The Yawpers: Boy in a Well

Denver-based rock trio The Yawpers’ Boy in a Well is, among other things, a WWI-era concept album about a child who comes of age at the bottom of a well in France, arises as the second coming and has an Oedipal conquest prior to death by hanging before his corpse is interred in the aforementioned well with the cast-off body of his infant offspring.

If that reads like a book report summary of a literary-minded period piece, it should. The band’s name pays homage to the barbaric yawp of Walt Whitman, after all.

However, if it sounds too heady to be the stuff of badass rock and roll, you’re wildly mistaken.

Co-produced by The Replacements’ Tommy Stinson, the third full-length release from The Yawpers is an exhilarating thrill ride for fans who like their tunes loud, scuzzed up, howling and more than a bit unpredictable.

My introduction to The Yawpers came with their third album, 2015’s American Man (their Bloodshot Records debut). That record landed a spot in my top ten albums of the year, and the Colorado rockers instantly became one of my new favorite bands to watch.

 

Excitement for a follow-up skyrocketed upon reading that the band (lead singer Nate Cook, guitarist Jesse Parmet, drummer Noah Shomberg) had teamed up with Stinson and Alex Hall (JD McPherson, Pokey LaFarge) for production duties, especially after digging into Stinson’s rock-solid offering as Bash & Pop earlier this year.

The payoff is something special. Boy in a Well is a rollicking, bluesy, boogieing affair with corkscrew tempo changes, some soulful ballads, Cramps-y punk snarl, Zeppelin-conjuring stomp and swell and a blistering hotbed of rhythm. It’s a narrative-based blast of a record for bookish punks and 12-bar boozehounds who don’t usually dig concept albums.

Boy in a Well opens with “Armistice Day,” riding an ominous “Run Through the Jungle” sort of groove and death march drums before exploding into the guttural, howling chorus complete with a manic guitar freakout. The expository, fiery rockabilly of “A Decision Is Made” ramps things up further, while “A Visitor Is Welcomed” and “Room with a View” melodically inject space and warmth into the playing and plot. Then, the spiraling fury and motorcycle gang chug of “Mon Dieu” rips through the speakers sort of like what I imagine The Clash in ’77 would’ve sounded like cranking a cover of “Mystery Train” in double time with a resurrected Keith Moon sitting in on drums. “The Awe and the Anguish” follows, starting out as almost a quiet, brooding bonfire bloodletting for two minutes before detonating out of nowhere into full-scale Physical Graffiti-like apocalyptic bombast. “Mon Nom” is the sliding, snarling centerpiece that scorches like a gloriously unholy orgy between Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and The White Stripes atop an altar at the crossroads. “Face to Face to Face” rides that high with Buddy Holly hiccup vocals, lyrics about Revelations, Samson and Delilah, and mother and child against a wall-shredding breakdown that could stand against the best of Jon Spencer and the Blues Explosion. “No Going Back” is a high-speed, electric sprint through a minefield of thundercracks, while “God’s Mercy” is a tender, acoustic death ballad with a sinner’s quietly spiritual yearning. “Linen for the Orphan” crackles as a spooked-out dose of punk-boogie bliss worthy of the Cramps and Violent Femmes complete with dizzying, crying baby wails, while everything comes to a close on “Reunion,” a jangly, stomp rock nugget of hooky goodness that calls to mind both Stinson’s Mats and the sweet-sad perfection of Big Star.

Throughout all of Boy in a Well, though, there’s one band and one band only writing these songs and bashing and popping out this wealth of rock and roll delirium: The Yawpers. Turn it up and start paying attention. This stuff is the real deal.

 

Boy in a Well is available now (released August 18, 2017) via Bloodshot Records.