Rodney Graham: Gondoliers LP

Taking in influences from Steve Gunn to King Tuff and Joan Jett, and sounds from shoegaze, to bubblegum metal, country music and the sea shanty, each of Graham’s albums are filled with quotations and homages to other musicians. Graham re-writes songs repeatedly, creating different versions and pushing some aside to revisit at a later date.

The individual tracks written for Gondoliers also include encounters with an eclectic mix of characters and real figures, from 60s Italian artist ‘Luigi Tenco’ who Graham says “allegedly killed himself at the San Remo Song Festival in 1970 in protest to his song not winning – though many think it was a mafia hit job”; to ‘Old Dave Clark’ which is sung in celebration of Dave Clark of the Dave Clark 5. ‘Pretty Rattled’ deals with “another theme I like in country music: drinking too much” says Graham, whereas the last song on the album, ‘You Really Know How to Live’ brings lyrics “which are a kind of nasty attack on people with joie de vivre”.

Graham has been playing with some of the same musicians and producers for almost 20 years, all of whom feature on this new release: John Collins (Destroyer, the New Pornographers), David Carswell (Destroyer), Pete Bourne (Copyright), Paul Rigby (Neko Case), Joseph Shabason and Olympia music scene legend, Lois. Vinyl Factory, 2017.