The Suitcase Junket, Mean Dog, Trampoline Review
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Matt Lorenz is a multi-instrumentalist and master mind behind the one-man band project called, The Suitcase Junket. Lorenz is an artist, tinkerer, tunesmith and swamp Yankee. Lorenz is also a one-man salvage specialist singing into the hollow of a dumpster guitar, slipping a broken bottleneck onto the slide finger, railing on a box of twisted forks and bones, rocking till every sound is ragged at its edges, till the house is singing back. His music is organic, full of deep roots and overtones of rock and blues. With the perfect blend of attitude, Lorenz presents a style that is anchored in folk rock and blues. The Amherst, Massachusetts based singer has a way with lyrics and a voice that is just as powerful as his poetic lines. The Suitcase Junket is releasing a new album titled Mean Dog, Trampoline. With twelve songs populated by characters in various states of reverie: leaning on jukeboxes, loitering on dance floors, lying on the bottoms of empty swimming pools in the sun. Despite being deeply attuned to the chaos of the world, Lorenz imbues those moments with jubilant curiosity, an endless passion for life’s most subtle mysteries. His songs align with Joan Jett to moonshine to runaway kites and Mean Dog, Trampoline makes an undeniable case for infinite curiosity as a potent antidote to jadedness and despair. All of this is conveyed with Lorenz’s rustic voice and excellent instrumental skills.
Positives:
Lorenz’s voice has such a unique quality and his lyrics are very hip and vibrate with depth.
Bottom Line:
The Suitcase Junket is presenting something a little different with Mean Dog, Trampoline. The album is produced by Steve Berlin (Jackie Greene, Rickie Lee Jones, Leo Kottke) of Los Lobos. This new input gives Mean Dog, Trampoline a new and hearty sound from the self-recorded, homespun approach of The Suitcase Junket’s previous efforts. In creating the album, Lorenz pulled from a fantastic patchwork sonic palette, shaping his songs with elements of jangly folk, fuzzed-out blues, oddly textured psych-rock. Engineered by Justin Pizzoferrato (Dinosaur Jr., Speedy Ortiz) and mixed by Vance Powell (Jack White, Houndmouth). The Suitcase Junket’s sound is still very much intact on the project, the result is his most powerfully direct album so far. The leading song of the project is “Dandelion Crown.” The lyrics convey a warm empathy into its loving and nuanced portrait of addiction, sung with passion and directness by Lorenz. “The song came from thinking about how you can lose control of your life by degrees, until you don’t even recognize yourself anymore,” says Lorenz. “But there’s still a little redemption in there—those moments when things become sweet and clear again, despite the fact that you’re permanently changed as a person.” Honest lyrics with a rootsy reverence. Lorenz songs are honest and straight forward with an earnest trustworthiness that leaves the listener engaged. His whisky drenched voice is believable, and his traveled stories speaks a truth. Highly recommended and that's the short of it!