Troutband is an Alternative Rock/Pop Band, with our roots in the music of early folk singers Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie. We drop a dose of Dylan, Hendrix, and The Beatles and wash it down with modern influences from Beck, Porcupine Tree, Weezer, The Flaming Lips and co.
We sing about hope for broken hearts and breaking hopeful hearts. Troutband is melodic, guitar-driven music that can surprise the modern pop-music cynic as we cross-pollinate musical arrangements with rockabilly riffs, lap steel, fuzzed out guitars and vocal harmonies.
Music is changing, not only in sound and style, but in format. We no longer believe in “The Album”. There is no CD, no LP. Our new Troutband recordings, collectively called “PHASES“, will be available here on this site, track by track. Donate as you like to download the songs you dig.
Follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/troutband
Phase 1: “Berlin”
Berlin
The track “Berlin” is a glimpse into the drizzling rain and melancholic mood the city of Berlin lays on you in the dark months. The tapping drums and repeating guitar riff punctuated by lap steel guitar create a narcotic bed for James’s vocals. The lyrics speak of hope in “sun pouring through the curtains” and the shadowy lines between love and friendship.
Special thanks to Julien Kravetz for his sublime performance on drums, which we recorded (as for most of the tracks) in Joe’s apartment in Berlin.
See Love
“See Love” is, in a way, as simple as a song can be; it’s just two chords. It is the layers of shifting ambient sounds that keep the song moving forward, courtesy of Dennis Hrbek on keys and guitar. Dennis also provides the rock-solid bass and cranked-up chorus chorus, performed with Julien Kravetz on drums, Joe on acoustic guitars and multi-tracked background vocals and a sparse lead guitar reminiscent of Daniel Lanois. James’s vocal again conjures images of fog and storms, driving fast through the tempest in hopes of saving love from loss.
Black
Written late in the night before tracking drums for the record, “Black” is a psychedelic ride from delicate guitar strums to full on wall-of-fuzz guitars. Joe sings this track, which lyrically “wish(es) it weren’t a dream, so everyone could see…”
“Black” came together mostly in one-off takes, with plans to “record it better” later, but the rough edges lent everything a 60’s style charm, and most tracks are the original takes done when writing the song to completion. Thanks so much, James, for your encouragement, criticism, and ideas. It’s an odd journey; not only this song, but the process of making music altogether.
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