Blitzen Trapper - Wild Mountain Nation (as reviewed by John)

(two notes: couldn't find album art. also, john wrote these trying to trick people into thinking that I wrote them in the email. I didn't though. I never refer to myself in the third person nor does Johnny. He's just good at trying to write like me)

So Johnboy's been telling me to check out this album since early June, but I didn't do anything about it until I saw them at pitchfork, and was skeptical. After the first few songs, I told stolarski "I can see why John likes this band," and he said "yeah! they're good!"

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

You guyssssssss........................................................................................

What I meant was that it's got some of that country crap Johnboy's into (Tupelo Tweeds, Jayhawks, Bernard Shakey, etc), sprinkled with some random synths and fun noises, cooked in a magical explosion of facial hair and flannel, carbonated, poured into a recycled glass bottle in a wicker park plant, given a name with an animal in it (reindeer), and consumed by all you pitchfork indie hipsters across the globe. But in the end, it's just Sub Pop.

But hey, I thought I might as well give the record a chance.

It starts off with this, jarring, screwy rhythm that's kinda goofy and finds the suite spot pretty well. Then it goes into this neil young-ish country rocker covered in zeppelin licks which is alright, but not that exciting. With the third song, it's clear the album's not going in any particular direction. It switches from some odd hipster synth riff jam, to harmonica blues folk metal, layered noises, a hillbilly banjo tune, quiet acoustic stuff, a punkish rocker, and a few country tunes at the end. It's a lot of stuff to throw into one album, and I guess that's the point. I just don't see much tieing it all together. There's definitely some cool production throughout the album, but who really cares about that? I just want some sincere pacific northwest singer songwriter stuff like mudhoney or green river.

OVERALL RATING - The J.J. Gargantuan: Tons of genoa salami, sliced smoked ham, capicola, roast beef, turkey & provolone, jammed into one of our homemade French buns then smothered with onions, mayo, lettuce, tomato, & our homemade Italian dressing.
KEY TRACKS - devil's a-go-go, wild mountain nation, badger's black brigade