13 Blues for Thirteen Moons

about this album

Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band have been making a big raw angry tender racket since the 2005 release of their last album, Horses In The Sky. With a focus on live performance and special projects over the past three years, the group proper has logged well over 100 shows in Europe and North America, in between sessions that yielded Thee Silver Mountain Reveries EP and Thee Silver Mountain Elegies Play War Radio tour (featuring four members of Mt. Zion and both members of labelmates Hangedup), as well as collaborations with Carla Bozulich, Vic Chesnutt and Patti Smith in the studio and in concert. The music of the full band (two guitars, two violins, cello, contrebasse and drums) has grown louder, looser, full of spittle and tears. On 13 Blues For Thirteen Moons, riffs are the backbone more than ever. Anchored by new drummer Eric Craven (ex-Hangedup), the band works its slow build and burn with newfound patience, sinuousness and ferocity. Whether methodically framing walls of sound over the four-on-the-floor punk dirge of “1,000,000 Died To Make This Sound” or exploding in sheets of free noise and melody on “Black Waters Blowed”, the band has never rocked harder and has never sounded more determined, desperate and driven. A stuttered blues riff is the foundation for the album’s title track, making its appearance after a blisteringly minimalist intro. “Engine Broke Blues” features a gorgeous set of chords that build inexorably from multiple guitar, stri

why this is interesting

This album rewards sustained listening with its patient orchestration and lyrical depth. Rather than pursuing the bombastic crescendos one might expect, the band constructs careful sonic architectures that build through restraint—allowing strings, horns, and voice to inhabit shared space thoughtfully. The compositions examine grief and resilience without sentiment, grounding abstract emotional terrain in specific imagery. What distinguishes it is the ensemble's maturity in balancing rawness with precision; these pieces feel simultaneously spontaneous and meticulously arranged. The work suggests that tenderness and anger needn't oppose each other, making it essential for anyone interested in how instrumental rock can articulate complex interiority.

tracks

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