It’s encouraging to me to know that one of Greenville’s most popular bands is also, without question, its weirdest. I’m talking of course about Wasted Wine.
Wasted Wine is a rare band that’s doing something entirely original with a loyal group of fans following it. Check out one of its shows at Fireforge Crafted Beer downtown sometime; the placed is packed to the back walls every time.
I can’t imagine anyone other than mad scientists Robert Gowan (violin, vocals) and Adam Murphee (mandocello, vocals), the nucleus of the band, thinking to combine feverish gypsy fiddle music reels, exotic world music instrumentation, progressive songwriting and a theatrical goth aesthetic that’s so exaggerated that it makes “The Monster Mash” sound low-key by comparison.
It’s a sound that’s somehow a hell of a lot of fun and strangely mysterious, one that Gowan and Murphee have been working on since they met in 2006, when Gowan was a music teacher.
“We were living with a mutual friend,” Gowan told me in our interview. “And Adam was very aloof and secretive and would hide in his bedroom and play music. I was hungry to play music in public at that point, so I knocked on his door one day and said, ‘Hey, I play music, too,’ and we were fast friends after that.”
And the band’s new album, “The Open Door,” perfectly represents the genre-blending sound Gowan and Murphee have worked on.
Photo by Kira BurksyWorking with original drummer Jaron Ferrer and new woodwind player Maddie Hendrix, Gowan and Murphee dive into their classic world-music madness on “The Open Door,” especially on the whirling dervish “Cold Blooded.”
But they also investigate the more beautiful aspects of their acoustic sound on “Julia,” (the album’s first single) and create a three-song prog-rock suite marked by Starks’ stunning lead flute performance.
There’s also “The Crash,” a musical soap opera about a car accident that throws in sirens, near-operatic wailing women and gruesome police radio reports along with the kitchen sink. And things wrap up with the frenzied “Saturday Night,” a rave-up about sin and salvation that’s long been one of the band’s most popular tunes.
Gowan said that “The Open Door” is a combination of new playing and tracks the band has worked on for years and through different lineups; the result, he said, is a definitive representation of Wasted Wine.
“This record has been a long time coming,” Gowan said. “It’s a perfect summation of what we’re doing, but also where we’ve been.”