Third Man musicians have vested interest in sideline
Vest brothers try on different sound
The Vest boys, brothers and bandmates Toby and Jake, spent their July 4 holiday in Las Vegas. But in the age of Twitter and Facebook, what happens in Vegas does not necessarily stay there.
The stage lineup for the Bulletproof Vests is Dirk Kitterlin, Greg Faison, Brandon Robertson, Toby Vest and Jake Vest. The Vest brothers also play in The Third Man band.
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The long-planned vacation took on a more far-reaching nature at the last minute when Toby decided to use it as an opportunity to wed his longtime girlfriend. But by all accounts, the end result still seemed ripped right out of "The Hangover."
"I jumped on a bar," says Jake from his hotel room at the Venetian, recounting just one of the lost weekend's booze-fueled misadventures. "It was a Pabst Blue Ribbon shotgunning-beer contest. I think I came in third place. I don't know. Maybe I came in first. I don't remember."
Back home now, the pair won't have much of an opportunity to recover from their trip as they throw themselves into their latest musical project, the Bulletproof Vests. The band -- which in its live configuration also includes Dirk Kitterlin, Brandon Robertson and Greg Faison -- kicks off a three-week residency at the Hi-Tone on Monday, a stand that coincides with the release of the band's debut album, Attack!.
The Bulletproof Vests is a side project of The Third Man, the art-rock outfit (originally called Augustine) the Vests started in 2004 with Kitterlin, Jeff Schmidtke and Preston Todd that released two of the most acclaimed local records of recent years. Despite being largely absent from the scene since the release of the second disc, Among the Wolves, in 2007, The Third Man is still very much together, Toby says.
"I don't know how to define it," he says. "We're basically just kind of recording at this point. Whenever we decide to release something we'll release it, but it's not really the main focus at this point."
Instead, The Third Man has been pushed to the side by a group that, though it shares many of the same players, is very different in style and presentation.
"The Third Man kind of became a strange entity," says Jake, who has used the new band as a chance to push more of his original songs. "When you experiment all the time you lose the thrill. It seemed far more exciting to throw a bunch of stuff together and be this loud, raucous, by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of thing."
The Bulletproof Vests began last year almost on a lark. When not all the members of The Third Man could make a gig opening for their good friends the Antique Curtains, Toby, Jake and Dirk joined with Faison to bang out an impromptu set of covers and Third Man originals.
"It started almost as a joke," says Toby "Then it took on a much more serious note. We realized we could do a different thing from what we'd been doing."
Coming off of Among the Wolves, a long-wrought, ambitious and meticulous piece of intellectual music, the immediacy and visceral rush of a straight-ahead rock band seemed to be just what the doctor ordered.
"To us, (Bulletproof Vest) is more instinctual," says Toby. "It comes from the gut. All the songs and styles, like The Rolling Stones and The Band, that we were never able to incorporate into what we were doing in The Third Man. Something a little more Memphis-based might be the best way to put it."
Indeed, a key influence on the Vests appears to be Toby and Jake's growing integration into the Memphis music scene. In recent years, the two have played with a variety of local bands and musicians, including Jump Back Jake, Richard James & the Special Riders and Jim Dickinson. A listen to Attack! reveals a host of local inspirations, including Big Star and the Oblivians. And following the example set by groups like the One Four Fives, they have even integrated Memphis covers into their live sets, including gems from such obscure local cult faves as Moloch.
"(Amy LaVere guitarist) Steve Selvidge gave me that Moloch record, and it just felt right," says Jake of their decision to work songs from the late Lee Baker's '70s blues-rock institution. "Ever since we started playing music here, we've met amazing people that shared so much. It seems we're learning something new every day."
Bulletproof Vests
Mondays through the end of July at the Hi-Tone Café, 1913 Poplar. Admission is free. For details, call 278-8663 or go online to hitonememphis.com.
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