Matt Conner writes songs that stick with you. As the lead singer and songwriter for local rock band RPG, his compositions are embedded with a simple, unmistakable grace.
Words such as "grace" aren't usually used to describe musicians who front bands that loudly invoke AC/DC or Motorhead, but Conner, with his everyman John Prine observational style, is that rare exception. He elevates the base hedonism of the '70s rock experience into something transcendental.
Fame and fortune have eluded RPG. This, of course, is not unusual. For every band that makes it, there are hundreds of thousands that don't. Although this is just the reality of the music business, what makes RPG's situation unusual is that this collection of blue-collar working stiffs has made some of the best rock music of the last decade and still is virtually unknown outside of the Capital City.
Although I consider their 2004 debut release, "Full Time," and its 2008 follow-up, "Worth the Weight," to be two of the most meaningful rock reinventions since Nirvana's "Nevermind," talent alone isn't enough to make you famous.
Luckily for us, Conner and his band mates John Partin (guitar), Mike Murande (drums) and Mike Wells (bass) don't play music to be famous; they play music because they want to.
To get their new album, "High Loathsome," released, the group has taken to the Web. As of this writing, fans of the group have donated almost $3,400 to their kickstarter page to get the new recordings issued on 180-gram, 12-inch vinyl to be packaged in a hand silk-screened gatefold album with a 24" x 24" glow-in-the-dark poster by artist Eliza Childress.
Conceived as an art/rock project by longtime friend and fan of the band, Dan Rugh of the Pittsburgh-based silk-screening and media design company Commonwealth Press, the album finds the group stretching from their strict three-chords, no-waiting roots with riveting versions of tunes by Harry Nilsson (the haunting piano ballad "Don't Forget Me"), Townes Van Zandt (Conner's solo turn on "Don't You Take It Too Bad") and Cheap Trick (the good-natured pop-rock fun of "Southern Girls") as well as their own distinctive brand of rock (the organ-driven title track "High Loathsome" and the rolling brutality of "Lie Detester").
Masterfully engineered and recorded by Bryan Walthall at the Sound of Music recording studios in Richmond, the eight-track album is not only a powerful testament to the music of the band, but the power of the Web to make good things happen for musicians of limited means.
WRIR-LP 97.3 FM celebrates its 7-year anniversary at 7 p.m. Friday with a show at the Renaissance Ballroom, 107 W. Broad St. An impressive array of diverse talent from the Indonesian sounds of the Gamelan Raga Kusuma Ensemble to the homegrown blues/rock of Janet Martin Band will perform. There will be three rooms of entertainment, DJs, comedy, spoken word, music and more to keep you thoroughly entertained for the $10 admission, with all proceeds going to keep the independent station on the air for years to come.
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