Album art from 4H Royalty's Colossalalia
Today I offer this song for folks' New Year's Eve revelries: "Rock & Roll Blowout" by 4H Royalty.
I had the chance to meet these musicians at this fall's BIG FEED on the Colorado high plains; "Rock & Roll Blowout" became the unofficial anthem for the weekend, a song that shares the honesty and inventiveness of our hosts at M12 art collective.
Last year 4H Royalty released Colossalalia, a record that the Denver Post noted was "steeped in
a uniquely rural kind of swagger and desperation." Self-described as "neither 'revivalist' nor 'purist' in their approach," 4H Royalty's music is not concerned with the normal crucibles of alt.country: stabs at rural "authenticity," put-on twangs, well-tread cliches. Instead, lead singer and lyricist Zach Boddicker creates song structures that alternate between narrative and lyric impulses, between honest emotion and off-kilter snapshots of rural and western life.
Their live show matched the energy and wit of Colossalalia. 4H Royalty's lineup has settled into place in the last year - with drummer Robert Buehler, multi-instrumentalist Jamie Mitchell and bass player Andrew Porter joining Mr. Boddicker. These musicians are currently working on their new record, and, judging by their live show at the BIG FEED, this is a record to eagerly await in 2012.
Here's another track from Colossalalia, "The Rosenberg Family Band," a song that, at least as I hear it, takes a tight country rock riff and then offers a surprising metaphor for the country music tradition, and the industry that surrounds it. Enjoy:
