Cargo Records

The Weed Tree

Over the last few years while out on the road supporting their self titled debut, audiences were floored by renditions of traditionals like the bittersweet Black is the color or the intergalactic take on master traveler Michael Hurley's Blue Mountain.

An album of covers & traditionals was a perfect plan..The band had been growing over the years as new friends joined and expanded the group's sound. Esperhaus, the band's creative quarters in Philly, was seeing some change in residence - some members would stay while others moved on to other places. Just as members were making some important decisions, a weed in the backyard blossomed for the first time. Hence the name. Selections were made: Hurley, Nico, Durutti Column,Blue Oyster Cult, trad cuts inspired by Bert Jansch & the Famous Jug Band & a new original called Dead King - a single dispatch from the future- would fill out the album. We would give the Weed Tree a soft push, nothing fancy, nothing big. It would just be a tasting for the fans before a 'proper' 2006 release. Trouble is, this is one of the finest records we've heard in ages. Every cut is given the Espers' magical thumbprint - stately song craft, absolute confidence, hope & beauty turned in on & against itself. Par for the course with Espers. We could call The Weed Tree yet another exemplary example of acid folk, baroque psych or sunshine pop with a sinister edge but none of this brings us any closer to giving meaning to a mess of unexplainable tears - the result of the old happy/sad life humdrum that, by now, is a personal blueprint for an album gifted with the arch beauty of the Weed Tree.so, The Weed Tree is an album between the stations but, as transitions go, this is just further proof that Espers are at the nadir of what makes music meaningful & meaning matter in music today.