Though Oli Endless and the Possibilities’ mellow folk rock and Bows and Arrows’ pretty indie rock are done well, Murfreesboro bands Turtle Bangs and Gold Sounds are the ones who brought the heat at The End last Thursday.
Second to go on, Turtle Bangs, composed of Greg Stephen and Casey Carter, proved themselves as a capable duo. The hardest part about being a two-man band is whether the stripped-down nature of music produced only by two instruments can be enough; whether a set of drums and a guitar will achieve a sound that is whole and powerful, or fall short into the category of elementary.
It can take time to "get" Turtle Bangs’ music. At first it may just seem like noise, but perhaps the living rooms at the house shows – where the band so often plays – don’t do their music justice.
If given a careful listen, one can find an unexpected finesse to Turtle Bangs. The sound is somewhere between the punk and the polished, and while some listeners have compared them to the Pixies, the scratchiness of Stephen’s guitar is really more reminiscent of earlier White Stripes, and the creeping melodies of songs like "Wolf" could even be compared to Tom Waits (his weirder stuff).
Gold Sounds opened an entirely different book after Turtle Bangs, stirring the indie and alternative rock melting pot from the ’90s onward, bringing to mind bands like Pavement, Band of Horses and The Broken West. The bad news about Gold Sounds is that everything the band is doing has been done before. The good news about Gold Sounds is that they have chosen some of the best of it to replicate and morph into something of their own – plus they know how to write a memorable tune; there isn’t a forgettable melody – especially in "The Slumberist" – on the album they have yet to release.
As a fairly new band, Gold Sounds have created a name for themselves playing Murfreesboro house shows, often with Turtle Bangs. And if they can fill a small house, they can most likely start filling Nashville venues. – Jessica Pace