The Wailing Wall (Exclusive!)
In hardly four years, The Wailing Wall has made its way through more than thirty musicians, numerous tours, and several carefully constructed records of songs that took years to perfect. Jesse Rifkin, the leader and lifeblood of the group, has graciously permitted The Hippodrome to release not one, not two, not fifteen, but three exclusive tracks for your downloading pleasure. All are from his forthcoming record, Hospital Blossoms, and judging from these prereleases and his past history, I don’t think he’s going to remain unsigned much longer.
As you’ll guess from the quality of the recordings, Rifkin’s musical history is filled with collaborations with contemporary visionaries. He’s played or recorded with the likes of Jason Anderson, Adrian Orange, and The Castanets, to name just a few. On the latest record, he’s joined by six good pals, including engineer and co-producer Chris Roush, who is Rifkin’s upcoming tourmate.
Influentially, The Wailing Wall has always taken careful stock of its predecessors. Leonard Cohen infused lyrics, Nick Drake’s Bryter Layter-era piano chords, and Microphones rhythmic intensity have made the band’s live show a spectacle to behold.
On how the record is different from past work, Rifkin tells me that “it’s the first release of mine that I didn’t record, which was kind of a big deal. In the past everything was just sort of patched together — I would play everything. This was us playing the songs as we played them live. Chris [Roush] and I took more liberties with the production… but the performances are as they were on stage.”
This is an interesting approach considering the stark mood shift from Rifkin’s past work. “It’s a much darker record, all the songs were written during a pretty horrible period of my life. They were definitely a coping mechanism, and they helped me work out what was going on in my head… it was six months, probably actually eight or nine where things were just the worst they’d ever been. I don’t know that it’s more honest, but it’s differently honest than the other stuff because everything that I wrote during that period is on the record. I did my best to cut out the whiny, indulgent parts.”
Rifkin adds “that the record gets sort of increasingly hopeful toward the end because I did come out of that awful period… it’s not just this one big dark miserable Cure record, you know?”
It’s precisely this energy of the live band that carries even the melancholic sections into an energetic and inspiring place. Not surprisingly, the record is much like Rifkin’s live performance. The method The Wailing Wall uses live never gets flaky or lurid, as Rifkin utilizes the Akron/Family “vibrational energies” strategy to tailor each show to the audience. This strategy will undoubtedly help Rifkin, who is touring just with a guitar, a loop pedal, and his incisors across the northeast, beginning on March 14.
While performing Hospital Blossoms without the assuring support of his former live band will be a challenge, time has proven that The Wailing Wall can do it.
Audio: Sister, I
Audio: Hospital Blossom
Audio: Morning
