A History Of Violence

2018 release. Once the intro to opener Human gives way to its fully-realized sonic purpose, its obvious that Harlan T. Bobos fourth proper album, A History of Violence, is quite different from his previous body of work. The classic historical emotional heft of a songwriter trying to make sense of lifes chaosthink mid-70s Lou Reed, especially Coney Island Babyis a thread running through the albums mid-tempo tracks like Human and the miniature literary tragedy that is Nadine. The punchier tracks on the album, like Spiders, conjure very early Green On Red, what Xs mid-80s output could have been, or even the roots-rock tendencies of overlooked genius Cass McCombs. The album was recorded in Memphis with Doug Easley, who has previously worked with Cat Power, Pavement, Wilco, Sonic Youth, Jon Spencer, and Jeff Buckley. Bobo also brought in Steve Selvidge (The Hold Steady, Bash & Pop) on bass and Jeff Bunny Dutton (Action Family) on guitar, along with regular contributors Jeff Bouck (Polyphonic Spree) and Brendan Spangler (Viva lAmerican Death Ray).