Nashville Scene

Not too long ago, Aaron Lee Tasjan and a buddy of his were asked to play “dudes who looked like they were from the ’70s” in a music video, a request they were happy to oblige.

“But it made us think,” says Tasjan, his heavy-lidded eyes fixating on the coffeeshop tabletop from behind horn-rimmed glasses, “because at some point in the last few years, it seems like a lot of people have gravitated towards this kinda like Heartworn Highwaysaesthetic of the music they’re gonna make and the kinda look they’re gonna have. We were like, ‘We’re just dudes from the Midwest that grew up listening to Bob Seger-type music, and we just always thought this stuff looked cool. … Well, where does this leave us now? Have we become the thing that we were trying to originally rebel against by wearing this stuff?’

“We wrestled with that for a while,” he continues, “but eventually we just gave up and went to the bar or something.”

Like a lot of 20-something artists, Tasjan is pretty much constantly pricked by self-awareness, and more than once he’s spun those uneasy thoughts into a song. The Jayhawks-ish twang-rocker “E.N.S.A.A.T.” (“East Nashville Song About a Train”) that appears on his new album In the Blazes is an eye roll at the notion of musical posturing, be it the contemporary country, punk or Americana variety. The latter is Tasjan’s niche. He implicitly links himself to a boho identity that borrows from blue-collar sensibilities and is firmly rooted in the East Side, where he lives. READ MORE…

Ohio-by-way-of-Brooklyn transplant Aaron Lee Tasjan has led a busy life that’s included dropping out of the Berklee College of Music to join a band that snagged a major-label deal, touring as lead guitarist with the reincarnated New York Dolls and playing the same role in Drivin’ N Cryin’. READ MORE…

With a sound steeped gritty, grunge-y, bluesy American rock ’n’ roll and savage, post-punk-infused attack, and a frontman, Simon Kerr, who comes to Nashville via Derry, Northern Ireland, The Wans tightly package four decades of distortion-buzzing sonic nastiness into a crisp 10-song stranglehold on their full-length debut, He Said, She Said. On standouts like “Tired” and “Can’t Fix You,” the drums pound and propel, the gang vocals and percussion are bombastic, and the guitars chop through the speakers like an ax-wielding Jack Nicholson.

The Wans celebrated the record’s release last night at The Basement, appearing as part of the club’s most excellent $2-beer-special-boasting Sunday Post series alongside the likes of Slick, Poly, Earl Burrows, The Heathens and Werewulf. He Said, She Said officially drops tomorrow, but the band has offered us an exclusive stream of the album cut “Turn Your Back.” LISTEN HERE…