ROUTES & BRANCHES
featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
January 23, 2022
Scott Foley, purveyor of dust
There are no lines between genres. Matter of fact, it's in those weeds that some of our most interesting music happens. Goodnight Texas aren't a metal band, but you might say they play one now and then. In 2020 they quietly dropped a record under the guise of Badnight Texas, featuring dark and electric takes on some of their tracks. See also last year's 30th anniversary celebration of Metallica's seminal Black Album, the sprawling 7-LP Blacklist which included Goodnight Texas' gothic folk interpretation of "Of Wolf and Man" (in addition to twelve takes on "Nothing Else Matters"). And maybe add the fact that Avi Vinocur moonlights as a studio tech and sometimes stage guest of Metallica. But Goodnight Texas aren't a metal band.
Vinocur formed the trans-continental act with Patrick Dyer Wolf, their earliest work demonstrating an historical and geographical focus. Nowhere as dry as Ancestry.com or Doris Kearns Goodwin set to music, 2012's A Long Life of Living and '14s Uncle John Farquhar included drums and a busker's enthusiastic abandon. The follow-up, 2018's Conductor expanded the sonic reach of Goodnight Texas with electric guitars. Shortly after the COVID onset, Vinocur and Wolf summed up their career to date with Live in Seattle Just Before the Global Pandemic, a rollicking set recorded at Tractor Tavern.
On their Spotify page, Goodnight Texas have graciously separated this music into playlists which roughly delineate their songs into four elements: The Mellow, The Dark & Heavy, The Storytelling, and The Rowdy. While plenty of digital ink has been spilt on their geographical origin story, more pins could be plotted to demonstrate the musical diversity of the band's sound, a restlessness that can range from one track's dark and foreboding gothic blues to the brighter acoustic string band of the next. That broad swath mentality is in full play on Goodnight Texas' fourth full-length studio record, How Long Will It Take Them To Die (2 Cent Bank Check).
How Long seems less timebound than its predecessors, with fewer of those historical fictions and more tracks troubled by our more contemporary predicaments. "Dead Middle" begins: We were 32 miles from something / When the carburetor gave out. Melancholy pedal steel soundtracks the piece that likens an automotive breakdown with a stalled relationship. Mandolin and strummed acoustic are soon shadowed by clouds of electric guitar: We can fuss around in a stuck old engine / Maybe knock something loose. The swaggering group chorus of "Don't Let 'Em Get You" supports the folk-rock number's socio-political undercurrent: From the briefing room of the Pentagon / They sweep it under the rug / The carpet ain't magic, it's covering the hole they dug.
Rowdy or dark, electric or acoustic, Vinocur and Wolf create consistently captivating arrangements alongside their cohorts in Goodnight Texas (Scott Padden/drums, Adam Nash/guitar, Chris Sugiura/bass). "Neighborhoods" generates a string drone beneath verses which diagnose our present malaise: My days are little neighborhoods where different people live / Never two to intertwine and not a damn to give / For anyone or anything outside of what they know. "Borrowed Time" builds a bluesy rock vibe on shuffling drums, stabs of electric guitar and a bright toy xylophone. While there is an abiding cohesion to the proceedings, How Long reads like a meeting of Old Crow Medicine Show, The Band and Brothers Comatose (okay, maybe with a bark of Metallica on "Hypothermic").
In the midst of songs of flight and unease, there are some beautiful musical moments. The band tags "Jane Come Down From Your Room" as one of the saddest songs we've written. The collection's most traditional folksong is sung from the perspective of a terrible dad, reckoning with the abusive legacy he's brought upon his daughter. "To Where You're Going" creates a more contemporary indie-folk setting, a nearly lush and pastoral cut that might be the sessions' unhurried highlight. How Long Will It Take Them To Die is less a history lesson than a seminar on the architecture of a solid roots record. While Goodnight Texas have yet to release their metal masterpiece, their serial flirtation across musical boundaries pays generous dividends.
--------------------------
We're doing it all on this week's Episode, including checking in on A Routes & Branches Guide To Feeding Your Monster. This week's additions include an announcement from Suz Slezak, longtime member of David Wax Museum. Suz's solo record, Our Wings May Be Featherless, alights on March 4 (Nine Mile). Texas music legend Ray Wylie Hubbard has scheduled a second volume in his series of collaborations. Co-Starring Too features songs alongside artists like Band of Heathens, Kev Russell, James McMurtry and more (Big Machine, Mar 18). This week brought news of a too-good-to-be-true collaboration between Freakwater and the Mekons. Calling their outfit Freakons, they've set a March 25 date for their document (Fluff & Gravy). Molly Tuttle's new grass-leaning project, Golden Highway has been given a release date. You can expect Crooked Tree on April 1 courtesy of Nonesuch. Finally, Corb Lund's pending project is a covers celebration. Songs My Friends Wrote, due April 29 via New West, includes songs originally by Hayes Carll, Todd Snider, Fred Eaglesmith and others.
- Sierra Ferrell, "Hey Me Hey Mama" single (Rounder, 22) D
^ Goodnight Texas, "To Where You're Going" How Long Will It Take Them To Die (2 Cent Bank Check, 22)
- Lost Dog Street Band, "Fighting Like Hell To Be Free" Glory (Anti-Corp, 22) D
- Shovels & Rope, "Bleed Me" Manticore (Dualtone, Feb 18)
- Penny & Sparrow, "Innkeepers" Olly Olly (I Love You, 22)
- Good Looks, "Almost Automatic" Bummer Year (Keeled Scales, Apr 8) D
- Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, "Crooked Tree" Crooked Tree (Nonesuch, Apr 1) D
- Spiritualized, "Crazy (feat. Nikki Lane)" Everything Was Beautiful (Fat Possum, Feb 25) D
- Son House, "Empire State Express" Forever On My Mind (Easy Eye Sound, Mar 18)
- Ray Wylie Hubbard, "Hellbent for Leather (feat. Steve Earle)" Co-Starring Too (Big Machine, Mar 18) D
- Brent Cobb, "When It's My Time" And Now Let's Turn To Page ... (Ol' Buddy, Jan 28)
- Jamestown Revival, "Old Man Looking Back" Young Man (Jamestown, 22)
- Valerie June, "Pink Moon" Moon and Stars: Prescriptions for Dreamers (Deluxe Edition) (Fantasy, 22)
- Fernando Viciconte, "Fugitivo (feat. Luther Russell)" Justicia (Viciconte, 22) D
- Suz Slezak, "Beautiful Mess" Our Wings May Be Featherless (Nine Mile, Mar 4) D
- Ceramic Animal, "Up in Smoke" Sweet Unknown (Easy Eye Sound, Mar 4) D
- Jason Scott & High Heat, "Quittin' Time" Castle Rock (Scott, Feb 11)
- Phosphorescent, "Bad News From Home" single (Calldown, 22) D
- Big Thief, "Simulation Swarm" Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You (4AD, Feb 11)
- Band of Horses, "Lights" Things Are Great (BMG, Mar 4)
- Daniel Rossen, "Shadow In the Frame" You Belong There (Warp, Apr 8) D
- Sadies, "Message to Belial" single (Yep Roc, 22) D
- Corb Lund, "Highway 87" Songs My Friends Wrote (New West, Apr 29) D
- Anna Ash, "Favorite Part" Sleeper (Ash, 22) D
- Luke Winslow-King, "Slow Sunday June" If These Walls Could Talk (Ghost River, May) D
- Aoife O'Donovan, "Passengers (feat. Madison Cunningham)" Age of Apathy (Yep Roc, 22)
- Jake Xerxes Fussell, "In Florida" Good and Green Again (Paradise of Bachelors, 22)
- Sarah Shook, "It Doesn't Change Anything" Nightroamer (Abeyance, Feb 18)
- Whitmore Sisters, "By Design" Ghost Stories (Red House, 22)
- Songs:Ohia, "VU Anxiety" Live:Vanquishers (Secretly Canadian, Mar 22) D
Earlier ROUTES-casts have been removed; subscribe to our Spotify page to keep up with all our new playlists!
No comments:
Post a Comment