Tracker Pixel for Entry

​Basement’s Best: ‘Fresh Blood’ preaches the gospel of Matthew E. White

Music | March 14th, 2015

In the wake of the peer-to-peer sharing boom and the mushrooming remix culture that it fueled, we face ambivalence as to what constitutes proper artistic appropriation. Looking back now, do we view Led Zeppelin as hacks or heroes for putting their own electric spin on the music of the American Delta?

Could a Tribe Called Quest have kicked it without “Walk on the Wild Side”? Should we give a damn about Foxygen or just put on “High Tide and Green Grass” and call it good?

The line between homage and ripoff is thin and outside of the occasionally inspired tribute album, those that walk it often fall to the latter. However, those artists that can wear their influences on their sleeves, yet transcend fanboyism, may very well find themselves lifted to the same canon of their icons.

An amalgamation of Randy Newman’s oddball balladry, Jimmy Cliff’s sunshiny reggae, Allen Toussaint’s Crescent City R&B and the spirits of all who passed through Muscle Shoals, Matthew E. White’s music is immediately familiar, though no one particular inspiration makes itself obvious.

Riding high on the sweeping success of Natalie Prass’s debut, on which he provided indelible horn arrangements and ultimately released on his own Spacebomb imprint, White’s second full-length, “Fresh Blood,” is a smashing display of his focused songwriting and deft command over his stacked backing band.

Evidenced early on by the Sunday morning jubilation of “Rock & Roll is Cold,” his understanding of America’s musical tapestry is second-nature. Even in employing a well-worn, time-tough blues progression, White cooks up something that rises above the formula, though the basic ingredients (train-track tambourine, hand jiving “ooh-la-las”) are nothing new.

Whereas his debut LP “Big Inner” was primarily a vehicle to demonstrate the power of his top-notch band over his huskily delivered lyrics, “Fresh Blood” finds White using his double-tracked murmurs to do more than just hold place. The son of evangelical missionaries (White spent four years of his young life in the Philippines), he subverts his gospel music stylings to explicitly call out sexual abuse within organized religion in the scathing brimstone of “Holy Moly.”

His memoriam to late actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, “Tranquility,” isn’t so much a “gee, we sure miss ‘im” toss-off, but a somber meditation on the tragedy of a brilliance lost forever.

Brushing off notions of revivalism or, worse yet, impersonation, White and the Spacebomb crew are writing a new chapter in the Great American Songbook with a Smithsonian-by-way-of-Stax piety.

96.3 KNDS Suggests

“Gimme All Your Love” – Alabama Shakes

Whoever continues to break Brittany Howard’s heart, keep it up. Call it sadism, but spine chills are inevitable as she reels back and forth from anguished yowl to bleeding-heart mutter.

“Depreston” – Courtney Barnett

A Courtney Barnett song is worth a thousand words. A lyrical alchemist, her telling of a house-hunting trip in the suburbs of Melbourne rips away the mundane (“A collection of those canisters for coffee, tea and flour”) with the turn of a phrase as she uncovers the tear-jerking reason for the real estate’s listing.

“Play it Cool” – Gangrene ft. Samuel T. Herring and Earl Sweatshirt

Coming on like a karate kick in the back alley of a forgotten Blaxploitation flick, the mood is thick as the soul brotha duo of rapper/producers the Alchemist and Oh No pounds through the superfly haze.

“Big Decisions” – My Morning Jacket

Muscular without ever being muscle-headed, there’s always been a heart beating at the center of MMJ’s brand of panoramic riff-rocking. Picking up where they left off four years ago on “Circuital,” the band tosses out hooks with a catch-and-release ease.

“Web” – Thee Oh Sees

The mine of cavernous, groove-heavy psych-rock that John Dwyer’s quartet has consistently pillaged seems to have no end. Guided by Dwyer’s calling-card bark, they plow through “Web” with scuzzy abandon, toppling walls of amplified static.

Recently in:

By Alicia Underlee Nelsonalicia@hpr1.com Ten North Dakota communities will participate in the nationwide No Kings Day of Peaceful Action on October 18. The grassroots movement is a nonviolent protest against President Trump’s…

By Michael M. Millermichael.miller@ndsu.edu I would like to recognize some of the scholarly Germans from Russia from Canada and USA shared on the GRHC website. There are additional names not included here. If you have suggestions…

Friday, October 31, doors 8 p.m. show starts at 8:30 p.m.The Aquarium above Dempey’s, 226 N. Broadway, FargoThe annual Aquarium Halloween Cover Show is back and it is stacked. And this time there are a limited amount of presale…

By Sabrina Hornungsabrina@hpr1.com At the end of September, downtown Fargo said goodbye to another old friend; the Spirit Room closed its doors, marking the end of an era. The Spirit Room room has been a fixture downtown for the…

By Ed Raymondfargogadfly@gmail.comThat old time religion, filled with love, is no longer good enough In the first “Inherit the Wind” movie about religion and evolution starring Spencer Tracy, Fredric March, and Gene Kelly, the…

By Rick Gionrickgion@gmail.com Holiday wine shopping shouldn’t have to be complicated. But unfortunately it can cause unneeded anxiety due to an overabundance of choices. Don’t fret my friends, we once again have you covered…

By Rick Gion and Nichole Hensenrickgion@gmail.com The wait is finally over. Those who have visited Nichole’s Fine Pastry & Cafe lately know about the recent major additions and renovations that have taken place over the past…

By Sabrina Hornungsabrina@hpr1.com Dakotah Faye is a hip-hop artist from Minot, North Dakota, and he’s had a busy year. He’s released two albums. This summer he opened for Tech N9ne in Sturgis and will be opening for Bone…

By Greg Carlsongregcarlson1@gmail.com Now available on Amazon Prime following its world premiere last month as the opening night selection of the Toronto International Film Festival’s golden anniversary, “John Candy: I Like…

By HPR staffsubmit@hpr1.com Mark the first weekend of October on your calendar. It’s the weekend of the Studio Crawl, which takes us all on a wonderful, metro-wide tour of our talented (and often wacky) arts community. On October…

Press release“Shakespeare with a sharpened edge.” To launch its 2025 – 2026 season, Theatre NDSU is thrilled to team up with Moorhead-based organization Theatre B to perform a co-production of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and…

By Annie Prafckeannieprafcke@gmail.com AUSTIN, Texas – As a Chinese-American, connecting to my culture through food is essential, and no dish brings me back to my mother’s kitchen quite like hotdish. Yes, you heard me right –…

By Sabrina Hornungsabrina@hpr1.comNew Jamestown Brewery Serves up Local FlavorThere’s something delicious brewing out here on the prairie and it just so happens to be the newest brewery west of the Red River and east of the…

By Ellie Liveranieli.liverani.ra@gmail.com When we are sick, all we want is a cure. You go to the doctor, they give you a pill, you take it for a bit, then you are cured. It happens. But unfortunately, it is not always the case. …

By Alicia Underlee NelsonProtests against President Trump’s policies and the cuts made by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are planned across North Dakota and western Minnesota Friday, April 4 and…

By Vern Thompsonvern.thompson@rocketmail.comMoral accountability and the crisis of leadership  As a recovering person living one day at a time for the last 35 years, I have learned not to judge others because I have not walked in…