Across Tundras

It's been less than a year since Dark Songs of the Prairie, Across Tundras' most recent full-length, swept into stores — but the band's already readying a successor. Full Moon Blizzard, an EP available through the act's MySpace page, includes demos of three tracks slated for the next recording, plus...

By Michael Roberts

August 2, 2007

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It's been less than a year since Dark Songs of the Prairie, Across Tundras' most recent full-length, swept into stores — but the band's already readying a successor. Full Moon Blizzard, an EP available through the act's MySpace page, includes demos of three tracks slated for the next recording, plus a pair of curios that find Tanner Olson and friends exploring the crossroads of traditional folk and modern atmospherics.

High fidelity isn't the disc's raison d'être: The liner notes boast that the guitar sounds were captured using "a microphone found in the trash." Nevertheless, the outfit's energy radiates through the murk on the power-chord showcase "Razorwire Blues" and the appropriately monikered "Thunderclap Stomp," both of which constitute promising raw material. "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" and "Phantom Ride" are similarly rough, but this primitivism gives their Old West themes an appropriately eerie vibe.

The real storm is coming. But Blizzard will do for now.

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Michael Roberts began his career with Westword in 1990 as music editor. In 1999, he took on a new role, full-time media reporter, as author of a column called The Message. In 2008, he became the lead writer for Westword's news blog, The Latest Word, a position he held until January 2023. Michael continues to freelance for Westword, covering everything from business to sports and the media; he also contributes to Jazziz, a national music magazine. He holds a bachelor's degree from what is now Colorado Mesa University and master's degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles, and Northwestern University.

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