New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Earlier this year, the Portland, OR-based Blitzen Trapper accomplished a unique feat for a rock band who has been releasing albums and touring for the better part of two decades: a staged musical titled Wild & Reckless that ran for 28 performances at Portland Center Stage. Today, the band is announcing a new album of the same title that was born from the stage production and as a companion to their 2008 breakthrough album Furr.
The Entertainment Weekly premiered "Rebel," the first single to be released from the forthcoming album.
"'Rebel' is a song about a guy who for the love of a girl follows in his father's footsteps only to find it to be a scam," explains principal and frontman Eric Earley. "After several tries at the American dream he ends up selling cocaine to blue bloods in the Hollywood hills. Something of a lost Raymond Carver story with shambling near-country soundtrack."
The album Wild & Reckless was born from the stage production that the band spent the better part of a year producing. The half musical, half rock-opera dealt with heroin abuse, desperation, true love and western power structures. The story evoked a bygone era of Portland with this sci-fi love story, featuring a rock-and-roll score that paired unreleased songs with favorites from the band's catalog.
Following the success of the production, the band took 7 original songs from the production and developed the theme further into the 12 songs that comprise the new album Wild & Reckless.
Frontman Eric Earley also sees the record as a companion and extention of their 2008 album Furr. "Wild and Reckless is something like a cross-eyed stepchild to Furr, in that it chronicles the darker dystopian stories of rural and suburban west coast death-drive via a riffing psychedelic landscape. Ten years after Furr with all its talk of murder and the end of the western world, it seems there's more to tell."
Blitzen Trapper is Eric Earley (songwriter/singer), Erik Menteer (guitar, keyboard), Brian Adrian Koch (drums, vocals), Michael Van Pelt (bass) and Marty Marquis (keyboard, vocals). Wild & Reckless was produced by Eric Earley and Michael Van Pelt and was recorded by Gregg Williams at the Trench, in Portland, OR. It was mixed by
James Brown (Foo Fighters,
Kings Of Leon, Blitzen Trapper's All Across This Land) at The Union.
The band will embark on a national tour with select support from Lilly Hiatt this winter to celebrate the release of the album. Find a full list of tour dates below.
Wild & Reckless tracklist:
1) Rebel
2) Wild & Reckless
3) Forever Pt. 1
4) Joanna
5) No Man's Land
6) Stolen Hearts
7) Dance With Me
8) Love Live On
9) When I'm Dying
10) Baby Won't You Turn Me On
11) Forever Pt. 2
12) Wind Don't Always Blow
Tour Dates:
11/2: Atlanta, GA - The Earl
11/3: Durham, NC - Motorco
Music Hall
11/4: Richmond, VA- The Broadberry
11/5: Washington, DC -
Black Cat
11/6: Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda's
11/7: Cambridge, MA - The Sinclairs
11/9: Brooklyn, NY -
Music Hall of Williamsburg
11/10: Toronto, ON - Horseshoe Tavern
11/11: Detroit, MI - El Club
11/12: Chicago, IL - Lincoln Hall
11/14: Madison, WI - High Noon Saloon
11/15: Milwaukee, WI - Turner Hall
11/16: St. Paul, MN - Turf Club
11/17: Iowa City, IA - The Mill
11/18: St. Louis, MO - Blueberry Hill Duck Room
11/19: Nashville, TN - Exit/In
11/30:
Santa Cruz, CA - Moe's Alley
12/1: Los Angeles, CA - Bootleg Theatre
12/2: San Diego, CA - Casbah
12/4: Mill Valley, CA - Sweetwater
Music Hall
12/5: San Francisco, CA - The Independent
12/7: Seattle, WA - Tractor Tavern
12/8: Portland, OR - Revolution Hall
# - support from Lilly Hiatt
