The Red and Black

Issue date: 9/19/08 Section: Variety

Media Credit: Courtesy Dead Confederate Psychedelic rock band Dead Confederate will play a free show at the 40 Watt tonight in order to celebrate the Tuesday release of its newest LP, "Wrecking Ball." [Click to enlarge]

Dead Confederate will rise again to rock the crowd, and front row seats are free. The local psychedelic-rock group with an attention-grabbing handle will be playing a free show tonight at the 40 Watt before hitting the road to promote the release of its newest LP, "Wrecking Ball."

Dead Confederate, who formed years ago as a jam band under the less conspicuous name Redbelly, opened the tour to promote their new album on Thursday in Macon, a city with special significance to the band. 

"That's where we first played (our first single) 'The Rat' and realized this is what we were gonna do," said bassist and vocalist Brantley Senn.

"The Rat," a far cry from a typical jam song, caught the crowd in Macon off-guard.

"They don't get a lot of real heavy stuff in Macon normally," Senn said. Since that show, it seems that the "real heavy stuff" is working for the band.


Dead Confederate moved to Athens to take advantage of the city's close-knit music community and cut a demo, which one day fell into the hands of Gary Gersh, the man who once signed '90s rock super-bands Nirvana and Sonic Youth.

A forward-thinking Gersh quickly signed it on as the first act on his label, The Artist Organization, and the band cut an EP, but continued to tour, and the accolades have kept coming.

Dead Confederate has shared the stage with many bands, including Athens' The Whigs, as well as Dinosaur Jr., Deerhunter and the Black Lips.  But what the band thinks is its best live performance was at the 2008 South By Southwest Music and Media Conference, where it opened up for R.E.M. 

In addition, Dead Confederate has been featured in Relix, Harp, Spin and Paste magazines, was chosen by music guru Bruce Warren as National Public Radio's song of the day and most recently was named one of Rolling Stone's "10 Artists to Watch" in the Sept. 4 issue. 

After tonight's show, Dead Confederate will hit the road to promote "Wrecking Ball" with stops in New Orleans for the Voodoo Experience festival and in New York City to appear on "Late Night" with Conan O'Brien.  NBC studios has also been a stop for the Whigs, and as friends of the band, Parker Gispert, guitarist and singer for the Whigs, called the DC boys to congratulate them on their new album and wish them luck. 

"(Gispert) said the stage is really cold and to wear long-johns.  I'm just gonna try not to pee in my pants out of nervousness," Senn said.

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