On Friday June 24th, WagonWheel Presents… is delighted to welcome Seattle’s Massy Feguson back to The Greystones. The band return to the UK to launch brand new record Run It Right Into The Wall. Having made for such an epic show back in 2014, it would have been foolish not to bring back Dave Woodcock & The Dead Comedians to complete the bill once again (especially since rumour has it the new Massy Ferguson record includes a Dave Woodcock penned tune). Advance tickets priced at £7 are available from the venue (12-6pm) and at http://www.wegottickets.com/event/352487 or entry on the night will be £9. Doors open 7.45pm.
***MASSY FERGUSON***
You know only good things can come from a band that named itself after a farm-equipment company. But Seattle’s Massy Ferguson is not as hayseed as you’d expect. Their songs are steeped in the classic Americana of Uncle Tupelo, the Jayhawks, and the Backsliders. Rich with imagery of highways, truck-stop coffee, whiskey, road-weariness, and bad motels, Massy Ferguson make cinematic roots music about the blue-collar aspects of their nation. This is what Jay Farrar might sound like without his thesaurus
Singer-bassist Ethan Anderson says the sound is Americana that leans more toward rock than country, and that’s a pretty good description. Think Drive-By Truckers or some combination of Son Volt and The Hold Steady. Think Springsteen’s “Greetings From Asbury Park” or “Nebraska.” Those influences, 1970s Southern rock and good-time classic rock bands like Thin Lizzy, have also helped them to land gigs at festivals and clubs in Australia, Iceland, Germany, England and Mexico.
Anderson and singer-guitarist Adam Monda, Massy Ferguson’s founding members, started the band in 2006 as a duo, playing a farmers market in Mukilteo. (They were paid with a fruit basket.)
“Adam’s pretty good with the weird, abstract details, and I’m pretty solid on the storytelling,” Anderson says.
Since adding Tony Mann on keyboards and Dave Goedde on drums, the band has graduated from fruit-basket gigs to some of Seattle’s most prominent stages, places like The Tractor Tavern, the seat of Seattle’s roots-rock Americana scene. They’ve toured internationally on numerous occasions and in 2010 managed to get a slot in the prestigious Iceland Airwaves Festival in Reykjavik after winning the Seattle Weekly’s 2010 REVERB festival Favorite Band poll. In 2014, they toured the UK for the first time, playing a memorable slot at the Maverick Music Festival and headlined gigs in London (Windmill Brixton) and Sheffield (Greystones) among others.
“We’ve been very fortunate in a lot of regards,” Anderson says. “Considering we started off at the Mukilteo farmers market, I think we’re doing pretty well.”
The band likes playing bars (though not exclusively), “Above all, our live show is a lot of fun,” Anderson says. “We’re in it to have a good time. I think our songs have a certain amount of earnestness and depth, but we did that without sacrificing the fun.”
That’s important for a bar band, even one with aspirations.
“I don’t have a problem with anybody saying we’re a good bar band,” Anderson says. “Some bands take that as a negative. I think of it as a positive thing.”
In that way, Massy Ferguson is a bar band in the best sense — not a band relegated to bars because it will never rise higher, but a band that plays music perfectly suited to dark, crowded rooms in which there’s at least a possibility of a beer glass smashing against a wall.
The songs, filled with barflies, broken hearts and doomed late-night romance, would sound pretty good anywhere, though.
“First and foremost, Massy Ferguson are a rock band raised on crashing guitars and a driving beat but are not afraid to mix in a bit of refined country to shape their music in true American tradition.” Three Chords and the Truth, UK
“Seattle band Massy Ferguson further cement their alt country /roots rock status with another solid new album Victory & Ruins. The thirteen song collection focuses on the easy going narrative vocal styling of Ethan Anderson, who is mix between Tom Petty and Steve Earle.” – No Depression Magazine
“(Victory and Ruins) is one hell of a fine album that crackles with instant hooks and melodies, has an effervescence of choruses and boasts a fistful of damn fine blue collar songs into the bargain.” Mike Davies, Folk Radio UK
http://www.massyfergusonband.com
***DAVE WOODCOCK & THE DEAD COMEDIANS***
Described by Americana UK as “The next big thing from Sheffield”, Dave Woodcock & The Dead Comedians released latest album Medicine in 2015 to great critical acclaim. The follow up to their 2011 album “Poisoned Nights & Bar Room Nights”, it found its way on to several end of year ‘best of’ lists and saw them raise the bar once again.. They deliver booze soaked rock ‘n’ roll echoing Springsteen, Strummer and with a nod towards the likes of The Hold Steady.
“9/10….the finest blue collar heartland rock this side of the Atlantic” – Toast Magazine
“The perfect rock and roll band… absolutely alive with electricity and excitement” – Now Then Magazine
“Back With A Bang” – BBC Radio
http://www.davewoodcock.net
Facebook Event page:
http://www.facebook.com/events/977924792262499
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