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Terry Ohms started as a side project for Vulture Whale, the Birmingham, AL-based indie group who fused southern rock, punk, and general rowdiness. Under the Ohms moniker, the band’s frontman Wes McDonald has released several projects, this, the A Lot More Than Enough’, the latest of which features plenty of hooks and psychedelic excursions. Videos for “Ghost” and “Let’s Go Meet the Neighbors” carry the psychedelia to trippy, crazy levels but the musical mash-up is equally enticing.
”Ghost” creates its weird sound through the use of a combination of electric and acoustic piano, synths, and fuzzy guitars, all instruments played and recorded by McDonald in his Birmingham studio. On “Let’s Go Meet the Neighbors” he uses processed vocals and looped clips. Yet, the most accessible and melodic tunes are “The Further We Run,” an acoustic piano-driven tune with Jagger-like vocals and a memorable sing-a-long chorus; and the title track which is straight ahead rock n’ roll. “Emotional Comeback” features a trading of verses in contrasting vocal styles in the repetitive closing “Give ‘em what they want.”
If you’re a newcomer to this material like this writer, you’ll want to listen to Vulture Whale. McDonald had been in the Band Ohms, spending time in both Birmingham and Athens, GA. The Ohms and another band, Verbena, were the two most popular bands in the Southeast in the early 200os and merged to become Vulture Whale after originally being coined as Wes McDonald and The Fizz. They were a quartet with Verbena’s drummer and later guitarist Lester Nuby III who combined with McDonald’s rhythm and leads to bring a ringing, raging guitar fury. Keelan Parrish played bass and Jake Waltzman was on the traps. Like the best of indie bands, their sound incorporated lots of genres and styles.
McDonald is the lead vocalist and principal songwriter through this work. “Older Younger” is the tale of a strange relationship where he is 78 and she is 19. “Rita” has an old dog welcome a new dog to his doorstep in the acoustic closer which follows six minutes of blistering guitar crunch in the album’s best cut, “Land It.” The album received much critical acclaim ten years ago and still resonates, especially on the 180 gram vinyl released on Cornelius Chapel Records as is the EP.
Athens has long been hailed as the center of creative indie music in the Southeast. These recordings indicate that Birmingham, AL is no slouch either.
