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Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band, "13 Blues for Thirteen Moons"
While I feel that their peak is still 2005's masterful Horses in the Sky, this new album's energetic stomp is by no means a disappointment. Whereas that last album was heavily focused on vocal harmonies, here Silver Mt. Zion let their rage flow freely through their instruments. High volume riffs and squeals of feedback come to the fore, a rock monster that has been carefully concealed behind the careful arrangements of earlier releases.
Last year was a busy year for the members of Silver Mt. Zion. They recorded an astounding album and subsequently toured with Vic Chesnutt and performed a special one-off performance with Patti Smith. Along the way their planned live album, Fuck You Drakulas, was abandoned. Indeed, when I asked them about the live album after a Vic Chesnutt show I was deeply disappointed at the news of its cancellation as I knew there were new songs on it waiting to be heard. Sensing my disappointment I was reassured that it's OK, there's a new studio album on its way. So for the last three months I have been giddy waiting for 13 Blues for Thirteen Moons and finally here it is, bearing with it those songs originally on Fuck You Drakulas.
Instead of getting straight into the album, there a dozen very short tracks of feedback roughly playing the melody to the first song, "1,000,000 Died to Make This Sound." The song's title brings back memories of that revelatory moment of turning over the sleeve of Godspeed's Yanqui U.X.O. to reveal the infamous web of bloody association between the major labels and the arms industry. After a quiet and fairly typical Mt. Zion intro, the song suddenly erupts into a tempestuous refrain driven by a pounding guitar and cello assault. The lyrics are a venomous accusation of greed towards the music industry, taking swipes at the majors for their bullish anti-piracy tactics and towards the bland bands who rip off their fans with overpriced merchandise and music empty of sincere feelings ("Silk-screen that, ye twits, across thy Internet").
The quiet side to their music is not totally lost in the clamor; "Black Waters Blowed/Engine Block Blues" and "BlindBlindBlind" are both reminiscent of their more recent albums. The former has all the ups and downs expected from a classic SMZ song and the latter is a tender slow-boiler which explodes in a joyous chorus calling out to the good guys. However, the first time listening to these last two songs was a bit of a drastic comedown after the runaway train energy of the first half of the album. It is with repeated listens that these songs grow and blossom into the beautiful flowers that they are.
Throughout the album, the group continually set themselves apart from the crowd. They address all the pain, fear, sadness and anger conjured that many do not talk about let alone sing about. Their music spills out like a holy fire against the corrupt and the complacent: "There are ones that are liars and ones that don’t know." It is impossible to listen to this album and not feel like going out to take a stand against something that is wrong with the world (a feeling I often get listening to Silver Mt. Zion). As they put it themselves a few years ago, for those of us growing up in a dead, insincere musical wasteland: This is our punk rock. To hear these songs and not be roused is to be dead.
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