Columbia folk-rock group E.Z. Shakes released its new album, The Spirit, on Oct. 9. The latest release honors the group’s Carolina roots while featuring a wide range of sounds.
The group has focused on creating a fuller, cinematic sound on this album. The titular track finds a darker sound for the group as Seibert sings about moments and memories from his spiritual upbringing.
The first time was an accident: At a show in Knoxville a few years back, guitarist Tim Beavers’ Gibson SG crapped out on him halfway through the band’s second set, so he took it off and threw it face-down, breaking it in two pieces.
The last few times, the destruction was intentional. Just a few weekends ago at a festival in northern Virginia called Pasture Palooza, bassist Matthew Volkes smashed a TV with an axe. In late June at Mebane, N.C.’s The Big What? Festival, Beavers smashed a guitar. Not his SG again — this time a cheapo, $100 Squier Stratocaster, but the effect was no less visceral. Beavers destroyed another dollar-bin guitar at a hometown show in Richmond that weekend, too. READ MORE…