Former Chattanooga rockers bring the noise with King V
As a rule, I like to keep the features about local acts. Supporting the local scene is at the heart of everything I do here at The Pulse, but this week I’m going to stretch the borders a little and talk about a semi-local band, Kanopi.
In all fairness Kanopi was formed right here in the Scenic City but has since relocated to Nashville. The fellas still make it back to Chattanooga from time to time and when they do I sincerely urge you to seek them out.
For that matter, the next time you’re up around Nashville looking for something worthwhile to do, find them in their new adopted stomping grounds.
Founded in 2013, the quartet features the talents of Caleb Myrick, Aanen Butz, Zack Nicholson and Stephen Byard. Four years of hard work have culminated in the recent release of their debut LP, King V. Sometimes when reviewing a band or album I receive a press kit that tells me all about their history, their influences, etc. Other times I receive a piece of music and it’s left to me to glean what I can from that. I much prefer the latter. In that case, right or wrong, whatever I hear and write about is solely from my perspective without any inherent bias from what the band may want me to hear.
Put another way, if a piece of music is meant to convey a particular theme or message, telling me what it is before I hear the music immediately compromises my ability to discern how effective the music is communicating.
In listening to King V I had no real notion of what the band was about, and I’m glad, because I can say now, after the fact, that what I heard is what the band meant.
First and foremost: labels. You hate ‘em. I hate ‘em. But they can be useful, and within moments of firing up this album there were only two words I could think of to describe it: acid rock. Good, old-fashioned, “they haven’t made music like this in a long time” acid rock.
Think of the best of the best of the heavier stuff that came out of the late sixties through most of the seventies and that’s what you have here. Not the bloated, over-produced stuff that came at the end of the era, but the music from the height of the genre when bands became legends.
Again, I didn’t go looking for the band’s self-description until after I reached my own conclusions, but it is notable that they list Led Zeppelin as an influence because frankly, track after track rings with spirit of Led Zeppelin at it’s very best. The vocalist does Robert Plant better than Robert Plant ever did. “King Vulture” is all the proof you need of that.
The opening track, “Given Up,” introduces us to a drummer with the chops to have been on Bowie’s final album (that’s meant as the highest praise.) The guitar work throughout is part Jimmy Page, part David Gilmour, always phenomenal and perfectly suited to the band and the bass player, rather than being forgotten in the back as so many are, not only lays down half of an impressive rhythm section, but also manages to make the bass a melodic instrument at times.
Indeed, Kanopi is in many ways the idealized version of a hard rock/psychedelic band where every player is a star, everyone gets their shine on, but there is no ego or “turning up the amps.” Basically you have four outstanding performers who play together seamlessly, instead of three guys backing a frontman.
Kanopi is absolutely classic with the perfect blend of cerebral and raw power and if this were their tenth album, it would be impressive. That it is their debut speaks volumes for the talent, ability and direction of a band that proves more than any other I’ve heard in the last few years that a new dog can learn old tricks and elevate them to a place no one has heard in decades.
The album, King V, is available now via bandcamp and given what these fellows have captured in recording, one can only surmise their live shows must be spectacular.