Friday, February 17, 2006

Let's Pray for Rain


I've seen a lot of posts around about Two Gallants. They're gonna be pretty big this year, I'd imagine. Their album, Who the Toll Tells comes out next Tuesday in the U.S. on Saddle Creek. I tried listening to the album song by song and it didn't work. It's an album and I finally realized I need to play the whole thing through the hear what the fuss is about.
Taking their name from a James Joyce short story is pretty cool. I like that. Lots of people have said it sounds like they're reinventing songs from other time periods, and that's sort of true. The song "Long Summer Day" is a point-in-case, what with the old timey clip tagged at the end of the song with lyrics from the song. I don't know if it's an old song they changed and rearranged, but I like it a lot.
Definitely the highlight, the denouement of the album, where you really understand what it's all about, is the gritty "Waves of Grain." It reminds me of Grapes of Wrath for some reason. Truly magnificent. They're going on tour across the U.S. with Pink Mountaintops (are they worth checking out?) in April so I recommend you go see them.

Waves of Grain
Las Cruces Jail (Radio Edit)
Find more music by Two Gallants.

2 comments:

Adam said...

Hey, just to say I saw the band last week and put up a short review at my blog. The band are really good live, las Cruces in particular was amazing. his drumming is crazy too.
Keep up the good work

Anonymous said...

Pink Mountaintops are definitely worth checking out! Great band from Vancouver.

And I love the Two Gallants record as well. The literary stuff always appeals to me...I'm a total sucker for it.