The Builders and the Butchers

The Builders and the Butchers | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 10, 2008)
• Original Release Date: 2008
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Bladen County Records
• ASIN: B000PC6F1G
• Also Available in: Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #93,227 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Alaskans Invading Your Record Collection!!!, May 28, 2009

By 

Gabriel Gronemeier "Music Snob ;)" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Builders and the Butchers (Audio CD)

Crazy Alaskans + beer + bluegrass and punk rock roots = win.

This has to be one of the most interesting albums I've heard since Lonesome Crowded West. I can't really say more than that. I can't wait to see this band develop. My only regret is not seeing these guys in Alaska when I lived there. I'll just have to catch them next time they are in Boston. Buy it, thank me later.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best album of the year that you won't hear, July 24, 2008

By 

Scott L. Mcclure - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Builders and the Butchers (Audio CD)

If you're reading this review then you've found out about this band - good for you - you're paying attention. This is the best album of the year that probably no one will hear. These guys are a hell of a band - good songs, good production - not overdone, good energy. If I were to compare it to anything it sounds like Old Crow Medicine Show crossed with the White Stripes. There are a lot of bands out there right now wishing they were the Builders & the Butchers - hopefully they'll get their deserved recognition.

3.0 out of 5 stars Some bland lows with stunning highs., July 18, 2011

By 

Dumb - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Builders and the Butchers (Audio CD)

The percussion unit's the first Jack to pop out of the box. The Builders and the Butchers like to split a drum set into two parts and have one drummer playing on each half, creating what they call a "deconstructed" percussion sound. This lends a communal sound to "The Night Pt 1," and carries on throughout the album. "Red Hands," the first bona fide song on this debut, sets the disk off with a bluesy start-stop bang. Momentum weakens with "The Spanish Death Song," with drawn-out melodica sections on a track that probably should have only been half as long; as we see on this and a couple other tracks, singer-guitarist Ryan Sollee's vocals haven't developed the subtle touch necessary to carry the slower bridges.

That brings us to the heart of the album. "Black Dresses" is a quick, catchy little number revolving around a woman "with a stone where there should've been a heart," while the mandolin-led "Bottom of the Lake" is arguably the gloomiest, catchiest, most intense number out of this entire album.

The brittle, slow-paced "The Gallows" undoes a lot of the momentum from the previous two tracks, but things pick right back up with the infectious, insult-laden fun of "Bringin' Home the Rain" ("You're dancin' with your demons, baby / you forgot your former life / and it was hard swimmin' once but now you're daily divin' in!"). The next four tracks continue in much the same strong vein, until coming to a disappointing conclusion with the contrived lifter-upper "Find Me in the Air."

If I could, I would have given this 3 1/2 stars, but I had to pick either 3 or 4. The major strengths on this disk are the musicianship, the loose feel of the percussion section, Sollee's authoritative yelp, and the gloomy atmosphere this band achieves from start to finish. Amateur production, a few weaker tunes and other promising yet under-developed pieces mitigate the overall project, however; while I sound like I'm being harsh, just listen to their other two albums ("Salvation is a Deep Dark Well" and "Dead Reckoning"), and you'll see that both are a definite leap forward from this flawed, yet promising start.