On the Wagon: Pit Wagon gets a little darker on new record
There’s something magical about Matt Vold’s voice. Cigarette smoke and salt of the earth mix together with a bunch of folk sadness somewhere deep in his vocal cords and what comes out is this fearsome, wispy, bluesy growl. It’s perfect for the kind of songs he writes with his band Pit Wagon, who make country rock gems with a cowboy punk twist. Vold has sung a lot of songs over the years – in bars, on porches, at rock venues, around bonfires, and in the wee hours of the morning.
That smoky warble is well worn and rough around the edges in all the right ways, like an old baseball mit that fits seamlessly – and once the five-piece band kicks in with harmonies by Emily Jensen, Matthew Mabis, Matt Haapala, and Josh Ingersoll, the songs become somewhat miraculous.
It’s never sweeter than on “Gramps” – a standout cut from Pit Wagon’s new sophomore album Well, a double-LP vinyl that releases on May 20. Vold rips through lyrics about drinking Old Milwaukee and lighting the wrong end of a cigarette with reckless abandon. Then the gang vocals and punchy instruments hit on the chorus, and the band turns the song into a raucous gem, perfect for cranking on summery country roads.
Pit Wagon’s been making music together for almost three years now, playing tons of live shows all over the area. They’re friends first, bandmates second; they’re tight on stage and off. On their first record, a self-titled effort that came out back in 2014, Pit Wagon established themselves with a collection of songs for drinkin’ and thinkin’ with a light-hearted touch. Now three years later, Well simultaneously sounds both more ecstatic and more dark than their debut. For every roll-the-windows-down moment, there’s a handful of gut punches. Like on one of the record’s best songs, “Universe,” Vold simply goes: “I’m fine with all you people, but I’m better on my own / I like things when they’re here, I like ’em more when they’re gone.”
When I asked why the record is called Well, I figured the obvious answer would be the title track, which Mabis wrote. But rather … “All the songs I write start with me going ‘Well…’ ” Vold said, with a laugh. It’s pretty true. Now that the band’s got its sound established and a bunch of great work under its belt, members are more confident than ever.
“There’s a lot more swear words on this album,” Vold chuckled. “I put swears in other songs before, but it never felt this good.”
“I think we’re feeling freer, you know, we’ve been playing together a long time,” Jensen said. “(These songs are) a little more raucous, a little more rock ’n’ roll. I think the first album’s a little more lighthearted, more folk storytelling, but I think this one’s more dark.”
The songs pop a bit more with distinct rock ’n’ roll energy courtesy of their rambunctious live sound which they captured with Brian Joseph. Pit Wagon convened to record Well over the course of four days at Joseph’s Eau Claire-based Hive Studio. Add in some pedal steel by Ben Lester and viola by Mike Noyce, and you’ve got a strong cocktail of talented fingerprints on this thing. With very little tinkering and overdubbing, most of these songs were tracked live at the studio, then mastered by Zach Hanson. Pit Wagon thrives at live shows wherever they may be, and the songs evolve more and more over time. “The ones that didn’t have a lot structure when we went in (to record) ended up taking on a little more character,” Mabis said.
Well really is a precious record from some of Eau Claire’s finest, and the double LP takes all the thrills and bummers that come with living in this neck of the woods and molds them into unbreakable tunes we’ll be spinning all summer long.
Catch Pit Wagon’s Well release show at 9pm on Saturday, May 20, at The Venue (back room of The Plus), with opening acts Hoff and Mike D. Admission is $10 and comes with a free download of the record, and 100 exclusive double-LPs will also be available for $20 apiece.
