The Dead South offers up another collection of grim prairie tales on Sugar and Joy
Credit to Author: Stuart Derdeyn| Date: Fri, 18 Oct 2019 18:13:05 +0000
The Dead South | Six Shooter Records
Regina’s leading proponents of darkly comic folk-grass have gained a global audience for its sound since its 2013 debut, the Ocean Went Mad and We Were to Blame. Songs such as In Hell I’ll Be In from 2014’s Good Company are regularly spun on modern rock radio and 2016’s Illusion and Doubt hit No. 5 on the Billboard bluegrass charts.
Yes, Billboard has a bluegrass chart.
So, coming into the new album, titled Sugar and Joy, the pressure was on for gravel-voiced Nate Hilts (vocals, guitar and mandolin), Scott Pringle (guitar, mandolin and vocals), whistling Danny Kenyon (cello and vocals) and Colton Crawford (banjo) to drop more of its “Mumford and Sons’ Evil Twins” tunes.
Here are five things to know about Sugar and Joy as the band embarks on a nationwide tour:
1: Diamond Ring. The leadoff single is a grim prairie tale that is probably optioned to an OTT streaming service as the soundtrack for a new period-piece cowboys and robbers series. After a pretty straight-up song structure, the song recounts a lover in hot pursuit of said ring at all costs. Then it takes a totally unexpected change in the arrangement around the three-minute mark as Kenyon’s cello sadly bows and the music goes from bluegrass to something closer to eerie Central European folk chanting.
2: Fat Little Killer Boy. Don’t tease him/just please him/tell him he’s a good boy/Or his hammer is coming down on you, croons Hilts about the homicidal nasty the song sings about. The album’s title comes from a line in this song as well that — according to the press material — is about the insulin spike followed by the crash. OK.
3: Colton Crawford. Many reviews tend to focus on Hilts’ raspy growl or Kenyon’s clean (and mildly goofy) vocals. That’s fair, as the two play off one another so well. But for establishing atmosphere or driving the song when it needs it, the banjo is the thing. Just check out the atmospheric lead-in on Snake Man Pt. 1 before it takes off in a fingerpicking frenzy in Snake Man Pt. 2.
4: Blue Trash, Black Lung, Broken Cowboy and more. The titles of the 13-song set come off like a bit of a laundry list for combined tragedy. There is no question that the Dead South are set into a world view that is anything but Sugar and Joy. This band favours the kind of subject matter that has always been the best thing about bluegrass: it’s dark, shadowy side. And the song about Spaghetti Pasta rocks.
5: The Dead South 2019 Tour. Oct. 20, Commodore Ballroom. Tickets: $33.75 at musicglue.com. Already selling out the first night (Oct. 19), the band has added a second date to its Vancouver run. Ticket sales are strong across the country too. Could the Sugar and Joy tour be the last time you see this band on small club stages?
Also out this week:
Dead Soft
Big Blue | Arts & Crafts
Rocking at you like some relative of late-’80s’ indie heroes like Built to Spill and Sugar, this Gabriola Island group knows its way around distortion, pedal-driven hooky jams. Songs such as the opener, I Believe You, and Tulips are fine examples of the straight-ahead songwriting while a more ethereal pop style turns up on The Static. Expect them to gain quite a following.
Plants EP
Guerilla Toss | DFA Records
This Boston quintet plays music that could best be described as psychedelically dressed classic New Wave. Somewhere in the title track’s disco drumming and wall of herky-jerky noise, there are elements of vintage Blondie, the Cars and others who could combine art-house sensibilities with catchy song craft. The bass-synth drops on Land Where Money’s Nightmare Lives are classic ’80s’ electropop propelled into the modern age.
Oct. 25, Fortune Sound Club, 7 p.m. Tickets: $17.69 at the door.
Kacy & Clayton
Carrying On | New West Records
Within the first five seconds of The Forty-Ninth Parallel, Kacy Anderson is already casting a spell with her exceptional voice. The fifth album from this Saskatchewan country/folk-rock duo is, once again, produced by Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy. There is no question that he gets what the band’s strengths are and brings it to the fore on such slow-burners as the title track, or galloping Intervention. The sound is pure acid L.A. circa the late-’70s, which may make it harder to grasp today. But this is some of the best roots rock on record right now.
Civilisation I EP
Kero Kero Bonito | Polyvinyl
A bedroom album that you can really get behind. The three-song EP opens with the synth ping-pong of Battle Lines, complete with Sarah Bonito’s breathy vocals delivering a lyric about surrendering weapons and laying down the law with eerily threatening ease. Then there is the upbeat pulse of When the Fire Comes, a climate catastrophe ditty that should be on Greta T’s playlist. The trio is totally nailing its ideas now.
Oct. 25, Rickshaw Theatre, 8 p.m. Tickets and info: $23 at eventbrite.ca