Hello Reader,
Welcome back. How’s your week been?
Today we’re going to delve into Blitzen Trapper. A band that I first got into after the release of their album, Destroyer of the Void. With Josh’s help sourcing CDs, I also explored the band’s back catalog on my own and added several of their vinyl records to my collection. I ended up seeing the band twice live while they were touring different albums with diverse melodies, and they put out a great show both times!
Before they were Blitzen Trapper, they had another name. On the West Coast of the US, Portland, Oregon to be exact was where songwriter and lead singer Eric Earley, guitarist and keyboardist Erik Menteer, drummer and vocalist Brian Adrian Koch, bass guitarist Michael Van Pelt (bass), keyboardist Drew Laughery and keyboardist and vocalist Marty Marquis formed the sextet called Garmonbozia. The band produced four self-released albums and two studio albums in the nearly 3 years they existed.
In 2003, the band changed its name to Blitzen Trapper. In a 2010 SPIN magazine series asking about band name origins, singer and guitarist Eric Earley stated, “It all goes back to the girlfriend I had in Salem, Oregon, in the 7th grade. She had a binder called a ‘Trapper Keeper.’ It had those metal clasps that you put your papers in. I remember she had this pink Christmas-themed one that had pictures of Santa and his reindeer on it. She called it her ‘Blitzen Trapper’ because Blitzen was her favorite reindeer. That always stuck with me for some reason.” In 2010, the band became a quintet when Drew Laughery was the first original member to leave the group. Jump forward to 2018 after Blitzen Trapper had toured extensively for ten years, band members began to focus on their families even more, and also other careers including Earley working with unhoused veterans, Koch touring with Kara Harris in the duo Dead Lee. Late November 2019, the five played their final show together in Seattle.
Blitzen Trapper has an extensive discography including ten studio albums, Blitzen Trapper (2003), Field Rexx (2004), Wild Mountain Nation (2007), Furr (2008), Destroyer of the Void (2010), American Goldwing (2011), VII (2013), All Across This Land (2015), Wild and Reckless (2017), Holy Smokes Future Jokes (2020), three live albums, and three EPs, Cool Love #1 EP (2008), Black River Killer EP (2009), and Kid’s Album! EP (2018).
The pandemic saw band members Van Pelt moving to LA for advertising work, Marquis pursuing a master’s degree in geographic information sciences, Menteer and his wife opening a cafe and renovating the Log Lodge in rural Clackamas County Oregon. Earley furthered into a nonprofit career, becoming a full-time case manager with the same non-profit and also exploring other arts such as carpentry, and painting pictures of his clients and Central American migrants at the US/Mexico border. Earley recently stated, “The work I do outside of music inevitably finds its way into all of my songs. I think the shelter in particular has broadened my perspective about humanity, about the variety of desires we can have and the suffering we endure.”
A little later in the pandemic in 2021, Blitzen Trapper released new music with a new lineup. Anchored by original members Eric Earley on guitar and lead vocals and Brian Adrian Koch on drums, who were joined by newcomers Nate Vanderpool on bass, and Michael Blake on piano. Vanderpool had been the band’s front of house sound engineer and an occasional fill musician at shows. In 2022, Michael Elson would join the band on keys and bass taking some of Vanderpool’s musical duties. Since Elson joined, Blake has become an as needed substitute musician with the band mainly on the road.
And now in 2023 and 2024, the core four of Earley, Koch, Elson, Vanderpool along with talented vocalist and violinist Anna Tivel and talented vocalist and banjoist Eric D. Johnson of Fruit Bats fame combined to release a new album for your listening pleasure. 100’s of 1000’s, Millions of Billions is out Friday May 17th via the awesome indie label Yep Roc Records.
Earley says about the stimulus particular to this music making process, “This whole project grew out of a box of old four-track tapes from the ’90s that I found recently. The tapes were full of songs I’d written and recorded back when I was 19 or 20 years old, and the sound and the spirit of those recordings got me excited to start writing music again, to go back to working the way I did when I was first starting out. I was working without any thoughts of the music industry, without any expectation of releasing or touring, so I was just capturing anything that popped into my head and moving on. There was a raw, time capsule quality to it, and it reminded me of why I fell in love with making music in the first place.”
Furthermore, Earley shares his journey into Buddhism as another catalyst “[Blitzen Trapper’s album) Holy Smokes introduced me to The Tibetan Book of the Dead, which kind of served as a gateway into the world of Buddhism for me. I started digging deeper and reading the sutras after that, which is what really drew me into the practice. Buddhism tells us that suffering comes from clinging to illusions, to rigid ideologies, to the idea of an individuated self. The doorway to ridding yourself of all that is meditation, and I found that a lot of these new songs started flowing very naturally from the state of consciousness I was getting myself into during those meditation sessions.”
He expands, “With each successive death and rebirth, we learn more of love, more of life,” The beings we live with, and love have been with us for hundreds of thousands of years, for millions of billions of lifetimes.” The album title comes from a repeated phrase in Mahāyāna sūtras which are part of Buddhist scripture aka sūtra.
Giving credit where it’s due. 100’s of 1000’s, Millions of Billions album credits:
- Eric Earley singer, songwriter, guitarist
- Brian Koch on drums.
- Michael Elson on keys
- Nathan Vanderpool on backup vocals, recorded the album.
- Anna Tivel provided backup vocals and played violin.
- Eric D. Johnson provided backup vocals and played banjo.
- Mixed by D. James Goodwin
- Mastered by Adam Gonsalves at Telegraph Mastering
- Front Cover Artwork: Father Collected Fish (2020) by Robert Pollard
- All Other Artwork by Eric Earley
- Layout by Nathan Golub
And now for some hype for your ears!
The puppet show video and reflective lyrics within “Cosmic Backseat Education”:
(All credits and rights to Blitzen Trapper)
Getting your kicks on soon, in “Cheap Fantastical Takedown”:
(All credits and rights to Blitzen Trapper)
Banjo, violin and a distant planet in the animated video for “Planetarium”:
(All credits and rights to Blitzen Trapper)
A song of many greetings, “Hello Hallelujah”:
(All credits and rights to Blitzen Trapper)
Overall, 100’s of 1000’s, Millions of Billions is an album that doesn’t feature any scripture, but one can tell that it is grounded in Buddhist-based consciousness. The album incorporates Earley’s lyrics, showcasing them at times, but also leaves room for expansion. It explores at times yet comes back to its core. The album illustrates how well the band sounds together and provides fans with evidence that the additions of Elson and Vanderpool were wise choices. Adding Anna Tivel and Eric D. Johnson and giving them room to shine were excellent decisions. I wish both are featured even more in the future when Blitzen Trapper creates new music. The band has and will continue to experiment with their sound from album to album and even song to song and will pair melodies with thought-provoking lyrics and the fans will follow and support. The flow from song to song is decent on 100’s of 1000’s, Millions of Billions, anchored by intros and fades.
“Ain’t Got Time to Fight” kicks off the album with a whimsical organ intro with deliberately distorted audio vocalization at the very end of the intro that quickly fades and becomes into a more traditional Blitzen Trapper melody that is warm in nature, especially when paired with Earley’s lead vocal delivery and the harmonies of others framing a welcoming chorus that has an earworm or two. I’d call the overall melody Americana, under a 70s hue. The lyrics weave a weary tale, from a steadfast perspective.
“Dead God of the Green Arising” features a climbing melody. The guitars and drums beats match each other and are also at a quicker pace than the previous song. There’s some real nice guitar and drum work on this song and their musicianship shows. Coupled with Earley’s matching vocal delivery pace it feels like your ears are climbing stairs. The end result is smooth but that’s the pacing and inflection. The end of the song slows the melody, and you’re able to hear individual instrumentation even better before fading into a more discordant noise. The lyrics tell of the titular character.
In the next song, “Cosmic Backseat Education” the melody begins with the single stroke of a key, then jumpstarts to a more driving rock-based music with some twang, jangly guitars, and steady drums and drum fills. Nearly 3/4 into the song the last drum note is struck then the melody becomes quiet for a second before shifting to a melody that is led by Elson’s keys and guitar vibrations that hang on the notes. Tivel and Vanderpool provide excellent backing vocals, complimenting Earley’s own vocals. The lyrics are introspective, and each verse recounts a lesson learned painted in vivid storytelling.
“Hesher in the Rain” begins with a dystopian ten second wall of noise with vocalization. This intro abruptly ends in favor of guitar chords being strummed creating an actual melody that is paired with Earley’s warm vocals. Soft sounding keys from Elson, a violin from Tivel and bits and pieces of other instrumentation is added to enhance and complete the melody. The resulting sound is a song that is has a whimsical feel at for most of its run. At a few brief moments the keys are louder and harsher to the ear but not off putting. The lyrics are reflective, examining old relationships and time.
The melody once again switches within “Cheap Fantastical Takedown” as this one sounds like a chamber pop melody with American elements. The melody is slowed down, and the instrumentation of the keys and guitars and its notes are drawn out beautifully, so the textures and Earley’s vocals stand out. It’s got some slow burner song elements to it. At time his delivery is faster than others, further adding to the texture of the song. The lyrics tell of a youthful perspective on romance, love and romantic relationships through the lens of current age and wisdom.
“So Divine” is the shortest song of the album and its indie rock melody gets the song going quickly. The melody is happy lifted by cheerful guitar notes and drumming and a nice bass guitar groove. The lyrics are confessional and use great verbiage to articulate feelings about someone.
The next song, “Planetarium” leaps out of the gate with excellent banjo from Johnson and violin from Tivel. Guitar enriches the melody and intertwines perfectly between the two. It’s an exquisite melody. More banjo and violin please. The harmonies are gorgeous as are the choruses and Earley’s melancholy twinged lyrics about being lost in space while also accepting one’s fate combine so perfectly. Kudos on arranging this composition. To me it stands out as one of the better ones on the album.
“Hello Hallelujah” has a great rhyme scheme and lyrics that are introspective, examining some of life’s darker moments with cognizance that you’ve made it to the other side, the good one. The earworms are tough to avoid in this song. A rock forward, full of energy melody that starts with guitar strumming before the propulsive drums kick in, and then the lively keys to complete the danceable melody.
Keys open “Long Game” and establish the foundation for the melody before Earley joins in on vocals. Vanderpool gets his own vocal part to shine then he’s joined by Earley on backing vocals. Then you hear a few great guitar solos and even a nice keys solo from Elson. At its core, this is a keys and Vanderpool showcase song. A harmonious choral sound fades the song out.
The next song “View from Jackson Hill” opens with what I’d best describe as a sonar sounding noise for the first seconds of the song before being taken over with a melody complete with some lovely indie pop sounding elements, because of sweetly delivered lyrics from Earley and higher note sound, softer guitar strumming tune. There’s even a soothing harmony near the middle of the song. The last note ends sounding like a question mark, paired with the inquisitive final line for a perfect ending. The lyrics are ponder and marvel while being grounded in reality.
“Upon the Chain” opens with a tour of the drum kit before powerful guitars join in. And then Earley’s vocals and Elson’s higher pitched playful keys that shimmer. The lyrics tell of a true story about a mischievous adventure involving Earley’s uncle.
The last song, “Bear’s Head/At the Cove” features the guitar and drums in lockstep pacing creating a lovely melody. The melody shifts plenty in this one. A handful of times, I think. Halfway through the song, some memorable guitar chords are struck followed by a fantastical keys experience. One that could fit into a soundtrack of an old timey animated film or really any keys/organ/piano soundtrack set to a background of a castle or quest perhaps. The guitars are space-like within those chords fitting in with some of the album’s theming. Another melody shift, and solo time here. It’s the most experimental song on the album. To me, the lyrics take a backseat in this song and examine a host of feelings, and states of being.
100’s of 1000’s, Millions of Billions gets 4 out of 5 Scum Drops from me. It’s an above average work. I’d say in the very good territory. It’s not the band’s best, but definitely not their worst, and overall, I think it fits into their discography. All that adding up to place the album firmly into the 4 Scum Drop relative to all 2024 releases. Here’s the source of our rating scale here. I found the album’s sound to be great. And I think the album is worth adding to your collection.
100’s of 1000’s, Millions of Billions Track listing (song length)
- Ain’t Got Time to Fight (3:30)
- Dead God of the Green Arising (2:31)
- Cosmic Backseat Education (3:19)
- Hesher in the Rain (3:24)
- Cheap Fantastical Takedown (3:37)
- So Divine (2:11)
- Planetarium (3:54)
- Hello Hallelujah (2:44)
- Long Game (3:20)
- View from Jackson Hill (2:22)
- Upon the Chain (2:49)
- Bear’s Head/At the Cove (5:27)
Total runtime: 39:08
I’ll always advocate that you take the time to listen to every album in its entirety. From start to finish, you could listen to this album twice is just over an hour’s worth of your time. Along the way, you’ll discover your own favorite songs without the influence or bias of others. After a few listens on my own, the songs that are highlighted in green font above are my favorite songs on this album.
Blitzen Trapper’s very basic website with some merch and writing forums is linked right here! And their linktree with socials and more is right here!
Thank you for reading and supporting good music.
Until next time,
Alex
Scummy Water Tower Productions co-founder, reviewer, business manager, and editor. Thank you for visiting this site: scummywatertower.com, and YouTube for Water Tower Sessions!
Contact me: alex@scummywatertower.com
