richmond fontaine

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The band was formed in 1994. Richmond Fontaine first started out touring the pacific northwest live circuit on the back of their first three albums released on cavity search records They have worked with a variety of musicians and a few labels over their career.

Their first exposures abroad were a song on a Loose Records compilation  in the UK and the band’s self-released fourth album, Winnemucca, which garnered attention outside of the U.S. The band signed with Decor Records in europe during 2003. Their next two releases proved pivotal and received “Albums of the Month” in uncut which named both their fifth studio albumPost to Wire (2004) and sixth The Fitzgerald (2005) “masterpieces”. U.S. critics have been generally complimentary but have also cited the band’s musical similarity to uncle tupelo Like many bands in their genre past and present such as willard grant conspiracy , the gun club and green on red Richmond Fontaine are more popular abroad than in their own country.

Richmond Fontaine songs consistently evoke lyrical imagery of reno, nevada Portland, the western untied states and mexico while telling stories in a style that critics have compared to raymond carver Musically the group has cited influences such as gram pearsons Green on Red and dave alvin

Lead Singer and songwriter Willy Vlautin is also a published writer. His first novel, The Motel Life was published in 2006, which was followed up by a second novel, Northline, in 2008. Northline included a soundtrack CD by Williy Vlautin and Paul Brainard. The novel was well-reviewed byGeorge Pelecanos. Vlautin has also had stories published in literary journals such as ZemblaCold DrillSoutheast Review, and Chiron Review.

The band’s most recent album, Thirteen Cities, is receiving positive reviews across Europe.

discography

  • Safety (1996)
  • Miles From (1997)
  • Lost Son (1999)
  • Winnemucca (2002)
  • Post to Wire (2004)
  • The Fitzgerald (2005)
  • Obliteration by Time (2006)
  • Thirteen Cities (2007)

if i get any funky comments i may upload a album or two 


9 Comments (+add yours?)

  1. kourmina
    Feb 20, 2009 @ 00:01:15

    For me they are the best of all modern country/bluegrass bands! 🙂
    I have most of their albums, except first 3, unfortunately

    Reply

    • thenorthline
      Feb 20, 2009 @ 00:10:45

      i have all there albums just type in what ones you want and i will upload them in time so keep checking

      Reply

  2. kourmina
    Feb 20, 2009 @ 01:07:46

    e-mailed )

    Reply

  3. holden caulfield
    Mar 23, 2009 @ 14:34:27

    hey man! great blog, im from spain and i buy norhtlands cause im a big fan of richmond fontaine and willy vlautins works.the thing is that here in spain they released the book without the soundtrack!!!(i hate the editors now)and i would be very pleased if you post the entire soundtrack,go on with the good work.
    (sorry for my bad english)
    thanks a lot!!!

    Reply

  4. Aitch
    Apr 29, 2009 @ 02:04:44

    Hi,

    Read with much interest about Northline, as I’ve got all the RF albums bar Obliteration By Time …

    Speaking of which, am I right in thinking that the tracks on Obliteration are reworked versions, and that this is not a straight-up early years comp — if the former, any chance of posting the album ?

    I’ll keep an eye on future posts !

    P.S. Looking forward to new Eels album (another great band), out v soon …

    Reply

    • thenorthline
      Apr 29, 2009 @ 09:10:14

      hi there
      thanks for reading the blog am not to sure about obliteration by time although it does have some material on it that features on other albums . obliteration by time is one of my fav albums by richmond fontaine . as far as i can make out it was only for sale at live shows but dont take that as gospel and it was released in 2006 . if your interested in it i could upload it for you .

      Reply

      • Aitch
        Apr 29, 2009 @ 22:34:08

        Yeah, I’d really appreciate it if you could upload the Obliteration album … thanks !

        I was also looking on amazon for the Northline book, as I thought I might check it out — can you believe you can pick it up for 69p ?!

        Cheers,

        Aitch

  5. S.
    Apr 28, 2010 @ 11:48:58

    Great blog, Richmond Fontaine is my favorite band.
    Read Willy Vlautin’s novel ‘Lean On Pete’

    Cheers,
    S.

    Reply

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