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We Are Augustines: Somewhere Over The Mountain

The Brooklyn band We Are Augustines wouldn't seem to lend itself to windblown acoustic sing-alongs: The songs on 2011's Rise Ye Sunken Ships songs bellow and soar in the electric, anthemic spirit of, say, Titus Andronicus. But for this Field Recording, captured during the closest thing to a quiet moment at the 2012 Sasquatch Music Festival, the trio strapped on acoustic guitars — and grabbed a box for percussion — long enough to perform a cover of Crooked Fingers' "New Drink for the Old Drunk."

Which isn't to say this is a quiet unplugged performance: Singer Billy McCarthy stays true to both the original song's energy and his own vein-bulging vocal style. Subtract a stage, with its banks of amplifiers, and every ounce of We Are Augustines' blissfully stormy energy survives intact.

Credits

Producers: Mito Habe-Evans, Saidah Blount; Videographers: Jim Beckmann, Mito Habe-Evans, Scott Holpainen; Audio Engineers: Matt Ogaz, Kevin Wait; Production Assistant: Nick Michael; Special Thanks to: Sasquatch! Music Festival, Live Nation; Executive Producers: Anya Grundmann, Keith Jenkins

Copyright 2012 KEXP

Stephen Thompson is a writer, editor and reviewer for NPR Music, where he speaks into any microphone that will have him and appears as a frequent panelist on All Songs Considered. Since 2010, Thompson has been a fixture on the NPR roundtable podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, which he created and developed with NPR correspondent Linda Holmes. In 2008, he and Bob Boilen created the NPR Music video series Tiny Desk Concerts, in which musicians perform at Boilen's desk. (To be more specific, Thompson had the idea, which took seconds, while Boilen created the series, which took years. Thompson will insist upon equal billing until the day he dies.)