Trummors – Dropout City

Dropout City is the fourth album by Trummors. The band consists of Anne Cunningham and David Lerner, who share songwriting duties, and call on an assortment of musical friends that vary from album to album to make the true desert music they’ve become known for.

Blending the best sounds from psychedelic music, country-rock, and folk rock, Trummors’ Dropout City is a tour of all the best parts of Americana, with songs that clearly nod to their homes both past and present. The band formed in Brooklyn before making their way to Woodstock, finally adopting the hometown of Taos, New Mexico, a city that combines the high desert with high-energy vortices, breathtaking mountains and forests.

Trummors say that Taos hum, a mythical resonating vibration many visitors and residents claim to hear, is present on the album, which is clear from their highly thematic and scenic lyrics. But they must’ve known that only their California friends could help amplify that true Cosmic Americana sound.

So, they headed to Jason Soda’s Palomino Sound to add the magic ingredient that Los Angeles always seems to offer. Eric D. Johnson (Fruit Bats), Clay Finch (Mapache), Colby Buddelmeyer (The Tyde), and Brent Rademaker (you know Brent!) all appear on their album to add their own doses of enchantment, while Dan Horne and fellow new New Mexican Jon Graboff share pedal steel duties.

As Trummors have moved west, or perhaps simply mature as musicians, their sound’s become more expansive, more maximalist, but retains an intimate, casual warmth and accessibility. “Late Arriver” is a strong opener, debriefing the listener as to what they’re in for by showcasing the sounds to be heard throughout the rest of the album. Dropout City fully embraces the duo’s fondness for pedal steel- songs like “What You Had” could’ve popped right off of one of the classic country-rock records, thanks to more of Graboff’s tremendous playing, and their warm rendition of “Tulsa County” pays tribute to the original, penned by Pamela Polland. Johnson’s Hammond B3 glitters on the closing “Never Hear You Say.” The standout track, “Peacock Angel,” is the only song recorded separately in New Mexico- stripped down but shimmering, an intoxicating, enigmatic tune that sounds like a lost Relatively Clean Rivers track. 11/10.

Dropout City is out today on Ernest Jenning Record Co. Buy the album on Bandcamp.