Doug Sahm & Band / Texas Tornado CD

Includes Red Bird Clark Kessinger; Bonaparte's Retreat Mike Seeger; Sally in the Garden J.D. Cornett; Give the Fiddler a Dram Bill Hicks; Old ...

Time and again, their brand of tilt-a-whirl art-pop has transformed audience members into reveling, cavorting true believers.Founded in Vancouver, British Columbia in 2003, the embryonic They Shoot Horses consisted of Brown and drummer Julia. An unholy combination of madcap menace and big top bombast allowed their shows to assume the form of carnivalesque spectacles. A frantic beat, organ grinder melody and caterwauled chorus conspire to put a listener through the wringer on A Place Called La. Theyve preyed upon unsuspecting crowds throughout North America over the course of several sprawling tours. Produced by Colin Stewart (Pretty Girls Make Graves, Black Mountain), Pick Up Sticks captures ten transfixing transmissions that could have either been beamed from outer space or unearthed in a time capsule from a lost age. Forlorn Speck of Dust finds the band mining melancholy while What Is That? While often likened to a marching band, the six-member group actually shares a greater affinity with a nomadic, conquering horde. If ever there was a mould for They Shoot Horses oddball songwriting, the band made sure to irreparably break it for this album. The audacious Busted Bell shoehorns an entire albums worth of ideas into a single sprawling song. While the instrumentation remains constant, its implementation has changed dramatically. This noise! This drum! Well, here we come! Amidst an engaging racket, vocalist/guitarist Nut Brown cries, We go on marching forward; Through all the silent faces; Sing! flirts with sunshine pop. Where the band once assembled formidable walls of sound, they now craft songs of rich and varied texture. clearly state their intentions on One Last Final Push " the opening salvo of sophomore album Pick Up Sticks. Granted, the new album still boasts the bands signature cacophony of regimental drums, jittery guitars, swirling keyboards and clattering horns. An eponymous EP and debut full-length, Boo Hoo Hoo Boo, perfectly captured the crowd-pleasing, eccentric immediacy of their formative work.In turn, Pick Up Sticks sees They Shoot Horses moving away from their circus sound. They Shoot Horses, Dont They? Melding oompah and folk with sonic experimentation akin to The Residents, Captain Beefheart and Pere Ubu, They Shoot Horses forged an idiosyncratic sound tailor-made for live performance. A recruitment drive saw trombonist Pietro and saxophonist Ryan added to the fold, along with Robb on bass and Chris on keyboards. When Brown happened upon a series of sharp, punchy tones near the bridge of his six-string, he was reminded of horn bursts and inspiration took hold. At first glance, any of their frenetic live shows could easily be mistaken for a cult indoctrination. A spirit of experimentation and invention permeates the proceedings, making for a dizzying listening experience composed of expansive atmospherics and ever-shifting rhythms and dynamics

Limited Edition Japanese pressing of this album comes housed in a miniature LP sleeve. 2007.