70's rock record, you'll find that they don't often have the big, immaculate choruses and succinct songwriting than Blitzen Trapper has...There's no extended solos or dragging tempos here...It's more similar to a greatest-hits album of a classic rock band...Or maybe more accurately, a power-pop re-imagination of classic rock...

Although in the end I still  prefer "Destroyer of the Void" to this, just because that album had stickier songs, but it's still a fine effort by today's greatest 70's re-enactors...

Blitzen Trapper: Destroyer of the Void

Blitzen Trapper: Destroyer of the Void

2010

Sub Pop Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1.  Destroyer of the Void  2. Laughing Lover  3. Below the Hurricane  4. The Man Who Would Speak True  5. Love and Hate  6. Heaven and Earth  7. Dragon's Song  8. The Tree  9. Evening Star  10. Lover Leave Me Drowning  11. The Tailor  12. Sadie


I like that album cover...There's something so oddly human about that four-eyed bull...He seems like a really good dude for some reason...

I feel like he's a relative of the bull-with-a -vaguely-human-ass from the Blink 182 "Dude Ranch" cover...



As for the music...Oh, I love this one...For me, this beats the pants off of "Furr." They took their indie-roots sound, added a bit of prog here and there,  and actually come out with something that feels like an honest-to-God FM-ready classic rock record...It's hard to believe I didn't grow up with these songs...On "Furr" it often  felt like; This is obviously a Neil young-style song, this is obviously a Bob Dylan-style song...but they seem to blend their influences more evenly here...

The album opens with the epic, six and a half minute title track that will give you flashbacks of every great 70's album that you've ever listened to...Oooo, that Led Zeppelin section at about the 3:40 minute mark hits the spot...

So much cool stuff to hear on this record...Every single song has something fantastic about it...In particular, I dig "Heaven and Earth." It's really just vocals, piano and some strings but it sounds so massive...So important...and best of all, it stays stuck in your head all day..."The Tree" is another must-hear song...In the same style as "Furr",  it's a sweet, acoustic, psychedelic campfire tale that sounds like a dream...Is it basically just a re-write of "Mr Tambourine Man"? Yes. But what a re-write!

 "Dragon's Song" gives us a glimpse of what Wilco would sound like if they could loosen up and have some fun....I also believe that classic rock radio needs to update their playlists to included the album-closer "Sadie." I know it's only from 2010, but it's hard to think of another song that makes me so nostalgic for the 70's...Perfect piano pop...

Holy four-eyed cow, I can't recommend this album enough...Let's check out this cool live version of "Sadie" by Blitzen Trapper...Enjoy...

Blitzen Trapper: Furr

Blitzen Trapper: Furr

2008

Sub Pop Records

Format I Own it On: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Sleepytime in the Western World  2. Gold for Bread  3. Furr  4.God & Suicide
 5. Fire & Fast Bullets  6. Saturday Nite  7. Black River Killer  8. Not Your Lover  9. Love U  10. War on Machines  11. Stolen Shoes & A Rifle  12. Echo/Always On/EZ Con  13. Lady on the Water



I guess I came in pretty late to these guys...I totally spaced their highly acclaimed "Wild Mountain Nation" album...

 

I started listening to them with 2008's "Furr" after being impressed by watching the video for the title track on MTV...

(I think I originally saw it on "Subterranean" which is the program 120 minutes morphed into...)

Anyway, I can recall watching the "Furr" video and being taken aback by its unabashed Dylan-ness...I usually have a pretty low tolerance for fake Dylan, but these guys just happened to nail not just the sound, but the spirit, of it...The folksy melody and the bizarre story about a guy who joins a pack of wild dogs convinced me I just had to check it out...

I eventually picked up a copy at the Zia Records in Tucson, AZ (pictured above). The album was a lot more diverse than I was expecting, yet for all its range it always seems to stick to a slightly-spacey, yet convincingly woodsy country-rock sound...Which helped me realize how rangy the genre actually is..They go from  the lonesome piano pop of "Not Your Lover" which wouldn't sound out of place on Neil Young's "After the Gold Rush", to the shambling backwoods lo-fi of  "Love U" to "War on Machines" which is a dead ringer for "Being There" era Wilco...

I guess what I'm trying to say is, it's all over the map, but the map never leaves the country...They even come up with some interesting new combinations like "Black River Killer" which seems to connect the dots between dust bowl murder ballad and 90's gangsta rap...



I actually hadn't heard this album in a long time...See, shortly after I got it, it became one of my wife's favorites and she kind of played it into the ground for me...So the mere intro to "Sleepytime in the Western World'  made me cringe a little...(So, I guess if you're looking for a good record to pick up for your wife or girlfriend, this might not be a bad choice....)...But I got to take a big break from it and I can again appreciate what a cool record this is...

So let's check out "Furr" by Blitzen Trapper...