Alabama Shakes Buzz Up [Show Preview]

Alabama Shakes

Alabama Shakes
Saturday, January 21
Continental Club (1315 S Congress Ave)
$15 at door, doors at 9pm, set at 12
[info]

Buzz bands are practically a thing of the past now that there are so many avenues to find new music (hello Spotify, Pandora, Bandcamp, etc!). However, the Alabama Shakes may just be the closet thing to it at this exact moment. The quartet has played together for years in and around Athens, AL, barely scraping by on cover song sets, but at last October's CMJ New Music Festival in NYC, the group got noticed in a big way. Blowing away the audience and a NY Times reporter at Bowery Ballroom, the career of this group is skyrocketing up on talent alone: lead singer Brittany Howard uses her plaintive, smooth vocals to belt out lyrics on top of a tight blues rock instrumentation. Take a listen to their self-titled streaming EP on Bandcamp for a taste of it.

Named by Paste Magazine as the Best New Artist of 2011 as well as a Best Bet in 2012 by Billboard, the Alabama Shakes' debut album Boys & Girls won't drop until April 10 with 11 self-produced tracks on ATO. In the meantime, look for a pair of live 7" songs released by Third Man Records (Jack White's label) due in late January. And if the last track from their EP above ("You Ain't Alone") sounds familiar, you may have heard it in this commercial last month more than once.

Now's your chance to see the group before their set of SXSW shows in March blow the buzz up even more. Catch the Alabama Shakes at The Continental Club, Saturday January 21 at midnight.

Alabama Shakes: [Facebook]