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Blitzen Trapper
Blitzen Trapper is a Portland, Oregon-based experimental country/folk/rock band associated with Sub Pop Records, Vagrant Records, Lojinx, and Yep Roc. Formed in 2000, the band currently operates as a quartet, with Eric Earley (guitar/harmonica/vocals/keyboard), Brian Adrian Koch (drums/vocals/harmonica/guitar), Michael Elson (bass/keyboard), and Nathan Vanderpool (guitar/vocals); at some shows, Michael Blake fills in for Vanderpool. Blitzen Trapper self-released its first three albums. "Wild Mountain Nation" was No. 98 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Best Songs of 2007.
Blitzen Trapper released its third album, Wild Mountain Nation, in 2007 to much acclaim from critics such as Pitchfork Media, The Nerve, and Spin. The group signed to Sub Pop Records in the summer of 2007.
After the release of Furr in 2008, the group received a two-page feature in Rolling Stone. The album was ranked No. 13 on Rolling Stone's Best Albums of 2008 while the title track was ranked No. 4 on the magazine's Best Singles of 2008. The albums Destroyer of the Void and American Goldwing followed, to similarly high acclaim.
On October 1, 2013, the band released VII, their first on Vagrant Records in the U.S.; the album also appeared on British indie label Lojinx in Europe on September 30. In mid-December 2014, the band self-published their first live album, Live In Portland, followed by the Record Store Day exclusive, a live cover album of Neil Young's Harvest record titled Live Harvest. Their eighth studio album, All Across This Land, was released on October 2, 2015. Their ninth studio release – marking a return to the band's own label LidKerCow – is titled Wild and Reckless and was released on November 3, 2017.
At the end of 2019, longtime members Erik Menteer (guitar/keyboard), Michael Van Pelt (bass), and Marty Marquis (guitar/keyboards/vocals/melodica) retired from the band. Remaining founding members Earley and Koch returned to touring in 2022 with a new lineup. During their hiatus from live shows, the band signed to Yep Roc for the release of their tenth album, Holy Smokes Future Jokes, on September 25, 2020.
I dropped out of school and began to write songs, to play music. This was not music that ever traveled, at least not for many years (my lower-class, small town upbringing ensured I had absolutely no ambition), but it was music that permeated everything. My friends and I lived together, made recordings, played occasional shows and mostly just worked out our demons through narcotic substances and song.
The band that would come to be known as Blitzen Trapper began life under the name Garmonbozia (in reference to the fictitious substance present in David Lynch's Twin Peaks) in the year 2000. The Portland, Oregon-based lineup consisted of songwriter/lead singer Eric Earley, Erik Menteer (guitar, keyboard), Brian Adrian Koch (drums, vocals), Michael Van Pelt (bass), Drew Laughery (keyboard), and Marty Marquis (keyboard, vocals). Many of the Garmonbozia recordings are experimental prog-rock and psychedelic songs, more concerned with creating interesting soundscapes than the tighter rock/soul/country/pop crispness of their later albums. Their first known recording as a band is untitled and incomplete; only two songs, "Something Blue" and "Oklahoma," remain. "Oklahoma" is a largely instrumental suite that nonetheless contains pop elements, while "Something Blue" is a trippier prog-rock piece incorporating sound samples, sound effects, and noise. The two approaches to these very early songs hint at later song structures throughout their pre-label albums, up to and including their breakthrough album, Wild Mountain Nation.
In 2001, the band's output exploded, as they self-recorded four albums with homemade artwork, which they distributed at concerts. 1940, the first of the four, included an early version of "Lover Leave Me Drowning," which would later appear on the Blitzen Trapper album Destroyer of the Void. This was followed soon by the eight-track Perms, Porn & the Gestalt; unusually, the shorter songs (such as the 2:10 "Fugue in Five Parts") tend more toward the experimental, while the longest song, the 7:13 "Lover In Tow," is structurally similar to the early "Oklahoma," containing guitar-based melodies and a pop sensibility. Tremolopsi! followed, again featuring prog elements and structures; the band incorporates three fantasias on the fairly straightforward pop-rock song "Tallahassee" subtitled "Theme Variatours," for example. The band's final 2001 album, Omnibus and the Baker's Man (A Pretext For Black Movie Magic), features the first known recording of "Reno," a song that would find its way onto Blitzen Trapper's first album. The band also performed live full sets on radio stations KBOO and KPSU in 2001.
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Blitzen Trapper
Blitzen Trapper is a Portland, Oregon-based experimental country/folk/rock band associated with Sub Pop Records, Vagrant Records, Lojinx, and Yep Roc. Formed in 2000, the band currently operates as a quartet, with Eric Earley (guitar/harmonica/vocals/keyboard), Brian Adrian Koch (drums/vocals/harmonica/guitar), Michael Elson (bass/keyboard), and Nathan Vanderpool (guitar/vocals); at some shows, Michael Blake fills in for Vanderpool. Blitzen Trapper self-released its first three albums. "Wild Mountain Nation" was No. 98 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Best Songs of 2007.
Blitzen Trapper released its third album, Wild Mountain Nation, in 2007 to much acclaim from critics such as Pitchfork Media, The Nerve, and Spin. The group signed to Sub Pop Records in the summer of 2007.
After the release of Furr in 2008, the group received a two-page feature in Rolling Stone. The album was ranked No. 13 on Rolling Stone's Best Albums of 2008 while the title track was ranked No. 4 on the magazine's Best Singles of 2008. The albums Destroyer of the Void and American Goldwing followed, to similarly high acclaim.
On October 1, 2013, the band released VII, their first on Vagrant Records in the U.S.; the album also appeared on British indie label Lojinx in Europe on September 30. In mid-December 2014, the band self-published their first live album, Live In Portland, followed by the Record Store Day exclusive, a live cover album of Neil Young's Harvest record titled Live Harvest. Their eighth studio album, All Across This Land, was released on October 2, 2015. Their ninth studio release – marking a return to the band's own label LidKerCow – is titled Wild and Reckless and was released on November 3, 2017.
At the end of 2019, longtime members Erik Menteer (guitar/keyboard), Michael Van Pelt (bass), and Marty Marquis (guitar/keyboards/vocals/melodica) retired from the band. Remaining founding members Earley and Koch returned to touring in 2022 with a new lineup. During their hiatus from live shows, the band signed to Yep Roc for the release of their tenth album, Holy Smokes Future Jokes, on September 25, 2020.
I dropped out of school and began to write songs, to play music. This was not music that ever traveled, at least not for many years (my lower-class, small town upbringing ensured I had absolutely no ambition), but it was music that permeated everything. My friends and I lived together, made recordings, played occasional shows and mostly just worked out our demons through narcotic substances and song.
The band that would come to be known as Blitzen Trapper began life under the name Garmonbozia (in reference to the fictitious substance present in David Lynch's Twin Peaks) in the year 2000. The Portland, Oregon-based lineup consisted of songwriter/lead singer Eric Earley, Erik Menteer (guitar, keyboard), Brian Adrian Koch (drums, vocals), Michael Van Pelt (bass), Drew Laughery (keyboard), and Marty Marquis (keyboard, vocals). Many of the Garmonbozia recordings are experimental prog-rock and psychedelic songs, more concerned with creating interesting soundscapes than the tighter rock/soul/country/pop crispness of their later albums. Their first known recording as a band is untitled and incomplete; only two songs, "Something Blue" and "Oklahoma," remain. "Oklahoma" is a largely instrumental suite that nonetheless contains pop elements, while "Something Blue" is a trippier prog-rock piece incorporating sound samples, sound effects, and noise. The two approaches to these very early songs hint at later song structures throughout their pre-label albums, up to and including their breakthrough album, Wild Mountain Nation.
In 2001, the band's output exploded, as they self-recorded four albums with homemade artwork, which they distributed at concerts. 1940, the first of the four, included an early version of "Lover Leave Me Drowning," which would later appear on the Blitzen Trapper album Destroyer of the Void. This was followed soon by the eight-track Perms, Porn & the Gestalt; unusually, the shorter songs (such as the 2:10 "Fugue in Five Parts") tend more toward the experimental, while the longest song, the 7:13 "Lover In Tow," is structurally similar to the early "Oklahoma," containing guitar-based melodies and a pop sensibility. Tremolopsi! followed, again featuring prog elements and structures; the band incorporates three fantasias on the fairly straightforward pop-rock song "Tallahassee" subtitled "Theme Variatours," for example. The band's final 2001 album, Omnibus and the Baker's Man (A Pretext For Black Movie Magic), features the first known recording of "Reno," a song that would find its way onto Blitzen Trapper's first album. The band also performed live full sets on radio stations KBOO and KPSU in 2001.
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