Well, so much for joy.  Now it’s time for doom and misery, Nick Cave style.  Murder by Death are a four-piece from Bloomington, Indiana, but this ain’t no little ditty ‘bout Jack & Diane, and it ain’t no Jacobs School of Music post-graduate seminar either.  No.   This is a 1972 Dodge Polara making for the Ohio Line at half-past the Apocalypse with a bloody duffel bag in the trunk.  This is the Soundtrack to a David Lynch sitcom about the kidnaping of Little Johnny Cougar, canceled after the pilot when viewers complained.  With a left-handed singer/guitarist, a drummer named Dagan Thogerson and a hot dame playing the Cello.  Oh, and a bass player called Matt. (Sorry Matt, I couldn’t think of anything snappy).

Baby,
It’s been so long,
That even the roses’ hips
Are turning me on.

Amen, brother.  Murder by Death have actually been around since 2000 or thereabouts, and they’ve always been about homicide and Old Testament vengeance, but their latest release on Vagrant Records, called “Red of Tooth and Claw,” is a leap forward sonically, and the songs are just top notch.  It was recorded at Dark Horse Studios in Nashville with Trina Shoemaker, who has worked in the past with such luminaries as Kristin Hersh, Whiskeytown, Emmylou Harris, Giant Sand and, erm, Sheryl Crow. . . Cough.  Anyhoo, Shoemaker’s steady hand at the boards has shown real results here, and singer/guitarist Adam Turla–who has some prodigious pipes by the way–describes the finished product as a “Homer’s Odyssey of revenge, only without the honorable character at the center.”  Aww.  Sweet.

Rock on, as it were.

Murder by Death – Comin’ Home
Murder by Death – Fuego

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