For some reason Blind Pilot stayed below my radar in 2008; otherwise, their debut album 3 Rounds and a Sound would have been near the top of my Best-Of list. Don’t you make the mistake. Listen to Blind Pilot now (if you haven’t heard them on NPR or on the radio or in concert in your town), and then go get this CD.
The band comes witih quite a story. Based in bicycle-crazy Portland, Oregon, Israel Nebeker (guitar, vocals) and Ryan Dobrowski (drums) took their act on the road with just their bikes, with their instruments in light trailers behind them. From Vancouver, B.C., to San Francisco, they camped out, pedaled and played clubs and parks and campgrounds, then went back to Portland to cut their album.
Released in mid-2008, their CD gained increasing buzz and ended up being promoted heavily on music blogs as well as NPR and iTunes. Joined by the musicians who played on their album and the more fleshed-out sound, they took South By Southwest by storm in March ’09, and went on a spring and early summer tour with The Decemberists.
Their sound is spare. The main sound comes from a strummed nylon-string guitar, augmented at times by banjo, ukulele, dulcimer or mandolin; the beat is kept on brushed snares and kickdrum, the bottom occasionally supplied by acoustic bass, and twin trumpets often add their clarion calls. The songs tend to be in minor keys, and Nebeker sings multiple parts — sometimes in unison, sometimes in harmony — in an upper-range reedy baritone. The lyrics are poetic, full of oblique imagery and cryptically told tales, the sound and words wistful but clear-eyed. Violins and vibraphones add color. The tempos fall in a fairly narrow range from straight 4/4 beats to peppy shuffles with an occasional waltz thrown in.
Small surprises and simple pleasures delight at every turn. The opening track “Oviedo” sets the pace, its wistfully sad lyrics reflecting the pain of a breakup, set to a simple march: “You’ll be having my head as big as a birthday / ’cause I left all my doubts on the airplane,” Nebeker sings. When he sings in close harmony “I didn’t know, I didn’t know / I’m not in control / I didn’t know I’m not invincible,” in the bridge, he is accompanied by violin and trumpet quietly playing whole notes in unison and the effect raises chills.
In “The Story I Heard” he’s singing along sedately, then shouts “No! No I cannot tell!” toward the end of the first verse as they approach the chorus; for some reason it reminds me of early Beatles. He’s dubbed beautiful harmony in the outro of “Paint or Pollen.” “Two Towns From Me” has elements of girl-group and doo-wop, mixed with folk, pop and lounge, thanks to the vibraphone.
I don’t feel as though I’m doing Blind Pilot justice. Taken individually, their songs each have something special, and the cumulative effect is very impressive, particularly for such a low-key record. These are seriously catchy songs, the kind that, if you’re like me, you find yourself singing under your breath when you should be trying to go to sleep. These guys could possibly go on to become quite popular. Don’t be the last one in your playgroup to discover them.
(Expunged, 2008)
