Blitzen Trapper Wild Mountain Nation

I used to think the DIY ethic facilitated by cheap technology and PC recording was a good thing. Now all those bands that couldn't get signed, so my thinking went, would unleash their unheard masterpieces on the world. Even if everything wasn't stellar, I speculated further, what could be wrong with too much music? Well, it turns out that perhaps this is the whole problem we face. Oh, you didn't know we had a problem? We do. Music pretty much sucks. Ok, it doesn't exactly suck, but it's rarely ever great anymore. Today, I learned from Pitchfork that Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation rates a 10, including decimals, meaning it's essentially perfect. If you're part of the tiny cult that agrees with this assessment then you have no worries. For the rest of us, things look pretty bleak.

So I can't help thinking that the ease of recording is to blame. Now, every half-baked idea and mildly intriguing sound is immediately committed to hard disk and foisted upon Indieworld, who is then told by the supposed intellectual class of rock critics (that's us), themselves bankrupted by an ironic distance so severe that the merest hint of surging adrenalin seems indicative of high art on the scale of the Sistine Chapel, that all this detritus are the building blocks of a new canon. So that leaves us with the classic paradox of quantity over quality. I truly believe that many of today's most promising artists would benefit from the back-stiffening process of constant rejection. But there's no going back. Artists have to be their own best editors, a job probably more difficult than creating in the first place.

Case in point - Blitzen Trapper's new one, Wild Mountain Nation. The stylistic variation on display here, from back-country twang to Pavement grungiosity to Beefheartian rhythmic hysteria, doesn't bother me a bit. In fact, more of that kind of ambition would have been best served if it were applied directly to the individual songs, which don't always live up to their founding ideals. There are exceptions, like the title track that combines a Dead stomp with a Skynyrd slither, for a song that must have been a blast to record. This is followed by Futures & Folly, whose verbose riff follows a hummable chorus, which also succeeds. Likewise, Summer Town is a mildly affecting ballad that provides a nice contrast to inspired insanity like Woof & Warp of the Quiet Giant's Hem. The rest is at least worthwhile, performed with energy and a playfulness which may be the album's greatest asset. But when it's all over there aren't many songs that demand to be replayed over and over.

One thing the album does not suffer from is a lack of ideas. In fact, it sounds like the band has crammed each song with sounds, licks, rhythm shifts, basically anything they could come up with, hoping to manufacture inspiration from creativity. It all reminds me a bit of Califone's Roots and Crowns, another album whose few brilliant moments made me desperately wish for something more. Blitzen clearly has a lot to offer, and they've given us everything, from the mad to the mundane. I'd love to hear what this band could do if they just asked themselves the simple question: what kind of album would we put out if it was the last thing we could ever do? Then maybe the invention will gain focus and everything will fall into place.