Calling
the Bad Ends a "supergroup" could conceivably be a stretch as there's only one genuine rock star in the band. That would be
Bill Berry, who gained fame as a drummer and songwriter for
R.E.M., the biggest band to ever come out of Athens, Georgia.
Five Eight, a group led by guitarist/vocalist
Mike Mantione, followed in the footsteps of
R.E.M., occasionally sharing bills with the band, yet there's no comparing the popularity of the two musicians: one is a cult figure, the other toured the world and elsewhere. Despite these varying levels of notoriety,
Berry and
Mantione occupy a similar status in Athens, where they're both fixtures in the city's rock scene.
The Power and the Glory, the debut album from the duo's band
the Bad Ends, not only serves as a celebration of all things garage and jangle, it effectively continues a story begun over 40 years ago, as it finds these veteran rockers wrestling with the consequences of aging. It's not accidental that the record's first single is "All Your Friends Are Dying."
Mantione spends the record grappling with loss, change, and decay, finding the world changing as he remains still at the center. Sometimes, he addresses this quiet tumult in an earnest, quiet fashion. More often, he creates a righteous noise, not so much battling against the twilight as celebrating the moment. This is where
Berry comes in. He's a subtle, sympathetic drummer on the ballads, but he still plays with a mighty thunder on the rockers, his rhythms enlivening songs that are unapologetically throwbacks to the glory days of college rock. The enthusiasm of the execution helps keep
The Power and the Glory from sounding like an exercise in nostalgia, as do
Mantione's earnest, unguarded songs: this is music that exists entirely in its own moment, not as part of the past. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine