CHARLESTON, W.Va. --Daniel Johnson, longtime drummer for area hardcore band Let The Guilty Hang (and now drummer for Tim Browning and the Widowmakers) decided late last year to put together a music festival in his hometown that featured some of West Virginia’s more notable acts. The result is the West Virginia Independent Music Festival in Logan on Saturday. The Gazz caught up with Johnson over the phone to talk about everything that goes into organizing and pulling off such a huge endeavor. Reposted from The Charleston Gazette
GAZZ: A lot of people would love to book their own festival. What’s it like to actually do that?
Daniel Johnson: “The thing for me is I have an unwavering dedication to this scene and have for many years, so I’m lucky enough to be able to call a lot of these guys in these bands my true friends.
“The tough thing is to convince a band like Sasha Colette and the Magnolias to get on the same bill as a band like Bobaflex or vice versa. It’s very rare in today's music scene, be it in West Virginia or anywhere, to find a multi-genre festival.
“These bands are all from completely different genres. There are a couple bands who are close, but a lot of these bands would never share a bill on a typical club gig. Going into it, there were no genre boundaries. I just wanted to book the bands that I was into.”
----- GAZZ: When did you get the idea to do this?
Johnson: “I helped out with a festival here in Logan called Rocktoberfest for a few years. That was the jumping off point for me to see that I could do this. I said late last year, ‘OK, well, I’ll do my own. I’ll make my own festival.’”
----- GAZZ: Has being in bands give helped you organize the festival?
Johnson: “It’s essentially the exact same thing as booking a show for one of my bands, except it just grows exponentially. This has taken on a life of its own. There’s stuff you wouldn’t have to deal with in normal day-to-day: food, parking and just the things that come that with having hundreds of people in one place.
“For me, without the experience of being a musician and seeing how the machine works -- dealing with promoters, going to lots of shows -- I don’t think I would’ve been able to do all this. And I’m still learning and figuring it out as I go along. You can’t download a PDF file on how to put on a festival.”
----- GAZZ: Paste Magazine recently wrote a blog post, “10 West Virginia Bands You Should Listen to Now.” With this festival, are you hoping to accomplish something like that, to expose these acts to a wider audience?
Johnson: “I think it’s cute that Paste put up the little blog that said ‘Top 10 bands in West Virginia you should check out.’ I think there are a hundred bands you should check out. It is the cancer of being a musician in this state -- there is no exposure on a national level.
“It’s sad that location matters, and you’re immediately not even a blip on the radar screen. There are lots of great bands from this state. For my money, American Minor, the Huntington band Bud Carroll from AC30 was in, put out a few of the greatest records I’ve ever heard.
“At the end of the day, it’s just a general blind eye turned on our state. It’s happened for years. Byzantine has made a few of the greatest heavy metal records I’ve ever heard, and they've completely gone under the radar.
“On a national level, they don’t give you breaks, man. I don’t know what to chalk it up to. It’s these mountains, I guess.”
----- GAZZ: What are your feelings going into the festival?
Johnson: “Since I’m one of the only people involved, I’ve set things so there’s only one person to point fingers at if this fails, so it’s a great amount of stress, but I’ve signed up for it. I am extremely stressed. I am extremely excited. I’m nervous as hell. I’m looking forward to it being over, but dreading it ending. It’s a whole big mess of emotions.
“If I had to bring it down to one statement, I would just say I want people to hear songs that matter as much to them as much as they do to me. And I want them to hear something new that maybe they wouldn’t if they were just a Byzantine fan. Maybe they’ll hear The Demon Beat and say, ‘Holy s--- these guys are great.’
“The goal is for people to walk away with a piece of merch from a local band they’ve never heard of. That’s my goal: that it goes well and people leave having a new band to like.”
Together in various incarnations for twenty years as Moon, The Phantom Six (L-R: Woody O'Hara, Clint Sutton, Billy Matheny, Billy Sheeder, Mark Poole) plays its first Huntington show with a new name and new energy.
Whether it’s his band, The Phantom Six, or his studio, Zone 8, Mark Poole is all in when it comes to both.
After twenty years, the mutually reinforcing processes of writing and recording songs have, for Poole, culminated in and with The Phantom Six. But The Phantom Six isn’t a new band; Poole has fronted his Morgantown-based rock band for years under the name Moon.
“For me, it’s pretty much the most exciting time it’s ever been,” Poole said over the phone, describing what it’s like fronting the band he started back in 1990.
The Phantom Six’s 13-song debut effort “Plastic Rain,” released last October, has been getting a warm welcome from fans and critical praise as well.
“So far, it’s been great,” the singer, guitarist and producer said when asked about “Plastic Rain” getting airplay on Chicago radio station WXRT and thumbs up in general from online outlets. The Chicago station named “Corianna,” the opening song on “Plastic Rain” its Big Beat song of the week in late February.
“Getting those accolades on the radio is a thrill for me,” Poole continued, describing the response to what would have been Moon’s fourth record.
“The [powerpopaholic] blog, those guys are pretty well respected. There’s a whole big subgenre of like, power pop geeks,” Poole said with a laugh. “It’s weird, because we’ve always kind of marketed ourselves as a garage band, but we don’t really fit into the garage band genre. I feel like we fit more comfortably in with those power pop fans.”
The Phantom Six plays The V Club Friday night as part of a weekend jaunt that takes them to The Empty Glass in Charleston Saturday.
Evoking something more recent, like Tom Petty jamming with Matthew Sweet, but with nods to and roots in everything great from the 60’s and 70’s, The Phantom Six, not surprisingly, reflect Poole’s own decades-long love of rock and roll.
“Musically, I can’t hide my influences, and it’s basically stuff I heard on the radio as a kid growing up,” he said. “So a lot of British Invasion bands like The Beatles, The Kinks, the Stones, The Who. And 70’s power pop stuff like The Raspberries, Big Star, I liked them a lot. Even if I tried, I don’t think I could hide those influences.”
You could say The Phantom Six are pretty much to Morgantown what AC30 is to Huntington: a local all-star power pop super-group. Poole is joined by twenty-year friend and band mate Billy Sheeder on guitar, Billy Matheny, a prolific rocker in his own right, plays bass, Clint Sutton plays drums and Woody O’Hara rounds out the very rich, hard rocking sound out with percussion. Sheeder moving from drums to guitar gave the band a whole new energy and bigger vocal harmonies, Poole noted.
Despite any lineup or name changes with his band, Poole said not a whole lot has changed; it’s just him writing songs.
“I knew I wanted to lead a band, just for the sole reason I knew it would never break up,” Poole said. “It’s frustrating when you put everything into a band and someone loses interest, and then it’s gone. So having my own band, writing my own songs, has allowed me to have some consistency, even though the lineup would change every couple of years.”
It’s been roughly twenty years since Poole, frustrated with early Moon recordings, decided to clear out his house and take out as big a loan as the bank would give him ($5,000) to start the nascent Zone 8 Recording studio in Granville.
“I think it was a little more of a risk in, I guess it was around 1993 or 1994, that I took out the loan and did all that,” Poole said with a laugh, remembering the days when home recording became financially feasible for musicians.
“I was working at a Phar-Mor store, like stocking shelves, and it was just a [expletive] job and I hated it,” Poole said continuing. “So in my mind it wasn’t a risk, I was trying to plant the seeds for some kind of future where I could get away from that job.
“But part of it was just, every band I’d ever been in, we’d go into a studio, and it would cost a fortune, and I’d come home unsatisfied with it. We couldn’t ever afford to take our time doing a recording.”
The Phantom Six has begun and will likely finish a new record this year, Poole said. So he is looking forward to time in the studio with his band, doing what he’s been doing for so long.
“The two are so closely intertwined for me,” Poole said when asked about the symbiotic relationship between Zone 8 and his band. “I started the studio to record my own band, and as I got better at it I started recording other bands. Having the studio as my job was kind of a byproduct of starting a studio so I could make a record that I thought sounded good.”
Given his passion for his own band and studio in particular, and rock and roll in general, Poole said the more things change, the more they stay the same.
It’s always a fun challenge putting together the WVRockscene Top 10 CDs at the end of the year. But in 2011, it definitely wasn’t easy.
From the many EPs that came out, to rock solid releases and stellar concept records, 2011 was packed with great music from local (and regional) bands. Since we started doing this thing here in 2008, there has not been a better year to be following West Virginia bands.
Just as a quick introduction to the hard fast rules and metrics to selecting the illustrious WVRockscene Top 10: there are no hard fast rules. Basically it’s how much I like the songs + production value divided by the number of songs. Many bands put out great EPs this year, but more songs = more chance of something being a “great record” or something like that.
And production -- having help in the studio is always a plus. But then there’s killer garage/punk rock stuff and more lo-fi type recordings that, as long as the songs rock, might come in ahead of overproduced type stuff. ‘Nuff said there.
One big thing I’ve noticed with this year’s batch of releases is the almost gravitational pull of great regional releases into the West Virginia rock scene.
Some Morgantown area dudes might move to Pittsburgh, and still either play shows here or have some stamp or influence on “the scene” or whatever. Then there’s nearby cities, like, say, Athens, Ohio, and Lexington, Kentucky. But, as long as a particular band, be it from Pittsburgh, Lexington, or Athens, plays a few West Virginia shows in a year, in addition to having state residents or natives in the band, they should be included in the top 10, right? I think so.
Another thing that’s been entirely promising to witness is bands getting their music out on bandcamp sites. There were all kinds of cool EPs that came out in 2011. Up in Morgantown, Brian Spragg’s bands (Pat Pat/Single Dads) released four EPs, two apiece from each respective unit, this, in addition to his work as an engineer, helping other cool bands record. It’s a challenge just to keep up with all the music being released, and I personally would rather hear short EPs once or twice a year than wait two years for a band to get a full-length out.
And again, this is more a “my own favorite releases” top 10. Some listeners and fans might disagree and that’s cool. More than a competition, this is more a celebration of the great bands that got their music out this year.
The young Eastern Kentucky songstress brought her Magnolias into Bud Carroll’s Trackside Studio, had him join in on guitar and pedal steel, and walked out with eight songs worth of rockin’, bluesy folk and Americana. Longtime fans of Colette’s sweet, soulful voice, catchy, alternately poetic and lovelorn bar ballads were rightfully stoked to get this back around April, and likely weren’t let down.
Although only eight songs, with standout tracks like “Sacrifice,”“Rock of Ages,”“Victory,” and the most awesome “Mercy Moment,” evoking a Janis Joplin-Led Zeppelin combination with Carroll on guitar, Leave It Alone rightfully takes its place in the top 10, and Colette fans can look forward to the follow-up in January of 2012.
Prison Book Club is a band that never got the memo that said side projects are to be relegated to second-tier status. And this is saying something considering that The Fox Hunt’s John Miller and The Demon Beat’s Adam Meisterhans and Tucker Riggleman, with Andrew Ford on drums and Morgantown’s Billy Matheny sitting in on this sophomore effort, continue to make fans by steady touring of their own.
With a more southern rock and alt-country flavor than what you’ll hear from The Fox Hunt or The Demon Beat, on this 10-song August release, with Miller’s instantly recognizable country tough voice, still sharing the singing and songwriting with Riggleman and with Meisterhans’ guitar (and studio) work, Prison Book Club both expanded their own sound and continued to prove that side bands don’t always suck.
Standout tracks: “Do As I Say,”“Too Much Livin’,”“Six Pack,”“Sons of Heaven,”“Coming Down”
If you missed the first two volumes of the Morgantown native’s (not always) angry one-man band’s cover series, you can jump right in and fall in love with his own versions of the Ramones’ “Judy Is a Punk,” Guided by Voices’ “The Gold Heart Mountaintop Queen Directory,” and my own favorite, “And Then He Kissed Me.”
Just as the Ramones covered so many songs and made them their own, Marinelli, on the Stone Age Kicks series, takes his favorites, puts his own sonic stamp on them and simultaneously turns his fans onto bands they might not have been into. Two of my favorite songs on the release, “Virginia Plain” (Roxy Music) and “Flying Pizza” (Swearing at Motorists) are good examples of this for me.
As Marinelli has followed up on 2007’s Keep It Fake and last year’s most awesome Pre-Emptive Skankery Sessions, he’s broadened his own sonic palette from caveman guitar and maximum stomp and swing with banjo, stripped down vocals and just a softer side overall, still keeping things weird. It’s been ages it seems since I bought his Pity the Party EP at Budget, and I’d like to think Marinelli fans can look forward to his own version of The Emergency’s “I’m Not Angry” on volume four.
Is it wrong to have a CD of cover songs in the top 10? If it’s wrong, then I don’t wanna be right.
I can honestly say here that if you liked Jude Universer’s 2009 release Lingering Blue, you’ll love Jordan Hudkins’ now renamed project Rozwell Kid. The Demon Beat’s drummer again steps out to front his own rock band, and this time, with The Demon Beat’s Adam Meisterhans providing lead guitar parts, The Rozwell Kid LP takes you back to your own personal Weezer-Rentals hybrid band.
It really is 1994-ever on this 10-song (complete with a totally 90’s hidden track) effort of raw, catchy, almost always hilarious power pop slacker anthems. And remember: if it’s too loud, turn it down.
Standout tracks: “Rocket,”“Dylan, Don’t Do It,”“My Saturn,”“‘93 Connie & Ronnie,”“Ace Ventura Pt. 3”
Two years in the making, one Monday at a time, this Huntington power-pop super group met at Bud Carroll’s Trackside Studio, and this September released their 10-song debut, the result of all that work, to awaiting fans.
What was originally a studio project slowly congealed into a live band, as Carroll joined forces with Ian Thornton and Ryan Weaver and welcomed drummer Alex McCoy and guitarist Doug Woodard into the band. Sharing the singing and songwriting on songs like Weaver’s “I’m Free,” Carroll’s “Miss Misery,” and Thornton’s “Sure To Win,” AC30 proved that the best things come to those who wait.
The fourth studio release from the brothers Wilmoth and Andrew Slater (“Slater-Wilmoth”) is at once more welcoming, appealing and catchy as a follow-up to last year’s Reenactment, almost making that great record seem almost lo-fi compared to the rich, near-orchestral arrangements on this 12-song November release.
Singer-guitarist Charlie Wilmoth’s irreverent, insightful lyrics, on subjects ranging from the personal/religious to the cultural/political, (just take the first three songs, “Casual Sex,” “On Christmas,” and “Not My Car,” the subtly disguised title track, as fine examples) make FOX Japan one of my favorite bands. Think Talking Heads-meets-The Pixies and you’re kind of close. Released just in time for Christmas, Glory, Glory, Hallelujah! has the warm feel of something you’d rock out for the holiday season. Or, any season.
Standout tracks: “Casual Sex,” “Above This City,” “On Christmas,” “Not My Car”
The fifth release in as many years from these three Shepherdstown dudes is arguably their best. Following up on last year’s eight-“movement” concept record 1956 with 10 songs worth of soulful, bluesy, badass garage rock, incorporating some of the more retro tones from the most recent release, (with all appropriate fuzz and feedback) Adam Meisterhans, Tucker Riggleman and Jordan Hudkins continue to embody not only rock and roll like it used to be, evoking something like The Who (Meisterhans nails Townshend’s windmill guitar live) and The Stooges but embrace a totally DIY aesthetic as well.
Recorded by Meisterhans, released on Riggleman’s Big Bullet Records label and on vinyl in conjunction with Caustic Eye, with artwork again provided by Hudkins, Bullshit Walks only builds on and adds to the band’s impressive discography, and further cements the band as West Virginia’s hardest workers and hardest rockin’ as they are even now in the studio recording new stuff. Total rock stars that don’t seem to give a shit about being rock stars or where they end up on end-of-the-year top 10 type blog posts.
Standout tracks: “Give Me All Your Money,” “Get It,” “Bang,” “Totally Blissed Out,” “I’m Not Really There”
Calling Canary, the fourth Misra Records release from the Athens, Ohio-based folk rock four-piece Southeast Engine “rustic” is close, but almost a disservice. Singer-guitarist Adam Remnant, with brother Jesse on bass, drummer Leo DeLuca and oh-by-the-way Morgantown’s Billy Matheny on piano and organ, capture the feel and paint a picture of life in Depression-era Appalachia over 11 “rustic” yet rockin’ songs.
Songs like “Cold Front Blues,”“1933 (The Great Depression),” and the beautiful “Adeline of the Appalachian Mountains” and Canary as a whole remind me of Wilco’s Being There in that it’s deliberately roots-oriented, mainly acoustic-based with great melodies, but not at all minimalist, and is a great concept record to boot without some contrived feel. One of the best records I heard all year.
Since one band (AC30) in the top 10 is named after a Vox amplifier, it’s fitting that The Phantom Six takes its name from a 60’s-era Vox guitar. Formerly known as Moon, Mark Poole’s Morgantown-based power pop five-piece starts fresh on this 13-song effort that, if nothing else, helps them make a new name for themselves.
With Poole joined by talented musicians and songwriters like Billy Sheeder, Woody O’ Hara and Clint Sutton, not to mention Billy Matheny, making this, his third appearance on a band’s CD in this year’s top 10, playing bass and providing sweet vocal harmonies, Poole’s songs stand out as evoking something like Matthew Sweet jamming in some awesome garage band with British Invasion nods here and there, singing mainly songs about love. Poole, describing The Phantom Six’s musical output in one interview as “catchy songs that rock pretty hard,” sums it up best for those unfamiliar with the band.
Not only has Poole been fronting various incarnations of Moon for over twenty years, Poole no doubt helped steer The Phantom Six through his own Zone 8 Studios. As great as the richly arranged songs are, and they’re all pretty much standout tracks, the production captures an energy and a raw feel that helps make Plastic Rain arguably the best record of the year from a West Virginia rock band.
They say the best things in life are free, and such was the case in March when I was clued into the free download that Lexington, Kentucky’s Dream the Electric Sleep had made available.
Some bands are around for years and years, and don’t come up with such a coherent vision for a concept record. That DTES did this as their debut effort, only a year after singer-guitarist Matt Page and drummer Joey Waters welcomed Huntington native Chris Tackett (Chum/Hyatari) into the band is even more impressive.
To say that Lost and Gone Forever though, is epic, is almost an understatement.
Lost and Gone Forever is as much a story as it is a record. Told in three acts, Page weaves the split narrative of Clementine and Jack, an Eastern Kentucky coal miner into and over 14 songs worth of vast, stunning sonic landscapes that may bring comparisons to something like Pink Floyd, only heavier, with nods to Radiohead and Muse.
As the story, recalled originally by Clementine on her deathbed, unfolds from young love, marriage and hope into a desire to leave the danger and hard life of the coalfields, the fear of the unknown, of leaving Appalachia, and evolves into Jack’s untimely death in a mining accident, it seems on its face plainly a heart wrenching, well told tragedy. Listen to it repeatedly, even if you’re not from Appalachia and don’t know any coal miners, and you’ll find it’s really a treasure.
With samples from the documentary Harlan County, USA sprinkled throughout, through the story of Jack and Clementine, with album art that masterfully captures the very real world that Page and DTES have pulled out and shown to listeners, few concept records are so deftly woven together into such a complete, beautiful picture; sonically, lyrically, visually, and emotionally.
Reviewing CDs at the end of each year, sometimes you can catch yourself liking the more recent releases. When it became clear after hearing Lost and Gone Forever for the first time back in March or April, the scope of what Dream the Electric Sleep had done, I knew it wasn’t likely just going to be number one on my list, it was one of the best records I had ever heard.
It’s appropriate that they gave away something so sublime for free.
For some unexplained reason, there has always seemed to be a lack of alt-country in the area. It's one of those styles that hasn't ever been exclusive to any one region of the country, with bands like Uncle Tupelo (Illinois), Old 97's (Texas), Ryan Adams and Whiskeytown (North Carolina), and Drive-By Truckers (Athens, Georgia via the legendary Muscle Shoals, Alabama) all springing up with little regard for their respective geography. It's just proof in point that Americana holds no reservations about where we are from: sounds and stories like these are common ground in every corner of our country.
Sure, location becomes an influence on the inflection each band has focused on. The Truckers' socio-political storytelling of the "dirty south" and the 97's twangs about Texas put an indelible stamp on each of their respective catalogues. Regardless, alt-country--like any sub-genre of popular music--has yet to be confined by it's origin and eventual audience.
But looking around West Virginia and the surrounding states, alt-country has somehow missed our scene--mostly on a local level. It's confusing, considering the lifestyle and down home ethic we find ourselves involved in from day-to-day. Saturday night at the V Club somewhat calmed all those frustrations with a line-up that was chock full of it.
Paintsville, Kentucky's Tyler Childers started off the evening with his one-man with whiskey and serious heartache style. For being (and certainly looking) so young, Childers' talent is mature--far more so than his innocent, blue-collar farm boy image might suggest.
It's difficult to speak of Childers' in the pantheon of alt-country greats quite yet, but his vocals evoke Ryan Adams and Ray LaMontagne equally. With songs about whiskey and women written by a man in his early 20s, it may seem a bit premature to hand him a trophy, but the kid sure deserves a gold plaque.
AC30 isn't quite ever going to hit alt-country the way they could or should. But that detail is minor. The gentlemen in this band are spectacularly efficient players who know their boundaries.
The band's cover of "September Gurls" by Big Star is likely the closest they'll ever come to alt-country (at least for now)--even though power-pop touches lightly on the genre's tendencies. Regardless, though, the band found ways to fit right in with the rest of the evening's lineup.
And there's a certain level of respect and honor that needs credited with the group's style of playing. Few bands--especially led by prolific players like Carroll and the rest of his semi-supergroup in Huntington care about the songs more than their own individual shining moments.
Sure, because of Carroll's status, he's the de-facto frontman (and this fact is obvious, and maybe a bit uncomfortable for those surrounding him at moments). Yet the man shares the craftsmanship of not only songwriting, but more importantly, playing with his fellow members.
But enough about that and back to the topic at hand--alt country.
Prison Book Club is widely regarded as a collective of some of West Virginia's finest. With members from The Demon Beat and The Fox Hunt, the band gets an almost instant promotion to supergroup status. While this label is somewhat warranted, neither of the two groups have attained the status past a regional scale.
However, what is undeniable about the group is the fact that they're the best alt-country outfit this area has seen. Sure, there's a lack of competition for them but it would take quite awhile for anyone to match them.
Led by the lead licks of Adam Meisterhans, the group sound comes across as a distinct point somewhere between Lucero and the Mike Cooley-penned tunes of Drive-By Truckers. His paying is exact and technical, almost sounding as if he's playing slide at moments. It's somewhat remarkable that Meisterhans, who has made a name for himself with a Pete Townshend-like persona in The Demon Beat, could match the quality of his playing in other genres--yet it's almost more impressive. He strips it down to simple strumming with Prison Book Club when needed and balances those moments with tasteful and thoughtful leads.
Singer-guitarist John R. Miller and bassist (and occasional vocalist) Tucker Riggleman are equally impressive. They may be slightly less flashy than Meisterhans, yet their ability to lock in with the fast paced drumming of Andrew Ford (Where the hell did this guy come from, by the way?) is note-worthy.
Miller seems fit for this style of music, there is little doubt. Both lyrically and vocally, he comes across as well-versed in the genre and life-experienced to back it up on a practical level. There's a level of authenticity that matches his talent--and it's one of those things that cannot be learned or practiced, but rather accepted and made use of.
With nights like these, one can only hope that new bands in the area will make note--should the alt-country scene really take off.
When a band is named after a iconic Vox guitar amplifier a prospective listener should have some idea of what they’re in for. It’s a rig whose tubes and speakers shaped rock history with a little help from a few guys like Keith Richards, Pete Townshend, Peter Buck, and Brian May. Think crisp and clean, but able to conjure serious bite and raw power—an apt moniker (and metaphor) for the Huntington-based power-pop quintet, AC30.
Firing away by opening with one of the singles that’s been getting the band some local buzz, “I’m Free,” Ryan Weaver’s vocals matched the timbre of the band surrounding him—a sound somewhere between soothing and refined rowdiness; something even the most conservative, anti-rock grandmother might not only tolerate but thoroughly enjoy.
But it wasn’t just Weaver featured on vocals. The other front three members stepped up and handled leads, sometimes switching between verses and choruses. Bassist Ian Thornton, guitarist Doug Woodard, and the slick-fingered local hero Bud Carroll were all capable vocally. But it was drummer Alex McCoy, whose surprisingly high range on backing vocals, that deserved MVP on the mic.
Even though it was impossible for the crowd to be familiar with the songs (this was only the band’s third show), the response indicated that they will be welcomed time and again. There was a lot of dancing from the crowd; the kind that signals that rock and roll does fantastic things for people. There were also immediate howls and applause from the audience once the band finished a song.
There was only one flub the entire night, and it wasn’t even while the band was playing. Coming out of stellar version of Big Star’s “September Gurls,” Woodard had difficulties tuning, essentially killing the momentum built up by the set until then.
Carroll apologized to the crowd, stating that it was necessary to get things perfect, and confidently proclaimed their next song was “the best one we’ve got.” And he wasn’t lying. “She’s The One” epitomized the groups layered sound. Bluesy lead licks, vocal harmonies, and a driving rhythm—morphing into a collective of pop sweetness.
After finishing their set, the V Club’s crowd quickly demanded an encore and rightfully so. With a bit of conversation amongst the band, The Temptations' “I Can’t Get Next To You” was settled upon as a finale and the already dance-ready crowd got moving at a pace unmatched by prior tunes.
The choice of covers, an instrument switch (between Thornton and Woodard late in the set), and even the sonic shifts within their own material prove the group to be extremely versatile, a band capable of executing the most difficult pop arrangements with grace.
While Carroll and company’s playing is impeccable, what really grabs hold is how near perfect their own songs are. There’s an eerie feeling evoked by AC30’s material, making one wonder whether Lennon-McCartney were arranging songs by Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers (or vice versa) but spiced with a fierce attention to the vocal harmonies, which in places might be suited for The Staple Singers or some legendary Motown session group. Throw in the fact that each member contributes to songwriting, and it's frivolous in trying to find a weak link anywhere within the group.
AC30 is a weird trip through pop music history, one with slight twists and turns but always staying inside the lines on a carefully built, meaningful road. These history lessons handed down from bands and musicians are increasingly necessary in a world where digital singles with short life spans somehow trump the power of classic records, let alone discographies that have formed the map that is the canon of lasting pop music. The gentlemen in AC30 would probably tell you that themselves.
And, so, one can only guess the mission of this band. However, it’d be hard not to believe it’s giving a nod to those who’ve held onto some strict ethic and obsessed with the smoothness and universal emotion that pop can bring.
In advance of Thursday’s This Ain’t No Disco show at The V Club in Huntington, WVRockscene caught up with AC30 members Bud Carroll and Ian Thornton to learn more about what’s up with the band, their studio progress, and Bud’s plans for his birthday on Cinco De Mayo...
WVRockscene: How did you guys meet/know each other and decide to start a band? How did [Ryan] Weaver get brought into the fold and what's the chemistry like just writing and arranging songs?
Bud Carroll: Well Ian and I have known each other since the American Minor/Love Coats things, doing gigs back in ‘05 and ‘06. I met Ryan hanging out at Shams when he was doing sound there in ‘08. I would hear great shit over the PA between bands and would always go bug him about what he was playing, so we kinda bonded over that.
Then I staggered into a Whirling Dervish show one night and was blown away that some guys here were doing good power pop stuff with vocal harmonies and then ended up working with them some after their original guitarist quit. I tried to produce some stuff for them but the band kind of imploded before anything came to fruition. So Ian, Ryan and I started putting together tunes on Monday nights, and we’ve been kicking it on Mondays ever since, missed very few actually.
Ryan and I, along with James Barker, “Deadbeats and Barkers,” are all partners in Trackside Studios. But originally Ryan and I came up with the idea of starting a studio while working together on the Dervish stuff. Ryan actually spent time engineering in pro studios in Nashville and has a degree from the conservatory of Recording Arts and Sciences in Arizona.
Unlike other situations I’ve been involved with, putting together tunes is a blast, just people trying to make good music, no agendas, no egos, and no hassle. Everyone goes out of their way to make sure each others tunes come off well. It’s so much fun and so easy it ought to be a crime. It feels like what it used to feel like being in bands in high school. Except this time all of the people you’re hanging out with are killer songwriters and musicians.
Ian Thornton: Well I’ve been around the scene for a few years now and I’ve known Bud the longest. I think the first time we met it was an American Minor/Love Coats show. I played in a short lived band with Ryan Weaver called Whirling Dervish around 2007-2008. We only played a handful of shows but had an instant connection and I have been working with him in some fashion ever since. He’s a great guy and incredibly intelligent when it comes to writing and recording.
Bud actually helped us with some of our final shows after we lost our lead guitarist so that’s where the spark really began with the three of us. We just continued to hang out at Trackside and each of us had some songs we wanted to play so we’d meet up and lay them down. That’s pretty much where the band started.
I knew Alex [McCoy] from playing in the Good Fight and we brought him in because he’s an excellent drummer and another really good fella. Doug [Woodard] just moved back within the last year and Bud invited him over one night while we were playing and we found that he was the missing link we needed to create AC30. He fit in perfect and his presence added a lot to our sound. I don’t think you could find a better chemistry in a band.
We all get along great, and we all have different writing styles which I feel is one of the greatest attributes to this group. Everyone writes and everyone contributes with arrangements. It’s so much better than having to depend on one person to write everything for a band I feel.
We’re just taking things slow and enjoying the hell out of our Monday night sessions.
----- rockscene: You guys recently let people get free mp3 versions of “I’m Free” and “Sure to Win,” what’s the response been to the songs and your music in general since you guys started playing out?
Carroll: The response has been really positive. It always surprises me when someone mentions it because I don’t really think about it all that much. I was actually in Athens last week working on some stuff with Jeff Ellis and Eddie Ashworth said he had been rocking it on his MP3 player and really dug it. I was just like, ‘Oh shit, how’d you know about that?’ When you don't have any expectations except for making good music any kind of response is gratifying.
Thornton: We’ve actually had a really good response up to this point. We’ve only played two shows so far and they were both very well received. We wanted to give the single away so we could give people an idea of what’s to come from AC30.
----- rockscene: The liner info has you guys recording at Trackside over basically a year’s period, what’s the status of the full-length? Do you have any idea when you’ll release that and how excited are you for people to hear it?
Carroll: Yeah we’ve been working on it for over a year, just on Mondays mostly, and a few other days here or there. If I get a wild hair up my ass I’ll mess with stuff through the week. No idea when we’ll put it out. We’ve got nine songs now, that are almost completely finished. I’d really like to do a few more.
I’m really stoked for people to hear it. We used the sessions as an excuse to experiment quite a bit with production techniques. And since there was no clock, the whole thing sounds really relaxed and natural, especially considering there was no band when we started making the tracks. I played a bunch of stuff on it, but it’s really nothing like anything else that I’ve been involved with, and honestly a big step forward in a lot of ways.
As for a release, whenever, ya know? We’re having more fun doing the band thing right now and doing a few gigs. It’s nice to actually hear the tunes played by a proper band instead of piecemealing them in the studio. When the time is right, we’ll put it out. We’d actually like to do vinyl, but we’ll see.
Thornton: There will definitely be some more releases in the coming months, however we have not yet decided on the medium or size. We have just been working on writing, playing with each other and simply enjoying the start of the band. We do have more recordings pretty much finished and are very excited to get them out there for the masses.
----- rockscene: You guys have each been in no shortage of bands; what if anything is special for you about AC30? How good do you feel about the band as you prepare to get the full-length out?
Carroll: The AC30 feels like the first time I’ve been in a real band since the American Minor days. There’s something that happens with a real band that has nothing to do with your level of virtuosity on an instrument that is undeniable. It just sounds like a band, and sounds like Rock and Roll -- good rock and roll.
Thornton: I feel the special thing about the AC30 is the fact that it’s really just a good time for us. We’re not killing ourselves trying to get a record deal or anything. We’re just writing and trying to play some shows and make the best band possible.
A great thing, as I mentioned before, is the fact that everyone writes and sings and has different styles of doing each. As of now, no two songs sound alike. We’re just trying to produce good music and that’s been our only focus up to this point; make something that we’d listen to. I feel we’ve got a strong camaraderie with each other and that’s definitely a must for this kind of thing.
----- rockscene: Bud is your birthday Thursday? Got any awesome plans for (before, during or after) the This Ain’t No Disco show?
Carroll: Cinco De Mayo dawg. I’m already doing the most awesome thing that I know of that you can do: playing a show in an awesome band with my friends.
