This cozy home, in an Eastside subdivision cul-de-sac where it’s hard to imagine noise ordinances going unenforced, has been the Connected Houses rehearsal space for a few months now. You’ll notice cookbooks, a comfy couch, a photo-to-canvas wedding portrait of keyboardist Natalie McClure with her roadie-engineer husband, Jason, and a framed abstract Kandinsky print. This snapshot suggests perfect suburban stability. Of late, the story of Connected Houses, a band celebrating its one-year anniversary, has been anything but.
The psychedelic jam-rock quintet of Mrs. McClure, joined by bassist Derrek Warren (ex-Brantley Gilbert), guitarist Daniel Bell, drummer Mikey Jones and percussionist Bart Mingledorff (Rollin’ Home), recently underwent a few lineup changes, losing a founding guitarist and a vocalist.
“Naturally it’s about chemistry, and some of the best bands were born from both good and bad chemistry, and we’re no different. We just had a falling out with somebody and we made a swift decision,” says McClure. “[We were] moving in different directions,” adds Warren. As for the attrition, Jones explains: “We are in a transitional period; we’re totally looking for someone to sing and hopefully play guitar along with that. We got a guy coming up tomorrow, so we’ll see how that goes. Ask us two days from now—we might have a singer!”
Despite the frustrating adversity Connected Houses has remained pretty, wait for it… connected. To what can we attribute this strong, binding mortar? “I think it’s our love of music. It’s a universal language. We all love so much different, eclectic stuff,” shares Bell, before McClure cuts to the heart of the matter, pointedly explaining, “I think it’s because we’re just willing to deal with each other’s bullshit. We’re flexible… There’s a certain freedom in it because we’re all very on board.”
Tear yourself away from the leftovers before a tryptophan-induced coma renders you useless. Newish local primal-blues trio Drinkypoo, featuring Brian Yetter (Would Be Farmers), Aaron Phillips (Bloodkin) and Mike Alden (ex Rubix), share the Black Friday bill.
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