Blind Pilot Rank Among Best New Artists of 2008

Debut Album from Indie / Folk Duo Features Alongside Coldplay

Jan 6, 2009

Blind Pilot, the bicycling band from Portland, enjoyed critical acclaim in 2008 with new album 3 Rounds and a Sound and are hotly tipped as this year's group to watch.

Blind Pilot are a thing of the past. Literally. For like the travelling troubadours of olden Europe, they journey from place to place, by simple means, peddling a gorgeously nostalgic, beautiful, sound that has seen 2008’s critics place their debut album, 3 Rounds and a Sound, up alongside such huge bestsellers as Coldplay’s Viva La Vida, My Morning Jacket’s Evil Urges and the Fleet Foxes’ excellent self-titled debut.

A regular favourite amongst the ‘best of’ lists at America’s NPR (National Public Radio), where their track ‘One Red Thread’ has featured in a review of the year’s musical highlights, Blind Pilot has also enjoyed support from iTunes. The band features in the ‘Best of 2008 Indie Spotlight’, a collection of 20 indie music tracks downloadable from the Apple Students Fan Page on Facebook. And as if that wasn’t enough Kevin Cole of KEXP, Seattle, Washington’s taste-making radio station, rated theirs as one of the best debut albums of 2008.

Bicycle Tour of the West Coast

The impressive list of supporters and online giants giving Blind Pilot attention seems a radical contrast to the band’s MO. Last year, the duo, otherwise known as Israel Nebeker and Ryan Dobrowski, set off on tour on bikes, with all their gear. True modern travelling minstrels, they didn’t have a van or a roadie in sight as they literally relied on leg power to play a sequence of dates in little West Coast towns, an experience that lent whole new meaning to the phrase ‘off the tourist trail’.

Along the way they managed to sell out their entire stock of their EPs, which left them itching to return to their hometown Portland to record their first full length record, the mellow, homespun, beautiful folk collection that is 3 Rounds and a Sound.

Distinctive Soft Brushed Percussion, Surprising Vocals

‘Oviedo’ kicks off the album. A hugely catchy melody, but a gently mournful tone, with firm folk guitars and Dobrowski’s distinctive super light, understated, muted and brushed percussion. The orchestration, featuring accordions, brass and strings, swells towards the track’s climax, where Israel’s sometimes softly gravelly, sometimes earnestly wistful and anguished vocals soar into stereo over the beautiful accompaniment.

‘The Story I Heard’ lifts the pace without being brash. Israel’s shouted chorus, about a minute in, shakes the listener out of the reverie the album induces, and hints at the breath-catching surprises his vocals could be capable of. A few more shake-ups like this would have benefited the track and possibly the album too, in terms of variety, but the catchiness of the track still makes a lasting impact.

‘Go On Say It’ carries a more energetic rhythm and thoughtful string sections. Its hook ridden ‘A-ha A-ha’ chorus slips back and forth between minor and major strains driven all the time by the forceful percussive line.

Nebeker’s Doubled Vocals

Meanwhile ‘I Buried a Bone’ is an utterly gorgeous, lilting melody underpinned by that distinctive drumming from Dobrowski, and embossed with a brass mid-section. Nebeker is all over the track, the doubled vocals giving the unnerving effect of his being directly over the listener’s shoulders, first one then the other.

Original, Profound Lyrics

The duo’s lyrics are a cut above some of the rubbish that pours out of the indie scene. At times full of wry observations, at others touching on the profound in an intensely human and wholly modest way, the words captivate the attentive listener and elevate the beautiful sonorous melodies to something almost out of this world. ‘I didn’t know I’m not in control / I didn’t know I’m not invincible’ Nebeker confesses with the album’s trademark humility in ‘Oviedo’.

A Grown Up Lullaby

The only shame about this genuinely bewitching debut is the surety that so many potential fans will dismiss it for its folksy rhythms and deceptively understated sound (which they will no doubt read as ‘boring’). More fool them. For the rest, 3 Rounds and a Sound is like the grown up lullaby that's always been secretly needed, a beautiful and heart-wrenching ode to honesty and simplicity, without losing an ounce of the sophistication that makes it rise above its peers.