Kill the Head

Remember last week's in-studio guest: Soft Opening's Jamie Hepler? Well, this Friday (September 3) his band is playing the mighty Static Age Records here in Asheville.

Also playing are The N.E.C. You just might remember them, too. Among the many jams Hepler played while hanging-out last Friday was one off Is, the Atlanta group's killer full-length for the Double Phantom imprint.

Both bands are pretty damn sweet, so if you're in the area, do come on down. It's going to be a splendid time for sure.

And don't forget: you always have until the following Friday to check out the archived version of Kill the Head. That means you have another couple days to listen to Hepler spinning righteous jams and fielding questions form yours truly.

Your host.

This Friday (August 27, 5 to 7 p.m. eastern) on Kill the Head I'm having a special in-studio guest: Soft Opening's Jamie Hepler. In addition to spotlighting his band's jams, as well as fielding a few questions tossed from yours truly, Hepler will spin some of his favorite hard-psych hypnotism. I'm following suit with my own selections; thus, the two of us are shifting, oh so subtly, K.t.H.'s normal focus from eletronic music to rock-based drone and flat-out heavy music. Though Hepler and I haven't mapped-out the specifics, expect anything and everything from Parson Sound to Budgie to Drunks With Guns to Loop. It will be a swell show for sure.

Soft Opening, for the uninitiated, is the best underground-rock band in Asheville (in my humble opinion, obviously). I suppose one can say they fall somewhere between vintage stoner-rock/doom and all this post-rock metal that's so popular these days. At the same time, it's a description that doesn't address what makes the group vital and distinctive. Soft Opening have an authentically cracked, wasted-at-dawn vibe that reminds me of early 1990s indie-rock and lo-fi, the harder-edged stuff like Bitch Magnet and even some of Eric Gaffney's total freak-outs on Sebadoh's early records. For my pal Greg, Soft Opening recalls the Country Teasers -- had Ben Wallers grown up listening to Sabbath, not The Fall.

To my knowledge, they have just a single CD out right now. If you like what you hear come Friday, I'm sure you can contact Hepler via Soft Opening's fan page on Facebook and snag a copy. That page will also keep you abreast of all the latest gig information.

So yeah, tune in. It's going to be a heavy fuckin' blast.

Your host.

It's about time I remind listeners of my contact information. In addition to my show blog (on the current site), I maintain my professional website -- check it out. There, you can keep abreast of my music writing, which I do a lot of.

Also, you can follow me on Facebook. I just created one of them "fan pages." It's a stupid phrase, because I'm a nobody. But fuck it. Here it is.

And now on to the good stuff. Check out this killer video from the band Agent Side Grinder.