What I Listened To On My Summer Vacation: The Avett Brothers
After a few pages of political ranting elsewhere tonight, it feels really good to unwind a bit and write about what was easily one of the most pleasant discoveries of the summer.
I first came across The Avett Brothers via the always reliable music snobs over at Paste Magazine. On one of their samplers last spring, they featured the opener off their latest album “Four Thieves Gone: The Robbinsville Sessions,” and to say it was unlike anything I’ve ever heard is an understatement. After opening with some radio distortion and light driving guitar, “Talk On Indolence” breaks down out of nowhere into some sort of country-fried rap/rant that just begs to be reprinted:
Well I’ve been lockin' myself up in my house for sometime now
Readin' and writin' and readin' and thinkin'
and searching for reasons and missing the seasons.
The Autumn, the Spring, the Summer, the snow.
The record will stop the record will go.
Latches latched the windows down,
the dog coming in the dog going out.
Up with caffeine and down with a shot.
Constantly worried about what I’ve got.
Distracting my work but I can’t make a stop
and my confidence on and my confidence off.
And I sink to the bottom and rise to the top
and I think to myself that I do this a lot.
World outside just goes it goes it goes it goes it goes it goes...
and witness it all from the blinds of my window (three, four!)
Try saying that five times fast.
Almost as inexplicably, it then gets right back on track as a good old fashioned alt-county stomper. Needless to say, I was sold... only I couldn’t find their album anywhere until this summer, at a Tower Records in DC.
Surprisingly (but actually somewhat unremarkable in retrospect), nothing on the album sounded anything like that first track. This may seem like a disappointment, and first it sort of was… I was looking for some solid Southern tinged rock, and wound up with a lot of ballads and some jarringly raw vocal performances. Something kept drawing me back, however, and I soon found myself every bit as enthralled with the rest of the CD as I was with “Talk on Indolence”. The band seamlessly moves from country to folk to almost Buddy Holly-esque slower numbers, all while keeping an immediate and unvarnished style (yes, even the vocals grew on me…there’s actually some gorgeous harmonizing in between the wailing) that invokes the very heart of what it is to make good American folk music (this is in part due to the fact that the album was recorded all on the spot at a cabin in rural North Carolina). In an era of slick, produced to death pop, it’s a breath of fresh air that almost gives you hope for music in this country again.
I’m going to post two tracks here (including the aforementioned “Talk on Indolence”), but I cannot stress enough that this doesn’t even begin to demonstrate the scope of this album. If you like what you hear, I highly recommend tracking to CD down for yourself and buying a copy… you won’t be disappointed.
The Avett Brothers- Talk On Indolence
The Avett Brothers- A Lover Like You
...and cause I just can't get enough of these guys, live footage of them performing the always entertaining "Distraction #74" and then outright rocking to what I imagine is a song from an earlier album (hooray for upright bass!)
I first came across The Avett Brothers via the always reliable music snobs over at Paste Magazine. On one of their samplers last spring, they featured the opener off their latest album “Four Thieves Gone: The Robbinsville Sessions,” and to say it was unlike anything I’ve ever heard is an understatement. After opening with some radio distortion and light driving guitar, “Talk On Indolence” breaks down out of nowhere into some sort of country-fried rap/rant that just begs to be reprinted:
Well I’ve been lockin' myself up in my house for sometime now
Readin' and writin' and readin' and thinkin'
and searching for reasons and missing the seasons.
The Autumn, the Spring, the Summer, the snow.
The record will stop the record will go.
Latches latched the windows down,
the dog coming in the dog going out.
Up with caffeine and down with a shot.
Constantly worried about what I’ve got.
Distracting my work but I can’t make a stop
and my confidence on and my confidence off.
And I sink to the bottom and rise to the top
and I think to myself that I do this a lot.
World outside just goes it goes it goes it goes it goes it goes...
and witness it all from the blinds of my window (three, four!)
Try saying that five times fast.
Almost as inexplicably, it then gets right back on track as a good old fashioned alt-county stomper. Needless to say, I was sold... only I couldn’t find their album anywhere until this summer, at a Tower Records in DC.
Surprisingly (but actually somewhat unremarkable in retrospect), nothing on the album sounded anything like that first track. This may seem like a disappointment, and first it sort of was… I was looking for some solid Southern tinged rock, and wound up with a lot of ballads and some jarringly raw vocal performances. Something kept drawing me back, however, and I soon found myself every bit as enthralled with the rest of the CD as I was with “Talk on Indolence”. The band seamlessly moves from country to folk to almost Buddy Holly-esque slower numbers, all while keeping an immediate and unvarnished style (yes, even the vocals grew on me…there’s actually some gorgeous harmonizing in between the wailing) that invokes the very heart of what it is to make good American folk music (this is in part due to the fact that the album was recorded all on the spot at a cabin in rural North Carolina). In an era of slick, produced to death pop, it’s a breath of fresh air that almost gives you hope for music in this country again.
I’m going to post two tracks here (including the aforementioned “Talk on Indolence”), but I cannot stress enough that this doesn’t even begin to demonstrate the scope of this album. If you like what you hear, I highly recommend tracking to CD down for yourself and buying a copy… you won’t be disappointed.
The Avett Brothers- Talk On Indolence
The Avett Brothers- A Lover Like You
...and cause I just can't get enough of these guys, live footage of them performing the always entertaining "Distraction #74" and then outright rocking to what I imagine is a song from an earlier album (hooray for upright bass!)
posted by Jeff Lakin at 10:54 PM
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