Deer Park

Back on message slowly. I have been busy beavering in the background for the last few weeks and hope to introduce a major update to the site in the next week or so. In the meantime...some music.

This is a band that has been on my radar for a while but one that for some reason I haven't got to mention on the blog...until now. Deer Park hail originally from Dublin but are now a UK based act. Led by Mark Christopher Grassick, the band now consists of a four piece with Mark being joined by Ian Olney, Ryan Kalkman and Hiro Amamiya. The bands music sways somewhere between the folk end of americana and almost punk alt-country (I apologise for the excessive use of hyphens). While the early releases from the band are upbeat alt-country affairs, the recent releases are a bit more of a mellow feel.

The band released their self-titled debut album in 2009. Here is where you will find the more action orientated tracks. Mark as a singer, in my mind sways someway between Colin Meloy of the Decemberists on the slow songs and Micah Schnabel (of Two Cow Garage) on the upbeat tricks. As a whole, I would compare the band to Two Cow Garage. The music oozes punk attitude to me on track like "Waiting for a change" and "Just because we're running".My favourite of the album though is "The evening redness in the west". It has again got that punk ethos combined with just the right amount of country to work perfectly.

The later stuff from the band is a more calming sort. Since the album appearance, the band have released a tour ep and more recently an acoustic demos ep of sorts, just last month. A lot of this new stuff is, for me reminiscent of Josh Ritter. It is particularly evident on "Something here is fractured". The guitar picking, the lyrics and the simple arrangements of the song, the small addition of a fiddle and the female vocals make a song still feel sparse but with a lot of depth.

All of the band's music is available to stream and buy on their bandcamp page. To keep up to date with the latest in the Deer Park world, you can't go wrong with the facebook.