News that Trampled By Turtles would be heading into town to deliver an evening of their memorable, energetic alt-folk/bluegrass jams at The National this week reached us accompanied by a really fun video of their recent appearance on AV Club’s Undercover series, and we just had to share that video with you.
News that Trampled By Turtles would be heading into town to deliver an evening of their memorable, energetic alt-folk/bluegrass jams at The National this week reached us accompanied by a really fun video of their recent appearance on AV Club’s Undercover series, and we just had to share that video with you. According to singer/guitarist Dave Simonett, the Minnesota five-piece tackled 80s proto-glitch/pop standard “Owner Of A Lonely Heart” because it was the only choice from AV Club’s list of permissible covers that he’d ever heard of. And, he says, “I really didn’t like the song.”
Totally understandable, Dave–they played it to death on the radio when I was a kid too. But I’ve come around to a sort of affection for it in recent years based solely on Trevor Horn’s manic electro-damaged production. I was curious to hear how Trampled By Turtles would rework the song to fit it into their acoustic, percussion-less milieu, and sure enough, hearing them replicate the distorted screams and staticky keyboard stabs of the song’s bridge is particularly entertaining–as is Simonett recreating Jon Anderson’s falsetto. At the end of the day, though, the banjo/mandolin-led treatment of this song finds its sweet pop heart and makes it fresh and fun all over again.
Trampled By Turtles are currently on tour supporting their eighth album, Wild Animals, which came out this past summer on BanjoDad Records. You can see them performing live, accompanied by South Carolina outlaw-country singer Nikki Lane, at the National on Wednesday, December 10. Tickets are $20 in advance, $25 day of show, and can be ordered online HERE.
