
The Rakers – Song for Rumi
Similar artists: R.E.M., Wilco, Drive-By Truckers, Uncle Tupelo
Genre: Indie Rock, Garage Rock
Everyone secretly imagines that one fine day, they’ll just get it. That it refers to the meaning of life itself, or at the very least, the meaning of their own life. A drunk thinks they’ll find in the next bottle, and if they’re smart, they don’t tell anyone. A musician thinks that one of the next songs will open up those doors.
The Rakers are similar romantics. By the sounds of things, they’ve experimented both with the bottle and with songs in their bid to find absolution. They’re not alone, of course. The list of artists, especially rock n’ roll musicians, who have opted to integrate some profound spiritual pursuit into their lives is as long as the list of promises of a brand presidential candidate.
The Rakers’s “Song for Rumi” doesn’t only sound like music meant to make you tipsy. It also sounds like it captures the first and most pleasant part of the celebration – the hopeful part. There’s a devil-be-damned attitude about all of this, and the musicians play like the last 80s-styled indie-rock band before the End of Times. This makes their lack of interest in how things are about to turn up all the more impressive.
Ryan Sutherland – Gideons Bible
Genre: Blues, Southern Rock / Red Dirt, Garage Rock
Forget the legends of guitarists blowing through broken speakers on a $20 guitar that they bought from a pawn shop. Even the most humble modern musician now is spoiled for choices when recording. Employing a drummer that keeps time perfectly, or the London Symphony through the use of the right software, is no longer a pipedream. But with so many options available, who has time to think about the songs?
Ryan Sutherland is a man who likes to fight back against modernity, against overplaying, and is riled up against all the fancy tricks that producers use to disguise how lite songwriting has become. When a painter allows themselves to paint in black and in white, something striking can happen out of these self-imposed limitations. It’s the same with music.
Ryan Sutherland’s “Gideons Bible” is an old-fashioned blues played in an incredibly minimalist form. Sutherland delivers this as a one-man band. The effect is that of a crazy preacher standing out in the streets of Chicago circa the 1930s and advising the passers-by on matters related to their souls being cast into damnation forever. A lot of metal bands try to write about the same matter, but throwing the kitchen sink at it simply does not have the same effect.