Did you ever just start getting records by a band and then after you have a few get around to reading critical reviews of those records? That's kind of how it was when I got into Blitzen Trapper. I would look at their records and wonder what the hell they were about. You pretty much can't tell by the covers or the titles. They could be anything from a heavy metal band to a folk rock duo. So I didn't buy anything for awhile, and then one day I was flipping through records and I think I had enough for a few records, so I took a chance on this album, Furr. I think I promptly took it home and loved a few of the other records I bought and really didn't even listen to Blitzen Trapper. Then one day I was talking to a customer and he was asking me what new bands I was liking, and I was asking the same of him. I think I had been really digging Deer Tick, and this guy said he had seen a little of them on the internet and they kind of reminded him of Blitzen Trapper. Sort of. Deer Tick was newer and didn't have as many records out, but this guys said I should check out Furr.
Well, I got home and looked and that was the Blitzen Trapper album I had bought and kind of neglected. I remembered thinking, "Hmmm...this is pretty good" while I listened to it, but it ended up getting filed away before I really got into it. That happens sometimes. I had a Replacements CD while the band was still a functioning outfit and I just really never got around to listening to it until they broke up (D'oh!). So I decided I'd go home and give Furr another shot. It didn't come with a download card, so it didn't have the luxury of popping up now and then in my mp3 player, so it was kind of like listening to a record I sort of knew. It ended up like being a trip to the record store with just like fifteen bucks on me, where I just buy one album and then really spend some time listening to it.
Which is what I should have done the first time, because it turns out I really like Furr, and I really like Blitzen Trapper a lot. They're one of those bands that critics say are too derivative sometimes, but I really don't care if God & Suicide sounds kind of like a New Pornographers song, because it's a really great song. I don't care if some critic thinks they sound like they're emulating a more modern Bob Dylan sound because I don't hear it, and I wouldn't care if I did. I just like the way Eric Earley sings and I like how the musicians seem to be able to use hip hop beats when they want, but they can mix in a banjo here and there or remind me of an epic old 10cc song sometimes. So sure, you can hear their influences, but they do such a nice job of mixing them all together that it comes out sounding like Blitzen Trapper to me.
It kicks off with Sleepy Time in the Western World, which is the kind of quirky song with great vocal harmonies that 10cc used to come up with once in awhile. It's just not the same, though. It just sounds more like 2008 than 1978, and that's good, isn't it? The title track is like one of those old acoustic songs that made a nice break in an album, but for an entire career? Not for me, anyway. I like those kinds of songs in small doses, and that's what Blitzen Trapper does with this little story about being raised by wolves. Yeah, it's weird but it's really cool.
So Blitzen Trapper is one of those bands that I think is really great, and to the people my age that haven't heard any good new music since 1982 or whatever arbitrary date they've chosen, I'm glad I'll be listening to this album for decades to come. I'd be really bummed out if I had missed out on a song like Black River Killer. These guys are just a fun band to listen to, and when people have been over I've put them on when no one was paying attention and had more than one person ask who they were because they liked it. That's not the whole reason we all listen to music, but it's really nice when someone else actually notices that you don't just listen to music because no one else has ever heard it. I hate hearing that, because it's not the point at all. I don't listen to music because no one's ever heard it, or because everyone's heard it. I listen to what I like, and I really like Blitzen Trapper.
So my record is probably four years old or so, but I bought it brand new and it's only seen a pretty decent turntable so it's in great shape. Sub Pop made it nice and flat, and the fact that I'm not a sixteen year old with fifty records and nothing but time to kill seems to have helped insure that my record is in excellent condition. I think I'd like this one in the car, so I really should rip it to an mp3 some time.
No comments:
Post a Comment