Band
The Connells > S

The Connells are an American band from Raleigh, North Carolina. They play a guitar-oriented, melodic, power pop style of rock music with introspective lyrics that reflect the American South. Though mostly dormant, the band continues to play to this day. Quite popular in Europe, the band is best known for their song '74-'75 which became a Top 20 hit in the UK. Guitarist Mike Connell formed the band in 1984 along with his brother David Connell on ... bass, Doug MacMillan on vocals, and future filmmaker John Schultz on drums. This initial four-person line-up was quickly supplemented by the addition of George Huntley on second guitar, keyboards, and vocals. Around the same time, former Johnny Quest drummer Peele Wimberley replaced Schultz, finalizing the "classic" line-up of the band. From the beginning of the group, Mike Connell wrote both the music and the lyrics of the majority of the band’s songs, although he was not the band's primary lead singer. Connell’s influences included the 1960s guitar pop of his childhood, including The Byrds and The Beatles; in an early interview, he stated that the first song he wrote as a teenager was titled "Psychedelic Butterfly". In 1978, while attending Mercer University in Macon, GA, Mike Connell met fellow students Clark Eason and Wade Stooksberry. According to Stooksberry in an interview on March 6, 2008, in 1979, Eason, Connell, Stooksberry and Sammy Deet (drums) started playing publicly in a band called Clark Eason and the Greaseguns at nightclubs and parties in Macon. Connell and Eason were on guitar, while Eason and Stooksberry shared vocals. They wore suits and skinny ties tucked into their dress shirts, as was the style at the time. They mostly performed 50's music and Beatles songs. After a year, Mike Connell transferred to college in North Carolina. Tripp Crumbley took over Connell's guitar role in the band. Connell then occasionally made guest appearances with Clark Eason and the Greaseguns while visiting his father in Macon. Clark Eason and the Greaseguns disbanded in 1980. The Connells and Stooksberry continue to keep in touch to this date. Connell and other members of the Connells band were also influenced by then-contemporary British bands such as The Smiths and Echo & the Bunnymen. Another, more idiosyncratic, influence was the British progressive rock band Jethro Tull, whose song "Living in the Past" was covered by the Connells on 1995's New Boy EP. Like Peter Buck of R.E.M. and Johnny Marr of The Smiths, Connell and Huntley played Rickenbacker guitars for the first several years of the band’s career, creating a jangly, folk-rock sound reminiscent of The Byrds and other Southern U.S. and North Carolina bands of the era, such as the dB's and Let's Active. Although the Connells were frequently dismissed as R.E.M. imitators due to the Athens, Georgia band’s overwhelming popularity relative to that of its contemporaries, there were significant differences between the two bands. First of all, the Connells' influences occurred at the same time that R.E.M.'s influences occurred. Connell and Huntley both played twelve-string Rickenbackers, as opposed to the six-string models favored by R.E.M.’s Buck; this gave the Connells an even janglier sound. Whereas Buck’s guitar style featured heavy use of arpeggios, Connell’s style was primarily based on strummed open chords in the keys of G and D, with a strong Celtic feel to songs such as "Scotty’s Lament" and "’74 - ’75". Likewise, Connell’s lyrics were clearer and more direct than the stream-of-consciousness lyrics of Michael Stipe. The melancholy lyrics of early songs such as "Darker Days" drew comparisons to The Smiths, and an early feature on the band in the local Spectator music weekly dubbed them "Raleigh’s local depressants". See more [+]