On Goodbye Cruel World, Hello Crueler World, North Carolina natives Spider Bags work once again with legendary engineer Brian Paulson. Picking themselves up from the drunken wranglings of last year's A Celebration of Hunger, the band kicks off with the upbeat "It Always Loved to Happen," full of open-road energy and memories. "Quevivaelrocanroll" is the next step in their evolution: a drawn-back, anthemic barn-burner with sweat rolling through the speakers. The listener can picture frontman Dan McGee leading the way, with a guitar in one hand and drink in the other, marching through the old town square on an impromptu parade at midnight in the middle of July. "... Spider Bags are ostensibly Americana, but it's the kind of reeling-in-sickness music you'd expect from Neil Young, Gram Parsons, Meat Puppets.... Every song... finds beauty in pain and darkness, with lyrics ("She's got a crooked face when she smiles") that are as thoughtful as the music behind them. I'm gonna go so far as to call [A Celebration of Hunger] brilliant. That's right, brilliant. There's not a bad track on the entire record, and it's a goddamn shame I didn't hear about this album when it came out, because it easily would have made my top ten for the year." --Berkeley Place Blog "... these scraggly Chapel Hill punks go face down in a glass of Wild Turkey and survive to testify." --SPIN "The Spider Bags locate their identity by running that particular current of electricity through country music's liquor-soaked...
LP $13.00
08/25/2009
CD $13.00
08/25/2009
Please welcome The Spider Bags: hailing from North Carolina, out of nowhere but with the sound of a vintage anti-establishment America, fueled by whiskey and the treads of a long, harshly departed woman. The Spider Bags’ A Celebration of Hunger was recorded in a whirlwind, with the six-piece band huddling around a microphone and preaching the country / punk / garage gospel with Shane MacGowan toothlessly smiling, listening to the songs of drink and debauchery. Leader Dan McGee is the new great American songwriter-on-the-dole, whose multi-purposed voice sings of two things: girls and women, and does so with some of the most impressive lyrics to come out of an American since Nick Cave… no… hmmm… Shane… no, he is from Ireland… damn… well, in the tradition of all those greats who steal from the Americana ethos and make careers out of doing so. We bring to you The Spider Bags, the first great European-stealing Americana band from America. Let freedom reign. “An appealing mix of rock and country/roots influences ... sounds like music to break beer bottles to.” —The Oak Room
LP $13.00
05/29/2007
CD $13.00
05/29/2007