The Portland purveyors of golden song fly the flag for classic Americana in fine style with some super sonic twists on its sun-soaked sound. 2ser Subscribers can win a copy on Breakfast, Overdrive and Static.
It is fitting that ten seconds into Blitzen Trapper's fifth full-length record Destroyer of the Void, front man Eric Earley utters that most sacred of rock ʻn' roll tropes: “For to love is to leave or to run like a rollin' stone,” he sings in the harmonized verse that leads off the album's epic title track. As is the case with just about every musician or band that has employed the Blues' greatest simile - Muddy Waters, Hank Williams, Van Morrison, Temptations, Rolling Stones - Blitzen Trapper is unabashed in its embrace of tradition. Blitzen Trapper is based in Portland, there are six of them in the band and they've been together since 2000. Over the course of their previous four full-length albums, including their revelatory Sub Pop releases Wild Mountain Nation and Furr, front man Eric Earley's considerable poetic talents and his band's hard earned chops have gained them a growing international audience.
The band's continuing exploration of American music that spans from the ʻ60s folk movement to the country sounds of the '70s, to the pop balladry and prog rock of the '80s has earned it notice ranging from Rolling Stone magazine to late-night network television to Yo Gabba Gabba, among a great many others. In January 2009 and again in January 2010, Earley and a few of his bandmates entered the attic studio of lauded Portland musician and studio engineer Mike Coykendall (Bright Eyes, M Ward, She & Him) to work on what would become Destroyer of the Void. And the resulting new album takes Blitzen Trapper further than ever before, building on the band's seamless marriage of the familiar and the fantastic to, literally, create an otherworldly experience.
The heart of Destroyer of the Void is found in Earley's meticulous songwriting. Here he is firmly in storyteller mode, expanding on the mythical world he created on Furr. That album introduced listeners to a ragged but beautiful world populated by mysterious killers, anthropomorphic narrators and benevolent women living in watery ways. Here, those characters are joined by a wandering tailor, a black-eyed lover, a flower-tongued balladeer and, of course, a host of lost lovers rolling along the road of life to a truly original American soundtrack.
