Artist: Trapper Schoepp & The Shades
Album: Run, Engine, Run
Bitrate: 262kbps avg
Quality: EAC Secure Mode / LAME 3.98.4 / -V0 / 44.100Khz
Label: Side One Dummy
Genre: Rock
Size: 84.91 megs
PlayTime: 0h 42min 58sec total
Rip Date: 2012-11-23
Store Date: 2012-09-25
Track List:
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01. So Long 3:04
02. Cold Deck 3:47
03. Wishing Well 3:40
04. Tracks 3:48
05. Run, Engine, Run 4:33
06. Pins and Needles 3:08
07. Ally 4:03
08. To Have You Around 2:45
09. Twenty Odd Years 4:42
10. I-94 3:42
11. Wednesday, My Dear 3:01
12. Mercy Blues 2:45
Release Notes:
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A young Tom Waits came in for much criticism for singing songs about heartbroken
barflies when he was anything but. For a start he was too young to sing in the
guise of the William J Kennedy characters he would later come to portray on film
and on stage as his musical alter-ego, also called Tom Waits. Trapper Schoepp
could have the same accusation levelled against him. Still in his early
twenties, he cannot possess the life experience of the characters he articulates
in the twelve tracks of Run, Engine, Run. But that doesnÆt mean that the album
is not a triumph.
Opening track, 'So Long', tips its hat to The Handsome Family and The Band,
before slipping into a chorus that wouldnÆt be out of place on Closing Time. The
music is in the vein of Scots-Irish Country & Western, and the Waitsian
references return again as the music begins to accept flecks of the great manÆs
'IÆll Never Let Go Of Your Hand'. ItÆs a strong opening; and if it does little
more than soundtrack happy beers for a student barbecue, it still catches the
attention more than most new country music.
This is followed with 'Cold Deck'. We move further into the mid-west, truck stop
friendly world of country music. Vocals from An Emotional FishÆs 'Celebrate'
front music that mimic Hawaiian guitars. This is upbeat, foot-tapping, blue
collar Americana; the enjoyable soundtrack to an independent car drive across
wide open spaces.
Then we are treated to 'Wishing Well'. The opening feint, of slow REM
clear-picking guitar, is swept aside. Thump thump go the drums and weÆre back in
business. More hard-luck C&W lyrics are hard to believe from such a young
person, but theyÆre romantic hard-luck tales and thatÆs easy to believe from
someone who has yet to experience the real thing. More cold beers on the bar,
then, and the cowboy boots keep tapping.
Hothouse Flowers or Deacon Blue are the musical ancestors of 'Tracks'. An
anachronism? If so, itÆs courted. Check the album art û like an LP sleeve from
your dadÆs country collection. They sound like they like what they do, but this
is the first whiff of fan-art rather than genuine creation. Run, Engine, Run
opens with a harmonica blast, a few open chimes on a guitar, and then the song
unfolds as a ripe slice of Bryan Adams nostalgia. ItÆs an ode to a hayseed
childhood. ItÆs rose-tinted, itÆs slightly mawkish, but itÆs saved by music that
never once doubts itself.
'Pins and Needles' is a song drawn from TrapperÆs personal experience; his
recovery from a serious car crash. It opens, like the album, in mid flow. The
music is catchy, although the lyrics are not half as interesting. Only Mark
Linkous could make personal mishap sound sympathetic ['Saint Mary', from Good
Morning Spider]. But then there is an unexpected hairpin bend through the merest
snippet of Iron Maiden guitar, before a sudden switchback to clap-along Britpop
Oasis bluster. It is this ability to pull in seemingly random references that
prevents the album descending into MOR Country Lite.
The celtic rock vocal that has defined the album so far strays close to Dropkick
Murphy territory on 'Ally'. ItÆs slower. C&W love songs are typically maudlin
and, for such a red-blooded tradition, lacking in lust. This is no different. It
is the least enjoyable track, but still something you can imagine playing well
in the red states. The following 'To Have You Around' is the albumÆs stumbling
block if only because it sounds too much like the hateful 'Living Next Door To
Alice', the novelty spawn of Smokie and brainless English chucklemonger Roy
æChubbyÆ Brown. Only the welcome arrival of female vocals redeems the song from
being tainted by association.
'Twenty Odd Years' [and all the album titles seem to be puns], is carried along
by Scots fiddle, and the music û as with all these tracks û is excellent. But
twenty odd years is, give or take, how long Trapper has lived on planet earth û
not his time in the clink, as weÆre led to believe from the lyrics. Again, this
is hard to take seriously. More so than on 'Tracks' this is fan art, rather than
genuine emotion. ItÆs also rather limp compared with the surrounding tracks.
It slows the pace but then we are set off down 'I-94', which sounds like
'Certain People I Know' by Morrissey. It even stalks similar territory; bruiser
lads on the outskirts of town. The song swings back into the same musical
territory from the earlier part of the album. And the disappointment of the
previous two tracks is forgotten. 'Wednesday, My Dear', which could be a
Morrissey title, rolls ahead on Ramones guitar. ItÆs only a tad slower than The
Ramones and the vocal is not as gloriously dunderheaded, but it feels like a
test track from their 'End of the Century' album. It lacks Phil SpectorÆs dense
wall of sound, of course, but again it is the kind of left-field reference that
raises this album above the tide of indie landfill that drowns so much of new
music.
Closing track, 'Mercy Blues', opens with a lordy-lordy moan worthy of Nick Cave.
Again, Trapper is too young to repent and the earnest lyrics feel copied rather
than experienced. Then Status Quo guitars kick in and weÆre back in a
good-ole-boy redneck bar on a Friday night. '50s RockÆnÆRoll rattles across
chorus and verse, until a knowing crescendo that forms the musical equivalent
of, "Thank you, wherever-we-are, and goodnight!" closes the album as abruptly as
it opened.
ItÆs a confident, well-made album. More importantly, itÆs enjoyable; and it
contains enough surprising twists and turns to hold the attention and whet the
appetite for the next outing.