New Music - Eric Wolfson

You couldn’t expect the politically minded Eric Wolfson, one of my local favorites, to keep quiet during an election year. His wicked cool 2007 debut, State Street Rambler, was full of politically and socially charged Dylan-esque folk-rock, and he’s been an outspoken supporter of Barack Obama in this year of election as well. He also contributed a bunch of thoughts to my Year In Review series last December, proving he’s got his finger on the pulse of more than just politics and the L.E.S. music scene.

Wolfson has been busy of late recording 2 new demos and posting them on his myspace page. Both avoid lyrical subtlety in favor of sharp, striking images and clear messages. “Crispus Attucks” name drops the one-time slave & revolutionary who helped incite the Boston Massacre, and then does the same for a few hundred other tongue twisting cultural and historical references. It sounds like “Subterranean Homesick Blues” meets “We Didn’t Start The Fire” without the cue card video of the former or the tacky chorus of the latter. The other new track is a reworked version of Rithie Valens’ “Donna”, only with new lyrics and Obama’s name inserted instead of the female love interest. Clever shit I tell you.

MP3 :: Crispus Attucks
MP3 :: Obama
(demos available at Wolfson’s myspace)
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MP3 :: Graveyard Girls
(from State Street Rambler. Buy here)
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Wolfson will be playing a full band show on July 5 at the Sidewalk Café in Manhattan to celebrate the 156th anniversary of Frederick Douglass’s “5th of July” Speech.
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Related :: [video] Eric Wolfson - "Sleeping Is A Sucker's Game"
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