My first experience with Chapel Hill’s Spider Bags was brash, boisterous and, most importantly, loud.
The band took the stage by storm at Raleigh’s Lincoln Theatre during the 2011 Hopscotch Music Festival through an aggressive set of raucous garage punk. Frontman Dan McGee’s jagged guitar leads were echoed by his equally catatonic stage presence. Suffice to say, this was an appropriate introduction to one of the Triangle’s worst-kept musical secrets.
While a live show can be a fitting admittance to the overarching style of a band, it often is not indicative of said band’s potential as a recording outfit. Such is the case with Shake My Head, Spider Bags’ latest effort. Its nine tracks not only display the band’s penchant for raw, vintage punk, but showcase McGee’s strong melodic sensibilities.
“Keys to the City” kicks the record off in wild fashion with chugging power chords and rowdy gang vocals. Shifting gears to the easy-going “Simona La Ramona,” McGee exhibits his pop-rock inclinations, reinvigorating a familiar melody to create a sense of nostalgia for the early days of rock ‘n’ roll. But his songs aren’t slaves to their influences, nor do they stray far from them. McGee didn’t set out to revolutionize the pop format, he’s simply embraced it as the most cost-effective method of expression.
At its heart,Shake My Head is still an old-fashioned rock record. This is best exemplified in the scorching guitar solo on the lead single “Friday Night.” By pairing the energetic elements of its live performance to McGee’s sharp songwriting, Spider Bags crafted one of the most engaging local records of 2012.
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