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Monday, August 25, 2008

MP3 Sleepercar: Emo Gone Country?

Posted by Ned Lannamann on Mon, Aug 25, 2008 at 4:05 PM

sleepercar.jpg
Jim Ward has been around the block with both At the Drive-In and Sparta, two seminal bands that pointed the way from post-hardcore to emo. So is it a surprise that Ward's newest project, Sleepercar, is a country band? What sounds weird on paper (or looks weird on your computer screen) sounds perfectly natural in practice. "Fences Down" takes hard-won, hard-sung anthemic rock and transforms it into a desert shuffle with twinkling pedal steel, a campfire sing-along for those who have never camped a night in their lives. I first heard this song a few months ago and haven't been able to get it out of my head since, and the rest of the West Texas album is just as good. Sleepercar's set should be one of the highlights of this year's MusicfestNW.

LISTEN:







Sleepercar - "Fences Down"

Sleepercar plays at 10 pm on Thursday, September 4 at Dante's, 1 SW 3rd.

 

Commenting was not available when this article was originally published.

Comments (4) RSS

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1
Sounds like Okkervil River. Eh? Similar, at least, in (lack of) depth/resonance in the vocals.

(but I'm also listening to it too quietly at work.)
Posted by ROM on August 25, 2008 at 4:53 PM · Report
2
Well uh, the Jayhawks, Tupelo, Ryan Adams, Supersuckers (on and on) have been doing the punk rock altcore>country for about 20 years
Posted by D on August 26, 2008 at 2:15 PM · Report
3
Also - this is quite good
Posted by D on August 26, 2008 at 2:16 PM · Report
4
Jim Ward definitely made ATDI pretty in places, but Sparta fails and I can't stand this.

I'm a huge country music fan to the bone. There are maybe 5 working modern country artists worth a shit.

Bands like, well, the Jayhawks, Tupelo, Ryan Adams, and the Supersuckers make me ill. Hank the 3rd is probably the worst of them all.

Stuff like Sleepercar reminds me of blues bands you would see at a county fair. Full of posers trying to emulate something that requires an immense amount of soul to pull off. Jim Ward is now going to be that balding guy with sandals, jeans, a tucked in T shirt, mustache, and a nice bald spot trying to squeeze the life out of blues scales on his $5000 Gibson Les Paul while standing next to a jacuzzi display and the fried Twinkie stand. Ugh.

Sleepercar is country for people that don't like country. It has no soul. No anima.

I'll go back to smugly listening to Knife in the Water and Alison Krauss now.
Posted by Williams, Jay on August 26, 2008 at 2:44 PM · Report

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