Pinpointing the start of Johnson City, Tenn. garage-punk duo Hivehead is a tricky one since members Samuel (vocals, guitar) and Silas (drums) Bowman are brothers, so you could say the chemistry has always been there. Influenced by everything from At the Drive-In to Smashing Pumpkins, their debut single dropped in December of 2014 — the ’90s indie-flavored “King Garbage, “ off a three-track release. The band’s most recent efforts, last year’s Please Eat Ants, reveal Hivehead’s evolution into noisier territory with more punk-rock personality and pop sensibilities. Considering the band’s touring career is still in its infant stages (they hit the road for the first time ever last August), it’ll be interesting to see if the grind gives the music a bit more grit still. They’ll perform this weekend with two Charleston bands: rock ‘n’ rollers, complete with trumpet, Mr. Rosewater, and indie-alt act, Naked Astronauts. —Kelly Rae Smith SATURDAY
[embed-2]Before Killer Mike, Ludacris, and Outkast, Bun B and his late UGK bandmate Pimp C were kings of the Southern hip-hop world. Releasing a string of albums through the ’90s and ’00s, including 1996’s gold album Ridin’ Dirty, the rap duo laid out critically loved bars and beats until Pimp C’s death in 2007. Bun B’s current shows often turn into a boilermaker of his best moments, regardless of the specific artist any song was released by. He keeps UGK songs alive and well with live performances of tracks like “Front, Back & Side to Side” and “International Player’s Anthem.” Of course, his extensive solo repertoire gets some love, as he plays tunes from his albums Trill and Ill Trill, and sometimes goes into songs where he was a featured artist, like Jay-Z’s “Big Pimpin’.” —Heath Ellison SUNDAY
[embed-3]“Yes, that’s right. The Old Paints are the band with the girl who plays the log.” That’s the sentence that caught our attention when reading the Old Paints’ bio on Facebook recently, so, yeah, we had to ask them about the log. We can confirm that yes, drummer Breely Fowler does, on occasion, use a cedar tree log as percussion. “You can get different sounds from the body of the wood or the branches,” says Old Paints singer, guitarist, and cedar-tree cutter-downer Andy Harris. “We started using the log when the band was an acoustic project, with it serving in place of a drum set. We’ll still play some acoustic shows from time to time where we use the log as percussion, but it kind of serves as decoration or a prop now.” And that’s mostly because on their last few releases, the band has become heavier and heavier, layering fuzz-toned guitars over a basic pop-song core. Their newest single, “Girl,” is the perfect example, tossing flamethrower riffs on top of a relentless rhythm and insanely catchy hooks. “If you go back to the album before the single, This Machine, it’s not as heavy as ‘Girl,’” Harris says. “We’re still maintaining those two-to-three-minute pop song structures — we’re just playing them a lot harder. —Vincent Harris MONDAY
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