I was pleasantly surprised Monday night when I showed up at
The Belmont in Hamtramck for Mademoiselle Mondays. I wasn’t there to get my nails did, but I was there to see
Taylor Hollingsworth, the Alabama kid whose been putting out records over the last couple years that have a great sense of scraggly, sometimes glammy rock, almost like if
Ben Kweller had been into old
Replacements and
New York Dolls records instead of
Paul McCartney’s solo work. But while Hollingsworth’s set was solid, and featured a few duets with
Marcie Bolen, it was the opening jams from
Eons that really pricked my ear. Eons are three guys from Richmond, Va. plus local
Arun Bali, who lately has been showing up everywhere as a hired gun guitarist, etc. Eons play indie guitar rock of the stripe that used to populate labels like
Merge or even
Simple Machines — big, six string-driven choruses offset with pedal effects and the occasional stinging midtempo. Maybe they’re played references, but I heard
Archers of Loaf in there, as well as some
Afghan Whigs.
According to this article from Metro Times contributor Mark Richardson in the Richmond-area alt paper Style Weekly, Eons arose out of the dissolution of vocalist/guitarist Justin Bailey’s old band Delegate, who were getting some love from major labels (via a friendship with fellow Virginia Beach residents The Neptunes) before that went to shit and the band split up. Bailey hooked up with old pal Bali, and Eons evolved.
The band's MySpace lists their hometown as “Richmond, Va./Detroit,” so let’s hope they continue to play out locally. In the meantime, you can check out a few tracks at the site.
JTL
