The MuseBox Presents Butane Variations album: Featured Artist of the Week

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Interested in writing for us? Click here. Also join us at for contests and further news. Thanks for visiting!

Do you like your alt.country dirty and damaged? We thought so. Brooklyn’s Butane Variations manages to meld the flawless country-rock of The Band, with the complex instrumental atomspherics of Drag City-era Jim O’Rourke, and the tightly coiled vocal harmonies of Gillian Welch and David Rawlings. It’s a disheveled but dignified mess — from an odd whirlpool of banjo plucks, unhinged cello cries, searing synth lines, and heavily fuzzed-out guitar stabs they evoke archetypal experiences. The remorse and excitement of leaving town. The fleeting chaos of a late-night Summer storm. The trembling balance between paranoid despair and ecstatic faith. All this and so much more litters the band’s forthcoming self-titled debut. We think you’ll be mighty fond of it:

>MP3: “Goldie Hawn”

“This six-piece psych-tinged Americana ensemble, headed by songwriters Phil Weinrobe and John-Paul Norpoth, just seems to know something other bands don’t. Or maybe they care more.”
– Playback STL

“For lack of a much better word, Butane Variations’ new self-titled record is neat. There are such sweet moments that pop up here and there, and the horn and banjo phrases on this song are a case in point.” – Music (For Robots)

Next week, the band celebrates the release of their debut LP with release parties in both Manhattan and Brooklyn, and a date in upstate New York for good measure.

08.14 New York, NY - Lakeside Lounge (Manhattan Album Release)
08.18 Brooklyn, NY - Union Hall (Brooklyn Album Release)
11.17 Ithaca, NY - The Chapter House - Ithaca, New York
09.12 Soundfix Records - Brooklyn, NY

Check out the links below for more info:

Share This