Old Habits Die Hard November 2, 2009

I’m a creature of habit and there are two things I always do when I fly… One is to buy a copy of the New Yorker in the airport. The other is to choose ginger ale as my in-flight beverage. So I was beyond excited to be sipping Canada Dry on my flight home from NYC and read a glowing review of Richmond Fontaine’s latest album in the magazine’s “Pop Notes” section…

-Richmond Fontaine, a Portland-based band led by the singer-songwriter Willy Vlautin, has just released “We Used to Think the Freeway Sounded Like a River” (Arena Rock), its ninth record and one of its best. The band is one of the finest proponents of what is sometimes called alt-country but is more properly described as woozy roots music, and Vlautin, who is also an acclaimed novelist, specializes in the telling detail. Often this results in compact narratives—on “The Boyfriends,” one of the album’s standouts, a guy meets a girl at a bar, accompanies her home, goes to bed with her, and is interrupted by the appearance of her young son (“I ain’t like that,” Vlautin’s protagonist wails). The character sketch “43” uses a few taut lines to sketch a portrait of a man slowly being strangled by debt. None of the songs here are throwaways, and several—the openhearted plaint “Maybe We Were Both Born Blue,” the crepuscular boxing tale “The Pull”—are tours de force. (Ben Greenman)

…Which reminded me that we have a show with Richmond Fontaine coming up. It’s a rescheduled performance for their album release show which was cancelled last month because frontman Willy Vlautin was sick. This show will be incredible. Can’t wait… (It’ll likely be our last show of 2009 and one of the few until our next album “The Unfazed” is out in the Spring)

Portland, OR / Friday Dec. 11th
@ Dante’s (Richmond Fontaine Album Release show)