The Builders and the Butchers 
Dead Reckoning
February 22nd
Badman Recording Co.
By Max Kyburz
As with any genre, folk offers a surprising amount of darkness. The Builders and the Butchers, straight outta Portland, carry a slightly threatening aura, even before their music is even heard. You’d never guess it just by looking at them. Look them up on Google – what do you see? A tranquil bunch if I’ve ever seen one, unless the sight of young 21st century men dressed in 19th century duds sends you screaming.
When you hear their name and the song titles from their newest full-length, Dead Reckoning, y0u’re eager to find where these sweet boys went wrong. Titles like “I Broke the Vein,” “Rotten to the Core” and “Black Elevator” won’t be in Ol’ Uncle Hector’s repertoire, and it’s clear that The Builders and the Butchers aim to combine the old and the new – the sawdust-under-fingernails Americana strings and gloomy, post-grunge moods, both courtesy of the Pacific Northwest. So many bands try to sound like they are from a distinct region and time other than their own, and the Builders earn extra credit for not following this rule. They sound like a band you’d pass on the Oregon Trail before dying of dysentery (or some other computer game death).
The opener, “I Broke the Vein,” offers minimal subtlety as vocalist Ryan Solle muses about self-guided alienation. Underneath, instruments become less distant and by the track’s end their presence is hard to ignore. Starting with disquieting, lonely guitar only to gradually end in full on rock mode shows their affection for calculated, progressive method.
The problem with Dead Reckoning, alas, is that the boys have a hard time transferring that method to a full album’s length. Given the punchy down-home charisma of their stellar 2007 split album with fellow Portlanders Loch Lamond, a fabulous start for first-time listeners, listening to their full-lengths is a bit underwhelming. At its best, Dead Reckoning is quirky and slightly swampy foot-stomping fun (“It Came from the Sea” and the far-too-short “Blood for You” being the highlights), and its rusty tin-pan production give them a morsel of twisted charm.
Much of the album suffers from being over-polished and under-performed. Simple questions such as “Don’t you know the whole world’s rotten to the core?” are testaments to the staying power of folk after all this time (hence its postmodern revival), but feels half-assed from a band capable of so much better. I love what they do, but they need an album without so much filler. Dead Reckoning is a wheat and honey milkshake with plenty of flavor, but ultimately too much froth.
