When I went to Nelsonville Music Festival last year, Styrofoam Winos were everywhere. The Nashville-based trio of Lou Turner, Trevor Nikrant, and Joe Kenkel played their own set. They were a crucial component of Ryan Davis' Roadhouse Band. They popped up at the Michael Hurley tribute overseen by Will Oldham. People spoke reverently about this band, and they're still speaking reverently today as the Winos announce their new album Any River, dropping in June on the esteemed Dear Life Records.
Oldham, for instance, has this to say:
I've spent some high quality time with these Winos, and they and their music make me feel good. It's a sweet alignment of forces, cooperative and collaborative. Music City has reasons for reputations good and not-so-much; here on Any River we feel the sunlight-creep of solid vibes, carrying with them reasons to anticipate the forever-uplift of gentle groove.
MJ Lenderman, who was also down in Nelsonville last summer and who also has also been known to employ Winos members in his band the Wind, kept it short and sweet: "They know how to boogie." It's true, but I should specify that Any River's opening track and lead single "Pearls" boogies at a lackadaisical gait that evokes Courtney Barnett, with a wistful earnestness that reminds me of Ratboys. The band's Lou Turner shared some background on the track:
Pearls was inspired in part by the Frank O’Hara poem:
Today
Oh! Kangaroos, sequins, chocolate sodas!
You really are beautiful! Pearls,
harmonicas, jujubes, aspirins! All
the stuff they’ve always talked about
still makes a poem a surprise!
These things are with us every day
even on beachheads and biers. They
do have meaning. They’re as strong as rocks.I liked its celebration of little things as surprising sites of meaning – the pearls in particular. I went on a walk after that and found an oyster on the ground in the middle of the sidewalk. Uncanny. All of this was inspiration for the lyrics, the idea of finding meaning where you least expect it, especially within someone else. That’s what it’s like to make music and play shows, too. It was very fun to figure out how we wanted to sing the syllables of each place together.
There's a lot to love about "Pearls." The bass-boosted vocal harmonies on the repeated phrases at the end of stanzas, like "West Tennessee, West Tennessee, West Tennessee." The pretty little bass/guitar showcase moment before the chorus at the 1:15 mark. This lyric: "Just as I was thinking/ That nothing is right/ You started bringing/ An iridescent perspective to my life." The propulsive slacker groove that courses through the whole track, as if Stephen Malkmus just reconvened the Jicks. Watch the band's self-directed "Pearls" music video below and enjoy these treasures for yourself.
TRACKLIST:
1 "Pearls"
2 "BBQ"
3 "Somebody Wants To Send You A Message"
4 "I Felt You"
5 "New Friend"
6 "Swimminin"
7 "Next Thing"
8 "Off My Mind"
9 "Just For You"
10 "You'll Never Take Me Alive"
11 "Gettin' Down"
Any River is out 6/19 on Dear Life. Pre-order it here.
