The Wake

The Jameson was working its way through the veins on St. Patrick’s Day, and local rockers The Gleam wouldn’t have it any other way. The trio from Chisago County revved up the drunken crowd at the Uptown Bar with songs like “Fat and Stoned” and “High ’N Mighty.”

Don’t let the wall of distortion from front man Zachary Johns fool you; once bass player Timmy Wreck’s thumping bass lines leave his seventy-dollar amp head you realize, this is country music, country music done right.

“Punch-country,” Wreck says, “It’s revved up, rowdy rock and roll, the kind of stuff you listened to with your dad and you can sing all the words to.” Wreck has a raw, yet melodic approach to his instrument; he plays an old Fender Jazz Bass stripped down to the wood, down to its essence. He stands close to an extra kick drum for added bass and “when you look over and feel like stomping on something.”

Johns plays an old Harmony acoustic, obtained by the band from a garage sale on the way to the cities with the help of a pickup and generous amounts of duct tape. He runs the guitar through a couple distortion pedals, and the sound of The Gleam starts to shimmer. To make it shine, just add in the relentless pounding of drummer Johnny Bon-Bonnie, a 6-foot, 7-incher that makes you feel sorry for his drumheads and the beating they take, and don’t ask him if he ever played basketball.

The band also includes a fourth honorary member, Budweiser in a bottle, because it seems that this royalty among beers makes everything else possible. The driving energy The Gleam plays with isn’t from taking their vitamins and saying their prayers.

“Our music is about getting together with friends and drinking beers, which makes sense to me,” Wreck says.

The Gleam isn’t the kind of country music that infests commercial air waves these days. It’s the kind of country mastered by legends like Jerry Jeff Walker, one of The Gleam’s main influences, and it’s mixed with the swagger of rock and rollers that just don’t give a damn.

Maybe to understand The Gleam, you have to understand where they are coming from–Chisago County, Minnesota. This area is about forty miles north of the Twin Cities, boasting towns like Forest Lake, Wyoming and North Branch. These towns are on the edge of urban and rural culture. Having all the corporate chains and brand new condos to look like major suburbs, but still with dozens of trailer parks, meth heads, and farmhouses give it the thick, juicy center of rural Minnesota.

The guys in The Gleam have captured this in their sound, whether they know it or not, excluding the meth of course. Through that thick country shell that melts in your eardrums, not in your mouth, you can hear some influences in modern rock, along the lines of The White Stripes. Their unique vocals aren’t going to win any American Idol competitions, but that’s the last thing Johns and Wreck care about.

The Gleam stands apart from the ever-growing number of local bands, not only with their sound, but also with their brash, bar-band antics on stage. Taking shots of “The Wisk,” swigging Buds, and belching into the microphone shouldn’t surprise you.

“We’re just old friends that play music and don’t give a fuck,” Wreck adds. Like their music, these guys can be in your face, but all in the name of having a good old time and drinking some brews.

The Gleam released their first full-length album “Lookout for Evils” last April, following their first release “The Chisago County E.P.” You can find them in record stores like Cheapo or on iTunes, but if you’re up in The C.C. you can most likely find these guys at the local tavern sipping on a bottle of Bud.