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| Local Band News: The Gaslights Back Together - (WEB LINK) |
| The Pitch April 23, 2008 |
From Gaslights guitarist Chris Meck: After taking a couple of months respite, and playing a duo show in which ... well ... we kinda sounded like The Gaslights ... we've elected to carry on. Ryan Johnson (Buffalo Saints, Golden Republic, etc..) is on drums and Erik Voeks is playing bass. Whether or not they'll be permanent or not will depend on scheduling, etc. But The Gaslights is still a band, and active as of May 4th at P. Ott's. Regular Pitch readers will know that country-rockers the Gaslights have been through just about everything -- make that way more -- than an unsigned, hard-touring band could get isself into, including a van-totalling collision with a moose, a subsequent inner-band marriage, and several trips to Belgium. Earlier this year, the band had called it quits, with only Chris Meck and Abigail Henderson continuing to play together (it helps that they're married). Well, it looks like the flame refused to die. Hopefully this signals a new, reenergized direction for the Gaslights. |
| The Pitch's Critics Choice - The Gaslights CD Release - (WEB LINK) |
| By Richard Gintowt - November 29, 2007 |
| The past 18 months have dealt the Gaslights a bum hand: an album scrapped because of band defections, a van-totaling moose, and carpal-tunnel surgery for drummer Glen Hockemeier. By the time the Kansas City band finally hit the studio in September, the only thing left to do was channel enough piss and vinegar to justify the hardscrabble journey. Judging by the LP's first two singles ("Last Dollar" and "Silver Ring," downloadable on the group's MySpace page), 16 Addresses is going to be just that: a Sturm und Drang purgefest of a record informed by first-name country icons such as Loretta, Lucinda, Waylon and Willie. With barroom-silencing singer Abigail Henderson leading the charge, the band's upcoming European tour should burn all the right bridges. |
| The Gaslights Keep the Flame Alive - 16 Addresses Shows How Far the Band Has Traveled - (WEB LINK) |
| By Pete Dulin - November 20, 2007 |
| The Gaslights are Chris Meck (guitar/vocals), Abigail Henderson (guitar/vocals), and Glen Hockemeier (drums/vocals). These three musicians formed the band in late 2003, toured across the Midwest and throughout Belgium, released the lean and low-down debut, Midwest Hotel, in 2004, and followed up in December 2005 with Lines and Wires. The past two years have been a whirlwind of topsy-turvy shifts in direction and personnel. Not many bands could withstand multiple lineup changes, a van accident, and a drummer's emergency surgery for carpal tunnel, then find the wherewithal to continue intact. With their latest record, 16 Addresses, the band shows how far they have traveled. PresentMagazine.com chats with Chris Meck and Abby Henderson about the band's history and latest album produced by Chad Meise. It's full of buzzing rock songs and unsentimental vignettes that highlight Henderson's twangy wails and soothing drawl, guitars with a heap of fiery country attitude, and Hockemeier's expressive drum work that keeps the whole show on the tracks. Click here or the web link above to read full article. |
| All the Rage - The Pitch Music Showcase: There's no better reason to leave the house. - (WEB LINK) |
| By Jason Harper - August 02, 2007 |
| The Gaslights In the past year, the Gaslights' two-man rhythm section (Jon Stubblefield and Quentin Phipps, formerly of the Bad Ideas) came and went, the band's van got totaled by a moose in Montana, and its drummer (Glen Hockemeier) had carpal tunnel surgery. The shake-ups scotched a CD release but didn't thwart a two-week European tour. The Gaslights can endure just about anything with Chris Meck's old Nashville licks and singer Abigail Henderson's bronc-busting delivery, which is the vocal love child of Rosanne Cash and Ani DiFranco. |
| Kansas City Public Library Announces HearAbout KC Noontime Concert Series Line-Up - (WEB LINK) |
| April 25 , 2007 |
| This popular outdoor concert series closes out its summer schedule with a bang by hosting two bands on two consecutive Fridays at noon in front of the Community Bookshelf, the south-face of the Library Parking Garage at 106 W. 10th St. The Gaslights close out the concert series on Friday, September 14. Representing the local alt.country scene with a little twang, a little swagger, and a lot of soul, the band features Abigail Henderson on vocals and the lead guitar work of Chris Meck. If Loretta Lynn and Keith Richards got into a bar fight, it might sound something like this hard-working and oft-touring band's most recent record, Lines and Wires. Having scored opening slots for artists like Shooter Jennings, John Dee Graham, and the Bottle Rockets, The Gaslights have earned a loyal following from here to Holland. The HearAbout KC Noontime Concert Series offers the first 150 concert-goers a ticket for either a free hotdog or a freshly grilled hamburger courtesy of Charlie Hooper's Brookside Bar, located at 12 W. 63rd St. |
| The Gaslights / Casey Reid / Dirty 30s - Riverfront Times - (WEB LINK) |
| By Jason Harper - February 14, 2007 |
| While some bands are torn apart by bad record deals, members leaving, girlfriends cheating or just the sheer exhaustion of touring, it took a van-totaling collision with an 800-pound moose in Montana to slow Kansas City country rockers the Gaslights down. And even then they didn't think about calling it quits: They just holed up in a small-town bar for a couple of days after the accident and figured out what to do next. Part of that involved the band's firecracker singer Abigail Henderson getting married — right there in the bar — to tall, blue-eyed, Telecaster-slingin' guitarist Chris Meck. Touring, writing and recording constantly, the Gaslights are almost too busy to even think about getting a label contract, and they're too realistic to dream of fame. If hard work, heartbreak, twang music and laughter at the day's end are your speed, then the Gaslights are your band. Casey Reid and the Dirty 30s round out the bill. |
| Light My Fire - When The Gaslights say L-U-V, you better believe they mean L-U-V - (WEB LINK) |
| By Jason Harper - February 08, 2007 |
| Chris Meck and Abigail Henderson were married on a summer night last year in Montana, after their van was totaled by an 800-pound moose (female, halved). On the night of the accident, a humorless state trooper informed Henderson that if she decapitated the moose and mounted its head on the wall of the van, as she had expressed a sardonic desire to do, she would incur a $500 fine. Meanwhile, Meck was standing by the wreckage, repeating phrases such as "Why couldn't I have just liked numbers? Why couldn't I have been an accountant?" Instead, Meck is a musician. So is Henderson. She writes the songs; belts them out like a smoother, countrier Janis; and strums an acoustic guitar. He smokes and peels notes off a Telecaster. Together they lead the Kansas City country-rock band the Gaslights. Meck and Henderson say they keep their love life out of band business. That may sound unromantic, but, Meck says, "I'll take whatever strain that comes with this, because we get to go through it all together." And they've been through some crazy shit. The band's other guitarist at the time of the moose slaying, John Stubblefield (who is also an ordained minister, apparently), officiated at the nuptial ceremony, which was held at the Talking Bird Saloon in a town called St. Regis. The bar is named in honor of its talking bird, George, who had learned to say "Rock and roll, George" by the time the Gaslights left town in a new van, which Meck bought for $11,000 after hitchhiking to Missoula and getting a loan. For a while, Meck and Henderson wore hair ties around their ring fingers. Now they wear simple, matching silver bands. "We got more important shit to spend money on," Henderson says. "Like brakes!" Something's always going wrong for the Gaslights, sometimes colossally so. That's not because the band is ill-managed or cursed. It's because the Gaslights operate by putting it all on the line. Take the time that all five members quit their jobs and moved to Springfield, Missouri, intending to tour three weeks a month with the help of a booking agent. Crammed into an A/C-lacking, down-by-the-river cabin owned by Henderson's grandmother were core members Meck, Henderson and drummer Glen Hockemeier, plus newbies Stubblefield and Quentin Phipps. The moose incident, followed by the end of the band's relationship with its booking agent, broke up that happy, two-month-old home. Then Phipps and Stubblefield quit for personal and financial reasons. As a five-piece, the Gaslights had recorded an entire album, called 15 Hands, with Springfield producer Lou Whitney (who has worked with the Bottle Rockets, Jonathan Richman and Wilco, to name a few). The disc had to be shelved because the Gaslights couldn't play the songs live without their ex-members. Also, Stubblefield had contributed songs to the album. This has all happened in the past eight months, and yet, in a week or two, the Gaslights will be touring Europe. Having recruited It's Over bassist Bill Sundahl (known around town as Roach) on a temporary basis, the group will play shows all the way out to New York. From there, they'll fly to Brussels and hit clubs — and a couple of prisons — around Belgium and Holland. They played much the same route last year, minus one of the jails. There, things got a little surreal for Hockemeier when the Jeff Spicoli-like drummer met a European version of himself coming out of a bathroom. Not only was the Belgian fellow similarly long-haired and also named Glen, but the two also had the same distinct laugh — always the same pitch, of telephone-ring length, and frequently in use. (In crowded areas, Henderson and Meck have used Hockemeier's laugh as a homing beacon.) Anyway, thanks to a couple of Belgian bookers named Gert and Ludo (spelling approximated), plus the European audience's affinity for merch, the Gaslights are able to execute the tour in a cost-effective way, barring disasters. And even when disaster strikes, the Gaslights are trained to take it in stride and laugh about it later. Safe travels, kids. |
| Pitch Music Showcase Guide - (WEB LINK) |
| August 03, 2006 |
| The Gaslights The Gaslights play country music from a mythical place, a site carefully drawn in songs of theirs such as "Sundays and Interstates" and "Lines and Wires." Lately, they've also taken to spreading the Americana urge as hosts of regular roots jams. Chris Meck's guitar draws those highway lines with the kind of ringing guitar that Nashville left behind decades ago, Abigail Henderson's singing fills every molecule of a bar's cigarette smoke, and the band's new rhythm section (Jon Stubblefield and Quentin Phipps, formerly of the Bad Ideas) pushes hard enough to make the Gaslights a reasonable fit in the rock category. |
| The Gaslights with Rhinestone Diplomats, Aviette, & Kentucky Air at Lee's Liquor Lounge - (WEB LINK) |
| By Kristine Lampbert - June 01, 2006 |
| “If Rhinestone Diplomats asked why we are so jaded, then Kansas City’s self-confessed whiskey band The Gaslights gave us our reasons with songs titled “Wicked Love,” “I Fall Down,” “Gone,” and “Not Again.” This band includes Chris Meck on guitar and vocals, Johnny Eggerman on bass and vocals, Glen Hockemeier on drums and background vocals, and Abigail Henderson on lead vocals and guitar. I’m pretty sure that Johnny Cash was giving this band a wink from above during their double-timed version of ‘Long Black Veil.’ After the set, Henderson cited Loretta Lynn and Lucinda Williams as her main vocal influences; but I think she sounds like a Dolly Parton who would and could kick your ass.” |
| Top 10 Picks for January - 8. The Gaslights: Jan. 12 – Frederick’s Music Lounge (WEB LINK) |
| Sauce Magazine - January 04, 2005 |
| The Gaslights are a band that rocks like Charles Bukowski reads, playing pure unbridled, unashamed, sincere, believable, head-nodding roots-rock/country that is gritty and beautiful at once. Dark in the middle and brilliant around the edges, lead vocalist Abigail Henderson sounds sometimes heavy and slow like syrup, other times driving, fast and tight, like Brenda Lee coming on strong. |
| Website By Mary C. Taylor | Copyright © 2008 The Gaslights. All Rights Reserved. |