Dead Confederate

Known for a hybrid of alt-country and post-grunge, Athens, Georgia's Dead Confederate created quite a critical buzz with the release of its 2008 debut full-length, Wrecking Ball, whose bipolar cacophony had many folks comparing the band to both Nirvana and My Morning Jacket. While that's a lot to live up to, Hardy Morris and the rest of this spirited quintet seem up to the challenge — so much so that Dead Confederate's new effort, Sugar, shies away from the beautifully jammy histrionics of the debut and concentrates more on the actual songs. Being holed up in a New Jersey studio during a blizzard and having recently toured with acts such as Dinosaur Jr. and the Meat Puppets may have also had an effect on the bandmembers' compositional process. Sounding like Lynyrd Skynyrd trying to play Sonic Youth covers, Dead Confederate finds itself at the precipice of something really special, a subgenre all its own.