Chasing Vapor

Since it's inception in the late nineties, American Mars has been a musical anomaly in their hometown of Detroit. In a town often passed over by touring roots acts and dominated by garage and punk, the band has persevered for over a decade with it's unique brand of atmospheric roots-influenced rock. The band features singer, songwriter, and guitarist Thomas Trimble, bassist Garth Girard, drummer Alex Trajano, and pedal steel player and guitarist David Feeny. Chasing Vapor is the band's fourth full-length release and the second for Gangplank Records, the label owned by the band's pedal steel player and producer, David Feeny. The album features nine original songs along with a cover of Paul McCartney and Denny Laine's 70's hit Mull of Kintyre. Like American Mars' previous releases, No City Fun (2001), and Western Sides (2008), Chasing Vapor features a combination of roots, rock, and post-punk influences. Think Ryan Adams mixed with Echo & the Bunnymen, Americana mixed with post-punk, pedal steel guitar mixed with electric guitar, and you're getting a feel for the moods and motives of this intriguing group. This band could always be like a bonfire, bracing, entrancing, and warming in their Western-wrung rock churn. Elemental and elegant and you couldn't turn away. Consummate musicians, really, not yer rockers in the shambolic torn-jean-glory sense, not your weekend warriors, but Americana-aristocrats, talented-types not fuckin' around and finding intriguing blends of sensibilities spanning the rustle of country to the poignancy of folk to the valiant-chugging-pop of indie-rock and intricately layering it with dreamy/spacey-textures, clatter-cut percussion and wooed (or belted) by a distinctly Michigan-tinged nasal croon.