It may be a bit misleading when you name your band Denver and A) you’re not a John Denver tribute act or B) you don’t actually hail from the sunshine state. Comprised of members of both Blitzen Trapper and Alena Diane’s Wild Divine, the self-described “ramshackle all-star country band,” actually call Portland, Oreg. home and released their highly recommended self-titled debut back in August.
The band recently released the video for The Way It Is, which nods to both Roadhouse and the Blues Brothers, with the country-rock act performing in a chicken wire enclosed stage, as a beer bottle throwing bar-fight is happening. Let’s check it out…
Six weeks after starting a cross-country jaunt, Blitzen Trapper and Dawes‘ co-headlining tour comes to a close tonight in Hollywood, Calif. On Tuesday, in San Francisco, the groups paired up to cover Man In Me by Bob Dylan and did a great job with it. Take a look…
HT favorites Dawes and Blitzen Trapper returned in celebratory fashion to New York City’s Webster Hall last Wednesday night. At a concert that lead singer Taylor Goldsmith termed a “Big Evening” for the band, Dawes led the sold out crowd through heartfelt renderings of It’s A Little Bit Of Everything and Time Spent In Los Angeles, as well as a bouncy cover of Paul Simon’s Kodachrome. A highlight of the evening came during Dawes’ headlining set when Goldsmith urged the entire house to sing along with their anthem, When my Time Comes. For those NYCers who were unable to attend, you’ll get another chance to see Dawes on December 6 and 7 at Maxwell’s in Hoboken and on Dec. 5th as part of WFUV’s Holiday Cheer concert at the Beacon Theatre.
Dawes Setlist: Webster Hall, New York City, October 26, 2011
“The Way You Laugh” / “When You Call My Name” / “How Far We’ve Come” / “So Well” / “Coming Back To A Man” / “If I Wanted Someone” / “Million Dollar Bill” / “Kodachrome” (Paul Simon cover) / “A Little Bit Of Everything” / “When My Time Comes” / “Time Spent In Los Angeles” Encore: “Take Me Out Of The City” / “That Western Skyline” / “Fire Away”
I think that we are all thankful that the short-lived genre known as “folk-prog” looks ready to officially leave our lexicon for good, or until another band thinks it’s a good idea to mix these two oil and water styles. The Decemberists signaled the beginning of its end when they released The King Is Dead at the start of this year, ditching the bloat and pompousness of The Hazards Of Love for an album of concise, country-infused Americana. Now the genre’s other poster child – Blitzen Trapper – are looking to do the same with the release their sixth studio album, American Goldwing.
The album, which will be released via venerable indie label Sub Pop next Tuesday, and is currently streaming on Paste’s website, sees the Portland-based band returning to their psychedelic-roots sound that this time around is fully steeped in tones reminiscent of the Grateful Dead’s American Beauty and Workingman’s Dead, as well as David Crosby’s solo debut If I Could Only Remember My Name. Let’s check out the music video for Love The Way You Walk Away…
Blitzen Trapper will hit the road for a lengthy cross-country, co-headlining tour, with country-rockers revivalist Dawes, that kicks off on October 17 at the Mystic Theater in Petaluma, California.
We keep our eyes peeled for new tour dates announcements each week and compile them on Tuesdays for this handy column…
As live music junkies we get really excited when our favorite bands reveal a new batch of tour dates, but when two of them decide to team up to hit the road together, it makes us feel like a kid on Christmas morning. This was the case last week when news dropped that Blitzen Trapper and Dawes will be traversing the country together come this fall. The two Cosmic Americana acts will head out on a lengthy c0-headlining tour that kicks off on October 17 at the Mystic Theater in Petaluma, CA and includes high profiles stops at Webster Hall in New York City on October 26 and a tour closing show at the Fillmore in San Francisco on November 15.
If you’re not into a night with the pair of roots-rockers, then you might be interested in hitting one of these recently announced tours…
You may have read a recent Washington Post article examining how some of the Indie rockers are growing more comfortable coming out of the jamband-fan-closet. One area which I’d like to see more crossover in is to have more bands implement open taping policies. That’s why I was ecstatic to pull up recordings on my weekly Live Music Archive search from bands like Blitzen Trapper and The National. Good for them, now whatever happened to the policy that MGMT promised months back only to have the idiots at Sony make them retract it? Note: Hidden Track previously contacted Sony for a comment, was promised one, and then received nothing. Oh but Hidden Track readers and LWS Podcast faithfuls, don’t worry – we still remember that Phish tour started last week too.
A reminder – you can download all of this week’s audio in one easy to listen to MP3 that we call the Last Week’s Sauce Podcast, click here to download.
[Thanks to acidjack for this week's photo]
Biltzen Trapper – Destroyer Of The Void Date & Venue: 2010-10-06 WorkPlay Theater – Birmingham, AL Taper & Show Download:Jeff Hatcher
The P4K album review of Destroyer Of The Void describes the title track as such – “ambitiously steamrolls over decades of canonical popular music, squishing it into an epic suite that gathers Beatles harmonies, sci-fi synths, classic rock guitars, country-rock twang, and AOR sentimentality into one big, ballsy package.” Pretty serious stuff, and they are right – it’s an amazing piece. It’s nice to hear the band has a good live arrangement of it as well. Blitzen Trapper [tour dates] plays tonight at the Dallas House of Blues.
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Video from a Blitzen Trapper show from two nights ago:
READ ON for tracks from The National, Phish and String Cheese Incident with Trey Anastasio from the Fourmile Canyon Revival concert…
Earlier this month Blitzen Trapper released their fifth studio album – Destroyer Of The Void – which saw the band take their psychedelic folk sound and filter it through the bong water haze of some ’70s prog-rock to wind up with something that might be described at the first folk-prog album. The Pacific Northwest act recently stopped by Late Night With Jimmy Fallon to perform Dragon’s Song…
Last Week’s Sauce is a recurring column featuring recordings of shows that took place the previous week. I was on vacation last week, so this edition covers two weeks worth of shows. Thanks to taperj for the photo.
Artist & Title: Booker T. Jones – Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay Date & Venue: 2009-09-05 Washington Park, Chicago IL Taper & Show Download:John F.
This is a tape from Chicago’s African Festival Of The Arts. Rounding out Booker T’s band is: Marc Ford (Black Crowes) – Guitar, Troy Gagne – Guitar, Ronnie James (Fabulous Thunderbirds) – Bass, and Darian Grey – Drums. Booker T. next plays at the Roots, Blues and BBQ Festival in Columbia, MO.
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READ ON to hear a new moe. tune and Wilco’s special guests in Ireland…
With legendary rockers Aerosmith forced to cancel the remainder of their summer tour due to the severe injuries that lead singer Steven Tyler suffered after a fall from the stage in South Dakota earlier this month, their tour mates – ZZ Top – had some free time on their hands. With some solo headlining dates already booked around the Aerosmith tour, the legendary Texas boogie-rockers have decided to fill out the rest of their fall with dates in cities that they were previously scheduled to hit.
If you’re not into a night with the Texas trio, than maybe you’ll be interested in hitting one of these recently announced tours…
Finally, it’s always great to report on some BtN alumni as both Blitzen Trapper and Elvis Perkins In Dearland will be hitting the road this for separate tours in support of new EPs. Blitzen Trapper will head out for a series of overseas appearances with a few festival spots, a couple of headlining gigs and dates supporting both Wilco and label mates Fleet Foxes, before returning to the states for a cross-country run. Meanwhile, Elvis Perkins In Dearland have enlisted AA Bondy and Bowerbirds to split opening act duties for their fall run, which also includes a stop on Halloween in Wooodstock at Levon Helm’s Midnight Ramble.
Pitchfork’s annual music festival returns to Union Park in Chicago on July 17 – 19 for three full days of eclectic bands (and presumably lots of tight jeans and small pins). Hidden Track will be there covering the good, the bad and the ugly with a full review to follow the fest. In the meantime, we’ve put together a list of the top five bands we’re most excited to catch. From the genius soundscapes of Tortoise on Friday through the closing circus of the Flaming Lips on Sunday, this promises to be a great event.
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1. Tortoise [Friday 5PM @ the Connector Stage]
Any day I can see Tortoise is a great day. Their set next Friday night is part of the “Write the Night” series where fans vote for what songs the bands playing that night will tackle. For a band whose catalogue runs as deep as Tortoise’s this is quite an exciting prospect. Personally, I’m hoping for gems – tunes such as Gamera, Djed and Onions Wrapped in Rubber. I’m also quite interested to see if any tunes off of their recently-released Beacons Of Ancestorship will make it into the set. Prepare Your Coffin would make a particularly nice addition to a set of classics and rarities.
READ ON for four more bands to catch at the Pitchfork Festival…
A few weeks back, we dropped the gossipy news that singer-songwriter-blogger-novelist Ryan Adams had popped the question to former teeny-bopper pop star turned actress Mandy Moore. The odd couple didn’t wait long to getting hitched, as they secretly wed in Savannah, GA on Tuesday. Ry-ry, who has claimed that his current tour with the Cardinals is his last, was back on the road last night and is rumored to be working on a new album called Dear Impossible. The Cardinals tour runs through March 20.
Finally, we wanted to give a big shout out to our favorite alt.country chanteuse – Neko Case – whose new album Middle Cyclone debuted at number three on the Billboard Top 200 selling 44,000 copies last week. Thanks, I’m sure, to placement in front of registers at mega-coffee chain Starbucks, where I picked up my copy. Case kicks off her Spring tour on March 31 – which includes a two-night run at New York’s Nokia Theater as well as an appearance at this year’s Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival.
Around this time last year I kicked off my semi-regular Better Than Noodling column with a post on on the Grateful Dead meets Pavement stylings of Blitzen Trapper. The band, who seemingly toured like a jamband in ’08, released their new album- Furr – this fall which is chocked full of their backwoods-indie-psychedelia containing a mix jangly guitars, beefy organ, plunking banjo and harmonica and plenty of weird blips and beeps.
The Portland-based band along with a number of other notable area acts are helping to reclaim the Pacific Northwest’s stronghold as the epicenter of music once again. Let’s check out the album-titled lead single…
Blitzen Trapper will play a free show to celebrate their hometown Crystal Ballroom’s 95th birthday on January 25, before hitting the road for a month long tour that kicks off on February 18 – and includes two New York City area dates at Bowery Presents venues.
To say that the city of New Orleans has been through a lot in the last few years, would be an understatement. While the Crescent City recovers from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, the one constant has been its rich music tradition and its flagship event the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.
The fest once again returns to the city’s Fair Grounds Race Course on the last weekend in April and the first weekend of May to celebrate its 40th anniversary with a diverse and eclectic line up that brings together national touring acts with a plethora of local musicians. Among those set to grace the many stages and tents include Wilco, Kings Of Leon, Galactic, Erykah Badu, Dr. John, Emmylou Harris and just about every Neville you can think of.
If you can’t make it down to the Big Easy for the festivities, then maybe you’ll be able to hit one of these recently announced tours…
Dave Matthews Band recruit the likes of The Roots, OCMS & The Avett Brothers as openers for their spring tour (begins: 04/14)
Inaugural BtN artist Blitzen Trapper hit the road (begins: 02/18)
Kreutzmann/Burbridge/Murawski line up a five date February run (begins: 02/12)
Former Blips selection The Virgins have a busy ’09 already mapped out (begins: 01/15)
NMAS stay busy over the next couple of months (begins: 12/26)
Finally, recent tour mates The Hold Steady and Drive-By Truckers, as well as former Trucker Jason Isbell all head out on their own in 2009. Craig Finn & Co. will take their raucous bar band rock on the road in early Spring with the War On Drugs, while the Truckers open up their tour with a three-night run in their hometown of Athens, before heading North to South in the first two months of the year. Meanwhile, Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit have lined up a lengthy three month trek in support of their sophomore release.
Yesterday, Scotty offered up a fantastic B-List of albums hitting shelves this month that he’s looking forward to. I thought I’d continue along those lines today with a mix tape chocked full of music that is also being released in the coming months, as we see the leaves turn colors and our days grow shorter. So sit back and enjoy some Feel Good Hits For The Fall…
We kick things off with the first single off of Ray Lamontagne’s third album Gossip In The Grain. Here’s the emotive singer/songwriter with the soul-infused You Are The Best Thing. Next comes some straight ahead rock from the Kings Of Leon with Sex On Fire. From there we move into the gospel tinged Acid Tongue, the title track from the ever adorable Jenny Lewis’ sophomore effort, that features Chris Robinson, M. Ward and others on backing vocals. Then, we’ve got a couple from two former BtN artists Okkervil River with Singer Songwriter (which might be one of my favorite tunes of the year) and Blitzen Trapper with the rootsy, harmonica laced cut Furr. Finally, we close things out with some indie-piano-pop from Ben Folds with You Don’t Know Me which features vocals from Regina Spektor.
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will make it into the set. 
debuted at 
