Take classic bluegrass roots, mix with the virtuosity of classical music, the improvisational instincts of jazz, the tongue-in-cheek lyrics and catchy hooks of pop, mix them together in a punch bowl and you get The Punch Brothers
The Punch Brothers are a contemporary bluegrass band headed by mandolin player Chris Thile. Thile (one of the best mandolinists in the world) made a name for himself as head of progressive acoustic trio Nickel Creek.
From Wikipedia:
Thile was born in Oceanside, California in 1981. His earliest memories of music are listening to Stan Getz's recording of "The Girl from Ipanema" before he even turned one year old. When he was two, his family started going to That Pizza Place, where he listened to John Moore's band Bluegrass Etc. When Thile was four, his family moved to Idyllwild, California.
Thile began playing the mandolin at the age of five, taking occasional lessons from John Moore. At age eight, Thile's family and the Watkins family formed Nickel Creek. The band performed at many California bluegrass festivals, and as a result Chris had to be home-schooled. At age twelve, he won the national mandolin championship at the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas.
That same year, 1993, Thile made a demo tape and sent it to the Sugar Hill and Rounder record labels. Both labels showed interest, but the Thiles went with Sugar Hill. The next year Chris Thile released his first solo album, Leading Off, featuring mostly original compositions.
In 1995, the Thile family moved to Murray, Kentucky where Chris' father Scott Thile accepted a position at Murray State University as a musical instrument technician. In 1997, Chris released Stealing Second and Nickel Creek released Here to There. Chris went on to attend Murray State University for a few semesters, where he was a music major.
Thile is one of the most gifted musicians in the world, winner of the coveted MacArthur Genius Grant:
Why does a "bluegrass" mandolin player win a genius award? Because he can do this:
After Thile's second solo album (2006's "How to Grow a Woman From the Ground"), Thile had a night out with some musician friends. In his own words:
We got together one night just to drop a ton of money, drink too much wine, eat steaks, and commiserate about our failed relationships. We had gotten to play together a few days before and we had said that we needed to do something musical together. With our hearts smashed to pieces, it became more urgent — our lives had gone the same way for so long. I knew I wanted to have a band with Gabe [Witcher], but I didn’t know if it would be a rock ensemble, an ambitious acoustic classical thing or a bluegrass group. We played, and there was a serious, instantaneous connection. Then I knew I wanted to put together a bluegrass band — one with a lot of range, but aesthetically a bluegrass band.
Those other musicians were Gabe Witcher (fiddle/violin, an accomplished session player who had played on various albums and movie scores), Noam Pikelny (banjo), Chris Eldridge (guitar), and Paul Kowert (double bass).
Punch
The band's debut album, "Punch", was released in 2008. The album was built around "The Blind Leaving the Blind", a 40 minute, four-part musical suite written by Thile about his recent divorce. The record showed off not only Thile's ambitious song writing, but the band's unbelievable musical synchronicity. It set a precedent that would remain throughout the band's career: every song they recorded was just the five of them, with no over dubs, not extra instrumentation. Nothing would be put on a record that couldn't be recreated note-for-note busking on the nearest street corner.
Overall, the album is rather quiet and sad. Though it shows off the amazing musical chops of the band, it's the least accessible record they've made. Only the album opener ("Punch Bowl") is remotely upbeat.
Antifogmatic
2010 brought the band's second record, "Antifogmatic". This album was more of a collaborative effort, featuring shorter, more accessible songs (and focusing less specifically on Thile's personal life).
The album contained the band's first "hit", the crowd-pleasing, classic bluegrass anthem "Rye Whiskey"
http://www.mtv.com/videos/misc/548658/p ... id=1645161
"Antifogmatic" shows off many sides of the band, from catchy, up tempo tunes to contemplative ballads.
"Antifogmatic is named after a type of 19th-century alcoholic drink that was meant as a cure for the effects of fog and other inclement weather. Of choosing the title, Thile notes, “'Antifogmatic' is an old term for a bracing beverage, generally rum or whiskey, that a person would have before going out to work in rough weather to stave off any ill effects. This batch of tunes could be used in much the same way, and includes some characters who would probably benefit mightily, if temporarily, from a good antifogmatic.”
From the AV Club review:
Despite its conventional string-band arrangement—guitar, banjo, fiddle, mandolin, upright bass—Punch Brothers turn out bluegrass music so unconventional that it barely merits the genre tag: The group favors meandering arrangements that hew closer to jazz or classical. But while its previous album, Punch, took that sophistication to a level bordering on esotericism, the new Antifogmatic is as warm and welcoming as the bracing 19th-century drink that gave it its name. Partial credit goes to producer Jon Brion, who injects some of his pop sensibility into the songs without stripping them of the flourishes that make them so compelling. “You Are,” for example, is anchored by a killer, rock-influenced chorus as it twists through five minutes of crescendos and tempo changes, allowing the band’s virtuosic playing to shine without becoming tedious. But ultimately, Punch Brothers’ sense of camaraderie and whiskey-soaked outlook—on fine display on the twangy album highlights “Don’t Need No” and “Rye Whiskey”—are what make the album so inviting. The occasional moments of extended instrumental noodling—particularly in the album’s back half—might frustrate listeners who aren’t enamored of mandolin pyrotechnics. But the showy displays of musicianship are backed up by solid songwriting and a willingness to simplify when called for, as on the gorgeously sparse album-closer “This Is The Song.”
Who's Feeling Young Now?
The Punch Brothers released their 3rd studio album in 2012. "Who's Feeling Young Now?" honed the band's sound, trading overly-complicated arrangements for more accessible song-writing.
From AV Club:
Punch Brothers’ third album as a group, Who’s Feeling Young Now?, sees Thile and company continuing their evolution into a more egalitarian enterprise, sounding less like a hot-shit mandolin player with a crack backing ensemble and more like a band—and something like a rock band, at that.
For a group that commits to traditional bluegrass instrumentation—banjo, guitar, mandolin, fiddle, and upright bass—and uses no drums or electric guitar, Punch Brothers hew remarkably close to the indie-rock sounds of today on several of Feeling Young’s more aggressive tracks, like the punk-tinged title track or the sneering “Hundred Dollars.” (Though friendlier jams like the bouncy “This Girl” or the klezmer-kissed “Patchwork Girlfriend” are no less sophisticated in their more traditionalist approach.) Some credit goes to producer Jacquire King, who’s produced albums along both the traditional (Buddy Guy, Tom Waits) and rock (Modest Mouse, Kings Of Leon) spectrums, and blended the group’s acoustic and amplified tracks for a slightly pumped-up organic sound. But it’s more due to the quintet’s increasingly naturalistic interplay: Though Thile still handles the majority of the vocals (excepting fiddle player Gabe Witcher’s excellent contribution on “Hundred Dollars”), he’s just as likely to act as a song’s rhythm section as he is to trade solos with Witcher and banjo player Noam Pikelny.
Which isn’t to say Thile’s playing isn’t exceptional—he’s inarguably one of the most accomplished mandolin players in the world—but his increasingly refined lyrics and vocals on songs like the gorgeous lovers’ lullaby “Soon Or Never” and “Don’t Get Married Without Me” indicate he’s allowed himself to shift some of his attention away from the group’s intricate arrangements toward more songwriterly concerns.
"Flippen the Flip" is a classic bluegrass instrumental that shows this band's chops. Notice how the classically trained bassist Paul Kowert mixes styles.
http://www.cmt.com/videos/live-at-cmt/p ... id=1696523
The gorgeous "Soon or Never"
"New York City"
Ahoy!
Later in 2012, the band released the "Ahoy!" EP of covers. The covers are Josh Ritter's "Another New World" and the traditional "Moonshiner" (made famous to most of us by Uncle Tupelo).
Here the band sings "Moonshiner" live. They have a tradition of playing their encores completely acoustically, meaning no microphones, no amplification, etc. Just up front and center on stage. In the right venues, it's magic.
<to be continued>
