Bloody Brunch and The Magnolia Collective

Motorco, Durham
July 24, 2011

A coincidental mash up between two efforts with near exact grass roots make ups made time together last Sunday afternoon at Motorco when The Magnolia Collective framed up their emerging brand of Southern rock inside Motorco's progressively successful new Sunday afternoon concert series Bloody Brunch and dTown Market.

Of Bloody Brunch and The Magnolia Collective, the first grass roots story is that of the performers. The Magnolia Collective, who also answer to MagCo, or to Rich and Mimi's side project, or Zach Terry's side project, or to Daniel Snyder's side project...sprung to life a little over a year ago atop the bar stools of the The Station at Southern Rail with promoter Scotty Fuller serving whiskey to Daniel and Zach...the three of them dreaming up a recurring Americana themed concert series. In the dream each show would open with a "house band" warming up the crowd with a few country classics before handing off to a featured group chosen from local alt country stock. Forming the band, Zach and Daniel recruited Rich and Mimi McLaughlin of The Pneurotics, Jonathan Truesdale of Red Collar, and members of their own bands The Whiskey Smugglers and Gambling The Muse who would together become The Magnolia Collective. Their set list cherry picked the best songs from their own bands along with some good time covers and put them in the hands of an large Americana outfit who crammed on stage shoulder to shoulder plucking banjos, mandolins, six strings, accordions, and a plethora of you-name-it noise makers. An opening act was expected to grow from these roots...it wouldn't be long however that MagCo would out grow those expectations.

By the end of the first Summer season the walls of The Station bursted to capacity during every Americana Revue and as MagCo became the main draw, the featured acts became the openers. By the fall they were no longer just The Station's house band as they were on the short list for promoters across town and regularly rounding out billings at Nightlight in Chapel Hill, The Pinhook and Broad Street Cafe in Durham, and anywhere else that called for energy and excitement. The grass now grown, they began to write original music and Sunday at Motorco, a half dozen tracks were brandished as what will soon become their first album.

Bloody Brunch can trace its beginnings back to a similar humbleness. Local art promoter and vintage clothing marketer Kala Wolfe was given the Motorco Garage to host an art swap meet on a cold early Spring afternoon during a trial Sunday rock show. Anchoring the swap with choice items from her own vintage shop RetroK, Wolfe filled the garage with tables from the local artist community and began promoting the event as "Bloody Brunch and dTown market." The combo was a hit and Motorco has slowly grown into a Sunday afternoon destination faring Bloody Marys, local rock, local art, the Ko Kyu barbeque food truck, and about as wild a time as you can have after church.

The Magnolia Collective




hijinks at Bloody Brunch

Amy Laura Hall shows off her awesome...hula hooping

one girl shows me her tatoo, another girl gives me the stink eye. what did I do?

dTown Market swap meet vendors

Melissa Smith displaying her Ladybug Lemonade art and wearables


Susan Frosch of Susan Frosch Art and Design


Larisa Harrison and Adam Fox. Larisa has a vintage etsy store called Scatterbugs Vintage.


Ko Kyu bbq

Show Review: The Bamfs

The Pinhook, Durham
July 13, 2011

The lightening cracked through an untimely early darkness as rolling thunder boomers crowded out the last glows of the late evening light a good half an hour before the earth turned its shoulder on the sun to gracefully meet nightfall on its own. Shortly, the unnaturally pale absence of light brought forth streams of rain which poured and poured turning every surface into a violent pool and every grade into a determined rush of dirty water. This torrent erupting just outside the window perched next to my warm comfortable living room couch was affecting the chemicals in my brain that influence ambition, and the drive I had for seeking a night of rock and roll was fading faster than the twilight did just moments before. Oh but the rock and roll god is a generous god and the clouds soon parted out as quickly as they had closed in. Unaware that the skirmish was over and still gushing towards battle, the rivers of run off filling the streets and back yards were the only sounds of the storm left when the crystal night sky opened up displaying a bright full moon. Looking up through the glass I caught the eye of the moon looking down just as it whispered, "Ok, you can go to The Pinhook now."

The Pinhook's own imagination of a thunderstorm was loud rock drenching a wiry eyed Wednesday night audience all holding long neck bottles instead of umbrellas. This was promised by the intriguing new post-punk revivalists The Bamfs, a high performing young group fronted by super energized Tiffany Banwart (The Mighty Good Ship). Not a guitar player like the other 99% of rock and roll front girls, Tiffany rather saves the thought spent articulating a six string to concentrate it fully on making a microphone replicate emotion. Just as punk as you need it to be, but the wild contortions of emotion that accompany any worthy punk inspired lyric convey less like outward angst from Tiffany, and more like the climactic moment of vapor lock while being tickled to death. It looks painful and fun at the same time and you'd like to have your turn next.

The sound track to this performance is courtesy of the intense characters behind her like lead gtr Tim Surrency (Barron) and Zeke Van Fossen (The Homewreckers) on bass. Their thundering is early and often but its not the storm that shut the lights off earlier, it's more of a rolling warm fuzz...an endless cloud bank of fluffy distortion too dense to see through, yet so light that eyes can easily lay upon it. They take everything and turn it all the way up and still maintain a melody as clear as if you are being lulled to sleep by a singular whispering voice. The Bamfs take hard and make it easy, heavy able to carry, and punk feel like pop. --Carrboro Ninja


The Bamfs









the Tim and Zeke reel