Listening Party: The Deflected and The Sheriff's Daughter

Here’s the gimmick: Each week, we’ll pick two local bands — an opening act and a headliner — link to a site where you can listen to their songs for free, then ask you to spend a few moments of your precious time to tell us what you think about them. Some may be great, others may be mediocre or awful — that’s for you to decide — all we ask is that you listen with an open mind.

Opening act: The Deflected

PBR-swilling local punk rock? Count me in!

Generally speaking, every critic has a weak spot — that one genre or format that they tend to be far more forgiving of than others. Some movie critics love low-budget horror films; some book reviewers are consistently disarmed by trashy, fashion-designer name-dropping chick lit. It’s a bias, sure, but good reviewers tend to be aware of — and own up to — their Achillies Heels.

In my case, it’s punk rock. Blame the early 1990s and that self-discovery period of middle school, but the first music I ever claimed as my own was the punk-drenched grunge movement. Instead of grunge being a window into alternative rock, as it was for many, I found myself attracted to the harder edge of the sound. Nirvana gave way to The Clash, which later opened my ears to The Minutemen, The Pixies, The Pogues, Black Flag, The Ramones, Rancid, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes and any number of other punk and semi-punk bands.

My tastes broadened as I was exposed to other kinds of music, of course. My punk collection soon found itself invaded by bluegrass albums (a strangely common phenomenon, actually), a few classic works of country, lots of classic rock, the occasional ’80s pop must-have, several select works by Beethoven (and, to a lesser degree, Mozart, Bach and the other big names in classical music), a smallish selection of blues — and lots and lots of indie-rock. Still later, mash-ups and more DJ-inspired groups like Gorillaz, The Kleptones and Gnarls Barkley began filtering in.

But, to this day, I still have quite a weakness for punk rock. Good, bad — it doesn’t really matter that much. Give me two chords and a snarl, and I’m generally willing to listen.

Which finally brings me to this week’s headlining act, The Deflected, a Spartanburg-based trio that, as near as I can tell, hasn’t played a show in months. Yet, in listening to their songs on their MySpace page, I greatly enjoyed myself. In fact, had I been 14 again, this band might have automatically become my absolute favorite local band, period.

Their songs are exactly what a punk-fan like me hungers for. They’re short and powerful, with none of that typical musical fat of complex lyrics, deep melody or virtuostic playing. Most of their songs are well under two minutes long, and none of them appear to be about particularly deep subjects. (Unless drinking, being in jail and frustrations at eldery drivers are considered deep, that is.)

As has happened to a lot of punk groups, one can hear elements of punk’s subgenres at work in the Deflected’s songs. There’s a hint of West Coast punk in “Having Fun,” while surf-punk seems to have inspired “Bikini Car Wash.” Indie-rock influences some more to the forefront in “Jail,” and “Blue Haired Bitch” almost comes across as a cow-punk song at times.

But, most importantly, the songs feel like punk songs. Not great punk, perhaps –there’s a little less rage and passion in them than some of the bands I find most enjoyable — but still punk. It’s like a punk-rock appetizer; not exactly sating, but enough to get you through.

While most of their songs are probably not safe for work, none of them are any more offensive than you’d expect from a local punk band. So, take a listen at home, or at least when your boss isn’t hovering over your desk, and give them a listen. Don’t expect magic — if I didn’t hear it, I wouldn’t expect you will — but listen for a kind of raw, aimless passion and a sense of rule-ignoring fun.

Headliner: The Sheriff’s Daughter

Don't be fooled: There's more to The Sheriff's Daughter than country charm. A lot more.

The thing about any country-related genre is this: To pull it off, you have to sound genuine. No, that doesn’t mean that every tale of post-heartbreak self-torment and binge-drinking has to be true. It just has to sound true.

And Spartanburg-based country/Southern rock band The Sherriff’s Daughter sure sounds convincing. If anything, they sound a little too convincing. It’s like they know far, far more about heartbreak than they’re letting on, and a lot more about music than they’re showing off.

Much like their contemporaries in that other Sparkle City-country act, South 85, SD is more of an indie/alt-rock band with a few country flourishes than a true hat act.

This is particularly true on a song like “Medication,” which — at first listen, at least — sounds like a classic song to listen to while drinking bourbon straight out of the bottle while leaning back in the bed of your truck and thinking of a love gone wrong. It sounds like country, but a deeper listen reveals that it’s also more than that that. There’s a hint of Motown soul in there, and more than a little rock influence.

In fact, in songs line “Hey Hey,” they seem to draw as much inspiration from Dick Dale’s surf rock and the surf-punk movement as they do from, say, Waylon Jennings. Songs like “Charleston” sound far closer to Bruce Springsteen’s haunted and raw songwriting (with perhaps a touch of heartland blues-rock) than Johnny Cash. And “Holiday” certainly has a twang to it, but the song’s considerable stomp feels less like country cowboy boots as it does a cow-punkers’s Doc Martens.

But, regardless of which pigeonhole you want to cram their music into, the one thing that’s instantly clear about the Sheriff’s Daughter is that their songs are really, really good. Not just one song here, or a fraction of one song there. There’s not a single weak track on their MySpace page. That same page hints strongly that there’s a 10-song album on the horizon, which we look forward to with great excitement.

Now, it’s your turn. I’ve put my views out here on the digital page, but you can correct, amend, disagree, refute and rebut any and all of it by commenting in the field below. Notice something about the bands that I missed? Write a comment. I’ve had my say, now it’s all about you.