With the exacting diction of Flannery O’Connor Chris Bathgate sets up a haunting scene in “Flash of Light: “There was a flash of light / followed by chaos / all the night the moon struck my backyard.” He sets up the scene again and again, each time adding different details, each time greasing our anticipation. But like a good storyteller should he never fulfills our expectations. The listener is left to fill in the details. Whichever outcome you choose is accompanied by reverberating instrumentation as feedback leaks in and additional guitars and trumpets join Bathgate’s ever forceful chords. Such crafting of songs lifts Bathgate out of the “singer/songwriter” pigeonhole. Comparisons to Will Oldham and Jeffy Tweedy do not misguide, but I would posit, based on “Every Wall You Own,” that Bathgate is also the country cousin to Eric Matthew’s smooth, orchestral pop sound.
Bathgate spends the next few months saturating his home state of Michigan (Sam, Joe I expect you’ll be making plans to attend as soon as you hear this stuff!) with his sounds. But with the exception of New York City, there are no signs yet of Bathgate making his way beyond his state borders. Looks like you’ll have to bring him home yourself. And oh! what timing! His new album “A Cork Tale Wake” is out today.
I stand corrected. I just discovered he spent the month of May in Europe with Saturday Looks Good To Me…
I dig this record a lot. I found it to be a pleasant surprise.
Dude is jaw-dropping live, too. Buncha videos of varying quality over here.
Both of shows at the Creek and the Cave (Long Island City, Queens) and Cake Shop (Mnhttn) were completely packed two weekends ago, too… he drew more people than co-Michiganians and yesterday’s Spin.com Band of the Day Great Lakes Myth Society, even. See him in a small venue while you can… at the Mercury Lounge next swing through NYC.
Dude is jaw-dropping live, too. Buncha videos of varying quality over here:
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=%22chris+bathgate%22
Both of shows over here at the Creek and the Cave (Long Island City, Queens) and Cake Shop (Mnhttn) were completely packed two weekends ago, too… he drew more people than co-Michiganians and yesterday’s Spin.com Band of the Day Great Lakes Myth Society [ http://www.greatlakesmythsociety.com ], even. See him in a small venue while you can… at the Mercury Lounge next swing through NYC.
Very nice. I dowloaded the album from emusic after I listened to those tracks.
Ditto to what both of the other posters said. I’ve been following Chris’ music since I first heard him about two years ago.
Great guy, great music, support him.