Omaha's Son Ambulance just released their third album this past week on Saddle Creek, an interesting pastiche of sounds entitled "Someone Else's Deja Vu".
It's a quiet affair that encompasses a myriad of moods and genres, all
perfectly blended into a lovely, hand-crafted, and prolific group of
thirteen songs. The album opens with "A Girl In New York City", and melds the sounds of Simon and Garfunkel's lyrical Americana to the exotica of Sergio Mendes. "Legend of Lizeth",
the album's second track, starts off like a 50's sock-hop slow dance
tune and turns into a 60's psychedelic trip. Track three, "Quand Tu Marches Seul",
includes the female backing vocals of Jenna Morrison and ends with
shimmering guitar bliss, reminiscent of the Twin Peaks soundtrack with
a bossa nova twist. The remainder of the album interweaves all of
these elements in a cohesive way, making for a solid body of work.
Other memorable tracks are "Horizons" (heavy on the S&G influence), "Juliet's Son" (heavy on the Bright Eyes influence), and "The Renegade", with it's moody pop noir guitar.
Son
Amublance is multi-instrumenatlist Joseph Knapp with collaborator
Jeffrey Koster, along with a rotating cast of contributors. For this
album, that includes Kiana Alarid, Neely Jenkins and Jamie and Derek
Pressnall of Tilly and the Wall, and Jacob Thiele of The Faint,
along with Daniel Knapp, Dereck Higgins, and James Cuato. Son
Ambulance has been around for a long time, kicking around the Omaha
scene. Their first release was a 2001 split EP with Bright Eyes called
"Oh Holy Fools", and since then they have released two full
lengths prior to this newest album, their first in three years. A
small tour of the midwest has embarked as of yesterday, with no dates
for the east coast on the horizon. In the meantime, pick up a copy of "Someone Else's Dejavu" to enjoy with your balmy and dreamy summer nights.
Record cover for "Someone Else's Dejavu"
Son Ambulance - band site / saddle creek / myspace
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