Premieres

Blitzen Trapper are gearing up to release their first album with Yep Roc Records later this summer. On Holy Smokes Future Jokes, singer Eric Earley looked beyond mere existence (or even the end of it) to contend with grander cosmic explorations — namely, the intermediate period between a person’s separate lives on Earth “and what it means to escape the cycle of birth and rebirth.” The record therefore takes listeners on a trip through bardo (the Buddhist transitional state between death and rebirth), and it’s that sense of cosmic humility that has served as the impetus for the album’s message. Thus, it should come as no surprise that the first song from the album is titled “Magical Thinking” and features the delicate alt-folk that has become synonymous with the group. T...