DEAD CONFEDERATE

Click above to watch Dead Confederate's friends in other bands introduce the Georgia rockers

Georgia rockers Dead Confederate made their debut album, Wrecking Ball, in a tiny, dingy Austin studio — the same place where the sound effects for the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre were recorded. "It was a shit-shack," says bassist and songwriter Brantley Senn, 28. "We called it 'the dump.' It was spooky." The eeriness seeped deeply into the quintet's music — a raw, howling take on Southern rock that recalls the darkest moments of Nineties grunge; not surprising, since they are the first band on the new label from Gary Gersh, the A&R exec who signed Nirvana and Sonic Youth. Lead singer Hardy Morris' raspy vocals are a ringer for Kurt Cobain's, while lead guitarist Walker Howle kicks out Dinosaur Jr.-like spiraling riffs. "Our music has always been dark," says Senn. "I don't think I've ever written a song when I wasn't angry or hurt by something." But the band's growing popularity is making it harder for Senn to get into the proper songwriting mind-set. "I'm at the point where I am about to take a minimum-wage job just so I can be unhappy about something so I can write a good song." GUS WENNER

HOME BASE Athens, Georgia

FOR FANS OF Kings of Leon, Nirvana, Neil Young, Dinosaur Jr.

SPIN THIS "The Rat," a slow-burning poke in the eye at Bible-thumping evangelicals

Photograph by Pamela Littky

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