Back in July we were excited to premiere The Minks’ new video for their single “I’m Okay”. On Friday, August 30th, we got the chance to check out the Nashville-based band live at Star Bar in Atlanta as they prep the release of their debut album.
The Minks debut album Light & Sweet, set for release this Friday, September 20th via Café Rooster Records, shows a great young band built around psychedelic blues. Admittedly, “I’m Okay” has been on repeat all summer long as the go to jam. Live, The Minks put on a hell of a set led by front woman Nikki Barber’s energy and emotion. The band clearly has fun together on stage, living in the moment, which spreads straight into the audience. The Minks set was raw, grungy, and even sultry at times; the type of set that whips the audience into a frenzy. This is a damn fine rock ‘n’ roll band right here, and it all felt so right on the Star Bar stage.
The last few years, it seems more and more stellar indie rock ‘n’ roll bands have been coming out of the Nashville. After seeing The Minks live, it’s clear that this one of the best and brightest young bands coming out of the Music City’s indie scene. If you are in Nashville this Friday, don’t miss their Album Release show at The High Watt.
Opening up the show was Atlanta’s own Nikki & The Phantom Callers. Led by lead singer Nikki Speake with an uber talented cast of Atlanta musicians surrounding her, Nikki & The Phantom Callers is still fairly new to the scene, though Nikki and the band members certainly aren’t. Nikki also is a key member of the garage psych band Midnight Larks and indie rock band Shantih Shantih, whom also shares Phantom Callers bassist Anna Kramer (herself a veteran of quite a few stellar bands in addition to those two).
Nikki & The Phantom Callers released their debut 7 inch last July, unveiling their Southern Gothic Rock ‘n’ Roll with two stop you in your tracks singles. Their throwback sound is so much more though, including influences from country music’s true greats of yesteryear, psychedelic rock, jangle pop, honky tonk, and plenty of Gram Parsons influence. Only lending further to their retro sound, Nikki Speake’s vocals would do Dolly Parton herself proud. Showing off the singles and new tunes from their upcoming debut album at Star Bar, Nikki & The Phantom Callers are clearly a band we will be hearing much more about in the future. Keep on the look out for their album, hopefully by early in 2020.
After The Minks set ended, Twisty Cats came on for a late night set ready to change it up a bit. Twisty Cats is a little newer to the Atlanta scene, moving to our city a year or so ago from Savannah. While they may be new here, the duo of Peter Mavrogeorgis and Blake Olmstead are veterans that have left their mark on the Savannah scene and beyond; both as Twisty Cats and their studio, Dollhouse Productions, which was voted as the best recording studio for five straight years. The band released their debut album, Our Quiet Fantasy in 2018, and recently released a new single “I’ve Come to Hate You”.
While The Minks releases their punk spirit within their bluesy rock, Twisty Cats is a whole different beast. If you were trying to pinpoint their sound, electro punk may the right words. Twisty Cats switches it up from song to song, and sometimes within, from something dark and fierce, to sensual the next moment, all while giving their audience something to dance to, even if it is sinister and dark. And then the next moment they are just rocking F out. Heck, they even had one audience member (perhaps with one to many drinks as extra motivation) who couldn’t help but jumping onstage and dancing while the band was going full throttle. Hell of a set from one hell of a night!
Check out photos from the show by Mike Gerry below:
NIKKI & THE PHANTOM CALLERS
TWISTY CATS
THE MINKS
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