Ambitious state of
the nation address from Seattle's long serving ambient roots rockers.
“They've all come to
look for America” - Simon And Garfunkel, America, 1968
“You don't have to
search for it, and it don't give a shit” - The Walkabouts, The
Dustlands, 2011
For their 15th
studio album and their first since 2005's Acetylene, Seattle's
Walkabouts have come up with a loosely based song cycle or concept
album concerning a semi-mythical place, The Dustlands. It doesn't
take a genius to work out (and by the press release's own admission)
what they're really talking about is their own country, the good ol'
US of A. Of course it's long been a theme of many an American
artist's work to try and capture the essence of this fascinating and
young country. From Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Curtis Mayfield,
through to Patti Smith, Bruce Springsteen and Green Day, it's an
obsession that can last a whole career and still only only begin to
scratch the surface. A brave band then to approach such a task as
America is still suffering from a crisis of confidence 10 years after
the horrors of 9/11, consolidated by the knocks it's taken from the
global recession.
Click over the jump for more on The Walkabouts - Travels In The Dustland
