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Saturday, July 09, 2005 Blitzen Trapper: Get the Wide Angle Lens  Balancing artistic influences on your sleeve takes coordination, or at least a strong talent for misdirection. Most artists don't like to, like, pigeonhole themselves into one sound, man, so they make it clear where they are coming from. 'This is our Joe Strummer bridge.' 'This is the part we change the beat and have dueling guitar parts, a la Television.' 'You hear that tone? Yeah, we're not afraid, G'N'R ROCKS!!!' Such banalities should make music fans of all creeds appreciate when a band actually interweaves their influences without yelping them from the hilltops. Portland, Oregon's Blitzen Trapper, like many a northwest band, unabashedly stir droplets of unrelated inspiration into their music as if it was a natural occurrence - like twitching or talking to yourself. Their most recent album, Field Rexx, bips and bops without sacrificing any twee or twang. Like an ADHD child, the Blitz seem incapable, or broadly disinterested, in maintaining a consistent style. For example, the breezy, soundtrack for a Portland siesta 'Summer Twin' is followed by 'Cold Gold Diamond', a ring-around-the-rosy, pavement-esque, prance-around pop song. The listener is then sedated by "Concrete Diamond", a drunk on the porch swoon to whichever spirits may be listening at the time. With such a zig-zag track order, I imagine they sequenced the album by choosing titles out of a hat (whether it was straw or trucker, I can't say). Contrast can take a toll on the listener, but the Trapper succeeds where many indie acts awkwardly waiving their influences in the wind (perhaps to slow their fall) fail. A consistent tone and modus lock the album's variant styles within a common, er, field. You know when you are listening to a Blitzen Trapper song, the same way you know you are listening to a Beck track, whether it’s off One Foot in the Grave or Guero. They may jump around, but when the songs are summed up, a balance emerges, leveling off their seeming schizophrenia. The album doesn't have many standout tracks, but more importantly, it has no weak tracks. Speaking from personal experience, Field Rexx can be listened to straight through umpteen times without growing stale. Despite how obvious it may seem, their greatest strength is their ability to produce good songs without many noticeable missteps, which most bands can't say. Catch Blitzen Trapper on their upcoming I-5 tour, dates below. sat. july 09: puget sound area, 8pm kexp 97.4 fm in-studio sat. july 09: olympia @ le voyeur sun. july 10: bellingham @ 3b tavern mon. july 11: seattle @ sunset tavern tue. july 12: eugene @ luckys web. july 13: sf @ makeout room thu. july 14: la @ silverlake fri. july 15: san diego @ scolari's office sat. july 16: oakland @ stork club sun. july 17: sacramento @ bean heads mon. july 18: chico @ moxie's posted by ezruh sellof at 7/09/2005 08:38:00 PM 0 comments |
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