Blitzen Trapper – Wild Mountain Nation

The opening track off of Blitzen Trapper’s new album is a whirlwind of genre traveling tunes. Starting in a cloud of metallic distortion, “Devil’s A-Go-Go” bursts into a 70s-style rock riff with a hiccup for a time signature. The song finds its roots in an avant-garde, country rock atmosphere where one feels comfortable rubbing shoulders with Deerhoof yet could still find it comfortable in the shelf space next to Lynard Skynard. It’s not long before the track travels eastward for a jaunt through an Asian scale followed by an immediate launch over the Pacific into a somber Mexican howl and strum before ending in the sonic laser beams of interplanetary warfare. It’s a bizarre ride but Blitzen Trapper has somehow stitched this track up with so many genre splices that it has become so jarringly endearing that you can’t help but enjoy being taken along for the ride.

It’s an interesting entrance piece for an album that meanders through soft, pure country tunes to Man Man-style pieces of communal jeering to Jimi Hendrix rip off rock attacks. For some reason I can’t help but imagine Blitzen Trapper out in their own Wild Mountain Nation where the trees, rivers, and animals have all been imported from the lands of their favorite artists of past and present. This in turn makes Wild Mountain Nation a kaleidoscopic adventure where the multiple angles of the album can appeal to a wide variety of listeners.

Wild Mountain Nation is set for an early June.

Be sure to check out Blitzen Trapper’s cover of Hearts’ “Crazy On You” off of the excellent Portland based charity compilation Bridging the Distance. Go ahead. Help the kids.

[mp3] Blitzen Trapper – Devil’s A-Go-Go

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