Magnetic Flowers
Despite what people may tell you, most weekends in this town have so many opportunities for good live music, sometimes you are forced into a tough decision.
Case in point is this Saturday, when indie folk and rock fans have the opportunity to catch Say Brother, Kemp Ridley, and Ned Durrett & the Kindley Gents at The White Mule, or head over to the Art Bar for Magnetic Flowers, Elonzo, Sea Wolf Mutiny, and Famous Thieves. And while we have some serious love for the folks over at The White Mule, we’d tend to recommend the Art Bar show.
First off, headliners Magnetic Flowers are teetering on the edge of an extended hiatus/break-up, so it’s hard to say how many more times you are going to get to see these guys—and they have been one of the most exciting bands in Columbia over the last few years, with an energetic live show and some highly literate indie-folk-pop songwriting married to hyper-melodic and complex arrangements that throw keyboards, guitars, and an onslaught of separate vocal parts on the wall to see what sticks. Their last record, 2009’s What We Talk About When We Talk About What We Talk About, featured a delightfully cathartic re-working of “I’ll Fly Away,” a tune that riffed on the form of “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” and such literary-informed song titles like “Southern Baptist Gothic” and “Books and Bad Poetry.” Hear Southern Baptist Gothic here. Plus, one of the most achingly beautiful songs about growing up Jasper has ever heard. Listen to Northern Lights here.
And even if that isn’t enough, they are supported by the Rock Hill band Elonzo, whose dreamy brand of indie folk takes a laidback, front porch-meets-chamber music approach to its subtly Southern songcraft, and Sea Wolf Mutiny, a darker, more prog-influenced folk-rock outfit whose mix of influences include The Decemberists, Flaming Lips, Band of Horses, and Mumford & Sons, for starters. Jasper doesn’t know Famous Thieves well yet but, in company like this, it’s probably safe to assume you are going to have 4 awesome bands for a cover of $5—just one of many examples this weekend that prove that Columbia is, in fact, a music town!
– Kyle Petersen
Elonzo
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Jasper Magazine – The WORD on Columbia Arts
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As a Columbia native who has been following the local music scene for over 30 years, I have to feel some irritation at this obviously biased and misinformed commentary. The Magnetic Flowers “one of the most exciting bands in Columbia over the last few years…” Never heard of them or any other band mentioned here and their Facebook statistics tell otherwise. Columbia is NOT a “music” scene due to the lack of understanding of what qualifies as “music”…especially “great music.” It’s this type of association hype that prevents those few talented musicians that can produce a quality, original “live” sound from making Columbia a choice for musical entertainment. Branch out and experience several genres and venues with the expectation of experiencing people who can carry a tune like Janice, play an guitar like Hendrix and consistently sound exceptional like Ten Toes Up, THEN try to make that statement…Drunk and doped up college kids will energetically dance to anything and is no indication of a grade standard for a band. Neither does a click of self professed “critics” who are too afraid to step into a less than acceptable venue to find out what’s actually out there.
Hi Kimber Lee—
I’m sorry you found our commentary to be so off-base. We here at Jasper happily recognize that the variety of music and bands in our amazing city is so diverse that we, and almost anybody else, are bound to be somewhat less than comprehensive in our appreciation and understanding. Having said that, we stand by our support of the bands mentioned in the blog here. All of these groups have played shows at a variety of venues (The White Mule, Art Bar, New Brookland Tavern, 5 Points Pub/The House, Bey’s, etc.) to appreciative crowds and hard-won fans. While we will admit there is a certain “indie-ness” or off-center vibe to many of these bands, we briefly covered Josh Roberts, a talented performer more in line with the people you mentioned, last week through the blog and, as a matter of fact, we will be featuring him in our first print issue of the magazine, as well. And Josh, for the record, helped the Magnetic Flowers record that record we were so excited about in the first place.
Even if you still disagree with us, I would hope that you could at least appreciate the fact that we are trying to send positive vibes about live music in this town, even if we take a different approach than you would like.
– KP