Sub pop release Blitzen Trapper’s latest album, Destroyer of the Void, on 8th June. It is fitting that ten seconds into Blitzen Trapper’s fifth full-length record, front man Eric Earley utters that most sacred of rock ‘n’ 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, “Destroyer of the Void.” As is the case with just about every musician or band that has employed the Blues’ greatest simile—Muddy Waters, Hank Williams, Van Morrison, the Temptations, the Rolling Stones—Blitzen Trapper is unabashed in its embrace of tradition.
Over the course of their four full-lengths albums to date, including their revelatory 2008 Sub Pop release Furr, the Portland band has already made that much clear. And, 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 ‘60s 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. Destroyer of the Void takes Blitzen Trapper one step further, building on the band’s seamless marriage of the familiar and the fantastic to, literally, create an otherworldly experience.
But there is more to Blitzen Trapper than those traditions. More than anything, the band credits its music to its Pacific Northwest home. It is there that the six members came together ten years ago and formed a creative cauldron from which would emerge numerous novels, a locally-celebrated play based on the film Manos: The Hands of Fate, innumerable art projects and, of course, a flood of fantastical songs. Destroyer of the Void is only the latest work to emerge from this world, but it is one where their musical community is on full display.
During two distant and brief breaks from the band’s near-incessant touring for Furr—one in January 2009 and the other in January 2010—Earley and a few of his bandmates entered the attic studio of the lauded Portland musician and studio engineer who had recorded Furr standouts “Lady on the Water” and “Black River Killer,” Mike Coykendall (Bright Eyes, M Ward, She & Him). In those two winters, in that old attic, Coykendall worked with Earley to bring life to these songs, including material the songwriter had been working on for years, most notably the piano ballad “Sadie.” The producer wasn’t the only local luminary to fill out the album. Preternatural musical siblings Peter Broderick (Horse Feathers, Efterklang) and Heather Woods Broderick (Efterklang) wrote the album’s string arrangements, while folk standout Alela Diane lent her angelic vocals to the duet “The Tree.”
The heart of Destroyer of the Void, though, is still 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.
-track listing-
01 Destroyer of the Void
02 Laughing Lover
03 Below the Hurricane
04 The Man Who Would Speak True
05 Love and Hate
06 Heaven and Earth
[audio:http://www.box.net/shared/static/h7n1oq5uh8.mp3|titles=Heaven and Earth|artists=Blitzen Trapper]
07 Dragon’s Song
08 The Tree [ft. Alela Diane]
09 Evening Star
10 Lover Leave Me Drowning
11 The Tailor
12 Sadie
Download
Right click here to save and download Heaven and Earth
Now we could find no trailers to show off for the new album so we’ve settled for an older favourite and given you another download underneath as a treat.
Right click here to save and download Black River killer
Tour Dates
March
28 Portland, OR – McMenamins Kennedy School
May
15 Minehead, England – ATP Festival
17 London, England – Borderline
18 Utrecht, Netherlands – Tivoli
19 Antwerp, Belgium – Trix
20 Groningen, Netherlands – Vera
June
02 Spokane, WA – Knitting Factory Concert House
03 Missoula, MT – The Palace
04 Bozeman, MT – The Filling Station
06 Fargo, ND – The Aquarium
07 Omaha, NE – Slowdown
09 Atlanta, GA – Variety Playhouse
10 Manchester, TN – Bonnaroo Music Festival
13 Charlotte, NC – Casbah at Tremont Music Hall
14 Washington, DC – 9:30 Club
15 Philadelphia, PA – Trocadero Theatre
16 New York, NY – Webster Hall
18 Lancaster, PA – TBA
19 Pittsburgh, PA – Diesel Club
20 Cincinnati, OH – TBA
21 St. Louis, MO – Off Broadway
22 Kansas City, MO – Record Bar
24 Aspen, CO – TBA
27 Albuquerque, NM – TBA
28 Phoenix, AZ – TBA
29 Los Angeles, CA – El Rey Theatre
July
01-02 Quincy, CA – High Sierra Music Festival
August
01 Montreal, Quebec – Osheaga Festival