Is/Ought Gap – “Miss Meyers”

Been a good year for reissues already, and I’m always glad to see folks doing the good work to unearth the lost classics. Athens in particular has already had a gem brought back to glimmer in the form of Banned 37, but the good folks at Happy Happy Birthday To Me aim to double the Southern charms this year with a retrospective of Is/Ought Gap. The band was a staple of the scene that brought the best out of the college-town hollow, sharing stages with Pylon, R.E.M., among others. Like many of their peers, the band’s sound was voracious in its digestion of influences, moving from loose jangles to more muscular riffs. The band incorporated more post-punk pound than most of their contemporaries, threading bass n’ reeds into the mix as well.

“Miss Meyers” lands on the heavier end of the spectrum — driving, with a rusted wit that comes across shaggy and shambolic. The band’s Bryan Cook gives the song’s subject matter some context, noting “This was definitely written in the piano room at Myers Hall (a dorm on UGA’s campus) about Myers Hall, sorta. I remember thinking this girl there was kinda hot. She was sitting on a wall in the quad smoking a cigarette and she exhaled through her nose, smoke only came out one nostril! I could not look at her again without laughing to myself and for some reason that inspired me to include her in the song. The chords are sort of a rewrite of ‘Steppin’ Stone’ and I used it as an inspiration for many songs in the future as well. There is just something cool sounding about E G A C that speaks to me.” The band’s retrospective, SUA, is out April 5th from HHBTM Records.