Band of Horses (2021)

One Liner: Laid back rock forever.

Wikipedia Genre: Indie rock, Southern rock, alternative rock, power pop, folk rock
Home: Seattle (but then moved to South Carolina)

Poster Position: 4
Both Weekends.

Sunday at 4:30 on the Lady Bird Stage.

Thoughts:  I always forget about Band of Horses.  I really liked those first two albums, but then they just kind of fell off my radar entirely and I rarely even think about going back to those old albums.  From looking at their Spotify, it looks like those old albums are still their main thing, as their top five streaming songs are all either from those albums or are new versions of the same songs from those first two albums.  Now, I'm remembering that I liked pretty much all of these albums.

Right after they first hit the scene, they kind of got washed out by The Avett Brothers, Fleet Foxes, My Morning Jacket, and Mumford & Sons, in my mind, and prior to them it felt like The Jayhawks and Son Volt had already done a lot of this shambling, country rock, semi-jam sound before.  But I'm kind of annoyed that this happened to me.  I like a lot of these songs, and I should have kept the albums in my rotation.

The band was initially formed in Seattle by Ben Bridwell, but has gone through several lineup changes over the years.  Feels like half of the Wikipedia article is about people who came and went.  I don't know if anyone else ever looks at those charts of band membership that sometimes pop up on Wikipedia, but from looking at the one for this band, Bridwell is the only consistent member of the band for the whole run.  Which makes sense, his voice is the common thread here.  Very distinctive voice, I feel like I can tell it is a Band of Horses song whenever he starts singing.

Since formation, they moved to South Carolina.  Honestly, either place sounds right to me.  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?

They first played ACL in 2010.  They were last at ACL in 2016, which was also the last time they had any new music.  So, hopefully a new album is on the way so that we are not just about to get the exact same set from five years ago.  I guess it would have to be slightly different, since two of the main members left in 2017, but still without new tunes what does it matter?

The top track, by a mile, is "The Funeral," with 265 million streams on Spotify.  This is 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.  From reading the comments on there, it looks like lots of people found the song through How I Met Your Mother, which I never watched. 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 used to 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 dug 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 70.8 million. (with another 33 million for one live version and another 59 million for a different live version, all three of which are in their top ten on Spotify).

Damn pretty song, and such a nice sentiment.  

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 2016's excellent Why Are You OK.  

The new one just keeps the same sound and fire going, and I like it a lot.  The opening track 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. The tune puts them 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. That opener 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, with just 13.2 million streams many years after release.

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.