[This Just In] Gentleman Auction House - Alphabet Graveyard
Shiv takes on the debut album from Gentleman Auction House for another installment of This Just In.
I was wholly unfamiliar with the St. Louis-based band Gentleman Auction House when their debut full-length arrived at the station recently, but I was immediately intrigued. Their unofficial seal of approval happened the minute that I saw Chad Clark (from Beauty Pill) & TJ Lipple (from Aloha) listed on the album’s credits. It’s gotten to the point where these guys can do no wrong to me. They absolutely have the best ears in indie rock and seem to bring out the best in any bands and artists they work with.
When I popped in the cd, it didn’t take long for me to warm up to their sound. On tracks like “Call It Casual” and “We Used To Dream About Bridges”, I thought for a split second that maybe Beulah had reformed with Conor Oberst on lead vocals. With 7 members, the band has a wide range of eclectic instrumentation including trumpets, glockenspiels, and even a lot of “yelling, stomping, and clapping” (as credited in the liner notes).
Sometimes you hear a record and while it may be technically perfect, you immediately get the feeling that the band in question could never pull off their sound in a live setting. On the flipside, I hear a band like Gentleman Auction House and imagine that I’ll appreciate their songs even more after seeing them tear it up on stage. Without any knowledge of their previous EPs, this record has quickly become one of my favorite releases of the year.
Alphabet Graveyard is out now on Emergency Umbrella Records. You can stream the entire album free and/or buy it digitally from our friends at lala.com.
Gentleman Auction House - Call It Casual
