The Beat: Sports and Music Don't Mix--Or Do They? Tales of Sports Related Gigs Gone Wild By Kevin Oliver

Sports and popular music have a long, intertwined history, from Super Bowl halftime shows to the Beatles playing Shea Stadium, longtime home of the New York Mets and the New York Jets. (And who can forget the “Jock Jams” phenomenon?”) On a local level, the relationship tends to be one of competing for audience attention, as the screens in the bars got bigger and the stages got smaller. Being in a college town like Columbia makes it especially challenging for bands booking gigs on game days. On one hand, the venues are full of customers, drinking, eating, and a captive audience for the lucky band on the calendar. On the other hand, that audience is there for the game, not the music, usually, and that can present challenges that make it a less than great experience for the musicians just trying to do their job.

Kevin Pettit, currently of the band 48 Fables, has been around the local scene for years and originally gained some notoriety as a member of Celtic rockers Loch Ness Johnny, where he had his own memorable sports vs. music moment.

“We were playing at the Flying Saucer in Columbia on a college bowl game weekend, and it was packed–I think it was Florida playing someone I can’t recall,” He says. “The big screen television in the bar was facing us on the other side of the room from the stage, and somehow we were able to time several song endings to coincide with a touchdown being scored in the game. So, when the crowd went crazy because someone scored, we took a bow and thanked ‘the great audience.’ It was good, silly fun.”

Not much has changed, according to Chris Reed, who plays both cover gigs and original music with his band The Bad Kids. “I played during the last Clemson-Carolina football game,” He says. “There was definitely a lot of oddly timed applause, which is awkward as hell but in the end it’s all just part of the job.”

It isn’t just football fans who can initiate some great sports-related gig stories, though. Bassist and guitarist Darren Woodlief, who has played around town with numerous acts, remembers an early gig with his rock band Pocket Buddha as an especially memorable evening.

“The band was me, Dave Britt, and Zack Jones, and this was our first sort of out of town gig over in Camden for the Carolina Cup steeplechase race day,” he says. “We were at a bar downtown that was a welcome respite for many very drunk folks who'd been out in the sun all day, a good number of whom may not have actually seen a horse. We played all the cover songs we knew and at the end of our 3 hours a small group of equine enthusiasts were not ready for the party to be over. After some negotiation, we agreed to play another 30 minutes for $50 bucks each. Rejuvenated by the bonus and the chance to again play the songs we knew best, we did our thing and left feeling exhausted but grateful.”

Just like not every game can end in a win for your team, not every gig on a game day turns out great. Josh Roberts, who has toured with his band The Hinges for years throughout the southeast and beyond, can attest to how bad timing can ruin a gig.

“The Hinges were playing Tasty World in Athens, Georgia on the night of the Carolina/Georgia game, maybe 2008 or 2009. It was a solid lineup, all the other bands were from Athens, and everyone was having a good time, hanging around the venue all evening, excited about the show.  Then, what wasn’t supposed to happen did, and the Gamecocks beat Georgia in an ugly game. We watched it at the venue, and at the end you could feel all the air let out of the town. It felt bad everywhere. The show was totally deflated. Hardly anyone came, and that strange feeling in the air just stuck around.” 

The Hinges’ bad luck followed them home in 2010, he adds.

“During the 2010 SEC championship with Auburn and Cam Newton vs. the Gamecocks, the same thing happened in Columbia. We were playing The Five Points Pub, which we had been reliably packing full of folks. We sound checked early because of the game, went elsewhere to watch it, and when it was over we could just feel it then, too. City deflation. Very small turnout and a strange feeling over everything.”

It wasn’t all bad for the band in either case, however, as non-football fans who are fans of a band don’t really care who won or lost, they just want to see their favorite band play, Roberts notes. “I will say that in both those cases a bunch of serious music fans came late and had a good time. I got the feeling a lot of those folks were anti-sports in general, and were pointedly not going to let something like that mess with their show.”

And then there are the experiences that have nothing to do with the game outcome or the distracting televisions. Sometimes it’s just professional musicians trying to get things done, and they wind up improvising.

Fiddler Jim Graddick remembers a 2013 incident where he was invited to play the Carolina/Clemson halftime show at Williams-Brice Stadium with banjo legend Randy Lucas.

“It was Dick Goodwin’s idea to have a bluegrass band play ‘Dueling Banjos’ with the Carolina band,” Graddick says. “They let us in without tickets since we were with the marching band, and when I went out to use the restroom about halfway through the second quarter, security wouldn’t let me back in since I had no ticket. I explained that I was playing the halftime show, to which the guard flatly responded, ‘Yeah, sure–me too.’” 

Of course, there are many musicians who are also big sports fans–who can forget the famous line in Hootie & the Blowfish’s hit song “Only Wanna Be With You” where Darius Rucker namechecks his favorite NFL team with the line “You wonder why I’m such a baby, ‘cause the Dolphins make me cry.” 

Patrick Davis is a well-known Gamecock supporter, writing and releasing several classic song tributes to USC sports teams. His sound and production crew lead of choice, local audio engineer Wayne Munn, remembers how they would sometimes have to make allowances for those gigs that clashed with USC game times. “We did a show at (NASCAR driver) Michael Waltrip’s house the day of a Carolina/Clemson football game with Patrick and the band,” Munn says. “We set up iPads behind the edge of the two front walls of the stage, so the band could watch the game as they were performing.”

So, wherever you choose to watch the Super Bowl this week, or any other major sporting event, if there is a local band playing there at the same time you should at least try to applaud at the right time–and drop in an extra tip, as the musicians are working a little harder than usual to have a good gig.

THE BEAT - Turbo Gatto: Purr-fectly Good Mewsic

By Emily Moffitt

Kevin Jennings and Gina Ercolini are Turbo Gatto - photo by The Wolf

Ever heard of “Cat Rock”? The creativity of guitarist Kevin Jennings and drummer Gina Ercolini, under the band name Turbo Gatto, originally invented the genre to adapt the lyrics of Motorhead songs to be about cats. 

“It was a blast and a lot of laughs for a second, but it led us to discover our own idea,” she adds, “Original garage rock/punk music with lyrics about anything related to cats.”

It has been an entertaining formula, and with musical inspiration from the Cramps on the two-person band’s new album “Bad Mewsic For Bad Cats” they have built upon the original foundation of Stooges power, AC/DC riffs, and Ramones frenzy that have informed the project from the start. It’s all about the riff, Ercolini admits. “A good riff is almost always our starting point; we trust each other to follow where the music takes us from there.” 

They are fully invested in the genre they’ve pioneered, utilizing the self-proclaimed “cat life and love of rock and roll” to not only build their sound, but engage audiences. Their most devoted fans can be seen at shows sporting their best sets of cat ears, willing to play along with the feline frenzy happening on stage. Playing for the fun of it is one of the guiding principles of Turbo Gatto, and it offers Jennings and Ercolini a respite from their other bands, which include MNRVA, and a way to spend more time together making music–they’ve also been a married couple since 2016.  

“We met at karaoke at Art Bar and somehow decided that we had all we needed to start a band,” Ercolini recalls. “We held our first practice three days later and have been inseparable ever since.” 

Turbo Gatto purrs loudest in a live setting, and Jennings and Ercolini are both happy to be back in that environment. 

“Our live shows are always a bit chaotic and teetering on the brink,” Ercolini says. “It takes a certain kind of energy and focus in the moment to hold everything together–it’s both exciting and terrifying.” 

Over the pandemic months, the bandmates used the down time from live shows to write as much new music as they could, and experiment with different influences, but they found that their basic methods of working, and recording, didn’t change much. When it came time to record the new material for a proper album, they also chose not to change anything there. 

“We record everything with Jay Matheson at the Jam Room Recording Studio,” Ercolini says. “He’s spectacular in guiding us to produce the best record we can in a matter of only two days spent in the studio.” The results, she adds, are meant to be fun, no matter how good the playing or the recording process makes them sound.

“One thing you cannot do when playing in a cat rock band is take yourself too seriously,” she concludes. “This is the kind of record you can listen to while driving around town or jumping up and down on the bed eating pizza.”            

The album release for “Bad Mewsic for Bad Cats” will be held at Art Bar on Saturday, February 12th at 7 PM. Also, on the bill in addition to Turbo Gatto are The Transonics, The Buzzards of Fuzz, Warfare Check, and the Black Stare of Soledad Miranda.

THE BEAT is a rotating lineup of music coverage under the direction of Jasper Magazine music editor, Kevin Oliver, that includes local album reviews, in-depth artist interviews and profiles, live show reviews, and all things related to local music in the greater SC midlands area arts community. If you have story ideas, or you’re a local musician, band, or involved with a local project that you think deserves some attention, drop Kevin a line at kevingoliver@gmail.com. 

THE BEAT: A Review of Calebjustcaleb's CORRUPTED HARDDRIVE 2

By Kyle Petersen

Caleb Brown is a genuinely good frontman for the pop-punk/metalcore group Aim High. He’s got a convincingly nasal delivery, an acute sense of melody, and a compelling ability to create emotional cathartic lyrical moments. And the band is surprisingly suited to his more unorthodox influences, shifting from big pop-rock smarts to drum machine grooves or screamo excess as the muse calls for.

That being said, Brown as a solo artist (aka Calebjustcaleb) is perhaps an even more compelling figure. Since the rise of Lil Peep around 2017, there’s been a steadily more-accepted merging of emo-punk influences into contemporary hip-hop, running the gamut from the Soundcloud rap of Juice WRLD to the full pop-punk turn of Kenny Hoopla and Machine Gun Kelly. But there is not a more authentic occupier of this intersection of sounds than the emcee, singer and guitarist who fiercely calls the Rosewood neighborhood of Columbia home.

That creative spark is rife throughout the work of Aim High, but it becomes even sharper and exploratory in his solo releases. Last year’s EP Corrupt Harddrive EP is a prime example, a four-song release that used the building blocks of both pop-punk and alternative R&B almost interchangeably. His latest, Corrupt Harddrive 2, ups the ante by demonstrating all of the ways he’s capable of traversing the porous border between genres while showcasing his formidable rap skills. 

From the pounding bruiser of an opener, “ENDLESS.corrupt.001,” Calebjustcaleb just feels like he’s on. While there’s also a touch of genuine emo to his efforts, his power here comes in how effortlessly he evinces the swagger of an MC who knows he has the bars to go toe to toe with anyone. On the second track, the lavishly named “Spacecoup Moshpit,” his full vision comes into focus, bouncing with delirious ab-libs and a sauntering flow over a Migos-style track seared with monster guitar riffs.

And even though you might expect some of the purer pop impulses to be the natural crossover points, Brown is trickier than that. His work both here and in Aim High shows a range that extends to metalcore and screamo on the rock side, and then alternative R&B and drill. But what’s most striking is how his persona is so fully realized as a composite of all of these influences. On “ADA,” for example, there’s a section of masterful wordplay that doubles as a character sketch: “Is he a psycho or psychedelic?/Got a good hood, I’m hella threaded/at the skate park, yeah I’m hella shredded/on an elevator or elevated/lived in the South my whole life, but I swear to god I ain’t ever sweated.

It’s hard not to get caught up in this music, both because of how much it feels like a nudge forward in the zeitgeist and how much command Brown has over the musical world he has created. Although on social media he referred to these as “old, unfinished songs” when he released them a few weeks ago, that dismissal feels more indicative of how artistically poised he is in this moment.

Listen to the EP →

Read 5 Questions with Caleb Brown (aka Calebjustcaleb) →

The Beat is compiled weekly by Jasper Music Editor Kevin Oliver and will frequently include input from Jasper writers Kyle Petersen and Emily Moffitt in addition to Kevin's own regular contributions.

Kevin Oliver's THE BEAT: Caught Up In a Feeling--The Runout and Jeff Gregory Build Community Around Music

“We discovered that we like eating, and we like drinking, and we like making music, preferably all at the same time,” - Jeff Gregory

For many people the ongoing pandemic has been a rollercoaster ride, but for Jeff Gregory and his band The Runout it was the catalyst for a creative community which birthed the band’s latest album With Your Eyes Closed. Early on, as artists found their footing online with live streaming to replace live in-person shows, Gregory and his wife Kelley hit upon a simple format of the two of them, a guitar and occasional piano, repeated on Wednesday nights, that resonated with them and a core group of friends and fans.  

“The pandemic really had us down, so Kelley and I found something to do to make ourselves happy and remember what singing together in high school was like,” Jeff Gregory says. 

The Runout was already a band with a couple recording sessions and a first album out, along with a number of live shows featuring an evolving lineup that currently includes Mike Scarboro on drums, Moses Andrews on bass guitar, keyboards, and organ, and Chris Compton on electric guitar alongside Jeff and Kelley Gregory. But as the pandemic dragged on and Gregory took some soul-searching, nonmusical personal time, the community drew him back in, he says.

“Thank God for Chris Compton, Patrick Leitner, Lang Owen, all of those guys asked me to get involved on their projects, just a song here and there,” Gregory says. “It spurred me on to wanting to do music again myself.” 

The community that gathered around the Gregorys shared one crucial thing, and, surprisingly, it wasn’t music–it was food. 

“We discovered that we like eating, and we like drinking, and we like making music, preferably all at the same time,” Gregory says. “It sounds silly, but a lesson we’ve learned is that when you have friendship, and good vibes, then you can have some creativity and exploration in what you’re doing.” 

The musical result of this camaraderie was The Runout’s latest album With Your Eyes Closed. The record pulls together the intimate feeling of those livestream nights with an expanded lineup that allows for full band arrangements. The tracks progress through deceptively feel-good anthems such as the bouncy Americana-esque opener, “Feelings,” and more raucous, rocking rave-ups like “Coffee and Weed.” Gregory also delves into deeper territory on tracks like the ethereal “Crooked Canyon,” a metaphorical journey to the center of one’s psyche that’s equal parts terrifying and glorious in its imagery.  

Gregory has that rarest of qualities–the ability to turn a clever phrase, but also imbue its delivery with raw, honest emotion that connects on a deeper level than the average pop song. The centerpiece of the album is “Give Up,” an irresistible tune that began life on those now long-ago livestreams with just Jeff and Kelly harmonizing to an acoustic guitar. The album version adds shimmering electric guitar to the natural connection their voices make on lyrics that anyone in a long-term  relationship can relate to: “I’ve been wanting to give up, I’ve been thinking it through…it seems I need a few more hours down this road with you.”  

Those few more hours have become months now, in pandemic times. In lieu of a club gig for the album release, The Runout staged a mini-festival they dubbed “Stump Fire Fest” at a friend’s property. They invited a hundred of their fans and friends to come celebrate outdoors with them, a culmination of the community that had sustained the band to that point.

“We’re thankful for that community,” Gregory says now. “We weren’t really aware of it until that night–I think it was the result of the pandemic filtering out everything that didn’t matter, and the music was what was left.” 

The Stump Fire Fest may have set an unrepeatable precedent; in addition to the Runout, several other bands played on a small stage built just for the night, poet Al Black read between sets, and Dick Moons and his drum circle formed up around a nearby campfire as participants ate, drank, and moved between the different moving parts of the evening.  

“It really crossed scenes and generations,” Gregory says of the festival. “It wrapped up what had been a really meaningful time of making the record, too–Hanging out with Chris Compton, Sean Thomson, Patrick Leitner, Moses Andrews, that meant more to me than I realized at the time.” 

It’s the mentality of helping others, Gregory concludes, that has to survive the pandemic.

“People are wondering what’s going on in the world right now, and the answer is that nobody knows,” He says, “So what must our response be? It has to be art.”