Bio: 2008 and ‘09 found the band opening up local shows for likes of Grizzly Bear, Shearwater, Vampire Weekend, and the Bowerbirds among others, taping an Austin City Limits Stage Left ... (more)
Bio: 2008 and ‘09 found the band opening up local shows for likes of Grizzly Bear, Shearwater, Vampire Weekend, and the Bowerbirds among others, taping an Austin City Limits Stage Left episode, contributing a song to Esopus magazine, and recording live sessions for WOXY and Daytrotter, all the while working on the first full length.
With Phosphorescent Blues, a hypnotic tour-de-force that combines raw energy and dance rhythms with the subtle intricacies of jazz and folk, Brazos make good on their shown promise. Written in one blissful week in Crane’s home in far South Austin in 2008, Phosphorescent Blues is not just a collection of songs, but a cohesive document of a state of mind. Splitting the recording process between home and the studio, it is apparent that the group has come together across the board of collaboration in a solid cohesive effort, yet they have created something that comes off as a breezy study in effortlessness. “I was listening to a lot of Steve Reich and Simeon Ten Holt… and reading Adrienne Rich,” Crane states. “Also hanging out with friends who were into house music, and I think all that rubbed off.” The influence is heavy. The adapted Rich poem, “The Observer” serves as a centerpiece to the album. As Crane puts it, “I had to change the phrasing of the poem to fit the melody… and that influenced the way the rest of the album was written, thinking of it more as writing a poem and then figuring out a way to phrase it to a melody, especially when the music behind was repetitive and hypnotic… To me, the best songs work with that idea.”
It’s hard not to think of the album any other way. It is lyrically awash with vivid imagery of cityscapes and late nights on downtown sidewalks in “Tell”, parking garages filled with rambunctious hot rods on “Downtown Boys” and early morning market vendors on “My Buddy”. Two minds hang on the other’s words of love and inspiration on “For So Long Now” and we’re brought along on an afternoon stoop-party to drink cheap wine with friends in “Day Glo”. It is all phrased like free form poetry over rolling bass lines and pulsing percussion, the guitars adding ambiance in deft touches, like a breeze rolling across the overgrown grass.
The next stretch in the growing arm of Brazos is to unleash Phosphorescent Blues on the masses. There’s a tour up the east coast supporting White Denim planned where the boys are ready showoff a slightly slimmed down and tighter trio with the unfortunate departure of Stein’s guitar to graduate school. But Crane is insistent upon the betterment of the group. With a supporting slot on one of the hotter tours of the fall and an album full of promise ripe for release, it’s hard not to be. (less)
