Spider Bags: rowdy, sloppy country rock

Spider Bags:
"Blood For You"
"So Long A Rope"
(from A Celebration of Hunger 2007.)

So what does it take to rouse the Oak Room from its hibernation? Well, a great country rock CD in the mail seems to do the trick. I had heard rumblings that Chapel Hill's Spider Bags had signed to a label, but hadn't really been keeping tabs on the news -- so it was a real treat to find their upcoming Birdman Records release A Celebration of Hunger in my mailbox when I got home yesterday.

As I noted when I wrote about Spider Bags previously, they pull off an appealing mix of rock and country/roots influences -- not neccessarily the most ground-breaking stuff if you've listened to stuff from Bloodshot Records, but pretty rousing all the same. I haven't seen them live, but I bet they're a real good time -- a lot of it sounds like music to break beer bottles to. I posted a rowdy singalong, "Waking Up Drunk", the first time I wrote about these guys, so this time I'm showcasing a little more range. "So Long A Rope" is a little more mellow but still quite rootsy, while "Blood For You" turns down the country a bit and ramps up the rock.

Locals can catch Spider Bags at the Cave on March 10 (with like-minded NYC twang-rockers the Coy Dogs); if you're attending SXSW, you can see them at the Birdman showcase on March 14.

(And by the way, boo to SXSW for not sorting bands by state this year, but the crew over at the Daily Tar Heel's Diversions blog is keeping track of the local folks making the trek to Austin.)