The Pendletons

By charley Lee

Photo by Bobb Lovett

When living in a legendary music town like Athens, trying to make yourself heard by the rest of the world when swimming in a sea of amazing music is a task that bands have to deal with. The Pendletons are no strangers to this task. However, drummer Ben DuPriest believes it’s ultimately up to the musicians whether or not they stand out from the crowd.

“The music scene in this country is getting really, really cluttered with good bands,” he says. “What’s really good is that bands are always getting better and doing newer and more interesting things, which really pushes everyone to try that much harder and tends to weed out less deserving acts. That’s one of the reasons we like Athens so much. Compared to larger places like Atlanta and NYC, there’s much less stress to look a certain way, or wear makeup, etc. We’d like to think that we can go to those bigger places and still be ourselves and make our own music and see some success.”

Vocalist Adam Saunders, guitarist Colin Moorhead, and DuPriest went to high school together. The three then attended the University of Georgia, where bassist Matt Giordano joined them in 2004. Things took a natural progression from there. The band began playing around small clubs in Athens, working their way up to the bigger venues and expanding their growing fan base.

“Our first gig ever was at a tiny basement club in Athens called ‘DT’s Down Under,’” Giordano recalls. “Our last Spring Break was a sort of mini-tour for us with a great band and also good friends of ours, Morning State. We are really looking forward to putting together a more formal tour in the early spring.”

Athens darlings The Whigs have had numerous shows for which The Pendletons have opened. It also doesn’t hurt that Saunders recently played bass for The Whigs on their new album this past summer. In Athens, where the music community is such a close knit scene, having a group like The Whigs lauding your band is a sure way to gain more fans and book better venues.

As Giordano recollects, “Going from [DT’s Down Under] to playing the fabulous 40 Watt with fellow Athens bands The Whigs and Modern Skirts was a really big step for us, and Tasty World is probably where we feel most at home.”

Trying to describe the sound of The Pendletons is no easy feat, even for Giordano. “I’d be hard pressed to describe our sound without using the words ‘pop’ and ‘rock,’” he says. “Really, we play generally fun rock music to go boating to.” Moorhead adds, “It is impossible to describe our sound without using the words ‘blasm’ and ‘spankle’.”

Giordano’s description might be closer. The Pendletons intersperse indie rock and pop with a bit of ‘60s surf rock, a little folk-rock and some raw garage rock flavors. Immediately, comparisons to bands like Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, Wilco, and The Fuzztones spring to mind.

The Pendletons newly released debut album, Oh Me!, has garnered a lot of local buzz and has been in regular rotation on the college airwaves. According to DuPriest, the record is a clear indication of who The Pendletons are and where they’re headed.

“We’re really happy with the album, the way it sounds and the message it sends about us as a band,” says DuPriest. “There’s no doubt that we’ve grown as a band and as individual musicians; the album was made almost a year and a half ago and if we went in the studio now we could certainly play the songs a lot better and rip far meaner solos, but we can’t really concern ourselves with things like that. The album sounds great and makes us feel really good, and most importantly it sounds like us, which is all an honest band can really ask for.”

As The Pendletons’ success outside of Athens starts to take steam, future aspirations for the band become clearer as do plans for what’s next. “We need to buy a van,” Saunders muses. “Really, though, just booking shows — heading back out to South by Southwest in the spring — and hopefully recording an EP of some new stuff ourselves in the near future. It would be great to support ourselves simply by playing music — that would be the overall goal that I know many young bands share.”

www.myspace.com/pendletons