Furr (Sub Pop)

Some bands announce their influences and obsessions too plainly. As impressive as it is, we don't need any more artists slavishly emulating The Beach Boys or The Stooges. That's what's amazing about Blitzen Trapper's fourth record: this sextet from Portland, Oregon, seems to have assimilated the classics. They've gobbled up and internalized the canon. The Hollies, Townes Van Zandt, The Beatles, Rod Stewart, The Band, Beefheart, Tom Petty, Stealers Wheel, The Flaming Lips, Dylan, T. Rex, Pavement, R.E.M. It's all in there on these tracks which can summon folk-rock and glam and indie rock all in one smooth and strangely un-jumbled mix. And when they throw a smidge of something that sounds like Brazilian organ funk from the '70s, it just feels as natural as could be. With its strange frontier folklore, Americana-tinged psychedelia and mystical storytelling--complete with giant birds, monkeys with midgets on their backs, the voices of angels and shootouts in border towns--it's a bit like The White Album expertly whittled down to 38 minutes.