Wild Mountain Nation

 

2023 Charity Shop Purchases #3 - Blitzen Trapper - Wild Mountain Nation

The car started misbehaving earlier in the week necessitating a visit to the local garage.It seemed foolish not to take the opportunity to pop into the charity shop just round the corner.

It has an impressive array of CDs for a pound a pop. Most unfortunately are the usual tosh you will all be familiar with if you visit such establishments .There is however the occasional one which stands out from the crowd. I got a bit excited when I saw Flyer by Nanci Griffith only for my spreadsheet to advise that we already had it.

I then saw the name Blitzen Trapper which rang a vague bell .I had a dim recollection that they may be Americana and having downloaded a couple to their songs in my pre-Blogging days

They are a band from Portland, Oregon who Wiki describe as Alternative Country and Indie Folk.Wild Mountain Nation from 1997 and on the Sub Pop label is their third studio album

There are indeed some straightforward Americana songs but Pitchfork who give it 8.5/10  sum it up more accurately as unleashing a cock-eyed stylistic blitzkrieg that comes closer to catching the carefree fuck-off sprawl of Pavement's Wowee Zowee than any record in recent memory. Spanning midwestern country-rock, mild-mannered indie pop, jagged art-rock, and West Coast swoon, Wild Mountain Nation swears allegiance to multiple touchstones of indie rock without limiting itself to just one.

In  addition to Pavement I am also hearing shades of the White Stripes and in particular Beck.It will benefit from some further listens but my first impressions are pretty favourable.

Blitzen Trapper - Devil's A-Go-Go 

Blitzen Trapper - Wild Mountain Nation

Blitzen Trapper - Summer Town