ABOUT THIS ITEM

"Drumming For Pistols", Puerto Muerto’s swashbuckling new full-length, is not for the faint of heart. In the words of singer/percussionist Christa Meyer, the title track is 'basically a call to arms. I wanted the song to evoke thoughts of revolution, without specifically referencing the subject'. Equal parts sweet and sour, swagger and swoon, the album’s 13 cuts range from the ragtag-circus chantey “Beautiful Women With Shining Black Hair” (featuring Devil in a Woodpile associate Gary Schepers on tuba), to the delirious bilingual stomper “Tanze,” to the sinister swamp-dirge “Song of the Moon” (bolstered by John Londay’s exquisitely filthy guitar solo).

“The Bell Ringer,” a tender art song inspired by Werner Herzog subject Bruno Stroszek, has a ragged opulence, rife with stately strings supplied by Tiffany Kowalski (Bright Eyes, Head of Femur) and handbells, which Meyer rang from a marble staircase for just the right touch of reverb. Other highlights include the rousing, intricately arranged anthem “Arcadia”, which Meyer says is about 'the corruption and the fallacy of the American dream', and “Tamar”, a grimy gospel-tinged rocker ripped from the pages of the Old Testament. “Tamar” was originally written for the compilation Sacred Music for Worrying Times. 'We wanted to find the most fucked-up biblical story we could', guitarist/co-vocalist Tim Kelley explains. 'We liked the song so much that we had to put it on this album, too'. While "Drumming For Pistols" delivers all the elements that fans of the Chicago-based duo have grown to love—the chameleon-like range of Meyer’s classically trained mezzo-soprano, Kelley’s rough but supple baritone, well-constructed songs that seamlessly incorporate influences spanning Kurt Weill and the Clash—the total effect transcends expectations.