MP3: “The Art Teacher and The Little Stallion”
“The Art Teacher and the Little Stallion” is the first track on Oh, Glory. Oh, Wilderness. the third offering from Holopaw. The song introduces the character the Little Stallion who inhabits most of the songs to come. “Toy piano tinklings punctuate his every step” as we follow his coming of age. His journey is marked by lost sailors, boys on motorbikes, lazy matadors, hobbyists and foxes lurking in fake gas lamp light. The Little Stallion welcomes these characters, seduces them with “polished pearls” or is, in turn, seduced by their “horseplay, towel whips and bathing suits rolled down off sunless hips”. He falls in love with them and, more often than not, betrays them causing him to lament, “So many sailors lost to this drunken sea, so many sailors lost to me.” There is sweetness and grit, longing and potential violence.
Holopaw musically plays with similar tensions: lulling strings are undercut by anxious guitars, lilting “la’s” turn sinister and demanding. In “Little Stallion with a Glass Jaw” horn blasts announce a charge that is quickly clipped to a hush. The bounce of “P-a-l-o-m-i-n-e” stumbles towards chaos at the bridge only to be righted by a whimsical Bay City Rollers-esque chant. The last song on the record, “The Hobbyist and the Conductor (Avalanche)” begins with bright, carillon chimes that stand in stark contrast to the thunderous din that ends the song like a slack jawed finale to a fireworks display. Triumphant “la’s” punch through the smoke and ash to have the final say.
The band articulating these musical tensions is Holopaw’s strongest yet. The core songwriting team of John Orth and Jeff Hays has remained constant. The lineup has contracted and expanded in the swampy heat of Gainesville, Florida to now include Patrick Quinney, Matt Radick, Jeff McMullen, Christa Molinaro and Jody Bilinski. Throughout the record Pink Razor’s Erin Tobey lends sublime backing vocals and harmonies to buoy these otherwise troubled tales.
The album was recorded over a year and several trips to New York by Jeremy Scott (Woods, Vivian Girls, These Are Powers) at The Civil Defense studios in Brooklyn, USA. Holopaw is joined by members of Taigaa!, the Good Good, and Mahogany who add violin, clarinet, and trombone. Their additions further embellish arrangements that include trumpet, pedal steel, organ, accordion, piano, cello, clavinet, pianet and rhodes. After two records on the Sub Pop label (Holopaw, s/t and Quit +/or Fight), the band considered both self-release and working with Glacial Pace Recordings (owned and operated by John’s friend and collaborator on the Ugly Casanova record, Isaac Brock) before deciding to join the Bakery Outlet family.
The last line of Oh, Glory. Oh, Wilderness. calls out, “The trains that you sent screaming into tunnels (boot black) will spill into the light. La, La, La, La, La!” Oh, Glory. Indeed.
HOLOPAW
May 20 – 40 Watt, Athens, GA #
May 21 – Village Tavern, Mt. Pleasant, SC #
May 22 – Local 506, Chapel Hill, NC #
May 24 – The Southern, Charlottesville, VA #
May 25 – Otto Bar, Baltimore, MD #
May 26 – Black Cat, Washington, D.C. #$
May 27 – The Bell House, Brooklyn, NY @
May 28 – The Bowery Ballroom, New York, NY !
May 29 – Johnny Brenda’s, Philadelphia, PA !
# = w/ Matt Pond PA and Bobby Long
$ = w/ Army of Me
@ = w/ The Forgetters
! = w/ Besnard Lakes and Land of Talk
Holopaw
Oh, Glory. Oh, Wilderness.
(Bakery Outlet)
Street Date: Nov. 3, 2009
1. The Art Teacher and the Little Stallion
2. The Lazy Matador
3. P-A-L-O-M-I-N-E
4. Little Stallion with a Glass Jaw
5. The Last Transmission (Honeybee)
6. Oh, Glory
7. Boys on Motorbikes
8. The Cherry Glow
9. Black Lacquered Shame
10. The Conductor and the Hobbyist (Avalanche)
HOLOPAW LINKS:
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/holopaw
Band site: http://holopawmusic.com/
Label Page: http://bakeryoutletrecords.com/