Thin White Rope - Sack Full Of Silver - VINYL LP

No Nation - Illumine [COMPACT DISCS] date 05/15/2007

Hailing from the northern California town of Davis, Thin White Rope was unfathomably pegged as a proponent of the paisley underground movement. The songs the group covered over the course of their ten-year career is far more revealing SUICIDE, THE STOOGES, LEE HAZLEWOOD, MARTY ROBBINS, BOB DYLAN, CAN, and ROKY ERICKSON have all been rendered by the band in the studio and on-stage. That list goes a long way in explaining the mixture of raw, angular riffs, southern twang, and psychedelia that characterizes Exploring the Axis, the group's 1985 debut. Frontman Guy Kyser, guitarist Roger Kunkel, bassist Stephen Tesluk, and drummer Jozef Becker create a series of barren landscapes, instruments kicking up clouds of dust from the parched earth like a rollicking, rickety ghost-train with failed brakes. At times Jeff Eyrich's production approaches the wintry heir of Martin Hannett's work with Joy Division. This climate is ideal for Kyser, who delivers tales of isolation, allusion, and death; his voice a unsteady quake. Though subsequent releases would see a maturing of the band's sound, Exploring the Axis remains the blueprint.

In 1991 Thin White Rope set about to record their critically acclaimed album The Ruby Sea, which would subsequently be released on Frontier Records. Hailing from Davis, California, the band were able to hone their unique blend, of punk, country and rock into a deeply satisfying record that at times has a ferocious intensity, punctuated by a stark and lonely widescreen sentimentality. The album feels like the equivalent of driving all day, looking for accommodations in a tiny two-horse town and then hitting the local roadhouse for a cold beer. With a Miller in hand, you and the three other patrons witness a band play a show so devastating that you feel as if you've stumbled upon America's best kept secret. I've spent the last quarter century evangelizing to friends about how they need to own a copy of The Ruby Sea. I'm gearing up for the next 25.Jonathan Levitt, BLURT