NOISE
BLITZEN TRAPPER KEEPERS The music is Old West, sci-fi and everything in between ANDREW CRISP Sagebrush and ghost towns, dusty backroads and rusting jail cells. Blitzen Trapper takes the Manifest-Destiny West of early America and exposes the blemishes and pockmarks, bathed in the fading yellow glow of the great frontier. In “Black River Killer,” one of the band’s biggest hits, frontman Eric Earley sings, Who knew the destroyers of the void would look so unassuming and wear hoodies and sweaters? “Well the sheriff let me go with a knife and a song / So I took the first train up to Oregon “Black River Killer” and “Furr,” and the band ultimately mentions staples of Americana, / And I killed the first man that I came upon turned to longtime friend and band photografolk rock and country like Gram Parsons, Bob / ’Cause the devil works quick, you know it pher Jade Harris for the “Furr” music video. Dylan and Neil Young. In their music, Blitzen don’t take long.” They opted for a sweet, meandering stop-moTrapper seems to acknowledge all that “rock” The Portland, Ore.-based sextet, which tion film depicting the band as wolves. signifies, takes what works and hits “frappe” formed in 2000, is comprised of Drew “I’d never actually made a stop-motion,” to blend together something that defies the Laughery, keyboard; Marty Marquis, guitar/ said Harris, who hatched the idea with indie rock genre. keyboard/vocals; Brian Koch, drums/vocals; Laughery when she and Earley were roomHighlighting their Western influences, Michael Van Pelt, bass; Erik Menteer, guitar/ mates. “Four minutes of stop-motion is pretty keyboard; and Earley, vocals and guitar. Blit- both “Black River Killer” and “The Man Who Would Speak True” follow the narrative difficult. It took about four months. I ended up zen Trapper’s late-60s classic rock influencdoing it all by myself.” path of a murder ballad, coupling Earley’s es—like the Beatles and Led Zeppelin—conThe video opens with Earley playing manDylan-esque vocals (it’s impossible to avoid verge like energy particles in a flux capacitor dolin on the pages of a book, singing about the comparison) with driving guitar and with an Old-West-meets-sci-fi inspiration a running with a wolf pack, with howls and drumwork. The former has a synth underla Firefly and Battlestar Galactica. Hitting 1.2 gigawatts, the group rolls into town—not tone reminiscent of the West Coast Whistle of sounds of nature peppering the background. He meets a girl and leaves the wolf pack rap songs, and the latter is almost a retroin a DeLorean but in a van—on Wednesday, behind as he learns to “wear [his] furr.” The Oct. 20, for a show at the Knitting Factory in spective to “Black River” but a bit slower, melodies match Earley’s sweet, lyrical ballad support of their June 2010 release, Destroyer more folksy and acoustic. carried along on the heavy heartbeat of a Before the band was signed to Sub Pop reof the Void (Sub Pop). cords—alongside indie heavyweights The Shins bass drumline. Blitzen Trapper’s influences come not “I found it shocking that it took that long and Iron and Wine—they produced their first only from the music they listened to while for them to get any recognition,” added Harthree albums on their growing up in Salem, ris. “I can’t believe it took almost eight years own. It was with their Ore., but also from ... they’d play tiny bars where like four people third album, 2007’s Earley’s peculiar averWith Pearly Gate Music, 8 p.m., $13-$35. showed up.” Wild Mountain Nasion to purchasing That late recognition has led to a spot on tion, that they caught new albums. Rather, KNITTING FACTORY 416 S. Ninth St. national attention. The Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, glowing praise the man responsible 208-367-1212 title track made its way from pitchfork.com and notice from NPR. for most of his band’s They’ve also earned respect from their fans. bo.knittingfactory.com to No. 98 on Rollsongwriting draws his “A lot of times people will say, ‘Oh I got ing Stone’s “100 Best storytelling from clas[one of your albums] illegally, but then I Songs of 2007.” sic rock and authors “I didn’t really have bought it later,’” Earley said. like Louis L’Amour While Wild Mountain Nation was Blitzen too many expectations,” said Earley of their and Italo Calvino. Trapper’s coming out, and Furr the honing first hit. “I still don’t really. I just sort of do “To me it’s just about songwriting. It’s of their sound and image, Destroyer of the whatever I want to and see what happens.” about writing a song with some meaning to it, Void has been described as a B-sides album of In March 2007 they played SXSW with or a lyrical thing that makes it that much more Furr. Earley describing it as more “experiinteresting,” Earley told Boise Weekly. “I think label mates Fleet Foxes and headlined the mental” than their previous efforts. Earley Bowery Ballroom. Sub Pop signed them that now rock is just kinda … since everybody’s heard everything that’s come before, everybody summer and later that year, they dropped the confided to BW that another album is already in the works. either takes something and runs with it, or they critically acclaimed Furr. It hit No. 13 on “I haven’t even given it to the label yet,” he sort of find a bunch of different ideas from the Rolling Stone’s “50 best albums of 2008,” said. “This next record isn’t quite the same. and the title track made it to No. 4 of the past and blend them together.” It’s more of me doing what I like to do, sort of magazine’s 100 best singles. The band’s music suggests that this band what I’m comfortable with.” Music videos were made for the songs is the latter. Every review of Blitzen Trapper WWW. B OISEWEEKLY.C O M
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