The Red and Black

Issue date: 1/8/08 Section: Variety

Media Credit: KRISTIN BOYD Lights decorate the door of Tasty World, where Some Animal will be playing their last concert tonight at 10 before calling it quits. The Athens band will be breaking up after six years together. [Click to enlarge]

Media Credit: LILY BUCKLEY Roy Coughlin, a guitarist and vocalist in Athens band Some Animal, will perform tonight at Tasty World. [Click to enlarge]

Roy Coughlin read the writing on the 40 Watt bathroom wall.

"It was graffiti, it was written, 'Some Animal, I don't remember,'" Coughlin, lead singer and guitarist of local band Some Animal, said of the quotation that inspired the name.

Though the band's six-year reign as an "Athens supergroup," according to their MySpace.com profile, will end after its last show Tuesday at Tasty World, it isn't over quite yet.

"At this point, it just seems like the right time to put it to rest and start something new," Coughlin said.

Gabe Vodicka, who also plays guitar for the band, said he has enjoyed his time with Coughlin, Fritz Gibson, who plays bass and James McGaw, who plays drums and percussion.

"Roy writes some really great songs, and it's been fun playing them as a four-piece, really expanding them and transforming them into stuff that's more dynamic and rocking," Vodicka said.

Coughlin said everyone in the band is ready for a change, especially him.

"I want to focus more on playing guitar and writing less serious songs," he said.

"I was in An Epic at Best for a couple years, and I really loved the freedom and challenge of being the guitar player and not the main songwriter. I'd love to start a band playing noisier stuff that I don't have to think about quite as much."

This last performance of Some Animal will be with the full backing band, although Coughlin often plays alone.

"It has mostly been a solo affair," he said. "Although I played a number of shows as a duo with Dan Nettles from Kenosha Kid and with at least one previous version of a full band."

Someone once told Coughlin that the old Some Animal duo sounded like a mix between lo-fi band Songs: Ohia and Karate, he said.

"At times I'd say that's not too far off," he said.

"Some of the songs do drip a bit with that slow, sad twang of (Jason Molina of Songs: Ohia's) work, but we also venture into pop territory and we get noisy when we can. With the newer songs and this version of the band, I never know exactly what's going to come out the other end of the process."

Even though Some Animal is coming to an end, the members plan to continue their music careers.

Gibson plays with local band Lake City and musician Don Chambers. McGaw and Coughlin were in An Epic At Best and McGaw has a band in Augusta called Language Arts.

Also, Vodicka is in Long Legged Woman and Sweet Teeth. He and Coughlin are also in a "sometimes-band" called The Sugar Dicks, which Vodicka said was given the honor of having one of the worst band names of the year by Flagpole Magazine.

The variety of bands and the overlap between them is why Some Animal calls itself a "supergroup."

"That's just more of our wacky ... sense of humor," Coughlin said.

Vodicka said his favorite part about playing with the band has been the "nonstop comedic banter we exchange amongst ourselves."

Some Animal is comprised of four of the top comedy minds of our generation, he said, which is why the foursome wants to write and produce its own sketch comedy called "Too Soon."

"We've got lots of great skit ideas," he said. "But most of them are way too offensive for anyone to see, really."

As for the ending of the band, Vodicka said, "I'm sure we'll all play together again at some point in the future."

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