Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Swingle and King: The Moaners
The Moaners are a guitar-and-drum rock duo from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, a couple of part-time bartenders named Melissa Swingle and Laura King who make music steeped in both punk and the Mississippi Delta. The band’s name has a kind of voodoo vibe, but that was not the intention, says King. She says they didn’t have any lyrics when she and Swingle began recording songs, so the playback sounded like moaning in place of the actual words. “Happy moans, of course,” she emails.
When they did get around to crafting lyrics, they wrote functional verse that needed little explanation. “You can’t get any poorer than dead/ That’s what Flannery O’Connor said/ I’m glad I’m not that poor yet/ So come on honey, let’s go to bed.” Sex, Southern literature, and a slide guitar — what’s not to like? Guitar-drum duos often fall flat because they tend to sound like band practice, but not the Moaners. King is an accomplished drummer, and what slide-guitarist Swingle lacks in elegance, she more than makes up for with a gut-level, demonic tone.
King explains their roots as the Moaners, which began seven years and three albums ago. “We were in different bands in Chapel Hill [Swingle fronted Trailer Bride, and King drummed for Grand National], and our bands played a show together one night in 2002. We were curious about each other after seeing each other’s performance. We exchanged numbers and have been playing together ever since.” The Moaners don’t really sound like anybody else, but if they could choose any artist to cover their songs, who would it be? “Tom Waits,” says King. “Because it would sound awesome.”
David Dondero headlines.
THE MOANERS: The Casbah, Monday, November 8, 8:30 p.m. 619-232-4355. $8.
Here's something you might be interested in.
Swingle and King: The Moaners
Swingle and King: The Moaners
The Moaners are a guitar-and-drum rock duo from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, a couple of part-time bartenders named Melissa Swingle and Laura King who make music steeped in both punk and the Mississippi Delta. The band’s name has a kind of voodoo vibe, but that was not the intention, says King. She says they didn’t have any lyrics when she and Swingle began recording songs, so the playback sounded like moaning in place of the actual words. “Happy moans, of course,” she emails.
When they did get around to crafting lyrics, they wrote functional verse that needed little explanation. “You can’t get any poorer than dead/ That’s what Flannery O’Connor said/ I’m glad I’m not that poor yet/ So come on honey, let’s go to bed.” Sex, Southern literature, and a slide guitar — what’s not to like? Guitar-drum duos often fall flat because they tend to sound like band practice, but not the Moaners. King is an accomplished drummer, and what slide-guitarist Swingle lacks in elegance, she more than makes up for with a gut-level, demonic tone.
King explains their roots as the Moaners, which began seven years and three albums ago. “We were in different bands in Chapel Hill [Swingle fronted Trailer Bride, and King drummed for Grand National], and our bands played a show together one night in 2002. We were curious about each other after seeing each other’s performance. We exchanged numbers and have been playing together ever since.” The Moaners don’t really sound like anybody else, but if they could choose any artist to cover their songs, who would it be? “Tom Waits,” says King. “Because it would sound awesome.”
David Dondero headlines.
THE MOANERS: The Casbah, Monday, November 8, 8:30 p.m. 619-232-4355. $8.
Comments