Wil Cope‘s first two releases, his debut Sunset Craves and follow-up EP Drunk Are the Stars, are each gorgeous in their own right, moving in more dreamy and blissful areas of folk with a wanderer at the helm, unsure of where life is taking him but he’ll keep moving on. Then Cope takes an unmistakably darker turn with Mañana (the first track “What Can’t Be Found” is featured on today’s Austin Music Minute), and his 2015 releases Shambles As Ever and the wonderfully stark and unnerving 13 Songs (The Kitchen Tapes). These roads are not so lit with warm, golden tones. On 13 Songs, you’re met with a pathos in Cope’s style that paints a portrait of another kind of wanderer, one who knows all too well the dark, dingy, desolate spots of a nameless small town. It’s crumbling, haunted, oftentimes bleak. The protagonist wonders just what the hell is this all about, and may not ever find an answer.
You guessed it. An AMM favorite. Check out Wil Cope tonight at 10 p.m. at Hotel Vegas, 1502 E. 6th St. Backbones plays at 11 p.m., followed by Stone Wheels at midnight. Recommended.
-Photography by Jacqueline Badeaux.
