Trash van Fever - Punkgrass Pioneers!
The Players
Armando Alvarez - Drums, Vocals, Percussion
Grant Perry - Bass
Matt Osment- Fiddle, Accordion
Brian Rappold - Mandolin, Banjo, Guitar
Aaron Turney - Guitar, Vocals
The Story
Hailing from Pittsboro, NC, a bastion of freak-flag-flying art nuts, lovers, littered souls, and barflys, Trash van Fever began their journey way out west, with Aaron Turney forming the first lineup in Seattle. Fed up with the June Gloom, the Seattle Freeze, and people who boast about living on raw oats, Aaron hit the road back to his home at heart, the great state of NC. First phone call in town was to Armando Alvarez, Aaron's long time bud and band mate. Armando, who has Hollywood good looks, and a deceptively careful demanor, is a true gift: a dreamy drummer who sings like a bird...the key to the Fever's harmony A-game. Turney and Alvarez are both founding members of NC punkgrass juggernaut, Tan and Sober Gentleman.
Wanting to pull from that celtic-ish, American, shitkicking goodness, the two enlisted Brian Rappold, a genius on many levels (science, music, comedy, philosophy) and a true heart of art, Rappold adds the banjo/mando magic that sounds custom designed for a writer like Turney: witty and trashy and wild.
Well, well, well...who else should ditch the Seattle Freeze but one Grant Perry, founding member and original bassist for the Fever. Digging up his East Coast roots, and thumping the upright like some hybrid kung fu metal god in overalls, Perry caught his second case of the Fever and this time it looks bad.
Through a miracle of modern something-or-other, the band wrangled the likes of Matt Osment, a man who can saw a damn fiddle right in two. I saw his fiddling make a bar full of lumberjacks cry one time. Osment happened to be staring out into the shit sea that is the internet and just happened to catch a shine off Turney's digital message in a bottle. Could it be that the internet was not evil for once?
Now the boys have been hard at work cooking up a truly unlikely collection of barn burners, mind-changers, heart-wrenchers, and feet movers. Fueled by beer, held fast only by gravity, and inspired by every flag that flies in the American consciousness, Trash van Fever, it turns out, are now just five friends whose creative approach could only be described as controlled chaos. Give 'em a listen!
Our sound
Trash van Fever is the sonic folk music your parents warned you about. Credited by some with coining the term, "PunkGrass," and creating a genre that roots-music lovers, punks, cowpokes, and rockers can all agree on. With a huge range of influences, Trash van Fever pulls together a hard-charging, harmony-filled extravaganza of melody and attitude. With songs about our time together here on Earth, some of them hard, some of them harder, some of them beauties, and oh yeah...songs about good dogs.
REACH OUT:
919-324-5240