"you are the one who nursed me back..."
There are not many guarantees in life BUT I will guarantee that you have never heard or seen anything like "Take My Heart" (Official Video) by the inescapably odd Seattle based mind blowing band Brent Amaker & the Radio. Like a bizarro amalgam of Frankie Laine, Johnny Cash, Johnny Horton, Wall of Vodoo and a character created by Will Ferrell, Brent Amaker & the Rodeo manage to walk a tight rope of self parody and stylized art rock. You will chuckle wryly (if you are one who chuckles) one moment and, the next, be blown away by the artful musicality and turn your head sonics.
The intrepid leader / frontman Brent Amaker who (as press notes indicate) is "a tangle of contradictions, a whiskey-soaked country western singer who’s also a licensed insurance agent by day" says this about the band's aesthetic:
“When we tour Texas, they’re like, ‘What are you?’” Amaker says. “We’re cowboys, living the spirit of the West. We’re not really playing country music, but we’re playing cowboy music. ‘Western performance art’ is what I like to say.”
[Amaker’s Western performance art achieves its fullest form on "Philaphobia", a sly, heartsick collection that serves as Brent Amaker and the Rodeo’s first proper album in 10 years. It’s out January 26th via Seattle imprint Killroom Records.]
The cinematic storytelling, accented by Amaker's depth of hell low baritone, that somehow feels stoic, but swaggery sad at the same time, tells his story of heartbreak to a jaunty gallop with stunning musical breaks during the pauses. The guitars are fast, nimble and furious with a western meets Spanish flare. Top shelf in emotionality and musicality, like those bull whip guitarists who you would see in the background behind Cash or Elvis. The song digs deep about a former love, ex-wife and one can only try to read behind the lines to find the full story. Hell, for me, Amaker's story is enough.
"you are the one who nursed me back / you brought fresh linen / and one water / before the water there was fire / from which you cauterized my wound / I will never be the same / I shall not repeat your name / rest assured you left your mark / I will not let you take my heart..."
And from Press notes:
Amaker wrestles his demons and subverts frontier masculinity in his trademark baritone drawl in a song about his former marriage leaving its mark on his life. "At times I felt as if she had patched me back together and brought me back from the dead. But at the years rolled on, a darkness descended upon us both. This song is my promise to myself to move forward and give myself the opportunity to love again. When I felt crushed and it was over, I wanted to tell her that she had made her mark in many ways. Some good things and a lot of bad things. But I wouldn’t let her destroy my ability to love.”
"Take My Heart" is such a magnetic morsel of storytelling that casts imagery in black and while. It is the kind of song that makes you feel a bit beat up but in a good way as you recall your own heartbreak and the devilish dance of love. It is my first taste of "Philaphobia" which I look forward to experiencing.
[Philaphobia is due out January 26 on Kill Room Records, and the Rodeo will be embarking on a winter tour shortly thereafter. When the band comes to your town, keep an eye out for their uniforms—on the stage or off.]
“When the Rodeo started, we were putting on costumes, outfits,” Amaker says. “But after we went out time after time, I didn’t feel comfortable if I didn’t have some pieces of the Rodeo on me. It became me. It’s not a costume anymore.”
“When the Rodeo started, we were putting on costumes, outfits,” Amaker says. “But after we went out time after time, I didn’t feel comfortable if I didn’t have some pieces of the Rodeo on me. It became me. It’s not a costume anymore.”
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
https://open.spotify.com/artist/5K6tuSWKrqumHNCtMERQLX
https://www.instagram.com/brentamaker/
https://www.facebook.com/BrentAmakerDeathSquad
Since forming his Seattle-based outfit Brent Amaker and the Rodeo in 2005, Amaker has reveled in an idiosyncratic style that doesn’t fit into preordained categories. He’s a country singer whose band is known for dressing in matching black cowboy outfits, yet Amaker is more inspired by art-rock icons like Devo and David Bowie than the usual country mainstays. A Seattleite since 1997, he’s a Southerner by birth, yet Southern crowds are frequently puzzled by his ambitious stage show.
“When we tour Texas, they’re like, ‘What are you?’” Amaker says. “We’re cowboys, living the spirit of the West. We’re not really playing country music, but we’re playing cowboy music. ‘Western performance art’ is what I like to say.”
Amaker’s Western performance art achieves its fullest form on Philaphobia, a sly, heartsick collection that serves as Brent Amaker and the Rodeo’s first proper album in 10 years. (A 2020 album from the songwriter’s twisted side project, Brent Amaker Deathsquad, emerged in the gap.) Throughout Philaphobia, Amaker wrestles his demons and subverts frontier masculinity in his trademark baritone drawl (think Johnny Cash meets Matt Berninger) on tracks that span from rollicking motivational romps (“Take It by the Horns”) to criminal confessions (“Wanted”) to unlikely covers (Devo’s “Gut Feeling,” reimagined as a woozy twang breakdown).
It’s a spirited and boozy record, but don’t let the yeehaws and hollerin’ scattered throughout “Take my Heart” fool you: Philaphobia is a divorce album, steeped in that eternal country tradition of channeling heartbreak into gallows humor and cowboy laments. The bulk of the album was recorded in 2019, when Amaker was reeling from the end of his second marriage. The songs are among the best of his career, wrought with the steely-eyed recognition that love don’t always last.
“I’ve been married twice, and about five or six years ago, I divorced my second wife,” Amaker says of the record’s inspiration. “Philophobia is the fear of love. That’s the theme, because I was going through something that was really intense. It’s a really intense time in my life. I was feeling heartbreak. I was feeling freedom. I was feeling excitement. I was feeling sadness. And I think that comes through.”
Throughout Philaphobia, Amaker turns the lemons of late-life bachelorhood into whip-cracking lemonade. Resilience is the guiding force on “Take It By the Horns,” a blast of a tune that boasts a rousing call-and-response refrain between Amaker and his band. On “Los Angeles,” the singer bids adieu to a relationship turned sour and plans a new life in a land of promise: “I’m moving to Los Angeles and leaving all the bickering behind,” Amaker croons over careening rhythms and cowpunk-flavored guitars. He wrote the song while his marriage was failing, but before it ended.
Amaker’s tender side alights on “Audrianna,” a smitten ditty about a brief fling that allowed him to feel love again after his marriage collapsed. Meanwhile, on “Take my Heart,” he’s downtrodden but not defeated as he confronts his ex and fights for his dignity: “I will not let you take my heart,” he vows as his bandmates hoot and holler around the edges of the tune.
“It’s about my ex-wife,” Amaker explains. “She gave me a lot of things, but she also crushed me, and I’m gonna survive and you can’t have my heart. I’ve still got it.”
At the center of it all is “Gut Feeling,” a bizarro tribute to Amaker’s biggest influence, the New Wave icons who first piqued his interest in conceptual rock: Devo.
“When I was a little kid, I saw Devo on SNL,” he recalls. “I remember seeing them and saying to myself, ‘Is this real or is a skit?’ They became one of my favorite bands. I’m really into performance art and trying to create something that is consistent, so that every time somebody sees or hears us—like the Ramones or Devo—they know what it is.”
In his late 30s, after spending much of his younger life playing in rock bands, Amaker had an epiphany and decided to start a cowboy band. While Amaker and the Rodeo may not echo Devo in genre, their conceptual unity and insistence on matching stage uniforms is an homage to the Ohio legends. The Rodeo’s lineup shifts over time, but Amaker clings to a unified look: Whenever he brings a new cowboy into the fold, he takes them out to buy their cowboy hat and uniform (Wrancher polyester pants; black shirt; no colors allowed on any clothes, just solid black). When the group is on tour, they wear their cowboy uniforms 24/7.
And when they’re onstage, “performance art is at the heart of our shows,” Amaker explains, describing his elaborate James Brown-esque stage entrance; at a typical show, he walks onstage as the band plays an instrumental overture and somebody drapes a cape over him, then the cape comes off. “Just creating tension is what we try to do with our live performance. It's fun and people are entertained.”
Indeed, Brent Amaker and the Rodeo have toured far and wide, performing everywhere from Europe to the Capitol Hill Block Party to a maximum-security prison in Belgium, where a riot nearly broke out at the end of the gig. Listeners may also encounter their music in needle-drop form; the group’s music has been noted for its evocative, cinematic textures and has been featured in television shows such as Weeds, Big Little Lies, Californication, and others.
“I think our music is intentionally cinematic,” Amaker says. “I like to write with a theme, and I like to shape my songwriting with visions.”
Brent Amaker & the Rodeo, Western Noir, Performance art, alt rock, western music, Brent Amaker front man and insurance agent, Seattle based, new album "Philaphobia", "Take My Heart" (Official Video),
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