Artist Profile

Blitzen Trapper

Blitzen Trapper is a group of native Northwesterners, most of whom grew up in Salem, Oregon. They have lived and played together in Portland since 2000. Critics and fans have compared their music to just about everything; there have been calls to coin a new genre.

Blitzen Trapper’s Pavement-meets-Southern rock sound, grabs influences from The Grateful Dead, Neil Young, Big Star and Frank Zappa while playing in a scene that spawned The Shins, Fleet Foxes and Elliott Smith.

After self-releasing Wild Mountain Nation in June of 2007, the group ventured beyond the West Coast for the first time to tour extensively in Europe and North America. 2008 saw the release of Furr, through Sub Pop/Stomp. Written in the gaps of the group’s frenetic touring schedule and recorded mostly in a hoary old telegraph building close by the Willamette River, the new record refines and expands on the far-ranging yet distinctive songcraft that lies at the heart of Blitzen Trapper’s unique appeal.

Blitzen Trapper will release Black River Killer EP before the Australian dates. As its title would lead one to believe, the EP contains the disturbing and great song “Black River Killer” from Blitzen Trapper’s excellent Sept. ‘08 full-length album Furr.