The Consumers
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The Consumers

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""The Consumers' debut puts band on shelf""

The success of Spartanburg-based band The Consumers is a mix of coincidence and talent.

The band's self-titled debut came together just weeks ago in a way the band members never planned for. The five original songs, while written independently, tell a story.

The Consumers will sing all five songs and explain the story behind them at their CD release show Friday at The Showroom.

Lead singer Joe Power, keyboardist Andrew Smith, bassist Mark Miller and drummer Casey Burgess put together an impromptu all-night practice the night before a 2005 Christmas show at Miyako Sushi Group. They worked well together and were an instant hit with the crowd, Power said. The band added lead guitarist Wes Gosnell and began performing in Spartanburg, Greenville and Charleston venues regularly as The Consumers.

The musicians made a name for themselves with covers of popular bands like Pink Floyd, the Beatles, Modest Mouse and Spoon.

The music

"The album is chronologically every song we've written since we've started to write songs," Power said. "Each song is a chapter in the story. It has a beginning and an end."

The songs follow a simple, good-hearted man through his turbulent life - married to an alcoholic, single parent to his children and finally an unsettled ghost haunting his ex-wife. Power said the fictional lyrics were written and recorded before the band realized that collectively they told a bigger story.

Power best describes the group's sound as rock with piano-driven melodies.

"We took something that works, and we're building upon it," Power said. "We're just hoping to establish ourselves as an original band in South Carolina."

Their sound

"They're just so versatile," said fan Randy Williams, who manages Sonny's Brick Oven Pizza. "They can cover anything, whether it's something from the '60s like a Beatles cover or something from the '70s like a Queen cover, all the way up through stuff from today, like Coldplay or Radiohead."

George DuBose, a junior at Wofford College, said The Consumers are a staple at his fraternity house, Sigma Alpha Epsilon. The fraternity books the band at least once or twice a semester.

"Everybody loves them. They're, like, our favorite band," DuBose said. "We feel like we've been really supportive of them. I hope they're successful in the future."
- Lee Gray, Herald Journal / March 20, 2008


""The Consumers' debut puts band on shelf""

The success of Spartanburg-based band The Consumers is a mix of coincidence and talent.

The band's self-titled debut came together just weeks ago in a way the band members never planned for. The five original songs, while written independently, tell a story.

The Consumers will sing all five songs and explain the story behind them at their CD release show Friday at The Showroom.

Lead singer Joe Power, keyboardist Andrew Smith, bassist Mark Miller and drummer Casey Burgess put together an impromptu all-night practice the night before a 2005 Christmas show at Miyako Sushi Group. They worked well together and were an instant hit with the crowd, Power said. The band added lead guitarist Wes Gosnell and began performing in Spartanburg, Greenville and Charleston venues regularly as The Consumers.

The musicians made a name for themselves with covers of popular bands like Pink Floyd, the Beatles, Modest Mouse and Spoon.

The music

"The album is chronologically every song we've written since we've started to write songs," Power said. "Each song is a chapter in the story. It has a beginning and an end."

The songs follow a simple, good-hearted man through his turbulent life - married to an alcoholic, single parent to his children and finally an unsettled ghost haunting his ex-wife. Power said the fictional lyrics were written and recorded before the band realized that collectively they told a bigger story.

Power best describes the group's sound as rock with piano-driven melodies.

"We took something that works, and we're building upon it," Power said. "We're just hoping to establish ourselves as an original band in South Carolina."

Their sound

"They're just so versatile," said fan Randy Williams, who manages Sonny's Brick Oven Pizza. "They can cover anything, whether it's something from the '60s like a Beatles cover or something from the '70s like a Queen cover, all the way up through stuff from today, like Coldplay or Radiohead."

George DuBose, a junior at Wofford College, said The Consumers are a staple at his fraternity house, Sigma Alpha Epsilon. The fraternity books the band at least once or twice a semester.

"Everybody loves them. They're, like, our favorite band," DuBose said. "We feel like we've been really supportive of them. I hope they're successful in the future."
- Lee Gray, Herald Journal / March 20, 2008


"Making The Move"

A few months ago, I went downtown to Sonny's Pizza with a buddy of mine to hear a cover band called the Consumers. He wanted to check it out because the bass player is one of his co-workers.
I'd heard about the group before. another friend is a co-worker of another band member, and he said they were really good.
And they were.
For one thing, they sounded like they rehearse a lot. People describe such bands as "tight"-together, coordinated, in-sync and so forth.
There are levels of tightness: groups that sound thrown together and may in fact be, with various participants playing notes that aren't supposed to be there and missing ones that are - it's a situation I've been in more times than I care to admit; groups with a reasonable command of the tunes, but lacking a certain fluidity and confidence; and then groups that work in tandem like it's an effortless force of nature.
Of course, like a great athletic performance - say, my beloved Wofford Terriers' game-winning "wing-bone" drive against Montana last November - it's really not effortless. It is hard work that produces simultaneous precision and easy grooves.
And that was the Consumers.
But, not only that. The Consumers played a lot of cool songs, ranging from classic Elton John and CCR tunes to current alternative rock - with a number of surprises along the way. I was particularly delighted to hear the "Mean Mr. Mustard"/"Polythene Pam"/"She Came in Through the Bathroom Window"medley from the Beatles' "Abbey Road."
The crowd loved them, singing along and hollering and dancing. And drinking beer and socializing the way young adults do in a bar on a Friday night. The Consumers were impeccable as a party band.
Now, they're making the leap to playing original music. Last Friday night at the Showroom, they put on a CD release concert.
This can be tricky territory for a band. You're great at playing Beatles songs, and those are some brilliant tunes, of course. Will fans like your own compositions as well as your renditions of Lennon/McCartney? There's no guarantee.
Based on their show Friday, as well as the self-titled, five-song CD, I think the Consumers stand a chance. Once again they are magnificently tight, and that's an awfully important starting point for selling your original music onstage.
They also put on an entertaining show. Joe Power (great rock 'n' roll name, by the way) is a natural front-man, all disheveled and appropriately nonchalant. And he can really sing. Drummer Casey Burgess is fun to watch. He's a loose-limbed, skinny guy but still pounds those drums with controlled abandon.
The CD is good, too. I'll need more time to thoroughly digest it. But the production is really strong, and the songs are interesting - 1960s pop and 1980s-and-beyond alternative influences (at least that's what I hear - music reviewers are sometimes to assuming about where songwriters are coming from).
There's a nice balance between humble melodies and darker, edgier sounds. My understanding is that these are the first five songs the group wrote, working collaboratively. I'm excited to hear what they come up with in the months ahead.
It was a good crowd Friday night, and people responded appreciatively to the Consumers' new material. Still, I was struck that the crowd seemed most boisterous at the end of the night when they played a Pink Floyd cover.
Bassist Mark Miller says it's a matter of bringing people along. Audiences don't have to go for an all-original set whole-hog right away. He seems confident that if the songs are good, then even those fans who enjoy the cover material will gravitate to the new stuff.
Even if that process happens on a small scale at first, Miller says that's OK with the band because, "We get more satisfaction out of people enjoying our original songs."
Plus, with covers of other bands' material having "been our bread and butter so far," Miller says there's no desire to abruptly change direction. "Were feeling it out as we go."
But he makes an interesting point the way all this works: The money that comes from playing other people's songs can make it possible for a band to do its own thing.
"We financed (our recording) through cover gigs," he says. "It allowed us to put out something we're really proud of." - Baker Maultsby, Spartanburg Journal / March 28, 2008


"Making The Move"

A few months ago, I went downtown to Sonny's Pizza with a buddy of mine to hear a cover band called the Consumers. He wanted to check it out because the bass player is one of his co-workers.
I'd heard about the group before. another friend is a co-worker of another band member, and he said they were really good.
And they were.
For one thing, they sounded like they rehearse a lot. People describe such bands as "tight"-together, coordinated, in-sync and so forth.
There are levels of tightness: groups that sound thrown together and may in fact be, with various participants playing notes that aren't supposed to be there and missing ones that are - it's a situation I've been in more times than I care to admit; groups with a reasonable command of the tunes, but lacking a certain fluidity and confidence; and then groups that work in tandem like it's an effortless force of nature.
Of course, like a great athletic performance - say, my beloved Wofford Terriers' game-winning "wing-bone" drive against Montana last November - it's really not effortless. It is hard work that produces simultaneous precision and easy grooves.
And that was the Consumers.
But, not only that. The Consumers played a lot of cool songs, ranging from classic Elton John and CCR tunes to current alternative rock - with a number of surprises along the way. I was particularly delighted to hear the "Mean Mr. Mustard"/"Polythene Pam"/"She Came in Through the Bathroom Window"medley from the Beatles' "Abbey Road."
The crowd loved them, singing along and hollering and dancing. And drinking beer and socializing the way young adults do in a bar on a Friday night. The Consumers were impeccable as a party band.
Now, they're making the leap to playing original music. Last Friday night at the Showroom, they put on a CD release concert.
This can be tricky territory for a band. You're great at playing Beatles songs, and those are some brilliant tunes, of course. Will fans like your own compositions as well as your renditions of Lennon/McCartney? There's no guarantee.
Based on their show Friday, as well as the self-titled, five-song CD, I think the Consumers stand a chance. Once again they are magnificently tight, and that's an awfully important starting point for selling your original music onstage.
They also put on an entertaining show. Joe Power (great rock 'n' roll name, by the way) is a natural front-man, all disheveled and appropriately nonchalant. And he can really sing. Drummer Casey Burgess is fun to watch. He's a loose-limbed, skinny guy but still pounds those drums with controlled abandon.
The CD is good, too. I'll need more time to thoroughly digest it. But the production is really strong, and the songs are interesting - 1960s pop and 1980s-and-beyond alternative influences (at least that's what I hear - music reviewers are sometimes to assuming about where songwriters are coming from).
There's a nice balance between humble melodies and darker, edgier sounds. My understanding is that these are the first five songs the group wrote, working collaboratively. I'm excited to hear what they come up with in the months ahead.
It was a good crowd Friday night, and people responded appreciatively to the Consumers' new material. Still, I was struck that the crowd seemed most boisterous at the end of the night when they played a Pink Floyd cover.
Bassist Mark Miller says it's a matter of bringing people along. Audiences don't have to go for an all-original set whole-hog right away. He seems confident that if the songs are good, then even those fans who enjoy the cover material will gravitate to the new stuff.
Even if that process happens on a small scale at first, Miller says that's OK with the band because, "We get more satisfaction out of people enjoying our original songs."
Plus, with covers of other bands' material having "been our bread and butter so far," Miller says there's no desire to abruptly change direction. "Were feeling it out as we go."
But he makes an interesting point the way all this works: The money that comes from playing other people's songs can make it possible for a band to do its own thing.
"We financed (our recording) through cover gigs," he says. "It allowed us to put out something we're really proud of." - Baker Maultsby, Spartanburg Journal / March 28, 2008


Discography

The Consumers self-titled 5 song EP is available at itunes.com or theconsumersrock.com

Photos

Bio

Great Songs, High Energy and Raw Talent!
Formed in December of 2005, our 4 original members - Mark Miller, Casey Burgess, Joe Power & Andrew Smith - banded together for a one time, ten-song performance at Miyako Sushi Group in Spartanburg, SC. A month later, with the addition of guitarist Wes Gosnell and 30+ ear-catching covers, we began scheduling gigs in our hometown, Spartanburg, before hitting the road to Charleston and Myrtle Beach in the months to come. The past two plus years have been steady with local gigs at favorite hang-outs like Sonny’s Brick Oven Pizza, Marriott Spartanburg, Wild Wings Spartanburg, and Mad River Bar & Grill in Charleston, just to name a few. These shows helped refine our skills as a cover band but more importantly gave us the opportunity to explore our own sound through writing and recording original music. After months of discovery and collaboration we have released our first self-titled EP. All five songs began on piano, with each band member gradually shaping the music with his own sound. The final product should be considered only the beginning, however. New songs are in the works as we enjoy an increased confidence in our writing process and abilties. We are on our own now – our songs played our way – and it feels good.

2008 -- March -- Released 5 song EP the Showroom of Spartanburg

2008 -- May -- Springfling Street Festival -- Spartanburg, SC

2008 -- August -- Charlestown, SC CD release, presented by the Mad River -- madrivercharlestown.com