Band of Horses

One Liner:  Laid back rock forever

Poster Position: 4

Thoughts: I love these guys.  The opening track from their new album just shows the whole range right there.  "Dull Times/The Moon" starts off with 4:30 minutes of laconic, spacey rock, just slow and breezy and comfortable with flowing harmonies.  Then a buzzing guitar lick starts lapping fire at the base of my hammock stand, some more guitars join in, and then the drums, bass and vocals kick in for a pretty solid jammy sounding rock and roll song. They're in the same conversation for me as the My Morning Jacket folks, maybe a little less epic, but that same kind of harmonic, shaggy, and flavorful rock and roll.  

They started in Seattle, but then relocated to North Carolina.  Honestly, either place sounds right to me.  Their leader, and the only guy who has been in the band the whole time, is Ben Bridwell, who has done some stuff with Iron and Wine that is cool.  Very distinctive voice, I feel like I can tell it is a Band of Horses song whenever he starts singing. 

I don't know if this actually happened, but when I think of them, I think of that terrible Fox show called The O.C.  My wife watched that show, and I have some recollection of hearing a song from another part of the house and being like, "hey, what is that cool ass sounding song," then realizing it was background music on a Fox teenager drama and therefore probably sucked, but determining that I liked it anyway.  Nice backhanded compliment?

Their big hit, with over 97.7 million streams, is "The Funeral," from their first album, 2006's Everything All the Time.

You have to love that kick in on that song as well.  All soft and lovely and then the guitars get serious and the drums start mashing.  This whole album is good stuff - I actually own the little round piece of plastic that old people used to purchase in order to listen to the sounds of music.  But their next album (2007's Cease to Begin) is even better to me, with one fantastic song that I use as a lullaby for my kids ("No One's Gonna Love You"), another big hit ("Is There a Ghost"), and a song about an ex-player for the Seattle Supersonics who I loved as a child ("Detlef Schrempf").  A little bit of everything for everyone there.  Here is "No One's Gonna Love You," which clocks in at 65.7 million (combining the studio and live versions on Spotify).

Damn pretty song, and such a nice sentiment.  And then they put out two more albums of similarly chilled and pleasant rock, 2010's Infinite Arms (a Grammy Award nominee, and has two songs I think are great still, "Bluebeard" and the lovely "Evening Kitchen") and 2012's Mirage Rock, before this year's excellent Why Are You OK.  This new one just keeps the same sound and fire going, and I like it a lot.  That opener I discussed before, and "Whatever, Wherever" were both standout tracks to me on first listen, but I'm warming up even more to the countrified sound on "Country Teen" and the loose 80's party vibe of "Casual Party." Here is that last one, their most listened to track from this new album, so far.

That video is like a trip through the extras from the Star Wars Cantina scene, while on bad drugs.  But good tune.  I'd definitely like to see them play this stuff live.  We'll see how the schedule shakes out, but I'm hopeful.