Austin (Grand Vapids)
SPB: Which of the Athens bands have had the most impact on the music industry as a whole and/or which have inspired you the most?
Austin: There are too many bands from Athens to reference who have had major impacts on the industry without stating the obvious round of usual suspects. I suppose if I had to choose an Athens band who has inspired me the most it would be The Glands. They made one of the best pop-rock albums of all time and were able to be content with the result. They never got huge or felt any pressure to follow it up in any kind of way (or maybe they felt too much pressure). But it is what I would consider to be a “perfect” album. It’s drenched in that lazy southern humidity where your mind begins to wonder and melts and the day just disappears. How do you follow up something like that?
On the other side of the coin there are the Drive-By Truckers who continue to be the hardest working band in the business and consistently put out great albums that just keep getting better and better.
As for inspiration, I think there is probably an ideal balance to be found between these two Athens bands.
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Athens, Georgia has a long history of producing some great musicians and music, known for being the birthplace of groups like the B-52’s and R.E.M. as well as the adopted home of the Elephant Six Collective. One of the latest bands to emerge from the storied Athens scene is Grand Vapids, a quartet whose 2015 debut Guarantees features ten tracks … Read more
