A.A. Bondy: Believers

Tags: A.A. Bondy, Experimental, Fat Possum Records, Folk

8/10 dropps

As a native to Louisiana, a 90s-MTV maverick in Alabama (via Verbena), and Catskills-escapist to New York, the mercurial musician, A.A. Bondy, has put quite a twist on “making his rounds.” Similar to the unfitting knowledge that The Tallest Man on Earth (nee Kristian Matsson) morphed out of The Montezumas, knowing A.A. Bondy (nee Auguste Arthur Bondy) morphed out of Verbena is just as off-guard catching. For shits and giggles, they’d probably empathize losing-face laughs over a few brews if they were ever on the same bill. After Verbena became defunct in 2003, Bondy uprooted from grunge rock scene, became enamored by Mississippi John Hurt, esteemed Purple Rain, and finally fell into cahoots with the Felice Brothers, a country folk band from Upstate New York, so he could reinvent his musicianship. A few years later, he debuted songs off his 2007 album, American Hearts, in a barn near his hamlet home in the Catskills Mountains of Palenvile; and in 2009, delivered When The Devil’s Loose to have two irons stoking the folk furnace.

2011 marks the second year of the new decade, and apparently marks a worthwhile watershed for Bondy featured on his new muse, Believers [Fat Possum]. Bondy is still at it as a stoker, but a colander has been secured; Bondy has collected his creativity from Hearts and Devil’s to let the formless elements fall through and the substantial solids be netted. The minimalist approach has not been filtered out of the acoustic Bondy, nor has he absconded this mantra by any means. However, for the “There’s a Reason” admirers that have warmed up to A.A.’s tradition folk finger-style guitarwork and piano keying, there may be a change in climate.

Believers can be likened to The Times They Are a-Changin as the grimness and gravitas of these albums was easily distinguishable due to the playful, yet solemn music preceding them. Believers profiles the blackened panache and chiseled jaw line of A. A. Bondy implemented in the stylistic fluxes, maturing intimacy, and the “On the Moon” ambiance spanning the entirety of the 41-minute album. As is apparent, Bondy’s new experimentation on Believers traverses down the lanes of less analog and more abject; a sonic representation of modernity; a poetic interpretation of believers.

– Zach Frimmel

Mon Sep 26

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A.A. Bondy: Believers

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