Friday, August 17, 2018

Spider Bags - Someday Everything Will Be Fine (Merge, 2018)

Spider Bags
Someday Everything Will Be Fine
Merge
2018


Rating: 8 of those red flashing lights you see at the top of radio towers out of 10

This is obviously just one dumb old man’s opinion, but our local scene here in the Triangle of North Carolina hasn’t been much to speak of the last few years.  It’s always gone through peaks and valleys so I’m not overly concerned about it, but either way it’s still particularly nice that we have a few acts out there carrying the torch that this area still matters musically.  There’s the immortal Superchunk of course, Sylvan Esso has a large following, and we get to at least sorta claim Future Islands, but for my money Spider Bags is just as important as any of them.  There’s not really anyone else around here doing exactly what they do, a hybrid of punk and garage and country that over the years, at their best, is a blend of the Replacements, Meat Puppets and James Gang.  Second track “Oxcart Blues” is an automatic top five song by the band, “Cop Dream/Black Eye” proves they can just turn into the Oblivians if the notion strikes them, and “My Heart Is a Flame In Reverse” might be the song Hank III has been trying to write his whole career.  “Someday Everything Will Be Fine” sounds live and sweaty and immediate, like seeing the band perform live but only with your ears (obviously, you should definitely see them live with the rest of your body if they ever come to your town).  It may or may not be their best record – I really, really loved “Frozen Letter” – but it’s damn good, and the closest they’ve ever gotten to capturing what this band sounds like in my brain when I think about them. 

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