Modern Garage Punk: Dan Webb and the Spiders

It goes without saying that much of the music we have featured here on Garagerocktopia was recorded in or inspired by music from the ‘60s. But one of the underappreciated facets of Garage Rock/Garage Punk is that it actually does evolve, and that today’s Garage Rock isn’t always your granddaddy’s Garage Rock.

Myriad bands all over the world have carved out garage rock sounds taking musical leads not so much from Nuggets and Back From The Grave but from latter waves of punk, especially from the ‘90s and beyond. We’ve not chronicled that brand of Garage Punk as much as we should here on Garagerocktopia, but Dan Webb and the Spiders have given us a great chance to correct that.



The Boston-based Garage-Punk band has recently released their latest offering, Be Alright, A solid collection of modern Garage Punk. Dan Webb and the Spiders are anything but new, however. The band has been crankin’ out the garage-punk in the City on the Hill for the better part of 10 years.

Much of the band’s past music has actually been in more tried-and-true Garage Punk form – upbeat, pulse-pounding rock and roll harkening everything from the Barbarians to the Sex Pistols. Good stuff to be sure.

But Be Alright marks an evolution for the band, one that takes them into a more ethereal – and modern sound. Don’t get us wrong – it still rocks just fine. But the thrash this time is tempered out with a bit more introspection, both musically and lyrically.

Part of the evolution, according to Webb, comes simply because for the work on this album, Father Time wasn’t breathing down the band’s neck quite so hard as he has in the past.

“This is the first album we recorded ourselves,” revealed Webb, talking to Garagerocktopia via email. “We were able to spend more time during the recording process to go in and get exactly what we wanted. In most recording situations for small bands like us there's always some compromises you have to make to accommodate the tight schedule. In this case we were able to go back and iron out those types of things.”

According to Webb, that Father Time guy has also made his presence known with regard to the band’s musical leanings and tastes.

“All of us came up in the punk tradition,” Webb confirmed, “but have found our tastes getting a little bit more refined as we have gotten older.

The band also includes guitarist and singer Chris Amaral, drummer Stephen Benson and bassist Mickey.

Much like a lot of new-school Garage-Punk, Be Alright is less hook-driven and more of a sonic wall approach, Songs like “Credit” and “Take a Hit” very much recall Bob Mould and his various incarnations, and at times the album has a very ‘90s feel to it. “Walk Right Out” adds a hint of doo-wop to that mix.

That’s not to say there’s a scarcity of hard-rockin’ tuneage. “Best Regret” ups the ante just a bit, and ‘Complicated” ups it even more. To see just what the album is all about, Webb pointed to the title track of the new album, which makes the case for its brand of rock and roll.

“’Be Alright’ is the thesis statement for the album,” Webb explained. “The message isn't complicated. It's just how I feel looking at the world today. I'm hopeful things will be alright, not great, not awesome necessarily, just alright. Sometimes it seems like that is even asking a lot.”

"Musically it was a really fun tune to develop. I had heard a song by Ty Segall where the band hangs on one chord for a lot of the verse and I wanted to try my hand at that.”

The band has seen press in though various outlets, including Maximum Rocknroll and Razorcake. For now, most of the band’s gigs are in the Boston area, though on occasion they have been able to venture far beyond B-Town.

“We have a strong relationship with Gunner Records in Germany,” said Webb, “so we get a chance to tour over there semi-regularly. We've made seven trips in 10 years. We've done a couple US tours, but not too much of that in the last couple years. for the most part we play in the Allston, Somerville, Cambridge areas.

And like yours truly, Webb is also a blogger.

“I also author a songwriting blog on that site where I post a new song every week. I'm a month or two behind, the summer was busy, but I'll be updating it soon.” 

Don't Forget to listen to Garagerocktopia Radio, alternating with Blue Mood, Tuesday nights on KUCR Radio, 88.3 FM Riverside, California. We play artists like Dan Webb and the Spiders, plus many others who have appeared on our hallowed pages.

We have some other features already in the works here at Garagerocktopia. Artists have been sending us some very cool stuff. As always, we don’t make any guarantees in stone but we’re happy to say we’ve gotten a lot of very promising music sent to us, and we’re always happy to spread the word about about bands that are playing the way-out kinds of music we profile here. Send us a line and we’ll talk.

Also, we do have a Facebook page for this blog. We don’t put personal stuff on it – no pictures of grandkids or our dinners or politics or anything like that. What we do post are announcements about upcoming features, maybe extra stuff about the bands, and any cool music, movies or TV Shows we stumble across that might have even the most tangential connection with the music featured here. While we don't spend all day thinking about it, we do like "likes" if you're so inclined ...