A Silver Mt. Zion - 13 Blues for Thirteen Moons

First: yes, I know that they're going under the name Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band, but that's too fucking long (and too fucking stupid) to put in the title of this review.

So. Pretentious name. (For the most part) clunky and kind of pretentious lyrics. The vocals are too loud in most of the parts. That's the kind of shit that normally keeps me away like kryptonite (which Safari acknowledges as being a valid word), but this record really connected with me on an extremely visceral level.

Let me be upfront and say that the only record I've heard by these guys was the first one. Something about being left alone with shafts of light. I got that right when it came out, and at the time I was pretty into it, but in hindsight it hasn't held up that well for me. Todd said he liked the one that came after that, too, but didn't like the subsequent two that followed. I've never heard any of them, and while I should have gone back to listen to them so I could sort of pretend that I know what I'm talking about, this record is so good that I don't feel motivated to do so. I've heard that 13 Blues For Thirteen Moons is way more rock and vocal-oriented than all of their previous ones; I couldn't tell you. I can tell you that if you played me the first one and then this one back to back, the only thing that might tip me off that they're related somehow would be the strings. It's a night and day difference.

So yeah, visceral level. 13 Blues For Thirteen Moons is fucking heavy. Not like "chugga-chugga" heavy, but like "crushing-weight-on-chest" heavy. The first song starts off quiet until the cello kicks in, and then it's literally like floodgates opening. It's absolutely crushing. That doesn't really describe how it sounds, but it's kind of tough to pin them down too much at this point. They really own their own sound on this record. There are quieter, almost droney parts here and there, there are lots of loud guitars with crashing, almost reckless drumming, more restrained parts, and the singer sounds a lot like John Lydon. A little blues, a little folk, a ton of lumbering rock.

I think a lot of what gets me so excited about this record is that every fucking note on here is played like the band's life depended on it. There's an urgency that makes you feel like the world is coming to an end. And even though they're writing what amounts to ham-fisted protest songs, they're so fucking earnest and passionate about what they're doing that I can't help but get swept up into it despite the oftentimes terrible lyrics ("The hang-man's got a hard-on?" Really?) The music completely supports it, and when the band sings together (and none of them can really sing at all) it's really, for lack of a better word, powerful.

I've actually waited a while to write this review because I can be get overzealous about things that I get excited about and I wanted to make sure that I still felt as excited about it a week or two later before I started talking about how awesome it is. So now it's a week or two later, and I still think it's awesome. 13 Blues For Thirteen Moons is urgent, powerful, pissed, raw, honest (in it's own ham-fisted kind of way) and passionate. I still get goosebumps every time I listen to it. Your mileage may vary, of course, but I think it's one of the most inspiring records I've picked up in years.

Finally, it's amazing (and embarrassing) to me that a Canadian band has completely captured the essence of living in the United States over the last few years more than any American band I've heard has. The despair, the desperation, the fear mongering, the divisiveness and, as of this year, the hope that maybe we can start getting our shit together and start climbing out of this pit we've dug for ourselves.