Spider Bags

While the trajectory of some musical projects is painstakingly thought out, Dan McGee’s Chapel Hill-based Spider Bags came together in a series of happy accidents. Coming down to North Carolina in 2005 to record the band’s debut album A Celebration of Hunger with producer Brian Paulson, McGee developed a liking for the Tar Heel state. Upon losing his job as a truck driver in New Jersey, he came back to the Triangle, planning to remain about a week before driving west to parts unknown. “I didn’t have to work,” he says. “I just had to pretend like I was living in New Jersey. I was milking the state of New Jersey, so I could drink and write.”

But then everything changed for the vagabond. He met and fell in love with the woman that is now his wife. Suddenly settled, McGee invited down his longtime friend and frequent bandmate Gregg Levy to come make Spider Bags happen. And make it happen they have. A constantly evolving emulsion of dirty, but meticulously produced garage rock paired with countrified N.J. nihilism, the Bags are a bruised and bloodied bar band that’s also refreshingly intelligent. “It’s just rock ‘n’ roll music,” McGee says. “I love rock ‘n’ roll music. I love doing it. I love making it with my friends.”

The Spider Bags’ next 7″, “(Let’s) Take It Easy Tonite” will be released this fall on Churchkey Records.