Preview: BRENDA, Human Cannonball, Water Witches, Slackluster, Wished Bone / October 17 / The Skull
By Nichole Moorman, Contributor
The Smiling Skull / Saturday, October 17, 2015
This Saturday, treat yourself to a variety of bands that will please any rock fan’s taste buds, from garage and psychedelic rock to twee folk and more.
Slackluster, out of Athens, are a “weirdo garage-a-delia” band comprised of Jimmy Shaw, Josh Miller, Chris Lute and Kevin Green. On Facebook, they describe their music as, “What dirty socks and cigarette ashes falling in love sounds like.”
Wished Bone, an indie/twee folk band, are also from Athens, consisting of Ashley Rhodus & Brian Kupillas. Their debut EP pseudo recordings were released this past September.
Water Witches are a foursome including Ethan Bartman, Charlie Touvell, Devin Metzler and Matt Clouston. They’re a combined freak folk band that currently lives in Athens and got their name from a term for Appalachian wise women who practice traditional pagan healing. They cite Devendra Banhart and ‘60s culture as influences on their music and aesthetic. They even held a faux-religious “tent revival” this past Labor Day.
“I’ve always been interested in a lot of the weird things that went on in the ‘60s,” Touvell said. “I’ve also been interested in fake religions, and playing around with that.” So they created an “old school southern church tent revival,” complete with sermons and another band involved as well. They keep the same weird cult-like atmosphere in their shows, adorning white robes during performances.
Water Witches find that shows in Athens have a much different vibe than in other cities. “You go to Columbus and watch shows, and it seems like people are interested in everything but the music,” Clouston said. “But people fucking love it here,” said Bartman. They plan to release their album, Feathers, online in about a month.
BRENDA, made of members Matt Horne, Brenda Mahler, Colleen Doyle, Eric Cassidy and Kyle McCoy, is a shotgun house rock band. Mahler is the only member hailing from Athens, while the rest of the band call Louisville their home. The band was founded just this year and released their first EP this past July.
The final band is Human Cannonball, an indie band from Dayton. Jesse Remnant, originally a solo artist, enlists members Eric Cassidy, Ken Hall, Bryan Lakatos and Dan Stahl of indie rock band Shrug for some ‘60s pop and ‘90s alternative melody-driven records. They’re sure to keep things piercing and entertaining for their performance, however.
“[Eric] plays a Theremin live and it’s widely entertaining to watch,” said Remnant. “It’s just going to be a poppy, fun, rock music night.”
Make sure you head to The Skull on Saturday, Oct. 17 at 9 p.m. for a good time, with a wide variety of music styles, and an even wider variety of characters.
