NX35 Program Print Piece on The Walkmen

Exploring The Past to Reinvent The Future

For the Walkmen, it looks like it's going to be a good year

By: Andy Young


The Walkmen's rise to fame was sparked though the ashes of Jonathon Fire*Eater, the highly influential New York group known not only for their visceral live shows in the mid-nineties, but for their influence on other NYC bands such as The Strokes. When the smoke cleared from the hype and the deals, the rumors of that breakup subsided and the reality of the situation came shinning through: three members of Jonathon Fire*Eater still had more to say. Together with two ex-pats of The Recoys, they became the Walkmen.

When Bows + Arrows dropped in the winter of 2004, there was one song that you heard everyone playing, humming and talking about: “The Rat.” Even though it was a venomous break up song, people everywhere, no matter what their romantic situation, loved it. This could be explained with relative ease. A great melody can carry the darkest of lyrics, or that even if the listener was happy with their personal life, the country was dealing with an affair that was growing more sour by the minute: the presidency of George W. Bush. No matter the reason, the Walkmen had made their mark with a blend of their native DC hardcore, the sweeping melodies of U2 and the dance-filled beats of 80’s, all filtered through a vintage mindset, from the instruments they played to the musicians' throwback style.

The vibe began to take hold even more with the follow up to Bows + Arrows, A Hundred Miles Away, released in the spring of 2006. From the first notes of “Louisiana” the Walkies might as well have been the Velvets, channeling something so reminiscent of “Sweet Jane” that you begin to think Lou Reed himself is about to make a cameo. As soon as the young gravel of Hamilton Leithauser is introduced, though, you immediately forget about influence and are transported to the world the Walkmen have built. It’s a world in which the sum of a song’s parts is bigger than any piece that came before the last. Wall of sound drums indigenous to the '60s, bar room piano and flamenco horns fill out the arrangement and transform it into the one thing that really matters when creating something new: originality.

It was exactly that originality that led the band to not only the most commercially successful long player of their career, but also their most critically acclaimed: 2008’s You & Me. The most striking thing about this album is that although the songs themselves are wonderful, it’s more about texture and feeling than about the traditional song structure that was so well represented early in their career. It’s an album based in the breath of what they actually are, and what they are is band that plays instruments older than themselves, turned up completely in the red, wearing clothes that not only imply status and style, but that are contrary to the dank bars and clubs their music seems to sound best in. The Walkmen make music not only influenced by an older time, but by a place and time that only exists while you’re listening to it.

With an upcoming album due out this spring, make sure not to miss a live preview of that place and time that the Walkmen so solidly own, in the kind of environment they're meant to be heard in.

The Walkmen play Hailey's on Sunday with Jookabox, Pomegranates and Follow That Bird!.