hypersongs

Lambchop

A Nashville collective led by Kurt Wagner since 1986, a rotating ensemble of ten or more that blends country, soul and chamber pop, with the 2000 album Nixon as its best known record.

Posterchild and Merge

Lambchop formed in Nashville in 1986 as Posterchild, a three-piece of Kurt Wagner, the bassist Marc Trovillion and the guitarist Jim Watkins, making low-fi cassettes. Wagner, who moved to Nashville from Brooklyn at the age of two and attended college in Memphis, was a visual artist before forming the band. Their home venue for about ten years was the Springwater, a bar in Nashville. The name changed after a legal challenge from a lawyer for the similarly named Poster Children, following a 1992 split 7-inch with Crop Circle Hoax. Cassettes came first, Secret Secret Sourpuss (1990), Big Tussie (1992) and a 1993 split, and in 1993 they signed to Merge Records in the US, with City Slang in Europe from 1996.

The first album, I Hope You're Sitting Down (also called Jack's Tulips), appeared on September 19, 1994, followed by How I Quit Smoking (1996), Thriller (1997) and What Another Man Spills (1998), which includes five covers. Trouser Press describes an ensemble of ten to fourteen members on a given record, using banjo, mandolin and pedal steel without novelty. In 1998 they backed Vic Chesnutt on The Salesman and Bernadette. Wagner has called the band the bastard children of country.

Nixon and after

Nixon, released in February 2000, was the breakthrough, especially in the UK, after which Wagner left his day job. Later albums include Is a Woman (2002), Aw Cmon and No You Cmon (2004), Damaged (2006), OH (Ohio) (2008), Mr. M (2012), FLOTUS (2016), This (Is What I Wanted to Tell You) (2019), Trip and Showtunes (2020 and 2021), The Bible (2022) and Punching the Clown, listed for August 21, 2026. The band has live-scored the silent film Sunrise. Marc Trovillion died in October 2013, aged 56. The official site announces An Evening with Lambchop, a tour with Andrew Broder, running from June 2026 to February 2027, including London Union Chapel shows with a choir.

Tour-only live albums include Pet Sounds Sucks (2002, San Francisco), Mono (2003 to 2004), Boo Fucking Who? (2004, Brussels), Succulence (2006, Vienna) and Live at the Shanghai Symphony Chamber Hall (2017). AllMusic has called them arguably among the most consistently brilliant and unique American groups of the 1990s.

Albums

  • Nixon 2000 · Merge

    Their fifth album, ten songs with strings, a gospel choir and brass; the title comes from a painting by Wayne White.

Songs

  • Up with People Nixon · 2000

    The fourth track on Nixon, which begins with a single guitar and builds to a full gospel choir.

Sources

  1. Lambchop (band), Wikipedia
  2. Nixon (album), Wikipedia
  3. Lambchop, Trouser Press
  4. Lambchop, Nixon, The A.V. Club (2002-03-29)