Let’s be honest: nobody thinks of Bon Iver for the percussion, much less for his touring drummer, Sean Carey. For one thing, cymbals and a bass pedal aren’t exactly at the forefront of For Emma, Forever Ago (TMT Review) — Carey didn’t even have anything to do with the album originally, which, as we all know by now, was recorded in the desolate woods of Wisconsin. Basically, it’s perfectly acceptable if you didn’t exactly know Sean Carey was a drummer. Admit it — you probably wouldn’t know he existed unless you’d seen Bon Iver live, or had music theory and the odd English class with him at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.
Be that as it may, S. Carey won’t be relegated to the obscure status of “tour addition” for long, even if it did get him on The Late Show courtesy of Justin Vernon. On August 24, Jagjaguwar will be releasing S. Carey’s (that’s right, the initial is key) debut solo album, All We Grow. His training in classical percussion is more than manifest on the album, which takes cues from the likes of Steve Reich, jazz, and Talk Talk. Lyrics, as is apparent on the track “In the Dirt” are not necessarily Carey’s strong point, but he does prove that drummers can do more than just haul band equipment.
All We Grow tracklist:
01. Move
02. We Fell
03. In the Dirt
04. Rothko Fields
05. Mothers
06. Action
07. In the Stream
08. All We Grow
09. Broken
• S. Carey: http://www.myspace.com/scareymusic
• Jagjaguwar: http://jagjaguwar.com
[Photo: Cameron Witting]
