portland based blitzen trapper self-released their first three albumson their label lidkercow ltd.: 2003's blitzen trapper, 2004's field rexx and 2007's wild mountain nation.  all three were critically acclaimed.  in fact, rolling stone named wild mountain nation the 98th best of 100 songs of 2007.  ninety-eight may not sound great, but think about all of the songs released in a year!

anyway, in late 2007 the legendary record label, sub pop approached the sextet (eric earley on guitar/vocals, erik menteer on guitar/keyboard, brian adrian koch on drums/vocals, michael vanpelt on bass, drew laughery on keyboards, and marty marquis on guitar/keyboards/vocals), soon signing them to a record deal.  on september 23, 2008, the band dropped furr, a very melodically focused and unpretentious collection of 13 tracks blending southern rock of the likes of neil young, the grateful dead and the kinks.

click here and here to listen to performances recorded july 30, 2007 and november 8, 2008 both from minnesota public radio's the current.  click here to listen to a sxsw gig from march 15, 2008.  don't forget, the album cover image always links to sample songs and the band's image to their website.

check back here to find out when blitzen trapper are coming to your town.

as always, please buy this album from your local independent music store by people who know and love music and not from retailers like wal-mart (soulless, globally-homogenizing, community-killers) or i-tunes (albums should be listened to as an entire composition with album cover and liner notes in hand).  incidentally, these two companies sell more music than any other retailer in the united states.  that my friend, bites.