"Marine Life/No Dreams" Oakley Hall (ThaBombShelter Exclusive)

You may be wondering what that "ThaBombShelter Exclusive" means in the title of this post. I'll tell you, it's because Oakley Hall's new album, "I'll Follow You" (out September 11 on Merge) has two of the strongest opening tracks of the year. With the album opener, "Marine Life" followed by "No Dreams", I can't imagine a better introduction to a rootsy rock record. When I got the disc in the mail it said clearly that the only track that was okay to post was "No Dreams", but thanks to Wendy Williams of Toolshed and the kind folks at Merge Records (and a pretty please), they agreed to put up a stream of "Marine Life" for all of you here. I know it's not an mp3, but that just means you'll have to come back again and again to listen to this beautiful, smoldering jam.

Oakley Hall may be a 6 piece from Brooklyn, but they sound like the raucous house band for a dive bar in downtown Athens. They play the male-female tandem like a well-tuned geetar, with Patrick Sullivan and Rachel Cox sharing vocal duties. If you, like myself, lamented the loss of Nickel Creek and have been searching for a bluesy, rootsy, earnest rock fix, you're in luck with Oakley Hall. While the tunes have more balls than those from their bluegrass cousins, the twang and intimacy (paired nicely with the barn-burning and bottle-smashing) are retained and refocused into a new beast that is monopolizing my headphones.

"Marine Life", the song that struck me from the first chord, actually only has Patrick Sullivan singing delicately into the microphone, his lady friend won't join the action until track two. With a dark stage and a few players in the shadows, Sullivan sings with his eyes half-closed. How could you keep them open with a song like this? The crowd stands transfixed by this intimate glimpse into the man as a man and not as a rockstar. The song burns low on the coals, a soft glow bursting into flames only briefly before returning to the embers. You can see the lines of pain and anguish on Sullivan's face, spreading like thin, tiny cracks in his facade. By the end of the lament, the lights go up and the flames spring out, an inferno from the coals, with a defiant glance and a confident stance.

With the flames licking the background, Rachel Cox emerges from the wings, molten lava flows freely around this barn-burner, bottle-breaker of a song. It starts hot and gets hotter, chicken wire rings the stage and glass and beer splash and shatter as the band recreates a Jake and Elwood moment. The pedal steel is on fire, and those two incredible singers belt their hearts out for the rowdy, shouting masses. They sing for everyone and everything that they've ever loved or hated. They sing with passion and vitriol, a deadly combination mixed perfectly.

Oakley Hall Official Site
Oakley Hall on MySpace
Oakley Hall on WikiPedia
Buy "I'll Follow You" from Merge Records

"No Dreams" Oakley Hall
Stream "Marine Life" Oakley Hall (a ThaBombShelter Exclusive)