Music Everywhere - The gigs you want, the demos you need:
Friday 18 May @ 11:50:44 |
 BY DWIGHT HOBBES
Long gone are the days of bands and singers auditioning live for club managers. So, where demos used to be one of the final steps to getting anywhere—something you’d send a label exec after you’d built a following—these days the only thing that’ll follow you without one is your shadow. Without a demo, and a damned good one at that, you don’t exist.
Submitted for consideration: Twin Cities-based Beer Money, Said Method and 2 Wurds, bands which–-as their demos prove—definitely exist.
Beer Money play that staple for which dyed-in-the-wool stoners truly live—good-time music—serving up bluegrass rock with a healthy helping of good-natured enthusiasm. Recorded live to a receptive crowd, the personnel is Billyray Valentine (bass guitar), Donny Brummer (guitar, vocals), Aaron Griga (keys, vocals) and Curtis Zimmerman (guitar, vocals). Plus somebody (uncredited) blowing tasty harp. The set showcases fine originals along with good covers of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers’ “American Girl” and Stealers Wheel’s “Stuck In the Middle With You.” You could safely call their sound somewhere along the lines of, oh, Johnny Rivers meets Flatt & Scruggs. And you can go to myspace.com/beermoneymusic. where the band has a handful of You Tube offerings for one’s sweet-tokin’, good-time pleasure.
Earlier this month, Said Method and 2 Wurds shared a sold-out bill at The Fine Line with headliners The New Congress. Makes sense. TNC, with their meteoric rise to national attention over the past two years, are some scarifyin’ R&B monsters. Both Said Method and 2 Wurds flat-out kick ass and take names in that same groove. Everybody at that show must’ve lost they natural mind. Said Method, smooth and tight, throw down hard as Chinese arithmetic. And, trust me, plenty bands would kill to have a finished album come even close to this demo’s quality. Especially the lead cut, “Witness.” It steps off sparse and mean, drummer Jordan “Stein” Carlson and bassist Andy Mark locked dead in the pocket behind Blair Krivanek (guitar) and Brandon Hess (keys) giving sweet flavor. Hess’ sleek, edgy vocal drops in and you are put away. For the rest of the song, you just sit and let these guys take you there. Think Color Me Badd or Player, except that if either one had Said Method’s chops they’d both still be around today. They’re at myspace.com/saidmethod.
2 Wurds have to be experienced to be believed. Laid way back in the cut, out front with nasty funk, they also come with a splendid, folk-tinged jazz feel. Each number, here, makes you want to get up and dance. As well, I caught them awhile back at 400 Bar (with spellbinding siren Dessa sitting in) and was blown clear through the back wall by their cover of Bill Withers’ “Use Me.” As with any outfit worth its salt, 2 Wurds make wonderful use of studio time and, on top of that, when it comes to getting up in front of a crowd, kick everything into even higher gear. They absolutely electrify the audience. Band leader Nathan Santos (vocals, 2nd guitar) writes the lion’s share of their remarkable material and sings with wizened authority. The full roll call of Santos, Dennis Kamp (guitar), Mike Vechell (sax), Clarence “Nate” Cole (bass) and Brad Hartung (drums) could step into an empty room and have an all-night party break out. For further reference, do take yourself to myspace.com/2wurds
Exciting up-and-comers need to be exposed. To clubs, to labels and, of course, to you and me. Bottom line, demos get the job done. And don’t nobody do it quite like Beer Money, Said Method and 2 Wurds.
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