Never News: Music

Murder By Death - Who Will Survive, and What Will be Left of Them?

Eyeball Records

First off, let’s drop the act. We’re all fans of music here, right? We don’t need pushy well-learned critics telling us how spiffy a record is with their comparisons to Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Young Goodman Brown. I’ll tell you exactly why I like this record without that shit–this is a well-orchestrated coherent theme album written and performed by a standard rock-band plus cellist. They do this without getting mired in comparisons to Cursive. They do this while remaining in their boundaries as musicians, without stepping outside their bounds of writing ability, and without fucking up a single sing-along chorus. Plus, there are multi-part songs to quell those critics who have started pointing out the lack of such things in a pop-song world. All while being catchy as shit and infectious like the goddamn flu.
Caught up in the trappings of Label and Scene, Murder By Death popped up out of the Eyeball Records’ roster like a shining gem out of formula music–not like the emo/hardcore troubadours of Eyeball past, Murder By Death shocked me with their stark mood and original combination of cello-soaked Western orchestrations and complex magical realism.
They lyrics read like a Stephen King short story at his most kitsch-literary–someone has encountered The Devil and has shot him. And, like the events in a King story, things get horribly out of hand. There are murders, hangings, fires, children. A broken man with quite the link to whiskey, and a lot of blood. Some would argue that the lyrics are a bit too rough, not very emotionally connected. I could argue that perhaps the emotional distance is purposeful as the protagonist has lost touch with his humanity. I could, but I won’t. I’m not sure I can give the songwriter that much credit. The truth is, there is emotional distance, but it doesn’t put you off or hinder the story at all–it just doesn’t exactly help.
I can’t really imagine this record to be very accessible to people who don’t like music–there aren’t any singles, really, and not many of the tracks would fit on a Spring mix-tape. This is a theme album (one of the best, if I may be so bold as to say, since Cursive’s Domestica) made for a nice sit down and three fingers of Jack Daniels. It’s smoking music or writing music. Maybe even sleeping music if you’re one who can sleep to harsh drum beats and a yalping wounded frontman.
Adam Turla knows his limits and strengths as a singer, which is refreshing when most of independent music is being sung by kids who can’t sing but sing anyway (thank God). Sarah Balliet plays the cello like she learned how to hit her amazing notes in a barn. Vincent Edwards plays the keys out of a Old West saloon, and Alex Schrodt plays drums like he is drunk but well versed in poetry. Matt Armstong’s bass moves in and out of a song like a battleground surgeon’s thread in and out of a gangrenous arm. And all of these are good things.
All in all, the record amazed me so much that I even forgive them for their ridiculous film-inspired name.

Top Track(s) - Three Men Hanging, A Masters in Reverse Psychology
Pick it up if you liked -
Cursive’s Domestica, Bright Eyes - Lifted, Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited, The Cure - The Head on the Door, Thursday - Waiting, The Good Life - Black Out

posted by Colin Reed Moon @ 2:33 PM