Blitzen Trapper
Why is the guitar solo treated with such distain in the indie music world? The solo is associated with all things "Freebird" and bloated nowadays, and indie rockers seem to forget that the solo is an expression of musical excitement and exclamation, something that small bands revel in (because it's certainly not the money). Enter Portland's Blitzen Trapper, a sextet that takes the guitar solo and makes it the expression of melodic excitation anew, unleashing wild melodies in the middle of the song (or at the beginning, in the case of the album's title track). Maybe it's that unpretentious, unbridled love of music that earned the band raves from Pitchfork, which said of the record, "Remember Beck before his career devolved into magazine-pleasing genre exercises? These guys have the same bent, rustic perspective on popcraft, and a heap of ambition." Accolades from Stereogum and Spin magazine joined those of the 'Fork, as well as a signing to Sub Pop Records in Summer 2007.
