#eric earley

[thekylemeredith]

Eric Earley of #BlitzenTrapper joins Kyle Meredith to talk about Wild and Reckless, the band’s cinematic rock LP that started as a Portland stage musical. Hear how it became a semi-autobiographical tale of murder ballads, 20-something misadventures, and a couple living in a car.

“Weirdly enough, it’s kind of the sequel to Furr—but with more monologues.”

Blitzen Trapper's Eric Earley: “I’m more of a storyteller than a songwriter"

Eric Earley on Murder Ballads, Rock Operas, and the Country of Now

[beginningspod]

It's time for Beginnings, the podcast where writer and performer Andy Beckerman talks to the comedians, writers, filmmakers and musicians he admires about their earliest creative experiences and the numerous ways in which a creative life can unfold.

On today's episode, I talk to musician Eric Earley. Originally from Salem, Oregon, Eric and his friends formed the band Garmonbozia in the year 2000. Garmonbozia eventually became Blitzen Trapper, and after self-releasing their first few albums, including their breakthrough Wild Mountain Nation, the band signed to Sub Pop. Over the next four years, the label released three albums to acclaim, and since then they've released about a dozen albums and EPs on different labels, including their own. Blitzen Trapper's latest recording 100's of 1000's, Millions of Billions will be released in mid-May on Yep Roc, and folks, it's a delight!

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[thebowerypresents]

Blitzen Trapper Channel Dark Americana in Triumphant New York City Return

Blitzen Trapper – Racket – August 18, 2023

The rock world lost Robbie Robertson, lead guitarist for the Band, last week. While many, many rock acts were influenced by Robertson’s dark Americana, I always thought there was a slightly alternate universe where Blitzen Trapper were the heir to the Band. Led by frontman Eric Earley, the Portland, Ore., four-piece returned to New York City, bringing their own brand of dark Americana, playing in front of a crowd of die-hard fans at Racket on Friday night. The set opened with a one-two-three of morbid beauty: the perfect murder ballad “Black River Killer,” followed by Earley singing, “’Cause there’s a right way and a wrong way here to die” in “Dead Billie Jean” — which opened into a nice instrumental coda of acoustic and slide guitars — and the country crunch of “God & Suicide.”

The quartet’s last trip to NYC was five years ago, celebrating the 10th anniversary of their seminal Furr release, playing the album in full. Friday’s set utilized the entire catalog, including the unreleased deep cut “Fly Low” and a brand-new song, but still felt like the greatest hits for those in attendance, many singing along to some or all of the set. Several times the imagery-ridden songwriting made way for open-ended playing from the band, “Holy Smokes Future Jokes” approaching Grateful Dead territory with a pair of guitar and piano solos, “Don't Let Me Run” turning into a slow-burn jazz-blues, and the set-closing “Thirsty Man” barreling to a crazed energy that had the audience clamoring for an encore. They obliged, playing “Requiem,” Earley singing, “Shine a light through the dark day,” Blitzen Trapper as Band-esque as ever. —A. Stein | @Neddyo

Photo courtesy of Aaron Stein

[aardwolfpack]

Title: Don't Let Me Run Performer: Blitzen Trapper Writer: Eric Earley Producer: Raymond Richards Album: Holy Smokes Future Jokes Date: 9/18/20

[thebowerypresents]

Blitzen Trapper Celebrate Album Anniversary at Music Hall of Williamsburg

Blitzen Trapper – Music Hall of Williamsburg – October 2, 2018

Feels like ’tis the season of 10th anniversaries in the music world, with a host of retrospective looks and deluxe-edition reissues of albums released a decade ago. I guess this means a lot of great records came out in 2008 and maybe also that a decade isn’t as long as we think it is—and, of course, that everyone is getting older. Still, it’s a rare treat to hear one of these new “classics” actually played live. So while Blitzen Trapper may be 10 years older than they were when the groundbreaking Furr came out, it sure didn’t feel like it. The music was as vibrant and relevant as ever as the band played the album front to back at Music Hall of Williamsburg on Tuesday night. Like the flannel shirts that almost everyone in the Portland, Ore., band wore, sure there was a nostalgic comfort to the material, but it was still a thing of fashionable comfort.  

Playing an album in its entirety does take some of the surprises out of a set list, but the die-hard fans were just fine as the quintet took the stage and opened with “Sleepytime in the Western World,” that signature crunchy Blitzen Trapper sound—part Southern rock, part country, part prog, part psychedelic—filling the room. Throughout the set, the Furr songs really gave them a chance to flex their muscles, easily transforming from a three-guitar band to a two-keyboard outfit and all permutations in between, taking their sound all sorts of places. While it might typically be found later in a Blitzen Trapper set, the title track, placed third, remained a showstopper, frontman Eric Earley’s 10-years-later voice still quite strong, the harmonies just as tight, the song’s story and lyrics just as compelling as they were initially. A halfway-point track five-six-seven stretch of “Fire & Fast Bullets,” “Saturday Nite” and “Black River Killer” was a highlight, the band moving from hard rock to psych-folk to new-country-murder ballad in quick succession, hitting all the right spots. For me, there was a lot of “Oh, yeah, this is on the record, too!” realizations when even the deeper numbers held form. Longtime fans in the crowd each had their own favorites, so some rocked their hardest to “War on Machines” while others sang each word of “Stolen Shoes & a Rifle” with knowing passion.

After Furr’s completion, what felt like a second set ensued with Earley playing a song solo and in duet with drummer Brian Adrian Koch and taking a request. This flowed right into the encore, which opened with Furr B-side “War Is Placebo” and was followed by a threesome of what-should-we-play? audience suggestions: “Texaco” and then American Goldwing’s “Love the Way You Walk Away” and “Fletcher.” The latter two pointed to one of the many directions Blitzen Trapper took after Furr, and it probably had plenty in the audience thinking about a 10th anniversary play-through of that 2011 release in just a few short years. —A. Stein | @Neddyo

[aardwolfpack]

“Destroyer of the Void,” from the 2010 Blitzen Trapper album of the same name, produced by Eric Earley.

[tomkaszuba]

Eric Earley of Blitzen Trapper

[musicalhitchhiker]

Blitzen Trapper - All Across This Land

Portland çıkışlı country folk grubu, 8. stüdyo albümü All Across This Land’i 2 Ekimde piyasaya sürdü.

Grubun önadamı Eric Earley’e göre daha agresif olan bu albüm, klasik rock müziğe daha yakın olarak değerlendirildi.

Grup, bu yılki Record Store Day için tamamı Neil Young’ın şarkılarından oluşan bir cover albüm yayınlamıştı. Young’a olan bağlarından ötürü etkilenerek oluşturulan, albümle aynı adı taşıyan All Across This Land şarkısına ait video da paylaşıldı.