New Brookland Tavern Welcomes THE WOGGLES and the Release of Their New Album

New Brookland Tavern welcomes The Woggles with special guests, Brandy and the Butcher, to help celebrate the release of their new LP, Time Has Come on June 12th. According to musician and Jam Room director, Jay Matheson, “The Woggles have been one of the best garage rock bands in the US since the mid 90s and put on a stage show that is beyond compare.”

Check out their new single as well as their new LP in its entirety.

According to Matheson, the show will be a 2 band affair with Matheson’s own local Rock and Roll band Brandy and the Butcher opening.

Cover tickets to the show are $10 in advance and $15 on the day of the show.

Doors are at 7:30 with music starting at 8:30.

See you there!

Read more about the Woggles from Jasper Magazine music editor Kevin Oliver here.

REVIEW: Brian K and the Parkway - Killing The Bear

When you’re a musician from the hometown of Bruce Springsteen, nobody is surprised when the Boss is cited as a major influence in your work. For Brian K. Pagels, who performs as Brian K and the Parkway along with Stephen Russ, it’s not that simple, however.  

Russ, who Columbia audiences may remember from his work producing The Restoration and his own act The Fire Tonight, now calls Arlington, Virginia home, while Pagels lives in Alexandria; the George Washington Parkway that connects their towns is where the band’s name originated.  

There are rousing stadium-worthy anthems on this new album, but more often he’s drawing from the Americana and power pop progeny of Tom Petty, Drivin’ N’ Cryin,’ and Marshall Crenshaw. 

“Just Rock & Roll” hits as one of those poppier tunes, somewhere between Elvis Costello and The Smithereens with a catchy chorus and classic 60s vibe, while “Wind the Clock” takes a moodier tune into a more modern sound that wouldn’t sound out of place between John Mayer and Hozier.  

Pagels isn’t a demonstrative singer, but the themes he touches on–problems and how to cope with them, detailed in striking lyrical vignettes set to expansive tunes–lend themselves to his emphatic, unhurried delivery. “Is The Grass Really Greener (In the Green Mountain State)” comes across like a lost Drive-By Truckers track circa Southern Rock Opera while invoking biblical plagues in a tale of getting the hell out of town, for better or worse.  

Cat Popper, who’s worked with Jack White, Ryan Adams & the Cardinals and others, guests on “Straight Through,” serving as a vocal foil in what turns out to be the most Springsteen-like tune on the album. A “doo-doot-doo” Motown style chorus, a bridge that echoes “Born To Run” era Bruce, and a quiet solo intro a la “The River,” it’s all there. Popper’s verses expose the vulnerability of the lyric, “The only way out of the darkness is straight through,” pointing to “Darkness on the Edge of Town,” as a retroactive solution, perhaps. 

The best rock music can function both as a recorded statement and a live expression; just listening to these tracks offers a hint at the emotional, visceral impact they’ll have in a live setting. Pagels and Russ will be hitting the road in support of the release, with a stop in Columbia scheduled for April 26th at Curiosity Coffee; the show will also feature Moses Andrews and a special guest appearance from former Restoration bandleader Daniel Machado. 

Find them on Bandcamp  and find the event details on Facebook.

ALBUM REVIEW: Decadence - Book of the Redeemed by Kevin Oliver

Decadence

Book Of The Redeemed

Self-released

 

There comes a time in the shelf life of a heavy rock band when the sum total of its experience and commitment adds up to a career defining moment, whether it’s that hit song that connects with a mass audience, or just an artistic statement that is so clearly above and beyond anything else they’ve done to that point. For Columbia’s Decadence, this new album Book of the Redeemed is the latter–an astounding, bracing listen that reveals more depth and meaning with every page that’s turned. 

The band has been a stalwart presence on the local and regional heavy music scene for a while, and this release was a long time coming–now we know why. Not only is the production and songwriting top notch, singer Scott McGrady’s lyrics are deeply personal. This had to be a difficult set of songs to write and record, not to mention let loose into the world for others to judge if they are worthy or not (They are.). 

Decadence straddles that line between commercial appeal and unapologetic, raw power better than most, and the production on the new songs showcases the intensity of the band’s sound, with stop-start arrangements that drop out completely, then blast back moments later with even more unrestrained fury. Drummer Ben Burris and bassist Ryan Wicker have played together long enough now they move and groove like a single unit, powering the monster riffs that cut through each tune. McGrady has a decent singing voice when the song calls for it, but most of these tracks require his most angst-laden, guttural near-screams. 

The content of the lyrics is as intense as the music, and McGrady has said online that there is an intentional running theme present, related to a friend who dealt with abandonment, pain, and anger, and moving on from that. “Abandonment” relates a story of being placed in foster care, inserting a line out of a childhood prayer to really drive home the innocence lost in the process:

 

Strangers tuck me in my bed

Shuffled through this castoff’s deck so

Now I lay me down to rest

Left alone through your abandonment

 

The most furious track is “Take Your Shot,” which addresses that person with a problem that won’t allow anyone to help, or even admit they need help in the first place. It’s like the band pours that frustration directly into the stacked guitar riffs of Dustin Welch, as McGrady sings: 

 

Tell me how to understand

Why you need to live this way

While I watch you take another shot at what this could have been

 

The somewhat title cut “Redemption” is the slowest, most melodic one of the bunch. McGrady channels Roger Daltrey of the Who, circa “Behind Blue Eyes,” as he sings the chorus in triumph: 

 

And now I see

A new dawn rising

I feel redemption

And I’ll leave

It all behind me

Won’t let it blind me

 

This is the sound of someone, or maybe some band, that’s gone through hell, come out the other side intact, now appreciating but not dwelling on the experience. Sounds a lot like they’ve been redeemed, doesn’t it? 

 

Decadence releases Book of the Redeemed officially this Saturday, with a release show at New Brookland Tavern that will also feature The Baldwin Massacre, Ozmyridis, and Sorrow Of Silence. 

 

An Ode to Garage Rock (In Appreciation of the Woggles) by Kevin Oliver

(Photo: Steven W. Terrell)

Rock ‘n’ roll is old enough to have a Hall of Fame and a museum, and enough subgenres to confuse even the most dedicated music fan. One of the constants, however, has been “garage rock,” a subgenre of rock that’s indebted to raw, unfiltered sounds coming from a basic guitar/bass/drums band from the 1960s. Think Sam The Sham and the Pharaohs, The Kingsmen (of “Louie Louie” fame), The Standells (“Dirty Water”), The Troggs (“Wild Thing”) and many more. It’s an energetic, danceable style, something that has probably fueled its enduring popularity over the years, to the point where there are now “Garage Rock Revival” acts keeping the original style alive in various ways. 

One of the latter is the long-running Atlanta band The Woggles, which has been around in some form or another for over 30 years, so to call them “revivalists” may not be entirely accurate–they probably influenced many of the newer bands themselves.  

Featuring a two-guitar lineup, classic bass and drums rhythm section, and the irrepressible frontman “The Professor” Mighty Manfred, The Woggles have taken the garage rock blueprint and built their own sound on that foundation. 60s British Invasion, R&B and soul music classics and more form the border-less abandon of a Woggles show, with Manfred holding court up front as a slightly lunatic ringmaster of his own rock ‘n’ roll circus. It’s like a “Nuggets” compilation manifested in human form on whatever stage they appear on. 

The problem with writing about a band like The Woggles is that there’s no real substitute for actually hearing them or seeing them live. So, in preparation for this Friday night’s Art Bar show, here’s a quick primer on some of the best Woggles tunes:

 

My Baby Likes To Boogaloo” 

From their 1992 debut LP “Teen Dance Party,” this is a cover of an obscure 60’s tune from Don Gardner; it’s typical of the dance numbers they would make their name on. 

Sweet Tea

From 1998’s “Wailin’ With The Woggles,” this one shows off their mostly instrumental surf rock tendencies, a fun side of the band. 

Zombie Stomp

A must-have for your Halloween playlists, this one from 1996’s “Get Tough!” is another surf-rock style number but with spooky sounds added.  

Take it To The People

A veritable mission statement for the ever-touring Woggles, this one’s a great showcase of the slightly unhinged vocals of Manfred. From the 2012 album “The Big Beat.”  

Collector of Broken Hearts

While not quite a ballad, this one proves that The Woggles can slow down a bit and throw out some great melodic pop tunes when they want to. Great harmonica solo here, too.  

I Got a Line On You

A terrific cover of the Spirit classic that takes the dizzying speed of the original and fuzzes everything up even more. From the 2005 collection of singles, “Soul Sizzling 7” Meltdown.” 

 

The Woggles with the Capital City Playboys:

Art Bar

Friday, May 19th 

9:30 PM

Facebook event: 

 

THE BEAT: My Favorite Music of 2022 by Kevin Oliver

The following is a list of my favorite music released by Columbia, South Carolina artists in 2022. It is woefully incomplete, as there were many other artists and albums I enjoyed this year, but these are the ones that have really made a home in my head for the foreseeable future. 

 

1. Saul Seibert, etc., Zion: A Composition

An extremely ambitious multimedia project is probably impossible to fully appreciate in just its audio form, but the three movements that comprise Zion are at least enjoyable that way, if not as mind-blowing as the full three-dimensional live experience. The ebb and flow of the various parts, instruments, and their arrangement throughout create a psychedelic space in which a listener can exist however they choose–passive acceptance, interactive challenge, or somewhere in between. 

Music | Zion. A Composition. (bandcamp.com) 

 

2. Lang Owen, She's My Memory

It’s not hyperbole to say that Columbia hasn’t ever produced a songwriter quite like Lang Owen before; his combination of 70’s singer-songwriter style and an incisive, observational writing technique would be rare anywhere these days. The songs here are his best so far and defy a simple paragraph explanation–so do me a favor, go listen and let them speak to you, too. To paraphrase “The Long Way,” he’ll take you the long way and then bring you back another. 

She's My Memory | Lang Owen (bandcamp.com)

 

3. EZ Shakes, Everything Changes

An Americana powerhouse of a band over their two full length releases, on this brief three-song EP, EZ Shakes announced their transition into a sonically more rock ‘n’ roll soundscape. The Velvets-meets-Neil Young feel of “Damn Fools” is driven by the most addictive two-note bass line ever, courtesy bassist Jim Taylor, while singer and bandleader Zach Seibert stretches his vocal instrument on “Waiting on the Bubble To Pop,” a Wilco-esque slice of sublime, chiming tunefulness that shifts gears effortlessly. It’s a cliche to say it, but the worst thing about this release is that at three songs, it’s way too damn short. 

▶︎ Everything Changes | E.Z. Shakes (bandcamp.com) 

4. Numbtongue, Phantom Limbs

Bobby Hatfield has been turning heads and ears with drama-filled rock since his days with The Sea Wolf Mutiny. As Numbtongue, his musical vision has only expanded, eschewing the limitations of a traditional ‘band’ with a combination of acoustic and synthetic sounds. On this new album, the arrangements are next level, with multiple themes threaded throughout and even the smallest elements adding texture and finesse to the songs. There are traces of everything from Radiohead to Tyler the Creator here arranged in chasms of genre and style that Hatfield not only manages to cross but bind together in a way that somehow makes perfect sense.

▶︎ Phantom Limbs | numbtongue (bandcamp.com)  

5. Brandy and the Butcher, Lucky Foot

There are female singers, and then there are frontwomen. Liz Hale is the latter, a blast-your-face-off vocalist who’s all attitude, all the time. The band has no choice but to keep up with her energy level, and they succeed handily here, diving headlong into a bracing set of songs that evoke all the great punk and rock raconteurs, from The Stooges and MC5 to The Cramps and X. 

▶︎ Lucky Foot | Brandy and the Butcher (bandcamp.com) 

6. Candy Coffins, Once Do It With Feeling 

Jame Lathren has a fondness for 80s goth-rock and the dramatic flair of David Bowie, and that comes through loud and clear on the darkly rendered songs here as he snarls and sneers. The delay effects from former Bachelors Of Art guitarist Tom Alewine don’t hurt in setting the proper mood, either. But it is Lathren’s songwriting that lifts this above being a simple genre exercise and into classic songcraft as he details the rise and fall of a relationship over the course of ten songs. 

 Candy Coffins (bandcamp.com)  

7. Moses Andrews, Exodus Pt II

Confessional songwriting is a genre unto itself, but Moses Andrews puts himself out there in ways not often heard with this collection. Contributing bass, drums, organ, synth, and vocals along with a supporting cast of locals such as Cecil Decker and Sean Thomson, Andrews touches on hip-hop, country, pop, and indie rock sounds in the process of illustrating the world through his own experiences with others. The mirror he’s holding up here is uncomfortable, but entirely accurate and needed. 

▶︎ Exodus Pt. II | Moses Andrews III (bandcamp.com)

 

8. Rex Darling, Living Room Diaries

One of the more adventurous live acts to surface in Columbia in recent years, this recorded effort delivers on that promise with atmospheric, exotic pop music that packs a surprising punch. There are traces of cabaret jazz and more than a little Amy Winehouse in vocalist Catherine Hunsinger’s style, while the guitar work of John Vail introduces jam rock and 70s fusion into the improbable mix. All that, and the songs are playful, inventive, and catchy as hell. 

https://open.spotify.com/album/2mfp1JvgUm5jguQeEXMBI2?si=TNuD1sLzQqCJyT5fwihboQ 

 

9. Todd Mathis and Clayton Mathis, Home

Siblings have made some great music together, but this is no sibling harmony album. Instead, these are the brothers who sit on their dad’s back porch reminiscing about all the shit they did to each other as kids. Steeped in family ties, this is some of Todd’s most endearing and accessible work.

Home | Todd Mathis, Clayton Mathis | Todd Mathis (bandcamp.com) 

10. Hillmouse, See You In The Car 

Tyler Gordon’s current musical vehicle is transporting a nicely done batch of new songs here, the kind of timeless melodies that evokes everyone from Tommy Keene to Ed Sheeran–a wide range, to be sure. His world-weary vocal delivery stops the proceedings from skidding into saccharine-sweet territory, instead parking Hillmouse in a post-emo lethargic swoon. 

▶︎ See You In The Car | Hillmouse (bandcamp.com)

 

REVIEW: CMA's Baker and Baker present Zion. A Composition by Saul Seibert

Zion. A Composition

Live at Columbia Museum of Art

Thursday, Nov 17th, 2022

Baker & Baker Series

by Kevin Oliver

An ambitious instrumental and visual art piece conceptualized by Saul Seibert with help from artist Virginia Russo, multimedia from Ash Lennox, and a cast of fellow musicians, Zion. A Composition came alive in multiple dimensions on Thursday evening at the Columbia Museum of Art, as part of their ongoing Baker & Baker concert series. 

Seibert opened the evening with a short explanation of the story behind the composition, and as he told the family background in front of multiple members of his own family in the audience, the anticipation in the audience built. The delineation of the three acts: The Diaspora, The Sojourn, and The Ascent, was a useful glossary of sorts for the crowd to reference, but as the piece unfolded, there was no visual division on screen or stage to indicate when one movement ended and a new one began. As such, at several lulls in the program audience members interjected applause and exclamations, seemingly unsure if something was ending or maybe just overwhelmed with appreciation of what had just transpired in a concluded segment.  

With two of the three movements already released for a while prior to this live performance, and the third just completed, it was still a much different experience watching the musicians perform the entire piece live. Left to right, they filled the CMA stage: Seibert’s older brother Zach Seibert (E.Z. Shakes) sat quietly cooking up some sinister electric guitar tones, Marshall Brown contributed keyboard swirls of varying tone and intensity, Kevin Brewer held down the beats even as they came and went throughout, Darren Woodlief, also seated, provided a solid bass presence that asserted itself fully in the final movement. Sean Thomson was the musical wizard of the night, starting on spooky, sensual sitar and moving to steel guitar and some wicked electrified mandolin. Seibert himself stood center stage, hollow body guitar in hand throughout, the ringleader of this spiritual, musical circus troupe.  

Every musical composition has an arc, that up-down movement that gives it an interesting story to tell. Zion’s first movement, Diaspora, came through as a slow-building bundle of potentialities, with the audience a bit on edge, unsure of where it might be headed, perhaps. The preshow preface alluded to one beginning to rid themselves of preconceived ideologies, attitudes, and casting those things out, and the music reflected such a sweeping task. Thomson’s sitar was prominent through the early passages, giving this portion a raga-like intonation that allowed listeners to settle into the aural universe of Zion.  

As the middle section opened up, the music soared, searching for those times of sojourn, as the movement’s title suggests–those places of rest, as one searches for home. At times the band resembled arena rockers on an extended jam, bluesy and blustery and supremely confident. In these sections, the drumming and the guitars evoked the percussive jazz plains of Steve Tibbetts’ 1980s work, or a more democratic take on the guitar orchestras of Rhys Chatham. In between those searing, searching sections the dynamic shifted to hushed tones, leaving sometimes a single instrument moaning, or clicking along softly as the band reloaded for the next swell like a surfer coiling his muscles for the next wave. 

It is in its final movement, however, that Zion finds, well, Zion. The Ascent is a lumbering leviathan of a groove, somewhere between Soundgarden-level grunge and the groaning Krautrock grooves of Can or Neu!, just a beast of a display anchored by Woodlief’s mammoth bass riffing. Again, however, there are interludes, lulls in the action. Life isn’t all one trajectory, after all, and neither is the ascent to Zion, musically speaking. The mountain does eventually get conquered, and in conclusion the music doesn’t so much fade away as plant itself on the peak and say “done.”  

Visually, artist Virginia Russo’s live painting/art added a facet to the proceedings that didn’t have to be there, but the performance was richer and fuller for it. As the band’s musical arc proceeded to rise and fall, so did Russo at the front of the stage, clad in black with a rolled out white canvas in front of her. She proceeded to paint over the entire canvas with her hands, no brushes, and then pick up the fully paint-saturated canvas and cut it into long, increasingly narrow strips. Those, she then rolled up before pulling them back apart, one ripped square at a time. The squares were then arranged on a new, clean white canvas to make a totally different piece of art. It was a perfect visual analogy for the thematic elements of the musical composition and served to reinforce those themes as the audience both listened and watched the proceedings.  

Other parts of her artwork for Zion were projected throughout as sometimes moving images on two large screens behind the musicians, lending a psychedelia gauziness to the already evocative visuals. 

Overall, I’d call this a nearly unqualified success, to write and perform such a challenging piece of multimedia art here in Columbia. I’m not sure I’ve seen anything quite like it locally, and Seibert’s prior resume as a garage rock raconteur certainly wouldn’t have hinted at the possibility of something like this coming forth. Going in, Seibert told me himself that there would be very, very limited live performances of this project, and I understand why–the preparation and commitment of all the participants was fully on display for this one.

THE BEAT: Both Sides Now Lang Owen explores stories and sounds on his new album "She’s My Memory"

By Kevin Oliver

Columbia singer-songwriter Lang Owen’s new album She’s My Memory is a relationships album, but not in the classic boy-meets-girl pop music mold. Rather, the sixty-something Owen has collected what amounts to a lifetime of thoughts here on friendships of all kinds, from romantic partners new and old to co-workers and the people we see on TV screens and newspaper bylines. In putting the album together, he also relied on musical relationships built over the past five years since he emerged onto the local scene. 

 

Owen enlisted fellow songwriter and guitarist Todd Mathis as his producer, with a diverse cast of additional players on board and additional recording and mastering from Carl Burnitz. The result is a shimmering statement of purpose, a beautifully rendered collection of songs that tell stories in a way that captures the heart and the imagination. Musical touchstones from James Taylor to Joni Mitchell, Emmylou Harris, Todd Rundgren, and more reveal themselves upon repeated listens, but Owen has firmly established his own sound and style with this new album.

 

There are stories both told and implied here, from the simple work ethic of “Man With A Broom,” to the internal evaluation of “Where Does The River Start?” Of the latter, Owen says, “On the surface the narrator is dealing with a breakup, but in my mind, he’s questioning himself–how did I get to this point, where am I going from here, and especially, how have I made some of the choices I did along the way?” 

 

Some of the choices Owen made in recording these songs included expanding his musical palette well beyond just himself, with the assistance of producer Todd Mathis. It was all in the preparation, Owen says.

“We sat down with scratch tracks of the songs I recorded on my own and brainstormed what kind of instrumentation would work with each,” He recalls. Guest musicians who ended up participating include drummer Mike Scarboro (The Runout), guitarist Zach Bingham, and backing vocals from Becca Smith of Admiral Radio. Bass duties were split between Chris Paget, Jeff Gregory (The Runout), Mathis’ former bandmate Kevin Kimbrell, and Mathis himself, who also filled multiple other instrumental roles. 

 

Being in a “band” situation isn’t exactly a new thing for Owen, though it had been a while, he admits.

 

“I played in bands in the 1980s, and I enjoyed playing with other people,” He says. “When I picked music back up in 2017(after decades as a teacher, visual artist, and social worker), I played by myself mostly because I just didn’t know any other musicians.” 

 

There are story songs here that those who have followed Owen’s solo acoustic shows the past few years will recognize as falling directly in his usual style, such as the topical “Last Gasp Of The News.” This time around there are also songs where the sound falls more toward the “band” side of things, with a particular vibe that a simple acoustic guitar arrangement wouldn’t be able to achieve as vividly.

 

“Collection Day” is one such tune, with an unhurried, yet rhythmic indie rock feel not too far from bands such as Yo La Tengo. “Smile From You” leans on Owen’s strummed guitar, but the other elements contribute to the song’s unsettled, foreboding atmosphere of an uncomfortable snapshot in time.

“We spent a lot of time on working out that one,” Owen says. “It went through a lot of different variations to get where it did–any time you work with great musicians, they’ll come up with great ideas.” 

 

Even with the expanded arrangements and feel of the recording sessions, Owen’s flair for narrative shines through. The title track “She’s My Memory” is a story song about telling stories, where a comment from a co-worker about remembering his life better than he does prompted a story of a person losing their memory who is still able to remember it through his wife’s anecdotes.


“I think that song sets the tone for the album,” Owen concludes, “which in part is about the importance of relationships to our well-being.” 

 

In “Everybody Here” the opening lines, in their own way, reach that same conclusion–we all help each other, whether we realize it or not: 

 

“Everybody here’s my therapist

I need all the help I can get

I look around, I’m losing my ground

I don’t like what I see one bit

I float by like a whisper, you hand me a megaphone

In our own little worlds somehow, we’re not alone

We’re not alone”

 

Lang Owen releases “She’s My Memory” officially on all platforms June 17th. The release show, featuring a full backing band of many of the players on the album, happens at Curiosity Coffee on Saturday, June 18th, from 5-8 p.m. $10 

 

Facebook Event with ticket link

Happy Hour Release Party for Jasper Magazine Spring 2022 - Thursday, June 9th at Black Rooster Rooftop Bar

Join us as we celebrate all the artists honored in the spring 2022 issue of Jasper Magazine for the official release event at 5:30 on Thursday, June 9th at the Black Rooster’s beautiful rooftop bar.

Among the artists we’ll be celebrating are cover artist Lindsay Radford (written by Kristine Hartvigsen) and centerfold Michael Krajewski (which was shot by Brad Martin in the Black Rooster itself!)

In a jam-packed 64 pages you’ll find another piece by Kristine Hartvigsen on Mike Miller’s new novel, The Hip Shot, as well as excerpts from Jane Zenger and Angelo Geter’s new books of poetry from Muddy Ford Press.

Music editor Kevin Oliver put together a detailed section of new music called “10 to Watch” featuring new work from Saul Seibert, Katera, Desiree Richardson, Tam the Vibe, Rex Darling, Space Force, Admiral Radio, Hillmouse, Candy Coffins, and Lang Owen, with contributing writing from Kyle Petersen and Emily Moffitt.

Tam the Vibe

Stephanie Allen writes about Josetra Baxter and Tamara Finkbeiner’s Walking on Water Productions and their new series Secrets in Plain Sight, with photography by Bree Burchfield.

And we highlight Columbia artist Quincy Pugh as well as feature Will South’s interview with Tyrone Geter all the way from Gambia.

The Three Graces by Quincy Pugh

USC filmmaker Carleen Maur helps us understand more about the art of experimental filmmaking.

Emily Moffitt profiles visual artists Rebecca Horne, Lucy Bailey, and designer Diko Pekdemir-Lewis.

Ed Madden curates poetry from Juan David Cruz-Duarte and Terri McCord.

Christina Xan details the incredible success of Cooper Rust and her non-profit organization, Artists for Africa.

Cindi Boiter profiles SC Arts Commission executive director David Platts, with photography by Brodie Porterfield, and writes about the new public art, Motherhood by Nora Valdez, with exquisite photography by Stephen Chesley.

Motherhood by Nora Valdez, phot by Stephen Chesley

And finally, we memorialize two pillars of the Columbia arts community, Mary Bentz Gilkerson and Wim Roefs, whose loss this spring we are still reeling from.

——

We look forward to seeing you Thursday night.

The event is free and Black Rooster’s regular rooftop bar will be serving drinks and food. Come by for happy hour and grab a drink, a magazine, and a hug from your favorite folks. Or plan on staying a while and grabbing dinner or snacks.

Thanks to restauranteur extraordinaire Kristian Niemi for hosting us.

We can’t wait to see you and show off these exceptional artists who call Columbia, SC home!

THE BEAT: 48 Fables - Here Ya' Go

This is the sound of a band so sure of themselves that they are comfortable trying on all kinds of different sounds and styles from country and blues to Celtic and rock ‘n’ roll.  

48 Fables

Here Ya Go

Self-released 

After a few years of trying out different configurations and lineups, Columbia’s 48 Fables have settled into a three-piece arrangement; ironically resulting in the fullest, most complete sound the band has produced to date. 

The biggest change in the transition was adding lead vocals to drummer Kevin Brewer’s responsibilities, and he’s a natural–his slightly weathered, lived-in voice on songs such as the cautionary tale “Drink It Away,” is a raspier counterpart to bassist Kevin Pettit’s rousing shout on other tracks, such as the Cowboy Mouth-esque “The Fine Details.”  

A trio can be a tough musical vehicle to create a diverse sound within (Think the singular, monolithic sound of ZZ Top), but with the variety of Chris Howard’s guitar tones and styles, there’s no danger of such sameness. There’s even an almost-Irish tune, sung by Kevin Pettit (whose tenure in the local Celtic rock act Loch Ness Johnny means he’s well suited for this assignment) and featuring some seriously frenetic drumming by Brewer. This is the sound of a band so sure of themselves that they are comfortable trying on all kinds of different sounds and styles from country and blues to Celtic and rock ‘n’ roll.  

The other improvement may be the songwriting; there are plenty of bands that can produce a twangy hook, but to hang a decent lyric on it that tells a story is another thing entirely. “Girls Like Her,” lopes along like a lost John Prine tune with lines such as, “He met her on a Friday after the ball game, smoking a Spirit and laughing at hope / Found her a lighter, and sat down beside her, said I got something stronger if you’re not opposed.” By the end of the song, the titular girl is 80 years old, and the lyric, like her life, circles back around to the beginning lines. 

If this had come out in 1997, 48 Fables would have been playing shows with Whiskeytown, The Bottle Rockets, and 6 String Drag. Rather than feeling dated or tied down to the late-90s “Great Alt-Country Scare” that made critical darlings out of those and myriad other twang-leaning acts of the day, the passage of 25 years means that the high-octane Americana of 48 Fables sounds fresh, fun, and meaningful again, and it stretches the definition of what’s possible within the genre.

by Kevin Oliver

THE BEAT: Kevin Oliver Reviews Sean Thomson's Self-Released Jank Volta

Columbia musician Sean Thomson first came to local music fans attention as half of the indie folk duo Post-Timey String Band, and he’s played in The Restoration, Marshall Brown, and the Rare Birds, and more including the upcoming “Zion” project from Saul Seibert. Then there’s the simultaneous stream of lo-fi mostly instrumental albums full of odd instrumentation and sounds, including several where he managed to acquit himself quite well on sitar, even. On this new collection of instrumental compositions, Thomson incorporates traces of all of those prior endeavors while crafting something meditative, intricate, and inventive. 

Even the song titles are creative and fun–with no lyrics, one can presumably name a tune anything, and Thomson manages to come up with delightfully playful names for all eight compositions here, some of which even have at least a tangential relationship to how they sound. “Large Indian Beer,” for example, incorporates some heavy sitar into its stomp-and-drone, while “Never Take a Sitar to Maxwell Street” answers the question of what Jimi Hendrix might have sounded like playing sitar.  

Occasionally Thomson gets serious, as on his version of Blind Blake’s “Sweet Papa Lowdown,” or on a nasty, fuzzed out guitar, or the sunny, island-vibe gone Ventures surf rock of the title track (featuring Jeff Gregory of The Runout on manic congas). More often, he’s enjoying creating brief musical worlds that manage to collide wholly different eras of music in under a couple of minutes. “Fungus,” for example, vacillates between Beatlesque chording and some unsettling electronica.  

The closing track has both the silliest title and the funkiest, slinky feel. “Yanni (heart) NASCAR” doesn’t seem to have anything to do with either cultural phenomenon, but the funk bassline and disco gone wrong atmosphere are undeniably catchy. As the tune slowly grinds to a stop like it just ran out of gas, all I want is to take it back out on the dance floor for another lap or two, along with the rest of this thoroughly entertaining album.

THE BEAT: Stardog - On the Ropes - Self-released

By Kevin Oliver

When the sudden news of Stardog guitarist Beau Long’s death spread through the local rock scene last year, it looked like a void had opened up that would be difficult to fill. Long’s proficiency in the kind of 70s/80s arena-ready rock swagger that Stardog excelled at is not something that’s all that common anymore. How would the band soldier on, or would they? 

Turns out that Long had one more fight left in him; his guitar parts for the band’s next album were completed prior to his passing. It is a fitting tribute to their late bandmate that the remaining band members chose to press on and finish what they’d started with Long. 

Four of the six tunes here are new compositions–Long’s last written and played with the rest of the band. There’s the boxing allegory, “The Left Hand,” which equates the sweet science to life lessons learned the hard way. “Lying” brings the Stardog sound into a more swinging 90’s alt-rock direction, more Soundgarden and Stone Temple Pilots than anything that might have worn spandex tights on stage. It’s also lead singer Artie Joyner’s peak performance, vocally, where he’s just soaring above the music on the chorus, yet emotive and restrained in the verses when he needs to be. 

 “All Time High,” with an insistent tempo driven by rock solid drummer Scott Mark King and a chorus that invites fist pumping and singing along, is typical of the band’s strengths–taking something that in lesser hands might be considered dated and cheesy and making it sound fresh and exciting all over again.  

The other thing that Stardog does well is create the kind of songs that make you think you’ve heard them before. “Nobody’s Sleeping” is one of two older songs included on this new release, It opens the proceedings with a not-so-subtle Van Halen style arrangement; stick around for the scorching Beau Long guitar solo–it’s worth the wait. “Lemonade Girl” is built on a riff and chord progression that’s naggingly familiar (I have my suspicions, but I’ll let you figure it out for yourself) before the full band kicks in for yet another great singalong chorus.

There is no pretense or artifice in the music Stardog plays, nor has there ever been. The band’s signature style is pure unadulterated over the top FM rock grandiosity, and here they deliver it like they are playing for the kids in the cheap nosebleed seats, lighters raised for an encore.

THE BEAT: Local All-Star Ramones Tribute Show by Kevin Oliver

Although the Ramones disbanded in 1996 after a 20-year run of albums and legendary live shows, the New York punk band’s influence remains strong. It was that legacy which led bassist Jason Carrion of Isabelle’s Gift to choose their music to pay tribute to in this coming Saturday night’s all-star tribute show at the Art Bar. This isn’t just any tribute act, however. Carrion has enlisted a “Who’s Who” list of local musical luminaries to play and sing together in a rotating cast that will present Ramones tunes from the familiar to the more obscure deep cuts.

“This whole thing grew out of my desire to see more of my music friends that I’d been missing the last couple years because of Covid,” Carrion says. “I had lunch with Jay Matheson (of the Jam Room and multiple local bands), and he was on board immediately, as were the people at the Art Bar.” 

The calls to other musicians came next, and Carrion says almost everyone said ‘yes.’ Logistically the preparations have been tricky, with several players coming in from other cities and even other states. 

“Jay let us use the Jam Room for practice, and Web Hulon of lowercase gods opened up his place for us too, so we had different combinations practicing different places with different people,” Carrion says. “Brian Vogle, who used to be in Drown Mary with me, is coming from Atlanta to play this show.” 

Other participants include Carrion’s bandmates Chris Sutton and Scott Frey from Isabelle’s Gift, Patti Davis, currently of the Transonics but also from the late great punk band Six Ten Split, among others, Claude Spurlock of Gruzer, Billy Riot of Soda City Riot, members of Brandy and the Butcher, and Jeremy Martin. Carrion’s own son, who usually does hip-hop music, is involved as well. 

It’s a real history of local bands,” Carrion says. “Jay started playing here in the 80’s, Chris and I came out of the 1990s along with Patti, and the Gruzer guys and Soda City Riot are more recent, down to Brandy and the Butcher.” Even the bands of more contemporary vintage include members who have been around the local music scene for years. 

The camaraderie of getting together and rehearsing these songs has been the biggest benefit for everyone, he adds. 

“There are no full bands participating in this as a single unit,” Carrion says. “Everyone is mixed up with people from other bands, some of whom they’ve never played music with before–that’s been the fun part.” 

While everyone was mostly familiar with the songs, there were some choices made on songs and who would sing what. Not everyone can do “I Wanna Be Sedated,” after all, and there were some songs that even the musicians didn’t want to have to learn. 

“Ramones songs are more complex than people realize,” says Web Hulon, who will be singing two of the set’s 18 picks. “One of my favorites got voted down because it would have been too hard to do, but it was Jason’s idea for me to sing ‘Do You Wanna Dance,’ an older song that was a cover when the Ramones did it.” 

Carrion sees this as a confirmation of being into playing live music just for the sake of playing, nothing else, and he’s excited to be playing with a group of musicians who feel the same way.

“I went to see Soda City Riot for the first time a while back, since Travis Nicholson is playing with them and now also with us in Isabelle’s Gift,” He recalls. “They just brought it that night, every part of that band is great–that’s the kind of energy and level of fun we want to bring to this.”  

The Ramones Tribute Show happens Friday, April 15th at the Art Bar, doors open at 8:00 with the show starting at 10. $8 cover, 21+ only. 

THE BEAT - Songs From The Vault: Admiral Radio’s New Album of Very Old Songs

By Kevin Oliver

 

Before we sat down on their front porch to talk about the release of Admiral Radio’s new album Songs From The Vault, I spied a vintage door leaning on the wall in a side room of Coty Hoover and Becca Smith’s charming Earlewood Park home. Described by Becca as “a project that I haven’t tackled yet,” the door’s flaking paint and unusual upper glass panes certainly appeared to be the bones of something that could be repurposed to great artistic effect. The songs on the new album are like that, worn yet comfortable tunes with the familiarity of an old coat of paint peeling from a door, layers upon layers that reveal older truth underneath. 

“We held on to the concept behind this album for a while, wanting something a little more simple and stripped down,” Smith says.  

The duo’s debut, Sounds Like You, was produced using a full band in the studio, something they rarely have the luxury of having on stage in a live setting. 

“We wanted to have something out there that reflected our pure duo sound,” Hoover admits. “We made a point to have this not be extremely polished.” 

The recording was done with the same production team of Carl Burnitz and Todd Mathis who helmed the debut, but this time around they eschewed the trappings of studio mikes, overdubs, and multiple takes in favor of a single condenser microphone hanging in the middle of a room between the two performers. Every song on the album is a single, complete take in that setting with nothing added–just Coty and Becca singing to each other and playing guitars and banjo.  

“A lot of the songs on this are ones we already play, songs we have collected over the last few years that we are drawn to for different reasons,” Smith says. “Sometimes it’s the lyrics, the story that the song tells, or it could be the way it makes us feel, and the way we sing it together.” 

Hoover and Smith sing together like the married couple they are, with their two voices playing off each other in close harmonies that sound as natural as a spring breeze bending the branches of a live oak tree. The sidewalk that constrains and conceals the tree’s roots is an apt metaphor for modern musical expectations that limit what people know about the history behind what they are hearing.  

Smith and Hoover both have deep connections, personal stories that link them to many of these songs and recording them was a bit of a history lesson for them, too. 

“One of my earliest memories growing up is a stuffed animal that I had,” Smith recalls. “It played ‘You Are My Sunshine,’ which if you really pay attention to the lyrics is pretty morbid.” 

Hoover’s recollection touches on the ancient ballad, “Oh My Darling, Clementine.”

“My uncle used to sing ‘Clementine’ to us while we were swinging in the back yard with the other kids,” He says. “I love songs like that where I have a specific memory of it, but when we play it now, I’m always thinking ‘Man, that’s a really sad song.’” 

Hoover and Smith’s easy familiarity with this material belies their own relatively recent vintage; so, when they decided to reach this far back to find songs for the new album, it took a little thought and some effort to research the sources.  

“With this project has come the recognition that some of our favorite songs span a stretch of time that’s much longer than we realized,” Smith says. “The songs we chose go back as far as the 1800s. To dive into the details of who wrote what, when was it published, and thinking about life then versus life now, and that we are still singing that same song two hundred years later, it’s really powerful. It has been a humbling and enriching experience to bring these into our own light and sing them in our own way.”  

The pandemic forced Hoover and Smith to reassess their musical career and focus on what mattered the most, which for them was the connection with others through making music. 

“Like most other full-time musicians, we were a bit lost in 2020 when the pandemic hit,” Hoover says. “We had plans to put out our debut album and tour behind it the rest of the year, and all of that was gone, suddenly.” 

The duo had to quickly figure out how to make ends meet financially and yet still continue to make music. They filled the gaps musically with livestreams, including a fully produced album release concert filmed professionally at the Sumter Opera House, but it wasn’t quite the same, Smith says. 

“The livestreams we did from home were a way to connect that was very restorative for my sense of community and faith in human connections through those very uncertain times,” She says. “We really, truly needed that, and it was an incredible time of camaraderie and support, even though we weren’t able to see our audiences in person. The Opera House show was a strange experience, in that it felt like a dress rehearsal, not quite the real thing.”  

A little more than two years into marriage and going through a pandemic, Smith says that they have learned a lot in the process about what they really want. 

“We are embracing the bits that aren’t quite perfect,” She says. “The pandemic experience has loosened up our attitude towards performance. Before, I was so serious and wanted everything to be just right every time. Now, I just want to play; I really just want to play.”  

You can hear Admiral Radio play this week when they celebrate the release of Songs From The Vault in concert at Downtown Church, 2030 Gregg Street. Doors open at 6:30, they will play from 7-8. A donation is requested, along with whatever food and beverage you prefer to bring in with you for this casual, communal musical evening. 

 

THE BEAT: Local Music at St. Pat's in 5 Points by Kevin Oliver

Sure, the hype for the return of the annual St. Pat’s in Five Points festival is focused on the headliners Blues Traveler and national acts such as Surfaces, Laney Wilson, and Big Something, but what often gets lost in the coverage is that St. Pat’s is also one of the biggest local music festival opportunities of the year. Columbia bands are well represented on the main stages in 2022, and every year there are additional acts playing at unofficial side stages, local bars, and restaurants in the area, and more. To help you plan a locals-focused day at the festival, here’s a rundown of area artists and when to find them on what stage:

Villanova 

2:40 pm, Greene and Harden St. Stage 

Possibly the most popular local act to play St. Pat’s multiple times, Villa*Nova brings the noise every year. The current lineup includes founding members Bobby Dredd and DJ Able One alongside singer and guitarist Brian Conner. The band released their first new music since 2015 last year, the single “Vipers,” which revealed a commitment to a heavier sound within their melodic funk roots. There’s still plenty of the funk/rock/hip-hop hybrid left in the band’s back catalog to please their longtime fans, however.

George Fetner and the Strays

1:10 - 2:10 p.m., Greene and Harden St Stage 

George Fetner has corralled his band of musical misfits into a herd of magnanimous proportions that turns any stage into a groove-laden party. Despite the near double-digit number of band members on stage, tight arrangements make the proceedings chug along purposefully. If you’re into bands such as Lake Street Dive, or the classic jams of WAR, there’s plenty to love in the joy-filled, tuneful workouts that Fetner and the Strays produce. 

Stranger Company

12:00-12:50 Harden and Blossom St Stage

A newer presence locally, this young quartet has tapped into a jam band style of rock, blues, and jazz that hearkens back to the 70’s classic rock of acts such as Wet Willie, Santana, and Sea Level, where the grooves and the guitar licks were what mattered. 

Ashley Wright and the Vance Gap Ramblers

12:00-12:50  Saluda and Devine St Stage 

Ashley Wright and her band have managed to create twang-friendly tunes that transcend stereotypes and cut close to the emotional bone. The band’s delicate arrangements juxtaposed with Ashley Wright’s full-throated alto voice bring to mind Gillian Welch and Watchhouse. 

 

Sourwood Honey Tribute Band

7:00-8:30, Home Team BBQ Stage 

The beloved Sourwood Honey was a bar-packing mainstay of the regional club circuit in the 1990s, with the dual front of Ryan Goforth and Chris Conner and ace guitarist Herbie Jeffcoat taking on the wingman position. Their brand of jam-friendly southern country rock was always a cut above the rest due largely to Conner’s songwriting skills, showcased on the pair of full-length albums the band issued in their prime. 

Conner passed from cancer back in 2007 but a few years back most of the remaining band members reconvened around Chris’ younger brother Brian Conner (of Villa*Nova), and called it a “tribute,” with Brian taking over his late brother’s parts; the goal is to keep the memory of Chris alive and reintroduce the band’s classic songs to audiences old and new. 

 

The Ramblers

4:10-5:10, Home Team BBQ Stage 

Taylor Nicholson logged plenty of miles as the lead singer for the popular regional rock act Atlas Road Crew; this outfit aims to provide plenty of classic rock and blues vibes on familiar material.

Danielle Howle & the Tantrums

2:40-3:40, Home Team BBQ Stage

 The nostalgic aspect of this year’s St. Pat’s Festival is encapsulated in the fact that Howle, a former Columbia resident and musician who now calls the Charleston area home, was playing the festival as early as the 1990s with her band Lay Quiet Awhile. The Tantrums was her next full rock band, featuring members from another late great local act, Blightobody, and the group recorded several albums for Daemon Records in the late 1990s, gaining airplay locally and regionally with songs such as “She Has A Past.” 

 

Soul Mites

1:10-2:10, Home Team BBQ Stage

The perennial party band for many Columbia natives, The Soul Mites only come out and play any more on special occasions like this.. The gruff, insistent voice of Tim Davis may be the focal point, but his supporting cast gives him a funky soul drenched rock ‘n’ roll machine to carry his crooning to another level.

THE BEAT: Warfare Check - Now That's What I Call Art (River Monster Records) by Kevin Oliver

“Punk was never just about raging against the machine, …“

Punk rock has a long and storied history in Columbia’s music scene, from the original punk era of Nick Pagan and the Fanatics through the positive hardcore of Bedlam Hour, the unhinged crust punk of Antischism and into the more focused assault of Stretch Armstrong, Self, Assfactor 4, and more.  

Lately the genre has seen something of a resurgence, with strong showings by Soda City Riot, Brandy and the Butcher, and now Warfare Check.  

This far down the line, anyone playing punk rock is usually self-selecting for what subgenre or sound they are going to deliver. Warfare Check falls squarely into the California punk of The Circle Jerks and Black Flag, with a bit of screamo angst and grunge bluster thrown in to keep things interesting. Frontman Bubs Rubella is more shouter than singer, a useful trait when one is barking out lyrics to songs such as “Violence Breeds Violence,” or “Go Fucking Die,” with complete seriousness.  

There are nods to the silly comedic side of hardcore on songs such as “Lord Shatterling’s Dildo Collection,” and “Mary Jane Rottencrotch,” but more often than not, the band deals in societal outrage that echoes the frustrations of the past two years plus of pandemic era issues. “2021 (Ain’t No Fun),” may state the obvious, but it does so in under two minutes with a lyrical riff that’s about as good an anthem for last year as there could be.  

“Aryan Garbage” pulls no punches, musically or lyrically. Coming across like a profane version of a Naked Raygun polemic, the song condemns the current trend of rising white supremacy with a string of mostly unprintable epithets over an unstoppable barrage of riffs.  

Punk was never just about raging against the machine, however. The community, camaraderie and belonging that punk subculture introduced was just as important in the long run, and Warfare Check’s catchiest, most memorable tune here, “I Hate This,” wraps up that “we’re all in this together” sentiment in just a few short lines: 

“We all suffer 

We all need a buffer 

What's the latest fashion,

What’s your goddamn passion?”

 

…Now that’s what I call a great question. How you answer it, that’s up to you.

THE BEAT - Kismet Kind’s Sad Girl Rock

By Kevin Oliver

“Kismet” is the word for the Arabic concept of destiny, or fate–not the kind one is resigned to, but the kind that greets you with promise, anticipation, and the joy of discovery along the way. The Greenville duo Kismet Kind chose the word as their moniker because of a chance meeting, with joyful repercussions that are still playing out. 

“We met in a kismet fashion in downtown Greenville, through an introduction by a mutual friend,” says Corinne Twigg, who along with Ashley Piotrowski is the entire band. Corrine had a track record as a local singer-songwriter, so they connected immediately over music, since Ashley was a drummer–an instrument largely absent from the former’s then all-acoustic style. “A promise to hang out and jam together turned into a series of Sundays spent in Ashley’s music room,” Twigg says. 

The resulting collaboration intrigued both musicians enough that eventually, they decided to take things public; their first show was about a year ago here in Columbia at New Brookland Tavern–where they return this Friday, March 4th.  

So, what happens when a confessional singer-songwriter crosses paths with a rock ‘n’ roll drummer? In Kismet Kind’s case, the musical mind-meld creates a cacophony of swirling guitar sounds and crashing cymbals, underpinned by Piotrowski’s propulsive timekeeping. An audio collision of Sleater-Kinney and Speedy Ortiz, the tuneful racket supports lyrics that would still feel equally at home in a sensitive indie folk song. The more electric, eclectic sound amplifies not only the instruments, but the themes addressed in the song’s subjects.  

“We wear our hearts on our sleeves,” Twigg says. “We find the writing process to be just as healing and as cathartic for us as it is to share the finished product in a room full of listeners.” 

The duo has even coined a name, or a subgenre, for what they do– “Sad Girl Rock.” 

“That most closely describes the emotional nature of our sound,” Twigg explains. “We aren’t your typical female duo because we aren’t afraid to connect with the loneliest person in the room from our vulnerable place on stage.” 

Their star has risen quickly on their home turf, with the Upstate Music Awards nominating them for “Best Duo/Group” and “Best Live Act,” an impressive achievement for a brand-new act. 

“To be as fresh on the scene as we are, seeing our name on anything–let alone nominations for the Upstate Music Awards–floored us,” Twigg says. “What means even more is to see familiar faces at our shows; it’s amazing to feel that support and it never gets old.” 

There are no formal studio recordings of Kismet Kind yet, but the duo is working on something for release in 2022. Until then, you can hear some of their music on a livestream they did last summer with the YouTube channel At The Addition: https://youtu.be/OOfx2IohVUc

 

Where: New Brookland Tavern

When: 7:00 p.m.

With: Hillmouse, Death Ray Robin

How Much: $10

 

The Beat: Sports and Music Don't Mix--Or Do They? Tales of Sports Related Gigs Gone Wild By Kevin Oliver

Sports and popular music have a long, intertwined history, from Super Bowl halftime shows to the Beatles playing Shea Stadium, longtime home of the New York Mets and the New York Jets. (And who can forget the “Jock Jams” phenomenon?”) On a local level, the relationship tends to be one of competing for audience attention, as the screens in the bars got bigger and the stages got smaller. Being in a college town like Columbia makes it especially challenging for bands booking gigs on game days. On one hand, the venues are full of customers, drinking, eating, and a captive audience for the lucky band on the calendar. On the other hand, that audience is there for the game, not the music, usually, and that can present challenges that make it a less than great experience for the musicians just trying to do their job.

Kevin Pettit, currently of the band 48 Fables, has been around the local scene for years and originally gained some notoriety as a member of Celtic rockers Loch Ness Johnny, where he had his own memorable sports vs. music moment.

“We were playing at the Flying Saucer in Columbia on a college bowl game weekend, and it was packed–I think it was Florida playing someone I can’t recall,” He says. “The big screen television in the bar was facing us on the other side of the room from the stage, and somehow we were able to time several song endings to coincide with a touchdown being scored in the game. So, when the crowd went crazy because someone scored, we took a bow and thanked ‘the great audience.’ It was good, silly fun.”

Not much has changed, according to Chris Reed, who plays both cover gigs and original music with his band The Bad Kids. “I played during the last Clemson-Carolina football game,” He says. “There was definitely a lot of oddly timed applause, which is awkward as hell but in the end it’s all just part of the job.”

It isn’t just football fans who can initiate some great sports-related gig stories, though. Bassist and guitarist Darren Woodlief, who has played around town with numerous acts, remembers an early gig with his rock band Pocket Buddha as an especially memorable evening.

“The band was me, Dave Britt, and Zack Jones, and this was our first sort of out of town gig over in Camden for the Carolina Cup steeplechase race day,” he says. “We were at a bar downtown that was a welcome respite for many very drunk folks who'd been out in the sun all day, a good number of whom may not have actually seen a horse. We played all the cover songs we knew and at the end of our 3 hours a small group of equine enthusiasts were not ready for the party to be over. After some negotiation, we agreed to play another 30 minutes for $50 bucks each. Rejuvenated by the bonus and the chance to again play the songs we knew best, we did our thing and left feeling exhausted but grateful.”

Just like not every game can end in a win for your team, not every gig on a game day turns out great. Josh Roberts, who has toured with his band The Hinges for years throughout the southeast and beyond, can attest to how bad timing can ruin a gig.

“The Hinges were playing Tasty World in Athens, Georgia on the night of the Carolina/Georgia game, maybe 2008 or 2009. It was a solid lineup, all the other bands were from Athens, and everyone was having a good time, hanging around the venue all evening, excited about the show.  Then, what wasn’t supposed to happen did, and the Gamecocks beat Georgia in an ugly game. We watched it at the venue, and at the end you could feel all the air let out of the town. It felt bad everywhere. The show was totally deflated. Hardly anyone came, and that strange feeling in the air just stuck around.” 

The Hinges’ bad luck followed them home in 2010, he adds.

“During the 2010 SEC championship with Auburn and Cam Newton vs. the Gamecocks, the same thing happened in Columbia. We were playing The Five Points Pub, which we had been reliably packing full of folks. We sound checked early because of the game, went elsewhere to watch it, and when it was over we could just feel it then, too. City deflation. Very small turnout and a strange feeling over everything.”

It wasn’t all bad for the band in either case, however, as non-football fans who are fans of a band don’t really care who won or lost, they just want to see their favorite band play, Roberts notes. “I will say that in both those cases a bunch of serious music fans came late and had a good time. I got the feeling a lot of those folks were anti-sports in general, and were pointedly not going to let something like that mess with their show.”

And then there are the experiences that have nothing to do with the game outcome or the distracting televisions. Sometimes it’s just professional musicians trying to get things done, and they wind up improvising.

Fiddler Jim Graddick remembers a 2013 incident where he was invited to play the Carolina/Clemson halftime show at Williams-Brice Stadium with banjo legend Randy Lucas.

“It was Dick Goodwin’s idea to have a bluegrass band play ‘Dueling Banjos’ with the Carolina band,” Graddick says. “They let us in without tickets since we were with the marching band, and when I went out to use the restroom about halfway through the second quarter, security wouldn’t let me back in since I had no ticket. I explained that I was playing the halftime show, to which the guard flatly responded, ‘Yeah, sure–me too.’” 

Of course, there are many musicians who are also big sports fans–who can forget the famous line in Hootie & the Blowfish’s hit song “Only Wanna Be With You” where Darius Rucker namechecks his favorite NFL team with the line “You wonder why I’m such a baby, ‘cause the Dolphins make me cry.” 

Patrick Davis is a well-known Gamecock supporter, writing and releasing several classic song tributes to USC sports teams. His sound and production crew lead of choice, local audio engineer Wayne Munn, remembers how they would sometimes have to make allowances for those gigs that clashed with USC game times. “We did a show at (NASCAR driver) Michael Waltrip’s house the day of a Carolina/Clemson football game with Patrick and the band,” Munn says. “We set up iPads behind the edge of the two front walls of the stage, so the band could watch the game as they were performing.”

So, wherever you choose to watch the Super Bowl this week, or any other major sporting event, if there is a local band playing there at the same time you should at least try to applaud at the right time–and drop in an extra tip, as the musicians are working a little harder than usual to have a good gig.

THE BEAT - Turbo Gatto: Purr-fectly Good Mewsic

By Emily Moffitt

Kevin Jennings and Gina Ercolini are Turbo Gatto - photo by The Wolf

Ever heard of “Cat Rock”? The creativity of guitarist Kevin Jennings and drummer Gina Ercolini, under the band name Turbo Gatto, originally invented the genre to adapt the lyrics of Motorhead songs to be about cats. 

“It was a blast and a lot of laughs for a second, but it led us to discover our own idea,” she adds, “Original garage rock/punk music with lyrics about anything related to cats.”

It has been an entertaining formula, and with musical inspiration from the Cramps on the two-person band’s new album “Bad Mewsic For Bad Cats” they have built upon the original foundation of Stooges power, AC/DC riffs, and Ramones frenzy that have informed the project from the start. It’s all about the riff, Ercolini admits. “A good riff is almost always our starting point; we trust each other to follow where the music takes us from there.” 

They are fully invested in the genre they’ve pioneered, utilizing the self-proclaimed “cat life and love of rock and roll” to not only build their sound, but engage audiences. Their most devoted fans can be seen at shows sporting their best sets of cat ears, willing to play along with the feline frenzy happening on stage. Playing for the fun of it is one of the guiding principles of Turbo Gatto, and it offers Jennings and Ercolini a respite from their other bands, which include MNRVA, and a way to spend more time together making music–they’ve also been a married couple since 2016.  

“We met at karaoke at Art Bar and somehow decided that we had all we needed to start a band,” Ercolini recalls. “We held our first practice three days later and have been inseparable ever since.” 

Turbo Gatto purrs loudest in a live setting, and Jennings and Ercolini are both happy to be back in that environment. 

“Our live shows are always a bit chaotic and teetering on the brink,” Ercolini says. “It takes a certain kind of energy and focus in the moment to hold everything together–it’s both exciting and terrifying.” 

Over the pandemic months, the bandmates used the down time from live shows to write as much new music as they could, and experiment with different influences, but they found that their basic methods of working, and recording, didn’t change much. When it came time to record the new material for a proper album, they also chose not to change anything there. 

“We record everything with Jay Matheson at the Jam Room Recording Studio,” Ercolini says. “He’s spectacular in guiding us to produce the best record we can in a matter of only two days spent in the studio.” The results, she adds, are meant to be fun, no matter how good the playing or the recording process makes them sound.

“One thing you cannot do when playing in a cat rock band is take yourself too seriously,” she concludes. “This is the kind of record you can listen to while driving around town or jumping up and down on the bed eating pizza.”            

The album release for “Bad Mewsic for Bad Cats” will be held at Art Bar on Saturday, February 12th at 7 PM. Also, on the bill in addition to Turbo Gatto are The Transonics, The Buzzards of Fuzz, Warfare Check, and the Black Stare of Soledad Miranda.

THE BEAT is a rotating lineup of music coverage under the direction of Jasper Magazine music editor, Kevin Oliver, that includes local album reviews, in-depth artist interviews and profiles, live show reviews, and all things related to local music in the greater SC midlands area arts community. If you have story ideas, or you’re a local musician, band, or involved with a local project that you think deserves some attention, drop Kevin a line at kevingoliver@gmail.com

Kevin Oliver's THE BEAT: Caught Up In a Feeling--The Runout and Jeff Gregory Build Community Around Music

“We discovered that we like eating, and we like drinking, and we like making music, preferably all at the same time,” - Jeff Gregory

For many people the ongoing pandemic has been a rollercoaster ride, but for Jeff Gregory and his band The Runout it was the catalyst for a creative community which birthed the band’s latest album With Your Eyes Closed. Early on, as artists found their footing online with live streaming to replace live in-person shows, Gregory and his wife Kelley hit upon a simple format of the two of them, a guitar and occasional piano, repeated on Wednesday nights, that resonated with them and a core group of friends and fans.  

“The pandemic really had us down, so Kelley and I found something to do to make ourselves happy and remember what singing together in high school was like,” Jeff Gregory says. 

The Runout was already a band with a couple recording sessions and a first album out, along with a number of live shows featuring an evolving lineup that currently includes Mike Scarboro on drums, Moses Andrews on bass guitar, keyboards, and organ, and Chris Compton on electric guitar alongside Jeff and Kelley Gregory. But as the pandemic dragged on and Gregory took some soul-searching, nonmusical personal time, the community drew him back in, he says.

“Thank God for Chris Compton, Patrick Leitner, Lang Owen, all of those guys asked me to get involved on their projects, just a song here and there,” Gregory says. “It spurred me on to wanting to do music again myself.” 

The community that gathered around the Gregorys shared one crucial thing, and, surprisingly, it wasn’t music–it was food. 

“We discovered that we like eating, and we like drinking, and we like making music, preferably all at the same time,” Gregory says. “It sounds silly, but a lesson we’ve learned is that when you have friendship, and good vibes, then you can have some creativity and exploration in what you’re doing.” 

The musical result of this camaraderie was The Runout’s latest album With Your Eyes Closed. The record pulls together the intimate feeling of those livestream nights with an expanded lineup that allows for full band arrangements. The tracks progress through deceptively feel-good anthems such as the bouncy Americana-esque opener, “Feelings,” and more raucous, rocking rave-ups like “Coffee and Weed.” Gregory also delves into deeper territory on tracks like the ethereal “Crooked Canyon,” a metaphorical journey to the center of one’s psyche that’s equal parts terrifying and glorious in its imagery.  

Gregory has that rarest of qualities–the ability to turn a clever phrase, but also imbue its delivery with raw, honest emotion that connects on a deeper level than the average pop song. The centerpiece of the album is “Give Up,” an irresistible tune that began life on those now long-ago livestreams with just Jeff and Kelly harmonizing to an acoustic guitar. The album version adds shimmering electric guitar to the natural connection their voices make on lyrics that anyone in a long-term  relationship can relate to: “I’ve been wanting to give up, I’ve been thinking it through…it seems I need a few more hours down this road with you.”  

Those few more hours have become months now, in pandemic times. In lieu of a club gig for the album release, The Runout staged a mini-festival they dubbed “Stump Fire Fest at a friend’s property. They invited a hundred of their fans and friends to come celebrate outdoors with them, a culmination of the community that had sustained the band to that point.

“We’re thankful for that community,” Gregory says now. “We weren’t really aware of it until that night–I think it was the result of the pandemic filtering out everything that didn’t matter, and the music was what was left.” 

The Stump Fire Fest may have set an unrepeatable precedent; in addition to the Runout, several other bands played on a small stage built just for the night, poet Al Black read between sets, and Dick Moons and his drum circle formed up around a nearby campfire as participants ate, drank, and moved between the different moving parts of the evening.  

“It really crossed scenes and generations,” Gregory says of the festival. “It wrapped up what had been a really meaningful time of making the record, too–Hanging out with Chris Compton, Sean Thomson, Patrick Leitner, Moses Andrews, that meant more to me than I realized at the time.” 

It’s the mentality of helping others, Gregory concludes, that has to survive the pandemic.

“People are wondering what’s going on in the world right now, and the answer is that nobody knows,” He says, “So what must our response be? It has to be art.” 

 

The Beat Goes On -- Welcoming Kevin Oliver's Classic Music Column, THE BEAT, Back into Circulation via The Jasper Project

THE

BEAT

GOES

ON!

In keeping with the Jasper Project’s mission to showcase and spotlight the creative arts and entertainment scene in Columbia, we are happy to reveal a new partnership going forward that will increase Jasper’s coverage of the music scene in the clubs and small venues, from rock and metal to jazz, hip-hop, folk, bluegrass, blues, country, and more, by bringing back to local media a weekly music-centric column– “The Beat.” 

Originally a weekly print column created by longtime local freelance music critic Kevin Oliver to give him a framework for writing about the scene in the Columbia Free Times newspaper back in the mid-1990s, the early version of “The Beat” included news and reviews of local bands alongside previews of upcoming concerts. The column was supplanted by larger, separate features after a few years, but Kevin’s coverage of local music endured through his departure from those pages in early 2020. The only other appearance of “The Beat” and its focus on local music was an online blog version in the 00’s. 

So, consider this new take on “The Beat” to be not a resurrection of the original, but an extension of its concept as a space to write about all things relating to local music. It’s a throwback, sure, but also an acknowledgement of the long history of great local talent in the Columbia area and its importance to the continued existence of opportunities for the current generation of local musicians. 

Kevin is on board to direct this effort for Jasper and serve as the main writer and editor of the space, but he’s not alone–several other writers from the Jasper family and the greater Midlands area arts community  will be joining in to provide broad, diverse perspectives.  

“I’m excited to be back in the business of writing about local music here in Columbia,” Kevin says. “There is more to cover now than ever, and I look forward to being able to help sift through the many different opportunities out there to enjoy our local musical talent.” 

What should you expect from the new “The Beat”? We will offer up a rotating lineup of coverage to include local album reviews, in depth artist interviews and features, live show reviews, and anything else local music related that we can think of. If you have story ideas, or you’re a local musician, band, or involved with a local project that you think deserves some attention, drop Kevin a line at kevingoliver@gmail.com.  

Watch this space for our first full column, dropping next Sunday.