If you first caught Life in a Blender performing on a squalid New York City stage at a code-violating firetrap back in the distant mid-`80s and a strangely attired voyager from a then-unthinkable future suddenly materialized to matter-of-factly impart to you that they’d still be around thirtysomething cruel years later, promoting their eleventh studio LP, you’d have invariably chortled into your chipped, slimy mug of overpriced, tepid beer and wandered out into the elements to escape such folly. But the prophecy was true. The soggily storied rock clubs and dive bars that first hosted the band, like CBGB, Tramps and McGovern’s, may all be cannabis dispensaries, dubious foot-rub spas and bubble tea emporiums today, but Life in a Blender have kept on ….er… blendin’.
That aforementioned new album, Bent by The Weather, continues to mine the band’s finely honed sweet spot, pairing songwriter/vocalist Don Rauf’s signature brand of off-kilter lyrical narratives with the accomplished chops of the longest-lasting line-up of the ensemble since their inauspicious inception during the Reagan-era. Flanked by founding drummer Ken Meyer, guitarist Al Houghton, guitarist/cellist Dave Moody, bassist Mark Lerner, violinist Rebecca Weiner and the punchy brass panache of the Colony Collapse horns, Rauf is given free rein to showcase his surreal storytelling skills, buoyed by their considerable melodic horsepower. Whether evocatively painting a portrait of the gambler’s aspiration in “Fountains of Bellagio” or the flush of first, tween-age love on “My Heart Your Sweat Does Feed” or the disarming poignance of “On the Sand,” while Rauf’s tongue remains firmly planted in … ummm … his cheek, his lyrics can be deceptively nuanced, richly conjuring scenarios with an economy of carefully curated descriptors. And while, yes, there’s usually punchline on the way, the depth and the loving composition of these songs cannot be denied.
My son Oliver and I had the pleasure of catching Life in a Blender’s album-release party at Joe’s Pub several weeks back, and were treated to a first live-airing of much of this material, with favorites like “Go-To Man,” “The Answer,” “Soul Deliverer” and “Mobile Wash Unit” liberally sprinkled amidst the set like sugar from a saltshaker.
Lucky for you, it was captured for posterity by the venue:
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