Posted on: May 10, 2008 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

Following a two year absence since their last long-player, Vetiver return with a new album, Thing Of The Past. A set of cover versions of songs by some of band-leader Andy Cabic’s favourite artists, the album offers a joyful and intriguing insight into some of the music that has inspired and informed the band, whilst remaking the songs very much in their own image and existing as a stunning and coherent album in its own right. Thing Of The Past will be released in the U.S. by Gnomonsong, the label co-headed by Andy and Devendra Banhart. The pre-release press  so far has been incredible; I’ve attached a small sampling below.

Produced by Thom Monahan and Cabic, Thing Of The Past was recorded in Spring, 2007 in Sacramento and  Los Angeles. The basic tracks (all the guitars, drums and bass and some of the vocals) were recorded live in the studio, with the resultant record clearly showcasing a tight-knit band of hugely talented musicians. As witnesses to their live shows over the past year will attest, this is a group in full mastery of their craft – fluid yet fully aligned, intuitively able to open out or reign in their power as the mood dictates. I’m very much hoping you might consider covering Vetiver and their new CD via feature or CD review.
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Frontman Andy Cabic’s affinity for wheezing British folk – the Incredible String Band, Bert Jansch, Vashti Bunyan – is long established, but on Vetiver’s third LP, Cabic tackles 1960’s Americana, covering tracks by Guthrie disciples Michael Hurley, Derroll Adams, Townes Van Zandt and others. Thing of the Past contains no original songs (although it’s unlikely that anyone without a nasty crate-digging habit will recognize most of these tracks, but Vetiver are awfully well-suited to the material and Cabic’s vocals – sweet, smooth, and golden – shine. Amanda Petrusich/Spin May

 
Vetiver’s third album is perhaps the most aptly titled record of all time. Thing of The Past. comprises the sort of ’70’s folk-earnestness and authenticity every band that ever appeared on MTV Unplugged strived for but ultimately cam up short (with the possible exception of Nirvana). It’s the kind of sincerity that’s propelled fellow bay Area hippies (and sometime Vetiver collaborators) Devendra Banhart and Joanna Newsom to indie-folk stardom – and Jerry’s Dead to something of a posthumous hipster revival. Vetiver’s Andy Cabic again plies his whistle-blowing McCartney harmonies, jug-band Americana, and a prairie-dog howl without a shred of irony. When he sings “I’ve got a ticket in my hand/And I’m bound for the Promised Land/ like a circle ’round the sun,” on the opening track, you have to shake your head and believe him. Dylan Stableford/Bust April/May

 
Let’s face it: Lots of indie-rock acts have made less-than-riveting covers albums in recent years. But with “A Thing of the Past,” San Francisco’s Vetiver may potentially have one to eclipse the rest, combining the band’s languid folk rock with a compelling cross section of source material from songwriters including Townes Van Zandt, Hawkwind, Loudon Wainwright III, Iain Matthews and Norman “Spirit in the Sky” Greenbaum.

It’s probably because the band never intended to make a covers album in the first place.

“After the last record I did, I put a band together to tour,” Vetiver front man Andy Cabic says. “Since we had never recorded together, and I didn’t have anything ready to go, I just thought doing something like this would be a good way to get something out this year.”

Many of the songs were knocked out in one take before the band spent the early part of the year on the road with former Jayhawks member Gary Louris, pulling double duty as both backing band and support act. “A Thing of the Past” also features guest appearances by Vashti Bunyan, the Chapin Sisters and Michael Hurley, who not only appears on his own song but also sticks around to play on a few others.

We asked Cabic to talk us through the track list.

“These are songs that I either felt a connection to or thought that we could do a good job with,” he says. “Each song has a different history, and a lot of them are obscure, but there was something in them I felt we could bring back or let people hear for the first time.”

“Houses” (written by Elyse Weinberg): “That’s a deep cut. She released only one album, but there was a second album that never came out. A small label in Athens, Ga., finally reissued it about four years ago, and that’s where I found this song. She was from Canada, and she was a friend of Neil Young’s. He plays guitar on the original version. It’s a great song, completely memorable.”

“Roll on Babe” (written by Derroll Adams): “I love Ronnie Lane of the Small Faces. He’s such a charismatic person. This song is from his solo album, even though he didn’t write it. But that’s his version that we covered.”

“Sleep a Million Years” (written by Dia Joyce): “This one is an odd one. I found that record at Community Thrift on Valencia Street. It’s clearly a private-press recording with a janky black-and-white cover. It’s just raw Bakersfield country. All my friends copied that album from me, and somehow Vashti Bunyan heard it and loved it, so she sang on our version. I tracked down the guitar player in New Mexico and wrote him. He barely remembered it. But a friend of mine found Dia Joyce in San Jose and sent her a copy of the original recording, which she didn’t have. She was thrilled and surprised.”

“Hook & Ladder” (written by Norman Greenbaum): “This was from the album after ‘Spirit in the Sky.’ Nancy Sinatra also covered it. I love all of Norman Greenbaum’s albums. He sings about having a farm and feeding chickens. This is just a simple song, really innocent and catchy.”

“To Baby” (written by Biff Rose): “The original is just a piano and this Kermit the Frog-type voice. But it has a great lyric and melody. The original is its own thing, but I wanted to make it a majestic pop song.”

“Road to Ronderlin” (written by Iain Matthews): “Iain Matthews was in Fairport Convention. It’s simple and stark. It’s a man singing from a woman’s point of view, which I always find fascinating. The lyrics are really devastating.”

“Lon Chaney” (written by Garland Jeffreys): “I like his early stuff. He wrote a song on John Cale’s first solo album. Again, I love the lyrics. It’s just about a guy in a hotel room watching a Lon Chaney movie and seeing it as a metaphor for the downfall of mankind.”

“Hurry on Sundown” (written by Dave Brock, Hawkwind): “This is from the first Hawkwind album. It’s the band in country-rock mode. It’s a different style from what Vetiver usually does, but everyone loves Hawkwind.”

“Swimming Song” (written by Loudon Wainwright III): “I could stand to have a broader listening of what he’s done. This is just one of the songs we started doing live. Everyone can relate to the mood. When I’m on the road, I tend to listen to songs I like over and over rather than a whole album. This was one of them.”

“Blue Driver” (written by Michael Hurley): “He’s a friend of ours and was around for the recording sessions, so we asked him to join us on a few tracks. This is a trucker song. We recorded it all live.”

“Standing” (written by Townes Van Zandt): “Some of these songs we never played until the day we tracked them, including this one. This was a groove we just wanted to try our hand at.”

“I Must Be in a Good Place Now” (written by Bobby Charles): “We did this in the first take. He’s really a great person and songwriter. It’s a very special record.” Aidin Vaziri/San Francisco Chronicle 5/2

 

Vetiver main man Andy Cabic is at the nexus of a lot of interesting activities and musical scenes. He enlisted Joanna Newsom and Mazzy Star’s Hope Sandoval to play on his first album, and Vetiver recently toured as the backing group for the Jayhawks’ Gary Louris. Cabic is part of his pal Devendra Banhart’s band, and the two run the Gnomonsong label, which just released Vetiver’s third full-length CD, Thing of the Past. The album is a labor of love, a collection of Cabic’s favorite tunes that differs from many covers projects because the song selection encompasses such unexpected sources as Garland Jeffreys (“Lon Chaney”), Michael Hurley (“Blue Driver”) and Hawkwind (“Hurry on Sundown”). Even with such a variety songs, Thing of the Past has a unified feel with Cabic’s intimate vocal delivery buttressed by minimal pianos and unplugged guitars. As with his own material, Cabic succeeds in making these songs dreamy and pastoral yet also folksy and personal. Falling James/LA Weekly 4/30

 
San Francisco songsmith Andy Cabic, who plays Great American Music Hall with his band Vetiver on May 6 for the first time since August, dusts his shoulders of such snobbery. “I don’t know why there would be a critical bias against cover records,” he opines outside Sacramento at the Hanger studio where he’s three days into the next Vetiver album of original numbers. “Maybe a critic should try to do a covers record and see how good it comes out before they say there’s something wrong with it.”

Cabic’s not ashamed to point out that “throwback is all over” Vetiver’s new collection of offbeat covers, Thing of the Past (Gnomonsong). The retro album art depicting a pretty girl studying old vinyl was shot at Cabic’s Inner Richmond flat, highlighting just a fraction of his impressive stash of records – and the music was made by the band a group of old friends from North Carolina that Cabic assembled to tour Vetiver’s To Find Me Gone (Dicristina Stair, 2006).

Wasn’t it Bob Dylan and the Beatles who triggered so many critics to privilege songwriters over interpreters? “I was just having a conversation with someone about what caused it,” Cabic says. “I think you’d have to attribute it to Bob Dylan. The Beatles’ first two records had covers. I still love those records that were put together by the whole machinery of an A&R person, a singer, and songs by the great writers of that moment. But I chose songs that weren’t of the moment – songs that were timeless or not easily heard today, songs I thought we could do well.” Well is an understatement: Thing is a lovely, tenderly rendered amalgam of the band’s distinctive sound, Cabic’s hushed voice, unusual covers – which run the gamut from Biff Rose’s “To Baby” to David Brock and Hawkwind’s “Hurry on Sundown” to San Jose mystery songwriter Dia Joyce’s “Sleep a Million Years” – and guest turns by underground folk luminaries like Michael Hurley and Vashti Bunyan. “The interesting aspect of doing covers is that there’s a mixture of restraint and freedom in doing them,” Cabic muses. Kimberly Chun/Bay Guardian 4/30

  “I’m in here pretty often, as you might guess,” says Andy Cabic, leaning back against a stack of reggae albums at Amoeba Music and laughing like a man who has spent a little too much time combing through dusty vinyl.

Growing up in the D.C. area, the 33-year-old guitarist, Devendra Banhart sidekick, and frontman for local indie folksters Vetiver spent his youth hitting used-record shops. “Back when I was a kid, you had to ask the people who worked at the record stores for recommendations,” he says. “There’s so much more music out there now, and it’s so easy to access. I’m afraid that people are losing that personal connection to music because they didn’t have to drive around to three different record stores looking for an album the day it was released.”

A longing for days gone by manifests itself on Thing of the Past, a covers record due out on May 13 that finds Vetiver reinterpreting songs by the likes of Townes Van Zandt, Bobby Charles, and Norman Greenbaum. Cabic says the decision to record a covers album came out of a lineup shift after 2006’s To Find Me Gone. (Vetiver’s current crew features new guitarist Sanders Tripp and new bassist Brent Dunne alongside veterans Alissa Anderson on cello and Otto Hauser on drums.) “Although we’re all old friends, we’ve never recorded together as a group before,” he says. “I wanted to get into the studio with everybody to just see how it felt. A covers album sounded fun.”

Cabic and company mined different resources for the album’s 12 tracks, from personal favorites to bargain-bin discoveries. He found Kathy Heideman’s Move with Love at Community Thrift. “It’s an amazingly beautiful record,” he says. “I have no idea where Kathy Heideman is today or what happened to her, but ‘Sleep a Million Years’ is a really great song that I felt like we had to have on the record. To have Vashti Bunyan on it with us was incredible.”

“Roll on Babe,” another Thing of the Past gem, was written by Derroll Adams but popularized by former Faces bassist Ronnie Lane after he released it on his 1974 album, Anymore for Anymore. “I love Ronnie Lane,” Cabic says. “He has a certain looseness that I aspire to. After he left the Faces at the apex of their fame, he apparently lived out in the sticks in England on some farm and recorded music on the hillsides. You can hear kids playing in the background on some of the songs on those albums he made. I’ve always thought that was pretty cool.”

A more obscure source of inspiration came from Elyse Weinberg, a Canadian singer-songwriter who moved to Los Angeles in the early ’70s and was friends with Neil Young. “We do a great song of hers called ‘Houses,'” Cabic says. “It was supposed to be on her second album that never came out. I heard it as an extra track on a reissue of her first album. I saw one over in the vinyl section when I was in [Amoeba] the other day. Let’s go take a look.” When I catch up with Cabic, he has pulled out a copy of Elyse and is scanning the liner notes. “Neil Young actually plays the guitar solo on the original recording of the song,” he adds. “It’s a great record and it’s got an amazing cover.”

On “Blue Driver,” Vetiver is joined by singer-songwriter Michael Hurley, who recorded the song for his 1972 album, Hi Fi Snock Uptown. “We had him come down to the studio to sing on it, and he ended up hanging out with us all day and stayed at my house,” Cabic recalls. “That duet with Michael Hurley is something I’ll always remember because I’ve always been a big fan of his music.” Andy Tenielle/SF Weekly 4/30

  Vetiver ‘s timeless brand of folk-rock evokes the ease and nostalgia of bygone days like a faded but cherished Polaroid. Their forthcoming album of covers, Thing of the Past, features excellent renditions of songs by masters like Townes Van Zandt and Loudon Wainwright III. And get there early for the sun-drenched pop of Kelley Stoltz, whose hilariously dry between-song banter is worth the price of admission. Ned Lanneman/Portland Mercury 5/1

  Gentle San Fran folkers Vetiver love to pay homage by way of the cover. When the dusty troupe rolled through the Tractor Tavern a while back, they made (my) dreams come true by bringing one of my favorite tracks in the free world to life: Southern crooner Bobby Charles’ lazy-summer-day anti-anthem “I Must Be in a Good Place Now” (from his 1972 self-titled release, which features none other than the Band backing him up). Hats were also tipped to Canada’s Great Speckled Bird and the Wizards, a Swedish psych band from the ’70s, with a lively cover of “See You Tonight” that I have yet to track down. Unfortunately, the song doesn’t make an appearance on Vetiver’s recent release, Thing of the Past, a well-executed set of covers culled by leader Andy Cabic (a deliciously hazy version of “I Must Be in a Good Place Now,” however, closes the record). The playlist reads more like a crate-digger’s dream than any week’s Billboard’s Top 100, with renditions that range from Hawkwind’s “Hurry On Sundown” and Loudon Wainwright III’s “The Swimming Song” to Ian Matthews’ “Road to Ronderlin” and Garland Jeffreys’ “Lon Chaney.” Cabic considers this effort his best to date, though their original works, while well-worn in the best kind of way, aren’t too shabby either.

Aja Pecknold /Seattle Weekly 4/30

 

Conventionally speaking, artists resort to recording albums of other people’s songs when they’ve run out of fresh ideas. But that’s not the case for Andy Cabic of San Francisco-based folk-noir alchemists Vetiver, whose just-released third disc, Thing of the Past, is nothing but covers.

When the singer-guitarist picks up the phone in Sacramento, you can hear the sound of a band in the background. Even though Thing of the Past has just hit record stores, he’s hard at work in a studio called the Hangar, where Vetiver is already working on a follow-up. Cabic says he’s feeling particularly inspired these days, mostly because he learned so much reworking the tunes of others for the collection, which was recorded in the same room he’s in today.

“I have a band that I put together after the release of To Find Me Gone,” he says, referring to Vetiver’s 2006 sophomore album. “So before this record [Thing of the Past], I had never really tracked with them. Recording at the Hangar was sort of an opportunity to play live, get things down, and go from there. It was a good exercise in freedom and discipline and having a template to work from, but not being afraid to add your own personal style to what you’re doing.”

As cover records go, you can file Thing of the Past in the radical-reinterpretation category, giving it more in common with Rage Against the Machine’s Renegades than, say, Guns N’ Roses’ The Spaghetti Incident. Where To Find Me Gone served up smouldering Americana laced with sweeping strings and desert-noir pedal steel, Cabic is now willing to turn up the amps. Check out the serrated guitar squalls in the otherwise acoustic “Houses” by ’60s cult heroine Elyse Weinberg. (“You should hear the original-she has Neil Young playing those leads, which is even more mind-bendingly interruptive.”) Elsewhere, Norman Greenbaum’s “Hook and Ladder” starts out with campfire guitar and ends up flared with all-hands-on-deck chanting and New Orleans funeral-march brass, and Hawkwind’s “Hurry on Sundown” filters alt-country through the Velvet Underground circa the Factory years.

Most striking about Thing of the Past-which also includes numbers by Michael Hurley, Loudon Wainwright III, and Townes Van Zandt-is that, like To Find Me Gone, it has an analogue warmth that’s increasingly rare in this digital age. Cabic, who moonlights as a guitarist with psych-folk surrealist Devendra Banhart, suggests that’s more by accident than by design; he’s not one of those dogmatists slavishly devoted to recording on reel-to-reel tape.

“I’m definitely not beholden to any one kind of technology,” he reveals. “I listen to vinyl, and that’s what I buy, but that’s because it’s cheap and because I’ve bought it ever since I was a kid.”

For proof of his obsession with the 12-inch format, look no further than Thing of the Past’s album art. The cover has a Rose McGowan look-alike camped out in a living room that’s straight out of ’73, complete with a wickedly retro turntable and amp, and a wall of old-fashioned LPs. Forget set-dressing-the picture gives you a good idea of where Cabic went looking when he decided to make an album of covers.

“That’s actually my living room and my stereo,” he says with a laugh. “What you see is what I listen to music on when I’m at home.”Mike Usinger/Georgia Straight 5/1

 
Vetiver’s survival of the buzz wave from San Francisco’s freak-folk scene has finally yielded some much-deserved ballyhoo. The band’s upcoming all-covers album, Thing of the Past, briskly braises Dead-esque jam leads in woven tapestries of murky folk rock. Vocalist Andy Cabic (also a member of Devendra Banhart’s band) is a natural frontman, all spastic and enchanting, and it comes through even when the band branches off to tap into others’ songs (material from Hawkwind, Bobby Charles, and Biff Rose is featured, among others). There’s a tenderness to even their most brazen tunes, and an undeniable ’70s vibe permeates almost every pore of their sound-not as a detriment, but as badge of authenticity. Expect to laugh, cry, mourn, and sway in elation all in one set-that’s a pretty potent concoction. RYAN J. PRADO/Portland mercury 5/1

 I have no idea why the cops would be after Vetiver on this cover of Michael Hurley‘s “Blue Driver”, from their upcoming covers album Thing of the Past. It’s not like the band is actually speeding or driving recklessly. Expired plates? Broken taillight? A marijuana leaf on the mudflaps? Thick smoke billowing from the cab? Vetiver ride an amiable 40-mph two-step shuffle, adding what sound like some electrified Bakersfield guitars and Hurley’s countrified vocals on the chorus. Turns out it’s an inside job: As the song ends, Snock himself lets out a siren wail and pulls the band over. Pitchforkmedia.com 4/25

 
The San Francisco freak folkers, regular riding buddies of Devendra Banhart, silence concerns about the genre–deemed precious by some–on new LP “Thing of the Past.” The set of obscure late-hippie folk covers is utterly convincing: a dignified and noble bow from youths to elders. Pete Gavin music.download.com  4/23

 
Like its namesake plant, Vetiver has deep roots, is sweet, earthy and soothing-thanks to the mellifluous warm voice and compositions of Andy Cabic. Based in San Francisco, the band has Sacramento ties: Their upcoming release, Thing of the Past, was partly recorded at The Hangar Studios, and their spring tour begins here Thursday night. That’s lucky for Sac, because the music enthralls and endears with delicate string pickings, cello and reed drones, harmonious vocals and rollicking stomps. The new record is a collection of covers by vintage folk tunes and at first listen, it’s clear Vetiver is wearing someone else’s trousers. But after a lap around the track, those slacks get broken in. Unafraid to dabble with a bevy of instruments, Cabic weaves layers of melodic narrative expertly played by his band of dear friends while singing about the simple beauty of nature and the complicated nature of relationships. Prepare to be smitten- Shoka Shafiee/Sacramento News & Review 4/25

  With their last stop in New York City as part of a supporting series of dates for The Shins back in October of 2007, Vetiver are bringing their brand of lethargic psychedelic fused folk back to the Big Apple on April 2 at The Town Hall. In the wake of the 2006 release of To Find Me Gone, produced by Thom Monahan (the husband of ex-High Times editor Shirley Halerpin), the band is returning this time as special invited guests. Vetiver, who just released an LP full of cover tunes, will serve as the backing band for ex-Jayhawks ringleader Gary Louris.

The coproduction guidance of Black Crowes front man Chris Robinson and Thom Monahan oversaw Louris’ recent musical pressing. As the story goes, Robinson brought a few of Monahan’s discs to a pre-production meeting and the reverberations coming out of the speakers  convinced Louris to bring onboard the rising music producer.The album, which is entitled Vagabonds, was released last month courtesy of Rykodisc. The California folk movement has seen the rise of  unspeakably influential underground Americana roots projects including The Byrds, Gram Parsons’Burrito Brothers, and The Beachwood Sparks, to name just a few.Though other scenes are exploring the  alternative-country genre, the kids of the Pacific are operating in the most collaborative and cohesive manner.
The Town Hall lineup will consist of Gary Louris (vox/guitar), Andy Cabic (guitar), Otto Hauser (drums), Brett Dunn (bass) and Sanders Trippe (guitar). In addition to supporting Louris, Andy Cabic and company will perform the opening set of their respective original material. Martin Halo/Aquarian Weekly 4/2

 Cabic’s Vetiver surround themselves with friends from the inside on Thing Of The Past), a collection of covers ranging from the obscure (Elyse Weinberg) to, um, Hawkwind. Due to a friendship with anti-folk posterboy Devendra Banhart, it seems Vetiver have been working, not to disavow, but clarify their implied identity. For a fakebook disc, Past backs them up superbly. Though wispy in parts (“Sleep A Million Years”), there are gothic-Americana treasures to be found in Ramblin’ Jack Elliott companion Derroll Adams’ “Roll On Babe,” bitter hippie Biff Rose’s “To Baby,” Townes Van Zandt’s “Standin’,” and Garland Jeffrey’s ode to eponymous movie-monster actor Lon Chaney. Steve ForstnegerIllinoisEntertainer.com 3/27

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