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The Expendables and Bumpin Uglies
The following description was submitted by the event organizer.
With a band name like that, The Expendables beg for snotty drive-by non-reviews of the "Yes, quite" variety. The problem is that their music doesn't always provide enough defense against that kind of quick dismissal. Hailing from the beachside town of Santa Cruz, CA, the Expendables refer to themselves as a "surf culture" band, more in the Jack Johnson sense than the Dick Dale sense: The Expendables is filled with shaggy, reggae-based jam band skanks just made for middle-class white boys with dreadlocks to kick their hacky sacks to. These songs range from dull ("Paper Chains") to laughably bad (the self-explanatory "Ganja Smuggling"), which makes the occasional catchy little guitar pop tune like "One More Night" stand out more than it otherwise would. At their best, the Expendables are an inoffensive throwback to mid-'90s alterna-pop nobodies like Fastball and Deep Blue Something. At their worst, they're every trustafarian cliché come to tie-dyed life.
Annapolis, Maryland's Bumpin' Uglies, offers a melody-driven, free-spirited blend of ska, reggae, and punk with a strong focus on lyrics and crowd-pleasing grooves. Since their formation in 2008, the hard-touring troupe has blazed a trail across the United States, delivering high-energy live shows at clubs and festivals and building on a hybrid ska-punk legacy that began with pioneering road dogs like Reel Big Fish, Mustard Plug, and Voodoo Glow Skulls. The group was founded by guitarist/vocalist Brandon Hardesty, bassist Dave Wolf, and drummer TJ Haslett — versatile keyboardist Chad Wright joined the fold midway through the band's career. Citing a shared love for like-minded purveyors of sonic fun like Sublime, Beach Boys, and Bad Religion, the band went from regional favorites to a national draw via a slew of EPs and acclaimed full-length outings like Go Folk Yourself (2012), Keep It Together (2016), Beast from the East (2018), and Mid-Atlantic Dub (2022).