Don’t let the name Yellow Springs dissuade. Although some may consider it so, this is no soiled mattress of childhood embarrassment, it’s a community near Dayton and it’s brimming with musical talent that is just beginning to flourish with encouraging and uncanny originality.
“The label is almost entirely comprised of kids from Yellow Springs,” said Connor Stratton, a Yellow Springs, Ohio, native and member of the bands Blond and Speaking Suns. “It’s a tiny town near Dayton, like a miniature Athens. There is a big music scene though, and the community fully supports artistic pursuits so that might contribute to it, the recent surge of music from the area.”
The singer and multi-instrumentalist is preparing for an upcoming gig at Casa Nueva, 6 W. State St., while he co-runs the record label Great Guys Records out of Yellow Springs with a ton of booming talent. The show, with a cover charge of $3, is taking place Saturday and features the bands Blond, Speaking Suns, YRS, and Dead Hand of Man.
Blond’s members include lead vocalist and guitarist Jamie Scott, lead guitarist Ethan Wehrly, bassist Stratton, and drummer Eric Jordan.
Stratton and Scott were previously in the popular band ‘Wheels’ based out of the Yellow Springs area as well.
Many of the bands and their members have risen from the embers of different defunct Yellow Springs groups. The record label is ambitious, having just released Blond’s new 7-track album, Be My Friend. It’s also currently printing the Speaking Sun’s second album and recording an upcoming release from the Athens band Sport Fishing USA.
The grassroots feeling is deep with Great Guys Records and Blond seems to be the loud but lucky smoke of the pack, Stratton said.
“We’re all friends, and I think it’s important to have that type of easy familiarity before anything else,” Wehrly said. “I feel like each of us are bringing a lot of elements to the table, and it’s been resulting in some good musical chemistry.”
The music is youthful and exuberant but not stupid - very much the opposite. It is sharp-minded with wild instrumentation and easy smiles, taking advantage of the unpredictable with cynical playfulness and rearranging it all into its own style.
“A lot of our melodies are based on old jazz hits from the ’30s and ’40s, just adjusted and played at a faster tempo,” Scott said. “I try my best to sing like … Marvin Gaye … but we sound like the Beach Boys in a way too.”
It is a laid-back aesthetic boasting quality, a tripped-out bluegrass with a pulse too fast for rocking chairs, upholding itself with work ethic.
“Joining this band has really given me an opportunity to work with musicians involved in the local live music scene,” Jordan said. “As a band, we try to prepare really well and I think in the end it helps us to come up with lots of great live playing. Because we have the basic formulas down, it gives us room to have fun.”
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