The Builders and the Butchers make some truly powerful folk

Forces of magnetism are at play between Portland and the frostbitten plains of Alaska. And apparently they are related to the strength of both regions’ collective sonic endeavors.

Over the past decade, Portland has managed to poach a host of top-notch Alaskan musicians, including the boys of Anatomy of a Ghost, Portugal the Man and most recently, The Builders and the Butchers, whose murderous stomp and howl has been igniting Portland clubs for the past two years.

The band was conceived around the songwriting of Ryan Sollee, who left Alaska in 2003 after discovering that, “touring or putting out a record [is] pretty much impossible” in the northerly state. Originally moving south to play with his band The Born Losers, it was not until early 2005 that Sollee began experimenting with the gothic balladry which would come to fuel The Builders and the Butchers.

“I was writing a lot of really personal songs,” said Sollee, “and with The Builders and the Butchers it’s all story songs…with the dark [imagery] and the story songs I find it’s just from a little bit fresher perspective, as opposed to the more personal songs where I don’t really know why anyone would be interested anyway.”

Regardless of the general public’s interest in Sollee’s personal affairs, it was his decision to attack songwriting from a fresh angle that has led The Builders and the Butchers to add their own chapter to the expanding canon of Portland bands who ably match literary intellect with visceral musical energy. Armed with guitars, bass, banjo, a mandolin, and a two-man percussion dynamo, The Builders lay an inescapable stomp beneath Sollee’s lyrical content, building his gothic dirges into a brand of combative folk that howls with a distinct energy.

Sollee said the original concept behind The Builders and the Butchers was “to be a funeral dance band and just [have] this really mournful music.” While that idea has proved somewhat malleable, Sollee concedes that, “The themes have remained the same.”

What has specifically changed is the further development of their uncanny talent for mining folk music of all varieties for inclusion in their keenly elemental songs. At times their music can be compared to gospel, bluegrass, and the New Orleans funeral marches that inspired their creation. But these elements are never made to seem disparate, mainly due to the sweaty energy with which The Builders and the Butchers go about their arrangements.

“Originally, I wanted our first show to be outside of an Iron and Wine/Calexico show that was going on downtown,” Sollee said. “We ended up [having] our first show [outside of] Sabala’s. We just played and then people came out to listen.”

This habit of impromptu performance served the band well during their inaugural performances, as they set street corners and crowded clubs alight with their pulsating folk onslaught. It was not until Sollee and company’s sixth or seventh show that the band was forced to employ electric instruments and conventional stages due to the larger crowds gathering to hear their music. While this served to dilute some of the band’s elemental fury, it also perpetuated a rapid ground swell of recognition which has pulled The Builders and the Butchers off of the street corner and into the regional–and hopefully national–limelight.

With their self-titled debut being released through local Bladen County Records and a recent deal with Invisible City Booking, home to Horse Feathers and Loch Lomond, The Builders and the Butchers are poised to spread out from Portland, turning all manner of clubs and concert halls into apocalyptic ho-downs in their wake.

Over the next month their plans include opening performances for The Walkmen and Cake, as well as the much-anticipated release of a split LP with Loch Lomond on Nov. 30. In addition, The Builders and the Butchers have begun writing for their second album which can be expected sometime in “the second half of 2008” on Bladen County. With a performance schedule and creative output that show no signs of abating, it is a fortunate truth that The Builders and the Butchers will be providing this city with ample access to their rollicking sound for a good time to come.

The Builders and the Butchers will open for The Walkmen at Doug Fir on Nov. 15. Tickets are $15 and the show starts at 9 p.m. 21+, sorry kids.