Blag’ard is a two-piece guitar-drums rock band that delivers songs like Saturn 5 rockets, one after another. Joe Taylor plays a mean guitar and sings; Adam Brinson plays a mean drum-kit and sings back-up.
The Blag’ard sound does not rest easy in some group or category. It is high-energy and lush, vigorous and mighty, and above all blackguardly.
Blag’ard does not call home very often, but when it does it calls Chapel Hill, NC. Joe Taylor is late of the band Capsize 7 (Caroline Records – “Mephisto” 1995) which emerged from the fertile Chapel Hill scene of the mid-nineties to tour extensively and play Lollapalooza ’96 for 13 dates.
Blag’ard put out an EP “Blank Faced Clocks” in late summer 2006, released on Joe’s label PZP. The disc was distributed to radio via AAM (Advanced Alternative Media), and received strongly positive reviews by antiMUSIC and many others. The song “Monk” was featured on the September edition of the Magnet Music Sampler, and KCRW in Los Angeles has played this track on at least three separate occasions (copies of the playlist available upon request). Matchbox Recordings in the UK has just agreed to release the band’s track “Friends Like You”, a snippet of this song will be available to download for your cell phone’s ringtone.
Adam joined the band in the fall of ’06 after the release of “Blank Faced Clocks”, replacing Bill Buckley who got his wife pregnant.
Blag’ard evokes strong reactions through masterful songwriting and high-energy delivery. Catch them if you can.
January 24, 2005
Found Sound
by the Pitchfork Staff
Capsize 7: Recline and Go EP [Hep-Cat; 1995]
Capsize 7 is better known for their Mephisto LP than for Recline and Go (with which it shares a song, the spring-wound proto-punk anthem "Pong"), but this EP best epitomizes their sleek, powerful essence. The art that accompanies the liner notes depicts an arc of flame leaping from a recliner, an apt visual expression of music that consistently foiled listener inertia. While Capsize 7 was part of the same 1990s Chapel Hill indie rock boom that birthed Archers of Loaf, Superchunk, and Polvo, they didn't stick around long enough to garner their share of the hype, even though they were just as salient. Capsize 7 blended Archers's fractured power-pop and Polvo's baroque guitar shapes with Slint's churning rawness, creating prickly, streamlined melodies that simmered diabolically, then surged into massive sing-along choruses. "Clinger" stands as one of the most galvanizing, distinct songs Chapel Hill has ever produced, and while my beloved Archers and Superchunk records are mostly gathering dust, Recline and Go still makes my blood boil, and puts Capsize 7 in competition with Pipe for (deep breath) the Best Defunct Chapel Hill Rock Band Who Didn't Get Enough Props.
~Brian Howe |
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