The ferocious Grand Rapids garage-rock duo is now performing as a foursome, itching to unleash its ‘fantastic’ new studio album and ready to tour the land. The Bangups play Founders on Saturday.
Branching Out, Recording With an Icon: Brent French and Joey Dornbos of the Bangups on stage. (Photo/Local Spins)
THE BAND: The Bangups
THE MUSIC: Blues- and punk-hued garage rock
WHERE YOU CAN SEE THE BAND: 9:30 p.m. Saturday at Founders Brewing Co. in Grand Rapids
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Working in a Chicago studio with legendary recording engineer Steve Albini can be a “pinch-me-is-this-really-happening” sort of experience for a young rock band.
It can also spark the best performances and capture the best work of an artist’s career, as Bangups guitarist Joey Dornbos and drummer Brent French discovered earlier this year.
The Bangups (Photo/Anna Sink)
“We’re the most proud of this of all the stuff we’ve ever done,” Dornbos says of the Grand Rapids duo’s new album recorded last spring at Albini’s studio in the Windy City, with a release date still to be determined.
Of course, the recording sessions at a renowned studio owned by a guy who’s produced/engineered albums by Nirvana, PJ Harvey, The Stooges, Cheap Trick, Robert Plant & Jimmy Page, The Pixies and The Jesus Lizard (among hundreds of others) all started with a few star-struck moments for a couple of garage-rocking guys hailing from Howard City and Pierson.
“The first half of the day was utterly jarring just being in the same room with him,” recalls Dornbos, who grew up listening to albums that Albini recorded. “It took five or six hours to calm down and then you look up and it’s ‘Holy shit, I’m hanging out with Steve Albini’ and it’s just normal, laughing with the dude.”
Even the gear in Albini’s all-analog recording studio was a mind-bending trip for Dornbos and French.
“Vintage amps, pedals, rare amps that you’d never dream of. Endless vintage microphones,” Dornbos says. “And his depth of understanding of acoustics is so deep and comes through in the way all the rooms sound.”
The duo originally booked three days of recording sessions with Albini, then went back for two more days. And after spending a year-and-a-half writing 45 songs to bring into the studio, “the end result was nine songs,” Dornbos says. “Nine songs that I think are just really fantastic.”
NINE NEW SONGS AND ‘A WHOLE NEW BAND’
Those fantastic songs – mixed by another renowned producer, Rob Schnapf (Elliott Smith) – currently are being mastered, with the band considering various record labels to release the project. “There are record companies on the table we’re looking at,” says Dornbos, noting the band also has hired a booking agent and is ready to tour behind the new album as needed.
Before that, however, the band is headlining its first Grand Rapids concert in months, playing Founders Brewing Co. on Saturday night, with Hollywood Makeout and Mavericks & Monarchs opening the 9:30 p.m. show. Admission is $5.
The Bangups
And for longtime fans familiar with the Bangups’ lean-but-voracious two-man assault, be prepared for a major change: The group is now performing as a four-piece band (with guitarist Rusty Vining and bassist Neil Biegalle joining Dornbos and French on stage for Saturday’s show).
“It’s a whole new band. Technically and publicly, we’re a two-piece, but all of the arrangements are for a four-piece band – lead guitar, rhythm guitar, bass guitar and drums,” says Dornbos, noting the group will play “all new songs” at Saturday’s show.
That expansion of the group’s sound is also evident in the new material they recorded with Albini.
Dornbos says the Bangups – with roots in Delta blues, punk and old-school country – have long been dedicated to playing “all three-chord blues” based songs. “We said for the new album, for the most part, we’re going to branch out and add a chord,” he quips.
So, armed with an extra chord and a couple of bandmates, the Bangups are eagerly eyeing the day when they can quit their day jobs and hit the road as a hard-gigging rock band, backed by an enthusiastic management team.
“That’s what everybody wants, and they wouldn’t be hanging out if we weren’t dead serious,” Dornbos says. “Everybody in our camp is out to make it a serious, full-time thing.”
Get more information about the band at bangups.tumblr.com and on its Facebook page.
VIDEO: The Bangups, “Ego Wrecking Ball” (from 2013’s “Hellcat!”)
Copyright 2015, Spins on Music LLC
