Tag: 40 watt
Warning: Attempt to read property "post_id" on null in /dom375187/wp-content/plugins/enhanced-category-pages/classes/ecp/Enhanced_Category.php on line 143
Warning: Undefined array key 0 in /dom375187/wp-content/plugins/enhanced-category-pages/classes/ecp/Enhanced_Category.php on line 232
New Artist Spotlight: Wim Tapley
After making the move from Virginia only a few months ago, singer-songwriter Wim Tapley has started making a name for himself here in Athens. He wasted no time once he started attending the University of Georgia in the fall, as he was already playing gigs around town within his first month in the state.
Wim’s music can be considered folk/rock with his own twist that incorporates Americana and pop that fits his raw, real and confident voice. He is a talented multi-instrumentalist with his own creative direction in every aspect of his music career. He produces his own music including his recent EP The Woodlands, which is impressively played, recorded, and produced all by himself. In this EP, Wim uses elements of fuzzed-out guitars, pianos, horns, and his unique vocals to take on the genre of folk-pop while using inspiration from musicians such as Bill Withers, Chris Stapleton, and Ed Sheeran.
Not only is Wim’s music strikingly inspiring and unique, but he is also a new, bright light in the Athen’s music scene. He loves to attend other band’s shows in support, and he is always trying to make new connections around town and play as often as he can. He has already built an impressive fanbase and draws a crowd at every location he plays, including the 40 Watt Club. His self-generated motivation shows through his discography, his lively performances, and his continued effort to create new things and express himself and his love for various genres of music.
Wim’s last solo gig for the foreseeable future is at Akademia Brewing Co. on Thursday, November 11th. He will still be performing around Athens, but as a band under the name of Wim Tapley & The Cannons who will start playing shows in late November. Wim is definitely an artist to watch coming out of Athens, as he has already taken the city by storm in the short amount of time he’s lived here. With a drive and talent like his, he is surely to rise quickly to the top of the music scene here in Athens and beyond.
Check out Wim on his website here, and keep with him on social media: Instagram // Twitter // Facebook // Youtube // Spotify
Black Lips at the 40 Watt
The line to the 40 Watt curved down Pulaski Street as people waited for the doors to open. Those who RSVP’d ahead of time were sent to a Red Bull Sound Select representative and given free chocolate chips cookies and foam black lips. Once inside, Muuy Biien performed an enthusiastic show and set the hardcore, punk mood for the rest of the night. Front man, Josh Evans brought the energy and the fun with his animated dance moves. After Muuy Biien, people migrated to the bar or outside for a cigarette. Even the boys of Muuy Biien made their way to ground level as fellow Black Lips fans. We weren’t outside for more than 30 minutes before my friend points out Black Lips’ singer, Cole, and the band’s female saxophonist walking by. It was an occurrence that seemed so surreal at the time, to be that close to performers dressed in their punk garb and makeup. Shaky Knees was a completely different experience; fans leaned over metal gates and bodyguards in order to reach for the Black Lips. The 40 Watt is much more intimate, eliminating the barrier between the audience and the performers. It’s not uncommon to see band members mingling among the audience with a PBR in hand or partaking in the chaos that is the mosh pit.
Finally, the seemingly misplaced 50’s standby music abruptly transitions to the rough and raw guitar sounds of Black Lips. Opening with “Family Tree,” the band wastes no time in amping up the energy. Cole gracefully trust falls onto a tightly packed group of audience members, and is just as gracefully placed back on stage. I vigorously nodded my head and bounced in the back of the crowd. The band recently included a female saxophonist that brings a new layer to the band’s sound. Although she is only present for a few songs, her power gives the songs new life. Its no secret that punk-rock shows can be overwhelming; one doesn’t come to a punk-rock show to sit in the back and not get pushed around. I think the genre is successful in generating an energetic crowd; as long as the performers are screaming into the mic and jumping around on stage, the audience is bound to follow. The genre gets back what it puts in. Have you ever been to a rock concert and not been able to dance? It’s hard. I think the same concept goes for any genre, but the punk-rock genre is all about creating chaos and instilling a rebellious mindset in its listeners.
It wasn’t long before I saw my girlfriend crowd surfing a few bodies in front of me. She was so close to the stage that I think Cole looked her square in the face. A few girls gabbed back in forth in front of me, a few even checking updates from Instagram as the band played “Boys in the Woods.” I couldn’t go to a Black Lips show at the 40 Watt and remain in the safe section. People started to filter out of the crowd, making their way to the calmness of the bar. The aggressive moshing and flying toilet paper rolls were too much to handle, but I grabbed my friend by the hand and pushed our way closer, eventually reuniting with my crowd surfing friend. I knew the concert was coming to an end, and I also knew I would regret it if I didn’t enter the ominous mosh pit. I asked my crowd surfing friend to come with me, which she agreed to without hesitation. As we pushed our way into the pit, the temperature immediately climbed 10 degrees and the humidity was enough to stifle my breath. Once in the center of the pit, my legs and arms became pinned to my body. It took all the power I had to pull an arm up for defense. I finally got my head up enough to see Jared’s sweaty, red face and the veins popping out of his neck as he belted out “Bad Kids.” In a blur, I see a guy jumping off the stage, and it’s my job to catch him. Immediately the impact takes my friend and I to the floor. I was surprised to feel people reaching for me, helping me up. It wasn’t long before the weight of so many bodies took its toll, and just as I felt a crushing sensation in my chest and a tingling in my face, I moshed my way out of the pit.
Just as Black Lips ended, the crowd chanted for an encore, and the band willingly obliged. I discovered I’m not much of a mosher, but I was proud of myself for taking a chance. Their recorded songs definitely have a cleaner quality, but there’s something about the rawness of a blood-curdling scream and the feedback of a guitar that gets to the heart of the audience member, physically. If you’re heart isn’t racing at a Black Lips concert, you’re either in the bathroom or passed out.
Listen: Wieuca “Pressure Head”
Its been a while since Vinyl Mag has talked to Wieuca. We interviewed them about their band dynamic and future plans and reviewed their self-titled EP, “Wieuca.” Needless to say, Vinyl Mag is excited to see where this band is going, and we’re very happy they came to Athens from Atlanta. Hopefully they’re here to stay. Wieuca has recently graced us with yet another single, “Pressure Head,” from their upcoming album Master, produced through Land of the Freak Recordings.
The track opens with eerie noise and distorted instruments. The broken sounds come together to create an upbeat melody, and the noise slowly transitions to a somewhat surfer guitar riff and vocals. The sound remains ethereal, and perhaps a little psychedelic until the instrumental end. In our interview with Wieuca, Will points out that “the band is more collaborative and fun than it ever has been,” but “open to adding more members to expand the potential of our live show,” which is reason enough to attend their release show for their upcoming album on September 4th at the 40 Watt, along with The Hernies and Big Morgan.
firekid at the 40 Watt 4.14.15
[tps_header]
Last night, the 40 Watt hosted two newfangled Americana bands, firekid and Delta Spirit. Despite a sparse crowd and little fanfare, firekid – a two-piece Nashville group – delivered an interesting and varied set of reimagined roots music. Initially, they seemed like a group in the vein of Shy Girls, mixing whispered vocals with plucked guitar and hip hop beats. But it soon became clear that they were aiming for something bigger and not heard before. Singer/guitarist/sampling maestro Dillon Hodges and drummer Josh Kleppin combine traditional bluegrass and tex mex guitar picking – very skilled picking at that – with the hip hop beats of today’s top 40. The masterful guitar playing should come as no surprise, as Hodges won the National Guitar Championship at the age of 17, making him the second youngest person to ever do so. He struck as a contemporary of our own Sam Burchfield. Both traffic in blue-eyed soul that has clearly been practiced and perfected, and both are unabashed fans of big, poppy choruses, back porch cred be damned.
Hodges grew up in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, which any music fan worth their salt knows as the birthplace of much of our favorite soul and southern oldies, a creative hotbed in the middle of nowhere. The highlight of the set was a “song about hipsters,” as Hodges introduced it (the heavily hipster Watt crowd was nonplussed), chronicling a metal band who traded in axes for banjos when the winds of changes shifted. “Everybody’s chasin’ the Americana dream,” he deadpanned, slyly knocking groups like Mumford & Sons, whose recent aesthetic change from suspenders to leather jackets proves Hodges’ point. But ironically, despite the Alabaman and Nashvillian ethos firekid so clearly possesses, one could easily lump them in with the very same bro country/brograss movements that irk them.
The song about hipsters even seemed to defend bro country at one point, noting that if Hank Williams is spinning in his grave, it’s not due to what’s happening in Nashville. Any way you slice it, roots music is going through growing pains and identity crises out the wazoo these days, and firekid are a perfect example. The group’s Nashville relocation, and its old and new ways of doing things, were on full display in their songs like “Getaway Car” and “Lay By Me”. The group even covered pop hits like “Bang Bang” and “FourFiveSeconds”, albeit a little less powerfully than the songs’ originally tigresses – if you’re gonna cover Ariana or Rihanna, you’ve gotta COMMIT. Songs where Hodges’ guitar playing was front and center were miles ahead of the sample- and synth-laden ones – it didn’t help that the 40 Watt’s continuing sound problems drowned out his vocals and overpowered the drums. Fortunately, as Hodges revealed in our recent firekid interview, their upcoming record will heavily showcase his flatpicking. But no matter where your chronological preferences lie, this is quite literally a band like no other.
[/tps_header]
firekid
Juna / Waitress / Monsoon / Howling Tongues at 40 Watt on February 19
[tps_header]
This past Thursday night at the 40 Watt saw a packed, diverse evening of what rock has been up to in the past three decades. It was also the debut event for local startup Aria Promotions, and they did a damn good job – the show was almost sold out.
Opener Juna delivered sludgy, math-intwined boomers. Between the Prozac haze guitar chords, quirky time signatures, and buffet table drumming, they definitely qualify as new members of the emo revival. A few of their meandering guitar noodles seemed ripped straight from a Sunny Day Real Estate record. Despite technical issues at the beginning of the set, they were still able to churn out winding high-passion sonic explorations. Lead singer Hunter Whitehead is probably the most impassioned bassist the Classic City has ever seen, and I was halfway convinced drummer Sasha Schilbrack-Cole was gonna permanently maim his kit. They were also really, really loud – once again, thank the heavens for We’re hEAR For You.
Waitress was up next, and at this point it seemed that the night existed on an exponential \m/(>.<)\m/ graph. They sounded like a Black Flag-Descendents intermediary, and even on their slower, more intricate songs, they still sounded like a metal Dismemberment Plan. Lead Brian McGhee was beyond delightful, basically standing in as a stand up between their ultra-tight songs. He waxed poetic about everything from Clickhole to Cliff Bars, and was charitable enough to tell each of his bandmates just how hot they are. In terms of straight technicality, the night went to drummer Ryan Houchens, who gave me Whiplash if you know what I mean.
But then Monsoon took the stage, and holy SHIT. For just three Athens kids, they made a whole lot of really great noise. Singer and guitarist Sienna was a natural showwoman, prowling and climbing the stage like a feral bilingual lunatic. Their pseudo-Americanized J punk / coked up Beach Boys vibe is something I’ve been searching for my whole life and didn’t even know it. If Clocked were a band, it would be Monsoon. There’s nothing more enjoyable than watching three obvious best friends absolutely weird-out and wreck a set of songs that don’t quite sound like anyone else. I feel like an idiot for not having seen them before, and would now like to publicly swear my undying allegiance to this band.
Then Atlanta’s The Howling Tongues came on amidst smoke machines and a light show that would make Kanye West say, “Dudes, you’re doing a lot.” While a great technical band – they had clearly practiced their set and song changes ad infinitum – they were playing a bluesy brand of rock and roll that’s really not supposed to sound this rehearsed. They were pleasant enough, and on the surface they were great; but they felt an odd choice as city-slicker closers juxtaposed to the earnest, scrappy punk of the Athens bands that opened for them. Some garage rock bands who deal in Rolling Stones riffage fall victim to the uncanny valley of soul vs. precision, and it looks like the Howling Tongues are one such band. Their whole schtick felt too familiar – making a big show of chugging Jack Daniels; songs involving “I’ll give it to you” double entendres; women smoking cigarettes in red dresses. Every “Whassup Athens?!” and “How y’all doin’ tonight?!” platitude felt empty and forced. It didn’t help that lead singer Taylor Harlow asked permission to “play some rock and rooollll” from the audience between every.single.song, and his playful joshing of the crowd’s lack of energy became uncomfortable berating by night’s end. And I wasn’t the only one who noted the irony of the Tongues’ “Ain’t Too Proud To Beg” cover. Basically, this is a group who’s proper to their own detriment, and doesn’t appear comfortable in their own skin. Loosening up would do ’em a lot of good.
[/tps_header]
Juna
Backstage with Deadstring Brothers
Listen up. I got to hang backstage with Nashville-by-way-of-Detroit-based Deadstring Brothers at their show at the 40 Watt, and now you get to listen in and pretend you were there.
They’ve been compared to 70’s-era Rolling Stones. They have been called a country band. They’ve been called a blues band. Whatever they are – I’d say a cocktail of all of the above – it works, and we are ready for more.
I sat down with Kurtis Marschke (the original Deadstring Brother) and J.D. Mack to talk about their new album, Cannery Row, as well as Nashville’s influence on their sound, their experience at South by Southwest, and their upcoming album and tour. So have a gander, and then go stalk their music.
Backstage at the 40 Watt with Nate Brenner of Naytronix
Got to hang out backstage with Nate Brenner (you may know him as the bassist for tUnE-yArDs) to talk about his solo project, Naytronix and his first tour on his own. The band is opening for WHY? on this US tour and plans to continue touring. Definitely should not be missed.
While you’re buying your tickets online, go ahead and check out the interview below!
Tour Dates
11/05 – St Louis, MO – The Luminary Center for the Arts
11/29 – Utrecht, Holland – Le Guess Who? festival
12/3 – Birthdays – London, UK