***CHECK STOCK!!! Received a 7.0 rating from Pitchfork. Four years after releasing their Merge debut, Frozen Letter, SPIDER BAGS return with an LP that ascends to new levels of aural punch and perspective. The years that elapsed between records were crucial in enabling that progress to take place. Recorded in Memphis at Bunker Audio by ANDREW MCCALLA (who also engineered 2012’s Shake My Head), Someday Everything Will Be Fine leverages the limitations and glory of the Tascam 388, a vintage recording/mixing device that’s acquired a mythos via its association with legendary records by Dinosaur Jr. and others. Unlike the error-erasing editing software Spider Bags frontman DAN MCGEE has favored in the past, the Tascam’s charms are more immediate, and it has a visceral resonance all its own. Someday Everything Will Be Fine, which is about the importance of saying f**k it and dancing to a rock and roll record, is an album only Spider Bags could make. Limited edition LP version pressed on bruised black and blue vinyl
LP $16.35
08/03/2018
CD $13.75
08/03/2018
***CHECK STOCK!!! Received a 7.0 rating from Pitchfork. Four years after releasing their Merge debut, Frozen Letter, SPIDER BAGS return with an LP that ascends to new levels of aural punch and perspective. The years that elapsed between records were crucial in enabling that progress to take place. Recorded in Memphis at Bunker Audio by ANDREW MCCALLA (who also engineered 2012’s Shake My Head), Someday Everything Will Be Fine leverages the limitations and glory of the Tascam 388, a vintage recording/mixing device that’s acquired a mythos via its association with legendary records by Dinosaur Jr. and others. Unlike the error-erasing editing software Spider Bags frontman DAN MCGEE has favored in the past, the Tascam’s charms are more immediate, and it has a visceral resonance all its own. Someday Everything Will Be Fine, which is about the importance of saying f**k it and dancing to a rock and roll record, is an album only Spider Bags could make. Limited edition LP version pressed on bruised black and blue vinyl
LP $18.50
08/03/2018
*** Formed in 2005, Chapel Hill, North Carolina’s SPIDER BAGS were largely a revolving cast, with only DAN MCGEE (guitars, vocals) persevering through the various incarnations of the band. But during the 2011 recording of Shake My Head , the current lineup consisting of STEVE OLIVA (bass) and ROCK FORBES (drums) was finally solidified. Building upon the foundation laid down by its predecessor, Frozen Letter rocks with the clairvoyance of three musicians who have spent a lot of time recording and touring together over the last few years. “When we started this record, we weren’t even thinking about it being released. We just did it to have fun and keep moving forward,” says Forbes. This approach allowed the band to push itself further out into the psychedelic frontier than ever before, aided by engineer/producer WESLEY WOLFE. Recorded mostly live over the course of a few days, there’s an exhilarating urgency to the record, as heard in riff-driven rockers like “Back With You Again in the World” and “Chem Trails.” The band brings the tempo down a notch for “Coffin Car,” which finds them mining an ominous morbidity over one of their prettier chord patterns. “We Got Problems” comes on like a true acid trip, alternating between utter terror and unfettered joy. Featuring a heavy and repetitive pattern, a slew of effected guitars, and searing guest leads from SUPERCHUNK’s MAC MCCAUGHAN, the song encapsulates an entire Spider Bags epoch in under six minutes. Frozen Letter is the band’s fourth full-length record...
LP $17.50
08/05/2014
CD $13.50
08/05/2014
On Goodbye Cruel World, Hello Crueler World, North Carolina natives Spider Bags work once again with legendary engineer Brian Paulson. Picking themselves up from the drunken wranglings of last year's A Celebration of Hunger, the band kicks off with the upbeat "It Always Loved to Happen," full of open-road energy and memories. "Quevivaelrocanroll" is the next step in their evolution: a drawn-back, anthemic barn-burner with sweat rolling through the speakers. The listener can picture frontman Dan McGee leading the way, with a guitar in one hand and drink in the other, marching through the old town square on an impromptu parade at midnight in the middle of July. "... Spider Bags are ostensibly Americana, but it's the kind of reeling-in-sickness music you'd expect from Neil Young, Gram Parsons, Meat Puppets.... Every song... finds beauty in pain and darkness, with lyrics ("She's got a crooked face when she smiles") that are as thoughtful as the music behind them. I'm gonna go so far as to call [A Celebration of Hunger] brilliant. That's right, brilliant. There's not a bad track on the entire record, and it's a goddamn shame I didn't hear about this album when it came out, because it easily would have made my top ten for the year." --Berkeley Place Blog "... these scraggly Chapel Hill punks go face down in a glass of Wild Turkey and survive to testify." --SPIN "The Spider Bags locate their identity by running that particular current of electricity through country music's liquor-soaked...
LP $13.00
08/25/2009
CD $13.00
08/25/2009
Please welcome The Spider Bags: hailing from North Carolina, out of nowhere but with the sound of a vintage anti-establishment America, fueled by whiskey and the treads of a long, harshly departed woman. The Spider Bags’ A Celebration of Hunger was recorded in a whirlwind, with the six-piece band huddling around a microphone and preaching the country / punk / garage gospel with Shane MacGowan toothlessly smiling, listening to the songs of drink and debauchery. Leader Dan McGee is the new great American songwriter-on-the-dole, whose multi-purposed voice sings of two things: girls and women, and does so with some of the most impressive lyrics to come out of an American since Nick Cave… no… hmmm… Shane… no, he is from Ireland… damn… well, in the tradition of all those greats who steal from the Americana ethos and make careers out of doing so. We bring to you The Spider Bags, the first great European-stealing Americana band from America. Let freedom reign. “An appealing mix of rock and country/roots influences ... sounds like music to break beer bottles to.” —The Oak Room
LP $13.00
05/29/2007
CD $13.00
05/29/2007