With its sophomore “Hellcat!” album, the Grand Rapids duo has honed its sound with designs on taking the world by the throat, starting with Saturday’s hometown CD-release show at The Pyramid Scheme.
Unleashing “Hellcat!”: Joey Dornbos and Brent French of The Bangups. (Photo/Anna Sink)
The Bangups have taken some cues from stand-up comedians.
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They’re not aiming to crack up audiences, but as a lean, two-man rock band, it’s taught them a lot about the way a solo performer can hold fans’ attention and mesmerize a giant crowd.
“The fact that a single dude can be on stage or a single chick and can … captivate an arena,” says guitarist and singer Joey Dornbos. “It shows there are avenues to take to tap into that energy to keep people excited.”
Dornbos and longtime musical ally and drummer Brent French certainly have discovered the secret to pumping up throngs with just two instruments and heaping helpings of verve, aggression and exuberance – eschewing the traditional rock approach that usually involves bassists, rhythm guitarists and keyboard players.
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“We don’t really fit in at all,” Dornbos concedes when assessing the Grand Rapids band’s recent stint on the high-profile Vans Warped Tour, the second year in a row the duo has been invited to join four dozen other national acts on the U.S. tour.
“On a personal level, we fit in, and we love those people and they love us, but musically, we don’t really fit in at all. It (Warped Tour) has gotten more eclectic, but I think we were the only two-piece rock ’n’ roll band on the tour that I saw.”
The Bangups, “Hellcat!”
MUSIC WITH AN ELEMENT OF SURPRISE
And as they put it, they have the “element of surprise” because many audiences don’t know what to expect when they take the stage so that gets attention from the first note they play.
Boasting garage-rock muscle and infectious hooks, the Grand Rapids duo certainly stands out in many ways, last month unleashing an edgy sophomore studio album, “Hellcat!,” which was recorded at Grand Rapids’ Stone House Recording with Peter Fox. The band also released a brilliantly entertaining video for the album’s lead single, “Ego Wrecking Ball,” filmed by Gorilla Pictures at Mulligan’s Pub in Eastown and a Southwest Side warehouse.
Both could find a big audience, with The Bangups probing options for getting the album picked up by a national label and the video getting lined up “on the shelves” at MTV and Fuse. Read more about the video and watch it online here.
On Wednesday, the boys dropped into the studios of News Talk 1340 AM (WJRW) for my Local Spins Live segment to play an exclusive acoustic version of “Grindstone” from the new album and chat with Dave Jaconette and myself about their upcoming West Michigan CD-release show which takes place at 7 p.m. Saturday at The Pyramid Scheme. (Listen to a podcast of the show here and watch a video of that performance below.)
For Dornbos and French, it’s the latest musical adventure for a couple of pals who grew up in tiny communities north of Grand Rapids: Pierson and Howard City. The younger French first encountered Dornbos when he formed a high school band with French’s older brother.
“I just thought they were the coolest guys on earth and they were older, so I thought it was super rad. I started playing on ice cream buckets with them in my mom’ s basement,” French recalls, noting he later filled in as a drummer in Dornbos’ band. “From there, we just started forming bands together. Really over the years, it’s been a refining process. We’ve been in four-piece bands and three-piece bands. Joey and I have just been kind of the main two that have stuck it out.”
CONTINUING THE STREAM THAT STARTED WITH DELTA BLUES
The Bangups on Local Spins Live (Photo/Anna Sink)
From Dornbos’ perspective, solidifying the two-piece approach is just a throwback to the classic Delta blues that has long influenced the band. “Early Delta blues, if you listen to those guys, is just a single guitar and one guy singing and it does everything you need a song to do. And that’s just one guy and we’ve got two.”
He also sees The Bangups as part of the continuum of the past half-century of American music, or in other words, “just wanting to be part of a stream of music, from Delta blues and then you’ve got old country and how those two styles morphed into rock ‘n’ roll and rock ‘n’ roll sort of moved on into punk rock. There’s definitely a stream of music, of artists that we feel connected to.”
On Saturday at The Pyramid Scheme, The Bangups will dive into that stream by playing all of the songs from their 2009 debut album as well as every track on “Hellcat!” Also on the bill that night are the Holy White Hounds and The Brave Youth; tickets are $7 in advance or $10 the day of the show. Get tickets online here.
The new album also is available for purchase online through Amazon.com and iTunes, as well as through bigcartel.com. Check out the band’s Facebook page here.
Email John Sinkevics at jsinkevics@gmail.com.
Copyright 2013, Spins on Music
