Dollhands take the stage at The Courtroom Friday

All bets are off when the newest ‘new’ musical direction might actually be the novelty of a raw, back to basics garage rock with a different feel and an eclectic edge.

Recreating the rock & roll wheel is an iffy business. Sure, its all been done before one way or the other but components can be sorted, rearranged, shook up and thrown down in new often innovative ways by young rockers on the rise.

Dollhands, live Friday among up and coming bands gathered for another round of Concerts at The Courtroom in downtown Rock Hill, might just be a band making a garage rock evolutionary leap. To get more details, I tracked down a phone number, and called Dollhands’ guitarist/vocalist Eric Smeal to get the lowdown.

Dollhands, by the way, is the band’s new name. Muffled is the ‘formerly known as’ moniker, which Smeal revealed was all about a more subdued sound which seems logical since it was only the artist Smeal at first.

Now, the band is a trio with Smeal joined by drummer, Colby Shumate, and bass player, Lainey Creighton. “We have a new line up, new material, and the new name is more personable,” Smeal said. This show in Rock Hill will also be their “first time out of town.” Traveling from Charlotte he’s cautiously upbeat. “Really,” he said, “it’ll be cool.”

What about the sound of Dollhands? The band’s inspirations and influences include familiarobscure including Cloud Nothings, Queens of the Stone Age, Sleater-Kinney, Kyuss, FIDLAR, Foo Fighters, Them Crooked Vultures, MGMT, and more.

“We want people to like the band. We’re just trying to have fun,” Smeal said, which is more motivational than a description. “We do like to rock. It’s fuzzed out garage rock,” he said, then continued by calling the music, “raw more like low-fi on our recordings. It’s just fuzzy, an almost punk but not really punk sound.”

Ok, let’s call the sound guitar-driven, melodic with a good beat that’s energetically minimalistic even ‘exploratory/in development’, which is all fitting for such a young –literally and figuratively – band.

Smeal, 19, is not long out of high school, but still advancing with college level audio engineering courses. He’s accustomed to picking up skills as needed. “I started on bass (guitar) working in a few bands first, and also played guitar casually, then I learned more guitar, also some drumming,” he explained. “I needed to be able to do it all when recording in high school for bands.”

The audio skills are working out well since his band has recording needs and future aspirations. They’ve just released a new four song EP.

In the meantime, playing music was an easy and obvious direction. Smeal feels the area, especially in Charlotte, is key. “It’s like a community,” he noted, referring to bands, artists and clubs. “That’s what music is about. It’s like being a good person around a good scene, having kinship in the scene and working with people who I respect and admire.”

Get it on, bang a gong. Dollhands reaches for opportunity, live, Friday along with Rothschild, Telepathic Lines, Rosewave, and Trim; at Concert at the Courtroom, 201 E. Main St. – Gettys Center, Rock Hill. For more on the show, check facebook.com/thecourtroomatgettys. For more on the music: visit dollhandsband.com; rothschildnc.bandcamp.com/releases; reverbnation.com/rosewave; and bakeryoutletrecords.bandcamp.com/album/telepathic-lines

Elsewhere

Friday: Chubby Knuckles at the Sandbar, Rock Hill; Southern Experience at Empire Pizza-Newport, Rock Hill; Angel Incident at The Handle Bar Tavern, Catawba; Remedy Hollow at Madison’s on the Corner, Fort Mill; Stella Rising at Jammin' By The Tracks, downtown Waxhaw; Java at T-Bones on the Lake, Lake Wylie; Scoot Pittman & The Band at McKoy’s Smokehouse & Saloon, South Charlotte.

Saturday: The Rockaholics at Revolutions-Galleria Mall, Rock Hill; Ezra Root at Original Empire Pizza, Rock Hill; Whiskey Prophets at McHale’s on Main, Rock Hill; Remedy Hollow at Ledo Pizza, Rock Hill; Shannon Warren Band at T-Bones on the Lake, Lake Wylie; Southern Experience Band at Pineville Tavern, Pineville; Below the Belt at Mac’s Speed Shot-Steele Creek, South Charlotte; Urban Jazz Coalition, Dante Lewis at Jazz in Freedom Park, South Charlotte.

Sunday: Just for Fun Band at The Handle Bar Tavern, Catawba.

This story was originally published July 21, 2016 at 4:51 PM with the headline "Dollhands take the stage at The Courtroom Friday."