Oregon Trail: Blitzen Trapper

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WHEN BLITZEN TRAPPER frontman Eric Earley was growing up, he listened to what many teenagers listened to in the 1990s. He got his classic rock fix from Bob Dylan and Neil Young, and his modern rock fix from the grunge scene.

And since then, his musical tastes have grown up, too.

"I feel like now I listen to a lot more of a broader scope of music," Earley said. "I listen to a lot of old country. I listen to a lot of the newer bands that are playing: CSS, Of Montreal, M.I.A. and Deerhoof."

Blitzen Trapper is based in Portland, Ore., a city Modest Mouse's Issac Brock and Stephen Malkmus also call home. Living there, it makes sense for Earley to have vast musical tastes.

"There's always been a lot of music in Portland," Earley said. "There's always bands starting and stopping. There's a lot of good music in Portland. I know most of the bands there. There are all kinds of different scenes."

The city has also produced indie-rockers The Decemberists, a band which, along with New Mexico-based The Shins, tends to be easy to look to when describing Blitzen Trapper. And while Earley said the comparisons can get annoying, he realizes it's just part of the industry.

"I think that all bands think that," he said. "Everyone gets compared to everyone else all the time. Most of the time people have a difficult time pigeonholing us."

And that's because Blitzen Trapper's sound is all the over the place.

While Earley's vocals do occasionally resemble The Shins' James Mercer ("Futures & Folly"), as a whole — especially on the band's latest album, "Wild Mountain Nation" (Sub Pop) — Blitzen Trapper shifts genres so quickly you're often left wondering if it's still the same group playing.

"Devil's a Go-Go" and "Miss Spiritual Tramp" have thrashlike vibes, perhaps showing a bit of grunge's influence on Earley. "Wild Mountain Nation" sounds like a song The Band would have written, had the group been of this era. Then there's "Woof & Warp of the Quiet Giant's Hem," which sounds like a song from "Super Mario Brothers" on acid, complete with shredding guitar licks, a looped "Yea, Yea, Yea" and even a wolf's howl.

But Early isn't willful about Blitzen Trapper's genre-hopping arrangements.

"I think for me it's all about the songwriting, regardless of what kind of treatment the song gets," he said.

And that hyper-eclecticism shows up in the band's unhinged live shows, too.

"There's a lot of ups and downs, loud to quiet," Early said of the band's performances. "I think it's engaging because you never know what's going to happen next."

» Black Cat, 1811 14th St. NW; with Fleet Foxes, Tue., 9 p.m.,$10; 800-551-7328. (U St.-Cardozo)

Written by Express contributor Rudi Greenberg

Photos by Jade Harris