and the relatives

Going ? & the Mysterians one better, this Nashville trio omits the frontman’s name altogether—perhaps because “Andrew Brassell and the Relatives” would exhaust most club marquees’ stashes of L’s. Funny thing is, where most bands these days wear their inspirations like ID bracelets, it’s the relatives of the group’s sound who are hard to pin down: a song like the title track of their new Animals EP snakes from a spindly, insinuating guitar riff to a rubbery groove to a dub-reverb interlude, evoking anything from Television to the Steve Miller Band. It gets better with every listen, as the stop-start rhythms that power most of the songs give you time to anticipate the hooks—the cathartic ascending chorus of “Dixie Cups,” the electronic boop! that marks time on “Marie.” Featuring bassist Eli Beaird and drummer and Scene contributor Patrick Rodgers, the group plays a CD release show with Eureka Gold, The Glib and Modern Skirts.
Fri., Nov. 14, 9 p.m., 2008 - Nashville Scene

Indie rock in the ’90s was all about guitars. The best of the decade were careful students of rock history with quirky idiosyncrasies. And the Relatives are like that perfectly preserved fossil in amber in Jurassic Park—they play the kind of indie rock that existed before the meaning of “indie” became extinct. Before indie rock was hijacked as an industry buzzword to describe major-label bands like the Killers or the Strokes, indie bands sounded a lot like And the Relatives—pop music amidst an unruly backdrop and some pretty sweet sounding guitars. RIYL: Pavement, Guided by Voices, Sebadoh - Nashville Scene