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The Underlings "vice squad" 7" out now on meth bog records
recent press for the underlings and dan jones:
Make Way For The Underlings
When you advertise for a bassist and drummer influenced by “Television, Minutemen and Ted Nugent,” as guitarist Ed Cole did, the resulting music is bound to be an infectious mixture of ragged rhythms, guitar riffage and punk brevity. But while those respective bands deconstructed jazz, rock and funk and replaced it with white-hot desperation, The Underlings create charming pop gems out of the same material. With Cole on guitar and vocals and a rhythm section of Dave Peterson (bass, vocals) and Bryant Grace (drums), the Underlings have just released a 7-inch — three songs on beautiful purple marbled vinyl — on Meth Bog Records, out of Eureka, Calif. The release was originally planned for October but, as Cole says, “things always tend to take longer than you think to come together.”
There’s a timeless quality to some of their songs, a stick-with-you-like-glue magic in the combination of melody and vocals, whether it be a track with a raw, straight-ahead garage rawk vibe (“Second Best”) or “Vice Squad,” which Cole says is “a tribute of sorts to the hazy, alcohol-driven days of my late 20s/early 30s.” Cole’s songs have always been inspired by personal experience, so it’s not a surprise that fatherhood informs a song or two. Cole describes “Black and White” as “a song about a T-shirt design as viewed by an infant who has no perception of color.” Musically however, it’s an itchy riff that recalls punk’s earliest days, as do most of their songs, in the best way imaginable. The Underlings, Dan Jones and Yoyodyne play at 10 pm Saturday, Jan. 16, at Luckey’s. 21+. $5. — Vanessa Salvia The Eugene Weekly 6.18.09 Standard Operational Procedure The Underlings By Vanessa Salvia Someday, when everything in the world is right, Ed Cole’s pop will be the world standard. It’s not that what he’s doing is incredibly new; it isn’t. It’s that it replicates the glory of ’80s punk icons such as Minutemen and Hüsker Dü and combines it with brainy honesty, strength of character and energy derived from copious amounts of coffee and repeated listenings to the best pop and rock that the world of music has to offer. And after a couple of decades of songwriting practice with numerous bands, he’s gotten pretty good at it. For three years now, Cole’s band The Underlings have crafted songs that thrive on riffs that evoke Television or the Stooges without sounding reductively retro. Cole’s songs often tell stories, like “Born in a Boxcar,” about a man born in 1903, “living a life that was brutal yet free.” The trio — Cole on vocals and guitar, Dave Peterson on vocals and bass, and Bryant Grace on drums — released a CD, Operational Excellence, on local songwriter Dan Jones' Daily Records in the fall of 2008. Next month, the Underlings will record three new tunes for a 7-inch, to be released on Eureka, Calif., label Meth Bog Records in September, followed by a short West Coast tour. THE NORTHCOAST JOURNAL HUMBOLDT COUNTY, CA Eugene’s “blue-collar, underground rock band” The Underlings bow down to the Gods of ROCK and ROLL: Asheton bros, MC5, Classic Punk and Classic Rock. They dig it all and serve it back in bars and venues across the great state of Oregon. Sonic slabs of fat-laden guitar riffs, warm bass riffage, savage drumming and bittersweet tales of love gone wrong and minivans that won’t start…it’s all in there. the Underlings will record three new tunes for a 7-inch, to be released on Eureka, California’s Meth Bog Records in September. THE KANSAS CITY PITCH WAYWARD BLOG BY JASON HARPER 9.3.09 Starting at 10 p.m., former Kansas Citian Dan Jones...gets up for a short solo set. With his band, the Squids, Jones has shared bills with the likes of Dinosaur Jr., John Doe, the Minus 5, Mike Watt and more -- and he's got the sound to match: a catchy distillation of '90s underground alt and pop punk. He's also got some deep local roots. Says Record Bar co-owner and local musician Steve Tulipana: Dan and I were in our first band together in High School and he happens to be in town for a visit. Def. an odd one to be on the bill but his Neil Young meets Bob Mould songwriting/storytelling is sure to entertain. Side note: our first band's name was THE CORNDOG JAMBOREE. We wanted to be The Minutemen bad but, well, we sucked. Stream some songs at DanJonesmusic.com. The first one up now, "My Banana," mentions the Royals, who truly are a corndog jamboree. |
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