CD Reviews

O’Death | Broken Hymns, Limbs and Skin

Kemado (2008)

By BARRY THOMPSON | October 28, 2008

3.0 Stars

A theory: present-day hipsters grew up thinking they hated country. Later, during their explorations of underground music, they perceived that what they really hated was Wal-Mart’s vision of country. Hence the “Americana/roots” revival. (We can’t call it a “country revival” because of the redneck overtones.) O’Death, from the rural backwater town of New York City, are a little bit country and a lot more calamitous power-folk. Urgently eerie hollerin’, fiddlin’, and banjo pluckin’ plus the occasional use of hardware-store percussion amalgamate into an unholy hybrid of Carnivale and Deliverance. If some weird sensory muddling would allow you to brush your fingertips across these songs, a splinter-removal kit would prove indispensable. Audacious tempo shifts and phantasmal murder narratives in “Vacant Moan” (a re-recorded version of “Spider Home”) and “Low Tide” complement this alluring wreckage. Makes you wonder how long it’ll be before metalheads start showing up at O’Death shows — if they haven’t already. When it comes to production values, Broken Hymns is a marked improvement from 2005’s self-financed Head Home. Still, songs kinda meant to evoke the 1930s aren’t necessarily better or worse off with snazzier studio treatment.

Related: Phosphorescent | To Willie, Going down the road, Mixed messages, More

Phosphorescent | To Willie
No stranger to ragged, defeatist country/folk, Matthew Houck and friends sound right at home on To Willie.
Going down the road
When John Paul comes to Slainte in a couple weeks, he'll be returning to the Portland scene where he got his start in the biz,
Mixed messages
Given the sound of its first track (which is also the title of the album), you'd have every reason to think that 3play+'s debut CD is about to plunge you into Bill Frisell–style Americana.
Up in the County
Is it bluegrass if it doesn't have a banjo? Or a fiddle, for that matter? Hamilton County, a three-piece acoustic outfit who debut their first CD, Brokedown Breakdown , next week, sure do a good impersonation of a bluegrass band, even if purists might dismiss it on technicalities.
Basia Bulat | Heart Of My Own
Like a Laurel Canyon Billie Holiday or a pixilated Tracy Chapman, Bulat sports a voice rich with vibrato, hearty oomph, and dignified lonesomeness.
The Soft Pack | The Soft Pack
This Los Angeles foursome first emerged in 2008 as the Muslims, a name they elected to change after they grew disgusted with and exhausted by all the ignorant — and often racist — bullshit that came out of people's mouths during shows/interviews/conversations.
Girl Haggard let loose with Country and Eastern
An adorable, Tennessee-bred country-bumpkin whose idea of the perfect evening out begins and ends with shots and beers at the E&O Tap? What else could a man ask for?
Review: Bran Nue Dae
The music does range from gospel to filmi to country — but there isn't a hook anywhere.
The next great young singer you need to know: Amy Allen
Just after graduating from Waynflete and off to college this fall, Amy Allen joins an impressive cadre of young female singers (Clara Berry, Amanda Gervasi, Aly Spaltro, Marie Moreshead) doing great things locally.
Sword and tailor
The concept of the rock opera strikes fear into the hearts of many — and rightly so. Yet heavy metal since Zeppelin has always been friendly to hobbity tales of mirth and mayhem.
Review: Joe Fletcher & the Wrong Reasons' dazzling new disc
Joe Fletcher & the Wrong Reasons trump their impressive 2007 debut Bury Your Problems with the forthcoming White Lighter . The disc features an all-star array of acclaimed local artists chipping in — and was completed with the aid of fans who helped fund the recording process.
Less

Topics: CD Reviews , Kemado, O’Death, O’Death, More

| More

Most Popular

The Current Issue

Table of Contents

Cover Archive

Masthead | Authors | Contact us

Blogs

An interview with Cheryl Cohen Greene
Outside The Frame | October 25, 2012 at 2:11 PM

Globe Wins; Allred Loses
Talking Politics | October 25, 2012 at 12:47 PM

Weekly Playlist #5: Halloween edition with the Hush Now, CreaturoS, the Devil's Twins, the Bynars, Christian McNeill & Sea Monsters
On The Download | October 25, 2012 at 12:34 PM

Dub Comes & Goes: RIP Jesse Wolfe (a/k/a J-Dub), Father, DJ, Friend & Boston Hip-Hop Superfan
October 25, 2012 at 9:22 AM

Meet the Mayor: The Framers' Workshop
Phlog | October 25, 2012 at 8:52 AM

CURRENT CONTESTS

Win a pair of tickets to Guts & Glory: An Evening with Anthony Bourdain

KISS Monster Album - Giveaway

Flight - Advance Screening Passes

The Sessions - Advance Screening Passes

Rustic Overtones Ticket Giveaway

Warren Miller's Flow State Prize Pack Giveaway

Boston Book Festival- Page to Screen -Ticket Giveaway

Prize Pack Giveaway - Clifford the Big Red Dog

102212_ Rustic Overtones Ticket Giveaway

Silent Hill - Screening Passes

All Promotions . . .

ARTICLES BY BARRY THOMPSON

DARK DARK DARK | WHO NEEDS WHO | September 25, 2012
Back in 2010, the loosely Minneapolis-based quirk-folk jamboree Dark Dark Dark wrote songs that felt like they were about being outside (even if they weren't).

AMANDA PALMER LETS GO OF ALL RESTRICTIONS | September 05, 2012
Just when hemming and hawing about the future of money in music had grown dreadfully redundant, leave it to Amanda Palmer to resurrect the dead horse and prompt the American square community to ask, "What the fuck is Kickstarter, who the fuck is this frequently naked lady with painted-on eyebrows, and why did the Internet send her a million dollars to record an album?"

INTERVIEW: THE RIFFTRAX CREW REVISIT ANOTHER 'CLASSIC' | August 07, 2012
MST3K took its curtain call in 1999 after 10 years on cable, but the show's end ultimately liberated host Mike Nelson and the revolving cast of cinematic satirists.

BRUTE-Y PAGEANT | August 01, 2012
When professional wrestling gets brought up in the mainstream media, it's almost always because something awful happened.

RIDING THE WIND WITH NEW ENGLAND'S GLIDING GURU | July 25, 2012
Jeffrey Bernard has been jumping off mountains and soaring wingtip-to-wingtip with eagles, hawks, and falcons for longer than many of you have been alive.