When searching for new music I often find myself browsing the rosters of the record labels of bands that I really like. A perfect example of this is my fairly recent discovery of Andre Ethier's music. I've been a fan of Rick White for some time, and the label he's called home for the past decade or so has been Blue Fog Recordings. After visiting their MySpace page I quickly realized that they had a spectacular back catalog with artist such as the Unintended, One Hundred Dollars, Castlemusic, and several others including our subject for the day Andre Ethier.
Andre is the former lead singer of seminal Canadian garage rockers the Deadly Snakes. Upon that bands demise he started releasing solo records and although he still has some bite to his vocals the music itself is a little more laid back, much the same way Dylan pulled back the reigns after Blonde on Blonde. He has four solo albums to his credit, the first of which Andre Ethier With Christopher Sandes Featuring Pickles and Price was released in 2004 while he was still with the Deadly Snakes. 2006's Secondathalam, 2007's On Blue Fog, and 2008's Born of Blue Fog all followed with each record being better than the last. Acoustic guitars, keys, percussion, and horns can all be found in Ethier's mixed bag of tunes, his melodies and earnest vocal delivery always giving each track their own unique flavor.
His albums are available on CD from Paper Bag Records and Sonic Unyon, but finding some of his music on vinyl has proven to be a difficult task. He put out a ltd 7" single on Dull Knife last year which sold out very quickly from what I've read, and recently Les Disques Steak issued a 4 track 12" EP compiling songs from his Blue Fog releases. As far as I know this is a Euro release only, but thanks to the wonders of the internet buying a copy shouldn't be too hard so long as you act quickly, they're ltd to 500 copies. I received my copy this past Friday from Germany's X-Mist mail order shop and the sound quality is nothing short of stunning.
For your listening pleasure I present to you Pride of Egypt, a track that appears on the s/t 12" EP and originally released on the On Blue Fog album. Following that is a live version of Cop Killer.
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