Souled American

The band Souled American was a creature of Chicago’s heady music ecosystem of the late ’80s and early ’90s, releasing half a dozen albums between 1988 and 1995, each one capturing a sluggish and deeply secretive beauty. Although occasionally celebrated in the alt-country realm, the band was ultimately one of those genre-of-one entities: It subsisted outside the boundaries, doomed to flourish for the benefit of the few. Yet this band has a weird habit of wiggling out of hibernation. Perhaps its strangest turn of events came back in 1997, when the music novelist Camden Joy launched “Fifty Posters About Souled American.” Herein, a posse of enthusiasts (among them Jonathan Lethem and Richard Gehr) obliquely raved of Souled American’s music on posters that were pasted, guerilla-fashion, on the unsuspecting streets of New York.

Since then, the band, while never broken up, has popped up only intermittingly. Now comes Souled American’s grandest reemergence. Next week, Jealous Butcher Records will release Sanctions, the group’s absurdly belated seventh album. The record is time in a bottle—the core duo Chris Grigoroff and Joe Adducci seem untouched by the years. They’re as slow as ever, 33 1/3 creatures in a world set at 45. Again, Joy (the writer, if not the sentiment) is on hand, as the group’s personal Jon Landau. We heartily recommend seeking out this record! Just as cool? Souled American may be coming to your town: Starting on April 18 up in Catskill, New York, the duo rolls through the States, including a stop at Baby’s All Right in Brooklyn on April 19. Get thee out of the house to soothe your Souled. Check out Souled American pronto!