Band Debuts New Material at First Oxford Show in Over Two Years
Shooting Out the Lights shows don’t happen very often, so when all five band members get together it’s special.
Joe Nettles (a.k.a. William Crapp) sings. Deep and resonant, his voice makes everything he sings sound compelling and important—and if you listen to SO+L’s lyrics you’ll find they are important. Joe was also the voice of bygone Oxford band Goodmorning Powerheart, with SO+L drummer Andy “Cecil” Thompson and guitarist Zach “Zed” Thompson. Cecil has been the drummer for Tyler Keith & The Apostles and other Oxford projects—I love Cecil’s style. Zed was the proud owner of Hotdog Records, the last record store on the Square (there was a hot dog funeral when it closed); Zed was also in The Glanton Gang with Mark Adamec and SO+L’s Joe, and the Wasted Lonelys with Mark and David Gilmore (now Sleeping Bulls). Guitarist Max Hipp has his own style, unmistakable like Cecil’s, and plays with E-Meters and Tyler Keith. Max was once in an awesome band called Kill The Ego with SO+L’s bassist Beau Bourgeois; Beau also lends his musical talents to E-Meters, Tyler Keith, and Youth Flag.
Long story short: Shooting Out the Lights is a rock ‘n’ roll collective of extraordinarily talented gentlemen who’ve been playing and supporting music in Oxford for years. Max and Beau are the only ones calling Oxford home at the moment, so SO+L doesn’t play together as often as they (or their fans) might like, but that makes their shows that much more special.
The first time I went to a SO+L show was on Halloween weekend 2011 at The Blind Pig, and it was their album release show. I remember being jealous that other folks in the crowd already knew the words—it was such good stuff, I wanted to sing along, too! That night I bought the self-titled CD and a t-shirt and went home happy. It was recorded and engineered “in one week” by Andrew Ratcliffe at Tweed, and mastered by Jeffrey Reed at Taproot; there’s a Bukowski quote underneath the CD. There’s no telling how many times I’ve listened to the album…certainly too many to count. It’s excellent. You can buy a copy at The End Of All Music or get it on Bandcamp or iTunes, and it’s available for listening on Spotify as well.
Max Hipp says the band has a new album worth of material that no one has ever heard, and that we get the chance to hear it at The Blind Pig on Saturday, March 22. I asked if they’d recorded anything yet and he said no; because they don’t get together very much, “this show is a step in that direction.” Max gave me a few song titles from the forthcoming album to give us an idea: “Song for Zed,” “Midnight Drinking Session,” and “Missle.”
See you at The Blind Pig. And, of course, we’ll let you know when the new album comes out! –Rebecca Long
