Bark Hide and Horn – National Road
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Tour Dates 08/16/08 CD Release Show!! Holocene w/ Hey Lover & Dirty Mittens… WEAR AN ANIMAL COSTUME! Portland, Oregon
08/17/08 Club Pow! @ the Press Club Sacramento, CA 08/18/08 Chaser’s w/ Paul Chesne, the Old Palominos, & Silverleaf San Diego, CA 08/19/08 KSPC Radio, 88.7 FM Claremont, CA 08/19/08 the Kibitz Room w/ Paul Chesne & Leslie and the Badgers LA, CA 08/20/08 Mama Buzz Cafe w/ Dame Satan & Beatbeat Whisper Oakland, CA 08/21/08 Cafe du Nord w/ Jackpot & Two Sheds SF, CA 08/22/08 KDVS Radio (90.3 FM) on “Cool as Folk” Davis, CA 08/22/08 Sophia’s Thai Kitchen w/ Birds & Batteries Davis, CA 08/23/08 Sam Bonds’ w/ Hillstomp Eugene, OR 09/19/08 acoustic set @ Backspace w/ Two Sheds & Run On Sentence–ALL AGES! Portland, OR Solo Discography
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Bark, Hide and Horn sounds like a law firm, headed by a dog and a cattle, doesn’t it? I was trying to get a feel for what they would sound like, prior to queueing it up on my iPod. The cover artwork, a collage of what looks like random things indicating what “America” would look like (cigarettes butts, a camera, an old fashion telephone, monkeys, spiders, snails, half-eaten bread, and a cup of coffee).
As it turns out, this album is one of those concept album. Apparently it’s about Melville Belle Grosvenor, editor of the National Geographic magazine from 1957-67. This information is courtesy of their biography, which I would’ve never known listening to this folk-rock orchestra/alt-country sounding album. I only say alt-country because singer/songwriter, Andy Anderson Furgeson, sometimes have this very country twang in his voice, which seems to suggests he’s from the south, but apparently the band is from the beautiful, and not to mention very populated, Portland, Oregon. Plus, it doesn’t help that their record company is called “Boy Howdy Records”, which is named after a country/western band from the 90s.
Anyway, on retrospect, there are hints and clues to the National Geographic magazine, for one thing the title of the album, National Road. The song “Grandfather” is probably about the grandson of Grosvenor, while “This Abdomen Has Flown” (that infamous “leave my belly alone” song), does mention briefly about National Geographic, and the obviously “Melville, My Boy” (not about Herman Melville, but about said Melville Grosvenor).
With these concept albums, they are really designed to listened to as a whole, so if a band play live, they usually would have to perform the whole album from beginning to end. Fortunately, these individual songs does stand on their own.
Take for instance, one of the best song on the album, “Perfect World”, you can put the song anywhere. I also like the fact that the busy album artwork really sums up in this song about a perfect world… with man-made awfulness, such as the cigarette butts.
National Road that is released today, August 12th, you can find it on CD baby. It comes in a nice fold-out cardstock and a concept lyric book. The lyrics are all hand-written, in a personal letter-kind of display, with illustrations of animals and people. It’s one of the more interesting lyric books I’ve seen (so many of these CDs don’t even bother with a lyric booklet, let alone a concept one). As always, I recommend getting a physical CD, but if you don’t care for these things, then there is always eMusic.
