Knoxville, Tennessee, band Royal Bangs will inspire any budding musical outfit to spend more time tweaking its MySpace profile. Patrick Carney, drummer for The Black Keys, discovered the group via the clunky social networking site and released its debut LP We Breed Champions on his Audio Eagle Records label. Akin to fellow Tennessee band Kings of Leon, Royal Bangs exercises its southern twang via jangling guitar rhythms and booming snares. But unlike the bands Appalachian Plateau neighbors, Bangs experiments more with its instruments, moving from slide guitars to Moog synthesizers for a multifaceted sound à la TV on the Radio.
Royal Bangs toured with The Black Keys, and We Breed Champions was put out across the pond by City Slang, a European distributor for acts such as Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, and Lambchop. Mainstays on the Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza festival circuit, Royal Bangs stops in at the Vagabond this Friday.
Fri., Feb. 18, 10 p.m., 2011