They're the next big thing. The Chicago hipsters dig their groove. The British music press fawn over their every guitar strum. They're about to go on tour with one of the biggest names in indie rock.
And they had to take time off from their temp jobs at the UNC hospital to do it.
Such is life for The Kingsbury Manx, a Chapel Hill band caught between success and the vast oblivion of obscurity. With their meteoric rise to international critical acclaim behind them, the band will know within the next few months on which side of that great divide they will fall.
The Kingsbury Manx are Kenneth Stevenson, Bill Taylor, Ryan Richardson and Scott Myers, four recent college graduates living in Chapel Hill. All four went to high school in Wilson, North Carolina, a sleepy town in the eastern part of the state. Each played guitar throughout high school, but never together. When they graduated, Stevenson and Taylor headed to UNC-Chapel Hill, while Richardson and Myers made the trek south to UNC-Wilmington.
Their college days were filled with music, with the quartet frequently
But years of playing together and taping on their four-track gave The Kingsbury Manx a wealth of songs-or at least enough to send demo tapes out to record companies. When their record deal on fledgling Overcoat Recordings came through, they were elated.
"We just wanted to make a record," says Taylor. "We didn't expect anything from it."
But those that heard it, loved it.
Before too long, the Manx were opening for acts like Elliot Smith and touring across Europe. The reviews for their new album were glowing. But what is it about their eponymous debut that vaulted them to quasi-stardom?
To begin with, The Kingsbury Manx manages to exhale the aura of the band-the members are thoughtful and sincere, and the record is entirely devoid of pretension. The gentle folk songs feature intertwining guitar parts and soothing organs that lift and embellish the three-part harmonies. All members play guitar, and they swap instruments in the studio. The result is a hypnotic Southadelica that is at once progressive and nostalgic.
But life has not changed a great deal for the members of the Manx. Their day jobs remind them that they're hardly rock stars yet. "I kinda feel like a superhero," says Myers. "During the day I have to go to work, but every once in a while I get to go out at night and parade as a rock and roller."
Tonight at King's in Raleigh, The Kingsbury Manx will commence a nationwide tour that will later see them opening for Stephen Malkmus, the legendary former leader of Pavement. The tour comes on the heels of the completion of the band's second album, tentatively titled Let You Down.
"We're really excited about the new record," says Taylor.
Myers agrees. "The songs are shorter, there are lots of harmonies. It sounds thicker, it sounds better."
And if they win over enough fans with the new record and the upcoming tour, maybe they'll start to feel like rock stars with more regularity. If things don't work out, they'll always have the temp agency.
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