* En anglais uniquement
Much like Southern rock revivalists
My Morning Jacket and
Kings of Leon,
Steel Train take a post-punk approach to the hoary sounds of '70s album-oriented rock. Taking their name from a
Bob Marley song, singer Scott Irby-Ranniar and guitarist
Jack Antonoff formed
Steel Train as a New York busking duo in 1999, two years after Irby-Ranniar originated the role of Young Simba in the Broadway musical The Lion King. Second guitarist
Matthew Goldman, bassist Evan Winiker, and drummer
Matthias Gruber were soon added to the lineup, and the nascent five-piece signed to Drive Thru Records in 2002, releasing their debut EP
For You My Dear early the next year. 2003 also saw the release of
1969, a concept EP of six songs from the titular year by
the Jackson 5,
Crosby, Stills & Nash,
Bob Marley,
David Bowie,
the Beatles, and
Creedence Clearwater Revival.
Steel Train's debut full-length,
Twilight Tales from the Prairies of the Sun, was released in 2005, featuring several songs about the breakup of
Antonoff's relationship with actress
Scarlett Johansson. After the resulting tour was completed,
Goldman and
Gruber left
Steel Train and were replaced by guitarist Daniel Silbert and drummer Jon Shiffman.
Trampoline, the band's sophomore album and first to feature the revised lineup, was released in October 2007. ~ Stewart Mason