Two Jersey boys called Spider Bags find a new chance in North Carolina | Music Feature | Independent Weekly
Click for larger image • The deep end: Dan McGee and Gregg Levy are Spider Bags.Goodbye Cruel World, Hello Crueler World, the second album by Carrboro's Spider Bags, is a glorious mess. Each of its 10 tracks feels as if it fights from beneath a haze of distortion or gasps for air underneath a tide of tape hiss.
On "Long White Desert Rose," frontman Dan McGee slurs his syllables, howling "Baby, baby, what's wrong with me?" as grimy guitars and madcap drums chase from behind. On the closer, "Here Now," the acoustic guitar is so loud it sounds electric, the tape groaning with the same resolute desolation as McGee. "We'll never get out of here now," he manages, singing as if he's watched the sun set and rise for three days straight.
Spider Bags have been in these tangles before. In fact, across two LPs and one 7" single, it's where they've always lived. The band's name references packages of heroin because, as McGee puts it with a hesitant laugh, he'd wanted to "reclaim something that had been so bad. We thought it was funny." Dogs named Ike Turner, devils on the run and hearts full of darkness stocked the Bags' debut, A Celebration of Hunger. Their greatest hit must be "Waking Up Drink," an ode to [...]
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