Lambchop
Lambchop weren’t originally called Lambchop. They were called Posterchild. But hold not their flakiness against them. How many bands do you know who have exactly the same name today as they initially started out with? Radiohead were called On A Friday, you know. Yeah, right – losers!
Lambchop have been called Lambchop since at least 1994, when Kurt Wagner started using it as a collective term for what his songs sounded like when he gathered his drinking buddies around to help him play them. Their first record was called I Hope You’re Sitting Down, a collection of songs they jokingly dubbed ‘The New Sound of Nashville’, just so the press had something to use in reviews. Lambchop has neither had a fixed line up, nor released a bad record, since. Quite a feat considering they’re just about to release their (his?) tenth LP.
For the sake of chronology we can tell you that said debut opus was followed in 1996 by the seminal How I Quit Smoking, before the dawn of Thriller a year later, preceding 1998’s What Another Man Spills and what is so far their masterpiece, 2000’s Nixon. Despite the success of said president-namechecking LP, a shift from their deft alternative country in to more minimalist territory came with 2002’s Is A Woman rekkid, before a return to a fuller melodic lushness for the double album Aw C’mon / No You C’mon in 2004 and, most recently, the serene Damaged a couple of years back.
For the sake of personality, we’ll tell you who’s in the band at the minute, just because it’s the closest thing there has ever been to an official Lambchop line up. Other than Kurt Wagner at its helm, the band number Tony Crow (piano), William Tyler (guitar), Matt Swanson (bass), Alex McManus (guitar) and now Ryan Norris (keyboards, guitar) and Scott Martin (drums). That’s who.
The whole time through, Kurt Wagner has lived in the same house in a quiet suburb of Nashville, with his pickup truck sat in front of the porch on which he still composes many of his songs, as if to further reinforce his country credentials. The band even rehearse in his basement. For a while there at the beginning, there’d be considerably more people on stage at Lambchop shows (at times as many as 18) than there were in the audience. Now, with their tenth disc OH (Ohio) set for release this week, people use the word ‘Lambchopian’ to describe the likes of My Morning Jacket and Wilco. How times – in some respects at least – change.
LAMBCHOP.NET: The band’s official site, personally updated, tour dates, gallery, the odd thing to stream – nothing to get hugely excited about, but nothing to despise either.
MYSPACE.COM/LAMBCHOPISABAND: The usual MySpace stuff, but most interestingly a few live tunes for you to wrap your earlobes around, should that be your usual method of listening to country music.
LAMBCHOP.INFO: “This is the fan homepage for Lambchop--a band from Nashville you\'ve probably never heard of, unless, of course, you\'re from Nashville or France…”, so this site informs you. It’s not been updated in a while, but the love is there to see.
SOMETHING’S GOING ON: “A beautiful piece of music; a man whose consistently exquisite oeuvre should see him mentioned in the same breath as Tom Waits…” – Tim Dellow
AW C’MON / NO YOU C’MON: “A miracle. Two for one. And one album for all…” – Toby L
DAMAGED: “I’ll structure this piece like Lambchop have structured ‘Damaged’ – i.e. with one moment of joy at the beginning and the end of the work, and a lot of confusion, mild indifference and spatterings of loveliness sandwiched in between…” – Tom Hannan
LONDON SHEPHERDS BUSH EMPIRE – 23/10/06: “They deliver one heartbreak symphony after another, each echoing country, classical, jazz and soul, it’s all about mood, pace and depth…” – Tom Hocknell
IS A WOMAN:
PAPERBACK BIBLE (LIVE):
UP WITH PEOPLE: