Earlier this summer, in the space of just a few weeks, American Bang found itself on stage at the Lollapalooza Festival in Chicago and then in Sturgis, S.D., as part of that city’s famous annual motorcycle rally.

Sturgis, of course, caters to metal and mainstream rock, while Lollapalooza is synonymous with modern indie-oriented music in all its various forms. The fact that American Bang could fit in at these two very different festivals says a lot about the band’s music.

“More than anything, our goal is to try to bring songs back to the mainstream and to rock radio, to do that for any audience that will let us play for them,” says drummer Neil Mason. “I think there’s a big hole sitting out there right now for the kind of band that we’re aspiring to be. Growing up on Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and just a lot of classic, just song-based rock ‘n’ roll, it’s just natural that we’re making the kind of music we’re making. And it does have a bit of a modern edge to it. I think maybe if anything we fit because we don’t fit. I hope there’s something that makes you go ‘Oh wow, I haven’t heard something like that in a while,’ or ‘I haven’t heard that before,’ or ‘ I like that because it’s a little bit different.’”

Mason’s remarks make sense: The group’s music indeed falls between today’s rock radio formats. On the one hand, the music shares some qualities with the big guitars and big choruses of mainstream rockers like Shinedown or 3 Doors Down. Yet there is very much a modern feel and a little punkish energy to American Bang, which gives the band the potential to wedge its music into several rock formats and appeal to a broad audience.

Whether American Bang succeeds in getting its music heard remains to be seen. But the band should be ready if its big moment arrives. For one thing, the band has spent much of the past four years writing and refining the songs that now appear on its newly released self-titled debut record.

Plus, for three of the band members, this isn’t their first music business rodeo. At the start of the century, Mason and American Bang guitarist Ben Brown were in a group called Llama that was signed to and released two albums on MCA Records. Singer/guitarist Jaren Johnston, meanwhile, played drums in a band called The Kicks, which released a 2004 disc on TVT. None of the albums made an impact.

By 2005, both Llama and The Kicks were history, and Mason and Johnston (who wanted to switch from drums to vocals) were writing together with an eye toward forming American Bang. Once songs started to jell, Johnston and Mason recruited Brown and bassist Kelby Ray to complete the American Bang lineup.

By the end of 2006, the group had self-released a record, I Shot The King, played shows with the likes of O.A.R. and Lynyrd Skynyrd and landed a record deal with Warner Bros. imprint Reprise.

The band introduced itself nationally with an EP, Move to the Music, in 2009. But American Bang had a couple of false starts. An initial recording session with producer James Michael didn’t meet the label’s expectations. The group then tested the waters with producer Jay Joyce, only to put that plan on hold when it got an offer it couldn’t refuse — the chance to work with super-producer Bob Rock.

“Out of the blue one day we got a phone call from our A&R guy,” Mason says. “He was like ‘Yo dude, Bob Rock called and he got your [demo] CD and he really wants to meet you guys. He wants to work with you.’”

The band immediately felt comfortable with Rock, whose credits include Metallica, Motley Crue and Aerosmith. 

“We really got along well,” Mason said. “He was a really laid back guy. He was really excited about the band. He hadn’t worked with a new band in a long time. He had a lot of energy and passion for trying to work on the project.”

The drummer also feels Rock made a difference in the final album, which finds the band moving easily between hooky anthemic rockers like “Wild And Young” and “She Don’t Cry No More” and full-bodied ballads like “Other Side Of You” and “Angels.”

“I think Bob was just really great at being able to really hone in on like the best parts of every song that we had and really bring the most out of them, be that the dynamics or just finding the right guitar tones,” Mason said. “I feel like there’s a thread within all of the sounds that makes it all tie together.”

Now Mason is looking forward to giving the songs new life on stage.

“I feel like we can kind of do whatever we want now with these tunes, which is fun,” he said. “We’ve already kind of defined them for the record, so now we can kind of take that energy and expand on it a little bit more when it makes sense, and in some cases there’s no reason to. In some cases we may even strip some of it back.”

Jillian’s is at 700 Gervais St. in the Vista. The concert begins at 8 p.m., and admission is free. Call 779-7789 for more information.

Shane Perlowin. Photo by Ryan Oslance.

Shane Perlowin, a virtuosic and voraciously eclectic Asheville-based guitarist, does not want for creative outlets. Perlowin’s best known for leading experimental duo Ahleuchatistas, with which he’s toured internationally — and, perhaps, been more warmly received than in the States — and been featured on vanguard experimental-music labels Cuneiform and Tzadik, the latter run by avant-garde musician John Zorn. He’s also composed material for jazz trio Mind Versus Target and avant-garde psychedelic outfit Doom Ribbons; he’s also an in-demand accompanist and improviser.

So it’s not as if The Vacancy of Every Verse, Perlowin’s first solo record, was born of a guitarist frustrated by stifled creativity.

“I kind of look at it as kind of an exhibition of my talents,” Perlowin says of Vacancy. “At least at the time that it was recorded, but I think that that’s still relevant eight months later. Because the different directions on that are directions I use in Mind Versus Target or Ahleuchatistas or with Doom Ribbons in terms of the different textures or instrumentation.”

“I just wanted to put that statement out there,” he adds. “It was just kind of like, ‘Here’s what I’m working with.’ Just laying out the tools, you know?”

Indeed, Perlowin’s available skillset is diverse: In the grand tradition of renegade guitarists like Marc Ribot, Nels Cline, Fred Frith and Bill Frisell, Vacancy exhibits a wide range of styles, finding Perlowin working in and out of his comfort zones.

“It’s one of my favorite things I’ve done,” Perlowin says of Vacancy. “Even though there’s … moments that are not perfect or whatever, but at least on that record, I know that I’m deliberately reaching. And if I don’t connect, it doesn’t matter, because it’s just a document of reaching.”

It’s also a dramatic sea change from his main band’s challenging, cacophonous avant-garde jazz-rock.

“I think I was a lot more anxious and, I don’t know, surly or something, like, five or 10 years ago,” Perlowin laughs. “Definitely the first couple of handful of Ahleuchatistas records are, like, ‘You know what, I can come up with an idea that’s compelling and just to be a joke or a trickster I’m going to play it one time and that’s it.’ Instead of milking entire songs out of 15 ideas, I’ll cram them into one song and then move on from there.”

True, the largely improvised Vacancy — Perlowin recorded all the music in real time and with no overdubs, relying on loop stations to build his Frisellian soundscapes — is presented in an avant-garde fashion, but it’s hardly a difficult listen. Certainly, Vacancy’s best moments come when Perlowin dials back the skronk, exploring space and allowing his lyrical and expressive playing to come to the forefront. Four of the 10 songs were cut with a rhythm section — bassist Joseph Burkett, who played with Perlowin in Mind Versus Target, and drummer Ryan Oslance, now the only other member of Ahleuchatistas — and are immediately the most approachable (most especially the tightly wound “Expo No”), displaying Perlowin’s serious jazz chops. The remaining six are split: half are dramatic, heavily processed soundscapes, like “Long Shadows,” featuring spindly solos and acidic textures; the other are austere, meditative fingerstyle pieces, of which the challenging and shapeshifting “Owls” is the most impressive and engaging — and strikingly exquisite.

“I strived to make something that was beautiful,” Perlowin says, “so it’s not, like, a Derek Bailey record or something, not something completely disheveled. I like that, but that’s only a small part of what I do.”

And though he’s been featured on experimental labels Tzadik and Cuneiform, Perlowin started up his own label, Open Letter Records, to release Vacancy. (He derived the name from the new-music series, which has featured avant-garde Chicago players like Tim Daisy and Aram Shelton, he curates in Asheville.)

“It just made sense to me,” Perlowin says of his self-release. “I just wanted to get it done and out there when it was done. I could sit around and shop it around, or even if one of the labels I work with picked it up, they’d want to wait around six to eight months to put it around.”

Not that Perlowin wants anything to do with the bureaucracy of running a label.
“I can’t do what Tzadik or Cuneiform can do with the infrastructure they have,” Perlowin says. “Not right now anyway, and maybe not ever, because I’m not trying to be the head of a record label.”

“I’d rather play music.”


The White Mule is at 1530 Main St. Doors open at 6 p.m.; admission is $6. Call 661-8199 or visit thewhitemule.com for more information.