Nathaniel RateliffEmpty Bottle Evenings

Sep162015September 16, 2015September 16, 20151 Commentby Bake

Nathaniel Rateliff

Posted in Music

Last night as I was affirming my old age by skipping around the late night talk shows I stumbled upon a band playing on Conan that made me think I had stumbled upon the end of The Blues Brothers. A band known as Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats were performing their apparent single “S.O.B”. The titular member of the band was soulfully singing out “Son of a bitch!” while doing a little shimmy dance. In the background there a full horn section, hand clapping, group vocals, and all the extras that usually grab my attention. I thought, “Hey! Cool song!” And at the very least it was worth listening to more than another stale joke. It’s okay, I still love you Conan.

Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats released their first album together (at least under this moniker) just a few weeks ago. I’ve only listened to a little of it but I’m digging it so far. Still, instead of waiting and doing a review I started listening to some of Rateliff’s back catalog and there’s some great songs there. I haven’t found much like the brass bracked new stuff, but there’s some cool, creepy sounding bluesy jams and some solid folk songs. Rateliff shifts his voice around too from hitting higher soulful notes to drawn out, dark. near spoken-word, sounding like Brain from Pinky & the Brain. Or Orson Welles if you prefer. I found this video (below) from Brighton Music Hall that gives a pretty good taste and now I’m kinda pissed I missed the show. This is why I shouldn’t rely on talk show hosts for my music. Next time I’ll beat the curve. But if you haven’t yet, time to jump on the bandwagon.