About Flagpole. (Athens, Ga.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (April 20, 2011)
ALICIA J ROSE im Perry could see it all around him— that dreadful, six-letter word that's able to kill a musician, a band, or even a whole scene: apathy. It was brewing in his native Portland music scene, and he was ready to call it quits. "I looked around me and saw a lot of shoulder shrugging. Very little wholehearted, enthusiastic commitment to a feeling. That creates a not-very-safe environment to state your feelings outright," he says. "I came out of [past bands] a little jaded on music and the experience of working with other people, just because people work together so differ ently and commitment means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. I decided that if I was going to do it again, I was going to do it with people who were very whole hearted about it and as enthusiastic as I was to play music." Perry's willingness to return to the music game with AgesandAges, a seven-piece folk- rock band, was contingent on a nearly perfect lineup of like-minded others. With that lineup in place, the bandmembers (figuratively) retreated from the negativity they saw around them to create a community where their song writing process could creatively flourish. "These songs and this music and the way I went about writing it thematically and lyri cally were pulling out of some imagery of a collective or a commune or a cult of sorts," says Perry. "I envisioned this group of people who willfully removed themselves from what they considered to be a very negative place. They put themselves far away from this and built their own community and, essentially, wrote a bunch of songs reaffirming their beliefs." AgesandAges is, in many ways, an exem plary commune Each member takes great care in even the smallest of tasks to serve the greater good in their tightly wound, soulful folk-rock sing-alongs. "Every hand clap, every shaker, every per cussive offbeat is an addition to the overall idea. Every harmony, every background vocal part and every voice that adds to the epic choral moments is absolutely necessary," he says. "We don't have seven members just because one of them hums towards the end of one song. There's energy coming from all those different people, constantly doing some thing different to create the song and create the moment." The potential energy of a moment was the driving force for the recording process of the band's debut, Alright You Restless, which focused less on high-tech equipment and accepted method and more on serving the song as the band would in a live setting. "We live in a time where we can go in and overdub myself 24 times and sound like a room full of people, but when it comes to playing live, that doesn't come across," says Perry. "That means when we went into the stu dio, we made a definite decision that we were going to blast through the songs live. Just set up a mic in the middle and do it. We didn't even use headphones." Perry took his time deciding to form a band again in the first place, and more time in assembling the crew around him. So. it's no surprise that he preaches patience in what that group produces as it moves forward. "It's like fishing or something. You can wait and wait and wait, and it just takes a while... It may take a month to write a song, but at the end of the month you've got a song, and it really doesn't matter anymore how hard it was and what you had to go through to get it. At the end of the struggle, it exists." And it now exists for the first time on the road, a place Perry is certain his high-energy collective can captivate the audiences soon to see them for the first time. "My first and foremost hope is that this will all be a productive conversation," he says. "We're just gonna go and play our hearts out wherever we can, playing and establishing that connection and taking part in that con versation. We're excited to meet people and let good times prevail." Alec Wooden WHO: lake, AgesandAges, Casper and the Cookies WHERE: "The Dream Operator," email quaiityfaucetrecords@gmail.com for info WHEN: Friday, Apr. 22,9 p.m. HOW MUCH: $5 suggested donation V ■ ✓ TIVAL Honoring Earth Day Easter Sunday Church Service 8:00am AmerioA*! Oldest Brewery 3 Days (g) $50 1 Day @ $35 Super Easter Egg Hunt- Free 10:00am w/T»cket Purchase For 12yrs & younger Li Msaws-t-c-.-. Durhamtown Plantation April 22 nd , 23 rd , 24* 3 Days & Nights Over 45 Bands on 3 ATV-Dirt Bike Riding Park Open all weekend! j * DP Special* I $10 Ride fee with Event Ticket!! Rock, Country Rock, Reggae, Acoustic, Blues, Alternative, Metal & More! Comedians * Glass Blowing * Back Flipping Motorcycles Street Bike Stunts * Cirque du green *Allegreen House Hot Dog Eating Contest * Vendors *Frisbee Golf * Art Activities Kids Activity Area * Easter Egg Hunt Come for 1 Day or 3 Days * Camping Available * No Coolers Please! More info: www.durhamtown.com or 706-486-4603 APRIL 20,2011 FLAGPOLE.COM 19
