Forget everything you think you know about the banjo. It's a new year, so it's as good a time as any to let the Atlanta alt-folk troupe the Back Pockets teach you something new about the instrument's possibilities. Over the course of the lovingly crafted Blissters N Basements album, the staple of bluegrass pickin' becomes a mighty ax. In the frenzied "Story Song," such punk fervor doesn't completely obliterate the raw, backwoods feel of the experience, but this is not a collection of tunes to sip slowly on the back porch. Take the cut-and-paste and child-like wonder of early CocoRosie efforts, think about Jana Hunter's spooky storytelling and there's a framework to begin with. The Back Pockets don't appear to be the sort of band that will take generalizations and categorizations with a particular amount of zeal, so we'll leave it at that.
If all of this sounds too intriguing to pass up, there's a live version of all that coming to Lake Worth's Propaganda on Wednesday with Weird Wives, the Band in Heaven and the Dewars in tow. Download the album, watch a couple videos and get more details below.
Download Blissters N Basements here.
The Back Pockets. With Band in Heaven, Weird Wives, and the Dewars. 9 p.m. Wednesday, January 5, at Propaganda, 6 S. J St., Lake Worth. Tickets cost $5. Click here.
