Dan Knudsen
Dan Knudsen
Outer Space
self-released
Click to hear: “Outer Space”
Outer Space is Portland Gospel-folk star Dan Knudsen’s darkest and most accomplished album yet. It’s also his “strangest and heaviest,” as he said in a recent interview. “It’s very rocky.”
For one thing, there are drums on several tracks, played by Knudsen himself. There’s also a lot of keyboard (Knudsen again), much of it quite spacey.
Then there’s the subject matter: aliens, atomic-powered insect monsters, death row, even Satan himself, “the devil, or his son or whatever,” Knudsen explained. So much for grass, grain and apple seeds.
It turns out that in addition to heroes like Gordon Lightfoot and James Taylor, Knudsen listens to a lot of Ozzy and Judas Priest. You can hear echoes of hard rock on the first two songs: the title cut and “Sometimes It’s So Hard.”
On “Outer Space,” Knudsen borrows a musical passage heard on Mötley Crüe’s “Wild Side.” On “Sometimes,” he (perhaps ironically) lifts a bit from Guns N’ Roses’ “It’s So Easy”: “Sometimes it’s so hard / So freakin’ hard / Sometimes it’s so hard / So dang hard.” (As you can tell, Knudsen does not have Axl Rose’s potty mouth; also, unlike Axl, he plays gigs booked for him in Portland and releases albums as promised.)
“The Emperor Lucifer” is one of the best songs Knudsen’s ever done. It’s genuinely creepy, thanks to some spooky church organ and finely picked minor-key guitar chords. But thanks to the lyrics, it’s also campy in Knudsen’s trademark way. This meditation on evil is packed with a cast that includes werewolves, vampires, apes, wolves (the regular kind), dinosaurs, Barbarians, Vikings, witches, warlocks, “vipers and roaches and moles and blobs and giants made of stone.”
The chorus: “He’s disguised as a Satanic sorcerer / He is there, the Emperor Lucifer.” (You’d think Satan could cook up a better disguise than Satanic sorcerer, but the rhyme works wonderfully.)
There’s some straighter material, like the James Bond homage “Born in the U.K.” and the autobiographical “Working With the Kids,” but weirdness pops up again in the Gospel feel-good number “I’m Rising Up,” the album’s closer. “Even when it’s time for me to go / God shall send his star fleet / The Almighty’s gonna send his space ships / Just to beam-a, beam-a, beam-a me up….” It’s the catchiest and quirkiest song here, featuring Knudsen on autoharp and a vibraphone solo he plays on the keys.
The keyboards generally complement the arrangements (an exception being the overlong “Creatures of the Sand,” on which they’re way overdone), but the drums are often a distraction. Knudsen’s DIY approach is commendable, but drums played badly are worse than no drums at all.
Knudsen’s got a CD release show coming up at Strange Maine, where he’s billed as being backed by the Metal Chariot Band. Competent drumming, like that heard on his 2006 live album from Strange Maine, can improve his material, and you’re likely to hear some that night.
Congrats on another winner, Dan. Don’t go over to the Dark Side just yet.
— Chris Busby
Dan Knudsen and the Metal Chariot Band play Sat., June 14, at Strange Maine, 578 Congress St., Portland, at 7:30 p.m. Donations accepted (all ages). 771-9997. kraag.org/strange.