Most bands pour heart and soul into a debut album and then coast on that momentum through a sophomore effort. Or, as the old industry maxim goes, “You spend your whole life making your first album and nine months making your second album.” The Builders and the Butchers don’t follow conventional thinking in any form.
The Portland, Oregon-based group is comprised of members who all relocated independently from Alaska and organically fell together as a group. Guitarist/singer/songwriter Ryan Sollee cross-pollinated his Punk Rock experience with his newfound love of American Roots music to create songs that bristle with energy, menace and dark melancholy. The Builders began by busking on the streets of Portland, but within a year of booking actual shows, the band was being hailed by the Northwest press as one of the region’s best new groups.
The Builders’ 2007 eponymous debut was likewise acclaimed as a magnificently raw studio evocation of the group’s visceral live sound, but their latest work, Salvation is a Deep Dark Well, is the band’s potential fully realized and a slobbering hellhound of an album. Imagine a band that embraces the Gothic Pop swell of The Decemberists, the quivering Punk symphonics of Public Image Ltd., the Americana brimstone of 16 Horsepower and the fist-pumping Folk populism of Country Joe McDonald.
They play with Queen City Outlaws, Pilgrim and Wonky Tonk at the Mad Hatter. Get show details and Sound Advice here.
This article appears in Jul 15-21, 2009.