The Opening Acts

I woke up on Saturday with this song inexplicably stuck in my head (as visualized in this equally-inexplicable video):

Much later in the same day, I went to a show featuring a lovely local band called The Grayces (full disclosure: I consider all three of them to be friends). After their show, I headed off to my horrible, horrible overnight shift. As my tired ass drove home from work Sunday morning, I popped in their 3-song EP, which you can listen to and purchase here. By the time my head rested upon my pillow, this song was in my head:

At some point in the later hours of my Sunday – in between hanging out with a couple friends, then hanging out with a couple other friends, then going to some house where several people were doing lines of coke (I did not partake, as I think that’s disgusting), then going to a bar where some drunk chick complimented me on the firmness of my buttocks, then going to another bar where the bartender gave me several free shots but failed to compliment me on the firmness of my buttocks – this song got stuck in my head:

It was a great weekend.

Because it’s got horns and it’s beautiful, here’s the album version of the Richmond Fontaine tune:

Richmond Fontaine – The Boyfriends

The Band: Richmond Fontaine

rock!

Formed: 1994

First Release: 1996 (Safety)

What I Might Have Been Doing In 1996 To Make Me Unaware Of Their First Album:
Geez, I can barely remember 2006, much less 1996. Give me a second to think . . .

In 1996, I took my first-ever solo road trip, a 17 hour journey from Tampa to Philadelphia in order to see Pulp (I was a bit of fan).  The first leg of the trip was broken up by an overnight stop somewhere in South Carolina.  For the return trip, I left immediately after the (fucking amazing) show and drove the entire 17 hours with stops only for gas, pissing, eating, and splashing water on my face in order to stay awake.  I have absolutely no recollection of the last 3 hours of that drive.

Thus began my long love affair with the road trip.  Thirteen years and about 200,000 miles later, I still jump at any chance to hit the road, even for the ungodly-long drives (my record for non-stop solo driving is 21 hours from Denver to Nashville).  And I had a pretty good streak going of driving without falling asleep until last year (special thanks to that guard rail in Ohio for saving my life).

Where was I?

How I Finally Ended Up Hearing Of Them:

Fuck it, now I feel like listening to Pulp.  Let’s pause for a moment and savor some Different Class-era genius:

Pulp – P.T.A.

Yeah - I feel a lot better now.  Let’s move on.

How I Finally Ended Up Hearing Of Them:
The consistently excellent Song, By Toad posted 6 of their songs about a week or two ago. I didn’t care for any of them.

However, yesterday they featured Richmond Fontaine in another post. This one featured 2 songs from their new album, We Used to Think the Freeway Sounded Like a River.  The first song, “The Boyfriends”, with it’s lovely horn-driven melody, is the one that finally managed to keep my attention.  And it features a shout-out to Winnipeg!  As mentioned  in part 4 of this series, I have an irrational love for Winnipeg, so any song that mentions The Peg is A-OK with me.  And, really, that horn melody is fantastic.

Richmond Fontaine – The Boyfriends

How Would I Describe Them?
We’ll keep this brief (and lazy) and go with the alt-country label. In any case, they don’t sound like Pulp. Much like Pulp, though, they appear to have more of a following in the UK than in the States. So in the alt-country realm, they’re in a similar situation as Willard Grant Conspiracy.  Because we like crap in America*.

So How Many Devendras Would I Give Them?
I am happy to say that they would receive zero Devendras.

Relevant Links:
Band Site
Myspace Page
Wikipedia Page
Buy Their Stuff On Amazon

Previously In The Series:
#1 – Trespassers William
#2 – Oh No Ono
#3 – Wild Beasts
#4 – The Weakerthans
#5 – The Castanets

*As anyone who has looked at a UK singles chart can tell you, they like crap in Britain too.