EASTERN CONFERENCE CHAMPIONS

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thebuildersandthebutchers

The Builders and the Butchers || Listen || Watch

What King did to the classic western adventure, Portland’s The Builders and The Butchers have done to the story telling, old west-inspired record. Like King borrowing from Tolkien, they have managed to use all the right parts with help from Johnny Cash by way of the Reverend Horton Heat and The Felice Brothers. Now on their second record, Salvation is a Deep Dark Well, the Builders continue down that dark and dusty trail they started on a few years back.

“When your heart’s deep and dark as a well, everything that is golden and green goes to hell” is the opening message of the record that will resonate throughout as it moves from one barn burner to the next. Tracks like “Devils Town” and “Short Way Home” shuffle their way through old Americana dusting off themes of spirituality and frustrations with life. Speedy mandolins litter the record, and coupled with the horns of “Barcelona” create a Spanish influence that appears more than once and compliments the themes mentioned before which add a southwestern flavor. “Raise Up Your Weary Hands” takes this subtle direction once more as Ryan Solle warns of deals with the devil, which he seems to do a lot of.

These themes are a major part of the band’s song writing as Salvation shuffles from one cautionary tail to the next. This style is very visual as it details the setting and the characters almost into fruition. Now while it’s far from anything new, for a generation born in the late eighties and nineties this could very well be a reintroduction to one of the original forms of American music. The most blatant throwback is the old gospel tune, and all too appropriate closer “The World is a Top”. The song ditches the over the top theatrics for a single guitar and simple vocal harmonies that, thanks to a lo-fi recording, hallmarks that distant past feeling as he sings “We have to take it back one day”. – Consequence of Sound

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Illinois || Listen
Eastern Conference Champions || Listen