Music
The best kept secret in music
Press
“...With each spin, this mid-state guitar-pop band’s debut four song EP
Persistence of Youth sounds more and more like the find of the year...”
“...It’s as if a big hunk of power-pop had been shattered on the floor and then glued back together by unkempt undergrads on a coffee jag...”
- Noel Murray
“...Consider this fair warning. Although it is still two months until the release of their debut LP, the world must now know about Green Rode Shotgun. Why? Because their record is damn good, that's why...” - The Chicago Maroon
“Mournful vocals and Mike Campbell-influenced guitars build to an instrumental crescendo, driving this energetic tale of lost love to a satisfying climax while the marching band styled chanted chorus is just icing on the cake. If you were to play this tune through your car stereo, traffic would come to a standstill.” - Keith A. Gordon
“Songwriting and production recall a Motown-era emphasis on craft with multiple parts, hooks, bridges, and pretty, creamy vocal harmonies subtly emerging with repeated listening. The lyrics are simple and earnest, with an alternately manic and paranoid, moody, funhouse quality. Twin guitars reflect psychedelia and '60s to '70s English blues masters, with taste and attentiveness akin to Keith Richards and Jimmy Page (whose influential guitars STILL sound fresh and great, organic and integral). "Nothing New" is a beach bonfire instant classic.”
“Green Rode Shotgun must know they're all that and a side of fries, yet they never present the flatulent malaise of smug superiority wielded by several of this last decade's top-tier Aryan indie-rock fuckheads in their attempts to kill all sincerity in music.”
- Tom Healy
“Like The Heartbreakers, this Tennessee quintet plays unpretentious party music with a brain and a heart. The sound of both groups is both contemporary and timeless”
“Drummer Don Sergio channels more than a little Keith Moon in his reckless, cymbal-heavy bashing. On “Hopeless Crusade,” he brilliantly switches between a tommy-gun rat-tat-tat and a cowbell.”
“Just try listening to it without tapping your toes. Despite Phish's best efforts, this is really music for bouncing around the room.”
- Steven Graham
“When The New Pornographers became 2000's critical darlings, it was inevitable that the bar would be raised for indie rock. Green Rode Shotgun continues the rootsy Pixies influenced pop with over the top melodies, well-placed harmonies, and a tight performance. Like Mass Romantic, Bang is consistent throughout with little flaws.” - VC
Green Rode Shotgun hit you in the gut, a refreshing change from the formatted regurgitated pop so prevalent on most radio play lists.” - Jason Macneil
“This juggernaut knows how to kick off a clean-sounding song such as "Nothing Is Good Enough" and have it climax at just the right moment to make you sing along and jump around.” - Kathleen
“Green Rode Shotgun is that rare band who are hip enough to successfully meld heavy rock and sweet melodies, but possess the chops and creativity to make something new and lasting. On Bang, drummer Don Sergio happily careens through jagged rhythms and sing-song choruses, always finding cool ways to further the plot line.” - MD
"Singer Jason Johnson’s voice shares the kind of sneering pitchiness of Frank Black that just becomes more endearing as the record progresses. Rather than defusing the slower, more emotional tunes such as Something’s Missing, this quality adds an unsettling level of distress. Combined with the bands comfortably sloppy-yet-sharp romps, Green Rode Shotgun create a poppy, spunky sound.
At times as loose and swaggering as high school garage rockers, Green Rode Shotgun melds that intensity with the slippery, experimental melodies of the Flaming Lips or Robyn Hitchcock. On Lost Song, hints of Peter Buck’s jangling guitars peer up through the tracks and on the title track the band channels the Violent Femmes, Dead Milkmen and even a little early U2. On the glowering, standout opener A Call in a Room there are hints of Weezer and, once again, the Pixies."
- Clay Steakley
Discography
2002 - "Persistence of Youth" EP self release 4 songs
2003 - "Bang" LP self release 11 songs
track #3 - Into The Light - #1 on Garageband.com alternative charts September 2003 and Track of the Day April 2003
"Bang" - top 100 CMJ
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
TEN THINGS YOU HAVE TO KNOW ABOUT GREEN RODE SHOTGUN:
An unpaid testimonial written by Noel Murray – Writer the Nashville Scene and the Onion A/V Club
1. They’re a quintet: Shea Callahan and Dave Henderson on guitar, John Lane on bass, Don Sergio on drums, and Jason Johnson on vocals.
2. They came together in this configuration at the end of 2001 in Cookeville, TN. Cookeville is a small college town near Nashville (but not close to Nashville, if you know what I mean).
3. Most of the members of Green Rode Shotgun probably wouldn't be the music business at all if they weren't in this particular band. They’re in their late ‘20s and early ‘30s and all have experience in other bands, but with extra-musical interests that range from the visual arts to teaching to medicine, it’s fair to say that they could break up tomorrow and still lead productive, fulfilling lives. It just so happens that they really enjoy making music together and their collective commitment to Green Rode Shotgun derives from a belief that they're onto something, and that they should take it as far as they can.
4. They love rock ‘n’ roll, past and present. They’re not one of those bands that pretend they never listen to any music but what they write themselves, or that they never listen to any music that wasn’t recorded more than 20 years ago, or that they never listen to any music that was recorded more than 20 years ago. Green Rode Shotgun’s collective set of musical influences most prominently include R.E.M., Crazy Horse, The Pixies, The Clash and The Who, but they’re the kind of rock buffs who might storm into band practice at any time with a new CD and say, “You guys have got to hear this.”
5. They write all their songs together, in the practice space, with no pre-existing riffs or lyrics allowed. That may not sound like a big deal, but it’s partly what keeps these five guys showing up to play with the spark of enthusiasm crackling in their eyes. The creative process has become a challenge and a thrill--a real process of discovery. When they get stuck in the middle of writing a song, they decide together in what direction to head, and that base that decision on what feels right, and on what they haven’t heard before. That’s why Green Rode Shotgun songs change and shock and flow organically.
6. They kick ass live. (That’s the rest of what keeps these five guys showing up to play with the spark of enthusiasm crackling in their eyes ... they’re in love with their own power.) Sergio bows his head and brings the hammer, Callahan and Henderson flank the stage and strum as fast as they can, Lane pulls an Entwistle and stands stock still, and Johnson clings to the microphone stand and paces around in an ever expanding circle. They play loud, and tight, and they teeter on the brink of explosion.
7. They have an EP Persistence Of Youth (choice cuts: “Lost Song,” “Something’s Missing”) and an LP Bang! (choice cuts: “Into The Light,” “Nothing Is Good Enough,” “Numbers On The Wall”). A lot of the songs on both are about the excitement of the moment, and about how music and life dovetail. (Sample lyric, from “Lost Song”: “it’s like opening a door and assuming that you’ll be there /
but you’re long gone / like a lost song that you’ve heard only once / and you think you’ll hold onto it for a lifetime /like summertime.”) Check out lyrics and music samples at www.greenrodeshotgun.com.
8. The name? A random sentence in a Marilyn Monroe biography read aloud to Johnson by a woman in a Cookeville coffee shop.
9. They gig regularly in middle Tennessee and have begun to expand to other venues across the southeast. They believe in behaving like professionals, putting on a great show, and guaranteeing a return engagement with an expanding fan base. That’s because they have faith that great music, with tireless effort, will rise. Manager Tige Casey likes to say "It would’ve been impossible for R.E.M. not to have made it," and he’s probably right ... can you imagine a band as good as R.E.M. never making it out of Athens, GA?
10. Did I mention that they kick ass?
Links
