The Breakdown

Milwaukee-based Hounds Tooth is set to perform rockin’ blues music Saturday at The Club. The group is promoting its new CD, “Soul Rockin’,” by taking a “mini-tour” starting Wednesday in Pekin with stops in St. Louis and Quincy before ending Saturday in Dubuque, Iowa.

Recently I spoke with the group about the recording process and their plans for the future.

MEMBERS
JD Optekar — guitar/vocals
Jared James Nichols — guitar/vocals
Bob Noll — bass
Jeff Oscarson — drums

THE BEGINNING
“Hounds Tooth started playing gigs in 2006 as an outlet/hobby for JD (a stay-at-home dad). As the band evolved over the years, we kept improving and attracting better musicians to become the high-energy, regionally touring four-piece that we are today.”

SOUND
“Hounds Tooth’s modern blues sound is defined by its dual guitars. We focus on writing and recording original music.”

INFLUENCES
“Influences include Tab Benoit, Freddie King and Albert King. Our goal is to appreciate and understand the music that has come before us, but then to take it and put our own spin on it. You won’t hear a lot of standard 12 bar blues stuff in our original material.”

WRITING INSPIRATION
“Our biggest sources of inspiration for writing music are paying tribute to the blues, like in “Blues is Truth and Black Coffee”; commentary on our social media and the iPhone digital age, in “Is it Real”; and experiences and feelings common to many of us in relationships in “Time to Burn,” “Lay in Our Lie,” “All Over You” and “Soul Rockin.”

LATEST CD
“Our goal was to simplify the recording process and create an honest sound that would reflect in our live show. After we finished writing songs for the CD and trying them out at shows, we then refined and shortened the songs for the CD. Basic tracking for the CD was completed in two days and then a couple of guitar solos were overdubbed as well as the vocals. It was a matter of mixing the songs and sending them out for mastering. The whole process of recording, mixing and mastering took less than three weeks.”

FUTURE PLANS
“We have a nice number of blues festivals, blues rooms and other festivals booked for this summer. Our goal is to tour as much as possible throughout the Midwest and continue to develop a following. Radio airplay will be a big part of trying to break-through to the next level. Then we will start planning for a CD for 2011.”

QUINCY SHOW
“We have not performed in Quincy, but we are excited to be coming to town. We have heard great things about The Club Tavern bringing in regional and national touring acts. The audience can expect to see a high-energy show with our original rocking-blues music and one of the top young players in blues, Jared James Nichols.”

TOUR
“As part of this mini-tour we will be hitting the following venues”:
5/19 – River City Blues Society, Pekin, Ill.
5/20 – BBs Jazz, Blues, and Soups, St. Louis, Mo.
5/21 – The Club Tavern, Quincy, Ill.
5/22 – The Busted Lift, Dubuque, Iowa

Jessica Martin
jmartin@whig.com