Big Ditch Road - The Jackson Whites EP

Big Ditch Road
The Jackson Whites EP (Eclectone, 2008)
Grade: B

Download: Big Ditch Road - "Jackson Whites"
Download: Big Ditch Road - "All The Way To Idaho"

Any album, no matter how big or small in scope, which follows a predecessor called Suicide Note Reader's Companion (though indirectly, as the band put also put out EP The Great Dissent after Companion) is bound to serve as the musical light at the end of the tunnel.

Even still, those accustomed to Minneapolis alt-country act Big Ditch Road more morose musings are in for a shock once the drums kick in on "Waiting To Destroy", the first track from stopgap EP The Jackson Whites. Though both Companion and Whites start out with singer Darin Wald's piercing voice and a strumming acoustic guitar, the differences couldn't be more stark. "Waiting To Destroy" may invoke nihilistic connotations, but the song is a major-key pop song with wordless harmonies, handclaps and enough happiness to last you through the winter doldrums.

And so it goes for the rest of The Jackson Whites, named after a group of people of mixed descents living in the Ramapo Mountains, located near northern New Jersey and southern New York. Along with "Waiting To Destroy", the rest of Whites is bright, uptempo and has only the slightest connections to alt-country. But what makes Whites pleasurable is hearing how Big Ditch Road recontextualizes familiar alt-country sounds. The epic steel pedal work of band member Brian O'Neil is certainly nothing new, but in a song like the title track, it sounds more like beloved alt-rock group Built To Spill, rather than anything that would have been derived from the Grand Ole Opry.

Despite the strives that Big Ditch Road make toward more poppy and psychedelic sounds, there's a sameness to the songs on Whites. That's because the rhythm section--consisting of bassist Amy Bukstein and drummer Tim Baumgart--while certainly tight, gets stuck in a repetitive groove on many of the tracks. It's only on epic album closer "Northwoods Report/Chomsky '08", which suggests that you may enjoy Big Ditch Road's foray into free-form jamming should they decide to head down that route. Wherever Darin Wald's muse may take BDR in the future is uncertain, but as long as the results are as agreeable as The Jackson Whites is, then there's no reason why the listener shouldn't be along for the ride.

Big Ditch Road are playing a CD Release Party tonight at the Turf Club. Show is 21+, doors are at 9 p.m. and tickets are $5. Opening are The Glad Version, Ice Palace and The Wapsipinicon.

Big Ditch Road MySpace Page

(Jonathan Graef)

Big Ditch Road - "Detroit City Mouse"

Download: Big Ditch Road - "Ghosts"(via Songs:Illinois)

Those of you heading to the Turf Club tonight to see a certain artist about whom we cannot write (there's an obvious conflict of interest. Yes, it's true. The headliner just signed to my label, Approximately 6 A.M., Greenwich Mean Time records) may want to get there a little early to check out the mellow sounds of Minneapolis-based Big Ditch Road.

As you may have inferred from the name, BDR have a country-derived sound that combines the kind of wistfulness that you'd find both on an empty rural road and in the more urban setting of an alienated kid staring at a Smiths poster in his bedroom. On "Detroit City Mouse", a track from last year's EP The Great Dissent..., these two kinds of lonesome intersect to create a sound that should please indie-rock kids and alt-country aficionados.

A further incentive to arrive early to the Turf Club is that you'll get to hear material for a new LP, due early next year via Eclectone. If you can't make it to the show, for whatever reason, then you can stream "Detroit City Mouse" and three others here. Listen to "Ghosts", from the band's 2005 album, Suicide Note's Readers Companion, at the top of the post.

Buy Big Ditch Road albums here.

MySpace Page

(Jonathan Graef)