Portland alt-folk rockers Blitzen Trapper announced today the upcoming release of their seventh studio album, appropriately titled VII, in early October along with the stream of its first single, “Ever Loved Once.”
The band premiered “Ever Loved Once” this morning exclusively on Rolling Stone. The upbeat track about past relationships and small town love stays true to Blitzen Trapper’s brand of what front man Eric Earley calls “Rocky Mountain Whoop-ass.”
VII, the followup to their 2011 LP American Goldwing, is their first release on Vagrant Records; the boys were previously signed to legendary indie label Sub Pop. Says Earley, who always draws inspiration from his home in the Pacific Northwest, of the album, “Each of these songs starts from a small place, like a headwaters, a remembrance and then widens into a song. For instance, that old wreck of a shack buried in evergreen and murky darkness at the bend in the road up on Jackson Hill where we used to drink and never failed to give me a chill driving by in the old Impala for it’s implacable mystery, where Feel the Chill takes place.”
Blitzen Trapper will head out on a tour of the US and Canada in support of VII kicking off August 17th at Denver, CO’s Cultivate Music Festival. VII is out October 1st on Vagrant Records. For more album and tour info, head over to the band’s official site.