Local rockers The Chocolate Horse corral the wagons around Northside Tavern on Friday to celebrate the release of their limited-edition vinyl album We Don't Stand on Ceremony. This marks the band's second full-length album and is a follow-up to 2007’s well-received, heart-on-a-sleeve Patience Works!.
Where Patience Works! displays guitar-driven distorted downtime, the new offering feels more uplifting (if only for its orchestration). We Don't Stand on Ceremony is a transition: Something optimistic hovers in the air. The album strums upon the taut heartstrings left behind from Patience Works!, only to relax with a more intricate and diverse instrumentation: banjo, flute, tabla, ocarina, acoustic bass, swirling keys (to list a few).
This new collection exhibits the same honesty we’ve come to expect from The Horse. Raspy croons and cries meet with beautiful harmonies throughout the record, but the true expression might exist in the interplay between the vocal and musical arrangement. Here, the music isn't just vocal accompaniment but the point — often furthering any lyrical connotations.
The Chocolate Horse welcomes friends DJ Bryan A. Dilsizian and Me or the Moon to commemorate the occasion starting at 10 p.m. Friday.
(Check out performance times for the free show and get venue details here.)
