By RICHARD GINTOWT
Fans of Split Lip Rayfield and other boogan bluegrass shredders will want to skedaddle on over to Riot Room tonight (Thursday) to catch Deadman Flats. The four-piece string band has become a big draw in Lawrence with its Roger-Miller-gone-wrong songs about PBR, zombies and dudes who hit on Wal-Mart greeters.
The group is currently working on a follow-up to its debut album, Antlers, which featured some excellent banjo work from a busker they picked on Mass. St. (Mike Helvey). They'll head west to Colorado in early March to freak the fuck outta all those unsuspecting jam-band granolas, and then to Arkansas where they'll presumably feel right at home.
Setting the stage at the Riot Room will be the Old Country Death Band, a Lawrence band that channels Nick Cave through an old-timey lens. In their own words: "The Old Country Death Band sings songs about all the things that make life worth dying for. The Old Country Death Band doesn't expect to live much longer, nor do they expect to die anytime soon." Gordo of the Gnomes (a defunct Syd Barrett cover band) is one of the group's chief architects, so you know it'll be suitably left-of-center stuff.
Here's a couple Deadman Flats tunes off Antlers to add to your next goin'-to-Winfield mixtape:
Deadman Flats, "PBR"
Deadman Flats, "Reasons"
Comments (0)