Steel Train

by Stewart Mason
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.