Blitzen Trapper - Girl In A Coat

American Goldwing has been out for nearly a year now, and the band continues to pump out singles from it like it's 1990 or something. And yet Sub Pop can't forward over a zip file for me to review the fucking thing.

If I didn't think that Blitzen Trapper were such a good band and American Goldwing such a good album, I would have let this thing end up in the recycle bin. But gosh, is it good and a bit close to home.

I went over to my Grandparent's house once, on a whim, with nothing but a pair of clothes and a cheap Radio Shack tape recorder that I bought along the way. The idea was to record them telling old stories. What I came away with was nothing much than bickering and self-consciousness. My grandmother would interrupt each story with "Todd, are you recording this? You know I hate the sound of my voice! Turn that thing off!"

That and the incredible fidelity of those Radio Shack cassettes rendered the entire project useless and I found the ruined tape of the interview in the trunk of my old Honda moments after selling it and cleaning the thing out.

Then they were gone.

I hate death. And I hate the idea of getting old and dying. Ironically, I'm totally looking forward to retirement and all the laziness and grumpiness that comes with it, but I resent the idea that all of this comes in a body that is slowly breaking.

The video for Blitzen Trapper's "Girl In A Coat" kind of captures that, at least from the perspective from a man reaching the end of his life with a firm recount of a love from many years passed.

I hope love is this powerful in real life.

The assclowns at Sub Pop wrote the following:

Blitzen Trapper have premiered a poignant and heartfelt video for American Goldwing track, "Girl In A Coat" via a shitty magazine website that only lets you read their articles online only when you subscribe to their toilet paper publication. The clip was directed by Daniel Elkayam (Blitzen Trapper's "Black River Killer" & "The Tree") and stars band drummer Brian Koch and his grandfather, Arthur Koch.  Brian Koch, who also wrote and produced the video, stated "Four years ago I interviewed my Grandfather at the age of 96 to talk about his life.  I was struck by how, even though so much had become blurry, confused or completely fallen away from his memory, some things remained.  Just shy of his 100th birthday, Daniel and I began to create a video from my Grandfather's perspective, blurring the boundaries of time and space in memory.  "Girl In A Coat," with its wearied narrative of retrospection, seemed the perfect match for the concept."

Blitzen Trapper are currently on a headline tour supporting American Goldwing. The tour will visit Alexandria, VA tomorrow night, July 17^th with a performance at The Birchmere, and wraps up on September 2 in Seattle, WA at Bumbershoot. Along the way, the band has additional festival appearances to mention: Newport Folk Festival in Newport, RI on July 27^th; Pickathon in Happy Valley, OR August 3^rd-5^th; Doe Bay Festival In Olga, WA on August 11^th-12^th; And Summer Meltdown Festival in Arlington, WA on August 10^th;. Immediately following the late summer headline jaunt, the band will act as main support for label mates The Head and The Heart, which begins on September 18th in Spokane, WA at Knitting Factory and wraps up on October 10th in Eugene, OR at the McDonald Theatre.  The entire tour schedule is listed below.

In related news, fans can stream Blitzen Trapper’s forthcoming set at Newport Folk Fest on July 27^th via NPR.
 

Tour Dates:

Jul. 17 - Alexandria, VA - The Birchmere

Jul. 18 - Richmond, VA - The National

Jul. 19 - Charlotte, NC - Casbah at Tremont Music Hall

Jul. 20 - Charleston, SC - The Charleston Pourhouse

Jul. 21 - Wilmington, NC - The Soapbox

Jul. 22 - Knoxville, TN - Cider House

Jul. 24 - Cincinnati, OH  - Taft Ballroom

Jul. 25 - Millvale, PA - Mr. Small’s Theatre

Jul. 26 - York, PA - Capitol Theater

Jul. 27 - Newport, RI - Newport Folk Festival 

Jul. 30 - Indianapolis, IN - Deluxe @ Old National Centre

Jul. 31 - Columbia, MO - Mojo’s

Aug. 03-05 - Happy Valley, OR - Pickathon Festival 

Aug.10 - Arlington, WA - Summer Meltdown Festival

Aug. 11 - 12 - Olga, WA - Doe Bay Music Festival

Sep. 01 - Bend, OR - Les Schwab Amphitheatre**

Sep. 02 - Seattle, WA - Bumbershoot Festival

Sep. 18 - Spokane, WA - Knitting Factory*

Sep. 19 - Missoula, MT - Wilma Theatre*

Sep. 20 - Boise, ID - Knitting Factory*

Sep. 02- Salt Lake City, UT - The Depot*

Sep. 23 - Boulder, CO - Boulder Theater*

Sep. 25 - Kansas City, MO - Uptown Theater*

Sep. 26 - Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue*

Sep. 28 - Madison, WI - Orpheum Theatre*

Sep. 30 - Tulsa, OK - Cain’s Ballroom*

Oct. 02 - Tucson, AZ - Rialto Theatre*

Oct. 03- San Diego, CA - Spreckels Theatre*

Oct. 05 - Los Angeles, CA - The Wiltern*

Oct. 07 - Santa Cruz, CA - Rio Theatre*

Oct. 10 - Eugene, OR - McDonald Theatre*

*w/ The Head And The Heart

** w/ Brandi Carlile

*** w/ no Iowa dates to speak of. Mojo's in Columbia would be a good place to see 'em, plus they have good bbq there.

Blitzen Trapper Release New Album "American Goldwing"

I'd do a review of the new one, if Sub Pop would have forwarded me a copy.

So out of complete affection towards the last album, I'll merely give the band the honor of reminding viewers that Blitzen Trapper have a new album today.

I make this short and let the press release do its thing.


Sub Pop Records is proud to announce the new album from Blitzen Trapper entitled American Goldwing. Available today, American Goldwing is full of the introspective and striking storytelling that countless critics have fallen in love with.

With subjects ranging from fighting to falling in love, drug running with the good old boys and the final high school dance, American Goldwing is a freewheeling collection that balances the roughness of rock ‘n’ roll with fateful heartfelt loss. “It’s me trying to evoke a true American nostalgia” explains lead singer and songwriter Eric Earley.

“My vision and focus while writing our new album was on the inescapable past” Eric adds. “It’s about those feelings of being trapped in a small town. That fine line between the rural and the suburban settings that define much of America, that line between love and loss that occurs when you find yourself taking it too easy and sticking around a lonesome town for far too long.”

American Goldwing is “us letting our loves and early influences hang out for all to see. We entered into the sounds we grew up with - the hard guitar rock and country picking of our younger years mixed with glimmers of our usual space-aging technology and pawn shop Casios. Heavy guitar riffs and blasting drum fills live side-by-side with plucking banjos, wailing harmonicas and muddy slide guitars. The earthiness of these songs will make you want to get loaded and get in a fight, or find a girl and fall in love forever, simultaneously.”


Don't get too excited about the video below. It's just a 30 second trailer. That's right. They pieced together a trailer for a new album rather than give us a reason to fall in love with a song from the album.

Blitzen Trapper - Destroyer of the Void

It doesn’t take very long into Destroyer Of The Void to hear that Blitzen Trapper is swinging for the bleachers with their fifth full-length. Aside from the overtones of late 60’s Beach Boys, you’ll also find strangely appealing prog-rock tendencies, somewhere between Bowie and Jethro Tull, believe it or not.

Don't worry: the influence is restricted to campfire acoustical moments and frontier arrangements. What's left is a weirdly compelling album that has hints of greatness as well as its share of hair-pulling moments.

Destroyer Of The Void works best with altered states-something that’s needed on occasion as Eric Earley’s lyrics jump from old west narratives to musical arrangements that could have be lifted from Deram Records circa 1968.

And like any project that’s forged from forcing hallucinations into creative statements, there’s a feeling the Blitzen Trapper is biting off more than they can chew. Destroyer Of The Void’s most damning complaint is that all of that hippie love buzz makes for an uneven listening experience.

It's what makes the transition between songs like “Love And Hate” and “Heaven And Earth” stand out like a sore thumb rather than blend together to form that big statement that Blitzen Trapper are obviously going towards.

“Love And Hate” is fueled with hippie optimism (“Why love and hate/Cohabitate”), fuzz guitar and Procol Harum organs before jumping into “Heaven And Earth’s” bold piano and strings serenity. It’s hard to follow Earley’s jump into those big, universal themes (“The canyons of our deepest dreaming lives”) immediately after he’s advising his old lady to move back into his place after an epic spat.

The good news-and there’s enough here to warrant your attention-is that every bit of Destroyer Of The Void sounds like it's coming from an honest creative burst hashed out in basement rehearsals and practice space sessions.

It also sounds like a transition record, and they sound good enough to adapt to either direction that’s prevalent in Destroyer Of The Void.

Now we just need an album focused enough on one of those directions to determine if Blitzen Trapper has decided to put down the joint or the horse saddle.

This review originally appeared in Glorious Noise.