Bruce Springsteen – Queen City Sounds and Art

Ethan Larsh’s Gloriously Epic Rock and Roll Ballad “The Last Big Score” is a Tribute to at Least Going For One’s Modest Dreams

The suburban crime plot at the heart of Ethan Larsh’s “The Last Big Score” takes on the element of epic, self-deprecating farce in the music video. Larsh and band (assuming it’s his band) perform in a basement and the song is fine, like an 80s ballad in the vein of a power pop take on Bruce Springsteen about blue collar life. But this one is more like something out of a Cohen Brothers film or like the eye-rolling fantasies of delusional glory in the band practice scene in Sling Blade. But in this video Larsh waves about a sparkler like it’s a torch in the climax of the song brimming with dramatic saxophones and impassioned choruses. The imagery of stealing everything in sight and then evading police for the unalloyed thrill of making off with what might be as much as six thousand dollars at best like it’s the D.B. Cooper heist is admittedly hilarious but it suits the dryly absurd and melodramatic tone of this earnestly solidly written rock and roll fairy tale told in tribute to at least trying to pursue modest dreams. Watch the video for “The Last Big Score” on YouTube and follow Ethan Larsh at the links below.

Ethan Larsh on Instagram

Ethan Larsh on Bandcamp

Ethan Larsh on Apple Music

Queen City Sounds Podcast S3E31: Courtney Whitehead of Bison Bone

Bison Bone recently released its new EP 40 Grit. As the name suggests the stories across the EP’s five tracks are tales of everyday endurance and honing the rough edges of life to where it more suits your existence in the moment and to get through more trying patches. Its warm melodies and Courtney Whitehead’s introspective yet direct vocal style engages thetpo listener and the elegantly orchestrated music pulls you into an intimate and vividly observed moments the highlight moments that aren’t the stuff of striving and grinding and performative positivity of a lot of pop and rock music. But they are the stuff of real life that anchor your memories and stay with you for a lifetime. Whitehead seems skilled in putting together his own experiences in contexts that can resonate with people who recognize the psychological and emotional truth in a well crafted narrative enmeshed in music. Bison Bone formed in the mid-2010s after Whitehead moved to Denver from Oklahoma via Texas and found a community in which he could share his songwriting and find collaborators who got his creative vision and style of working class stories that didn’t glorify the lifestyle so much as highlight the inherent dignity of experiences most of us have and which translate well to the style of music Bison Bone offers which is to say Americana and at times a touch of psychedelia and country but informed by the humanistic psychological insights and poetry of Bruce Springsteen and Uncle Tupelo.

Listen to our interview with Courtney Whitehead on Bandcamp and follow Bison Bone at the links below. Bison Bone is celebrating the release of 40 Grit with a show at The Skylark Lounge on Friday, October 27, 2023 with The Patti Fiasco at 8pm.

bisonbone.com

Bison Bone on Facebook

Bison Bone on Apple Music

Queen City Sounds Podcast Ep. 21: Joshua Ostrander aka Mondo Cozmo

Mondo Cozmo aka Joshua Ostrander once fronted the alternative/indie rock bands Laguardia and Eastern Conference Champions before recording under his own name in 2016. The project’s records beginning with 2017’s Plastic Soul through New Medicine from 2020 have had a lively and eclectic quality that synthesizes Ostrander’s folk influences with those more experimental and electronic for a sound that feels both familiar and fresh. His 2022 album This Is For The Barbarians propels Ostrander’s creative instincts in interesting new directions for an album that is often evocatively intimate, delicately thoughtful, brash and rebellious and contemplative all at once. It is a deep record with thought-provoking and insightful commentary on the state of the country and the world as well as the impact of navigating a time of great conflict and disorder bordering on chaos. One hears in the music the influence of Bob Dylan, Radiohead and Bruce Springsteen. Ostrander consulted with the latter on some of the songwriting for the new record and in our interview with the open and engaging musician Ostrander talks about what he and the boss discussed.

Listen to the podcast interview on Bandcamp linked below, catch Mondo Cozmo on tour now with The Airborne Toxic Event. Follow Ostrander on his website www.mondocozmo.com.