The Red and Black

Issue date: 3/4/09 Section: Variety

Media Credit: Courtesy Jade Harris Blitzen Trapper is gaining popularity on the indie scene and is planning another record. [Click to enlarge]

Band makes album, gets Pitchfork's "Best New Music" tag, and the mainstream press follows, showering the group with best-of-the-year praise.

This was the trajectory of Portland, Ore., folk-rock band Fleet Foxes, and now it is the new indie-rock meta-narrative.

But although Fleet Foxes rode its debut album to near instantaneous success, the band that Fleet Foxes was opening for just a year ago - Portland's other folk rockers, Blitzen Trapper - has had a more stable climb, still mostly unknown outside the hipster enclave.

Blitzen Trapper's third album, 2007's "Wild Mountain Nation," earned end-of-the-year recognition, and got the group signed to the legendary indie label Sub Pop.



In 2008, they released an even more critically acclaimed album: "Furr," which landed the No. 13 spot on Rolling Stone's "50 Best Albums of 2008."

Still, Blitzen Trapper can't sell out a venue in Athens like its close friends Fleet Foxes did at the Georgia Theatre back in September.

Regardless, Blitzen Trapper is still the next big thing, with another album in gestation.

"We've got 10 new songs and will probably record 10 more. We're always recording new material, but I doubt we're ready to road test any of it," lead singer and guitarist Eric Earley said.

According to Earley, his songwriting is inspired by "early '70s sounds and lots of literature. L'Amour's Westerns, Cormac McCarthy's Southern Gothica and lots of Hemingway."

Blitzen Trapper's mixture of '60s psych-funk and Robert Zimmerman's junkyard folk recalls similar hodgepodges by Beck Hansen.

Indeed, Blitzen Trapper's sound is dense and diverse.

"We use folk, country, hard rock, doing whatever we want and making it our own," Earley said.

The lo-fi crunch of "Wild Mountain Nation" called on Guided By Voices' concise, rock postures.

However, Blitzen Trapper's new album "Furr" is sanitized by Mr. Clean production, with solos of "Guitar Hero" proportions and cascading, glittering keyboards.

"While the songwriting is similar, 'Furr' is more polished and lyrical, and 'Wild Mountain Nation' has a more dirty, D.I.Y. feel," Earley said.

Though Earley was surprised by the success of the relatively low-budget "Wild Mountain Nation," he acknowledges the advantages of being on an independent label with major distribution.

"It's easy to put out records. The record guys ... let you do what you want."

Perhaps tonight will be the night for Blitzen Trapper. Perhaps it will live up to the local success of its Portland brethren, Fleet Foxes, and sell out tonight's show.

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