Jon Snodgrass used a sling a guitar in Armchair Martian and Drag the River but decided to go with the singer-songwriter route and dropped Visitor's Band on us in 2009. I never familiarized myself with the country-fried Drag the River. However, I recall Armchair Martian being a guitar heavy pop-punk rock band that Bill and Stephen from ALL always seem to produce their records.
Jon Snodgrass has a pleasant somewhat nasally voice that propels this mostly acoustic album. There's plenty of guest stars Chris from Doc Hopper, Jason Livermore, Joey Erg, and Two Cow Garage on the electrified tracks.
Visitor's Band is a bar album for aged pop-punksters that have beards and wear faded baseball caps, jeans, and flannels all year long (*cough fellow SPB scribe, Zach F cough*). I could imagine a bunch of near thirty-somethings ignoring Jon in some dive in North Minneapolis as they talk stock options and the last episode of Lost.
It's a shame if they ignore Mr. Snodgrass too as Visitor's Band is chock full of heartfelt somber songs that recall Uncle Tupelo at their most wrist opening depressing. When the songs began to "rock" I recall a very tepid late period Replacements with much more corn-fed twang. So yeah this black-hearted dyed in the wool hardcore reviewer likes the tear jerking tracks better. Sue me. Visitor's Band reminds of those long summer nights I use to toil around the back country roads in whatever jalopy my dad brought me that year. I would sometimes stop in the middle of nowhere next to a soybean field, crank the tape player, and lay on my hood to gaze up into a billion starred sky. I miss those days. I miss being that kid. It's too bad I listened to mostly Strife back then. I could have used a decent soul-searching county-tinged rock album like Visitor's Band as my soundtrack. It would have made for a good part in a bad movie about my life.
Jon Snodgrass' music isn't usually my plastic cup of a cheap beer but I enjoyed Visitor's Band more than I ever thought I would. That's saying a lot. Maybe there's still that punk kid that's stuck in small town hell in me. In addition, maybe he needs to make an appearance from time to time and Visitor's Band will be there for those times.
