The Decemberists aren’t the only band in Portland, Ore., that knows a good historical fiction yarn when it hears (or spins) one. The Dimes’ second full-length, The King Can Drink The Harbour Dry (out December 1 on Pet Marmoset/Timber Carnival), features a range of sunny-side-up ditties that’ll have you searching Wikipedia in vain for references. Singer/songwriter Johnny Clay based his band’s first LP, 2007’s The Silent Generation, on stories from Depression-era newspapers a bandmate found under the floorboards of his home during a renovation project; his latest is centered around a suite of artifacts from a long-ago and far-away New England, including a fireman’s vivid impressions of the Great Boston Fire of 1872, a country-fried ode to the founder of the American Red Cross, the story of an abolitionist-cum-journalist fighting slavery with little but his opinions, courage and a barrel of ink, and an impossibly catchy melody escorting a doomed woman to the gallows back in 1660. The former quartet has now expanded to a seven piece (including cello, pedal steel and revolving cast of antique instruments), the better to infuse tracks with the appropriate complexity to float atop the deceptively simple melodies and construction that lie beneath. A discovery worth many times the double nickels the band’s name implies.
“Save Me, Clara” (download):
https://magnetmagazine.com/audio/SaveMeClara.mp3
“Damrell’s Fire” (download):
https://magnetmagazine.com/audio/DamrellsFire.mp3
“Walden And The Willow Tree” (download):
https://magnetmagazine.com/audio/WaldenAndTheWillowTree.mp3
