Tennessee band does their own thing, heads to RnR Hotel Yes, Tennessee-based band the Features are signed to Kings of Leon’s own imprint label. And yes, to have such a popular act give its stamp of approval means a lot. But the Features are their own brand of indie rock.
“It is nice that they’re interested enough in what we’re doing to take some sort of part in it, considering their status,” said Features singer-guitarist Matt Pelham. “We’re grateful for it, but at the same time, we’re definitely our own band and don’t really care to get wrapped up or too involved in it.”
| Onstage |
| The Features |
| Where: Rock N Roll Hotel, 1353 H St. NE |
| When: 8 p.m. doors, 8:30 p.m. showtime Wednesday |
| Info: $10; rockandrollhoteldc.com |
The Features, which includes Roger Dabbs, Mark Bond and Rollum Haas, perform at the Rock N Roll Hotel on Wednesday. The group has a new album coming out in July titled “Wilderness,” a mix of songs that bring to mind anyone from Interpol to the Strokes to, yes, Kings of Leon.
“I think overall, I don’t think we were shooting for anything specific,” Pelham said of “Wilderness,” the band’s follow-up to 2009’s “Some Kind of Salvation.” “It is more just a collection of songs we’ve been working on. It’s pretty eclectic overall. It’s all over the place, really.”
The Features formed in the mid-’90s, but did not release their first full-length album until “Exhibit A” in 2004. Pelham said the band’s sound is difficult to categorize.
“I feel like we’ve always fallen into this gray area as a band,” he said. “We don’t fall into a category that kind-of-cool bands end up being in. But we’re a little too weird for the mainstream. We sort of walk this line. We’re in the middle somewhere.”
Pelham also explained that the Features’ songwriting is more straightforward, less abstract and atmospheric than that of their hipster brethren.
“We sort of stick to a simpler structure songwise for the most part,” he said. “At the same time, we try to do interesting stuff around that.”
The Features are based in Murfreesboro, Tenn., outside of Nashville. The area in general has made its mark on the map as a music hotbed.
Which came suddenly to Pelham.
“People use to say the area sucked,” he said, adding the band has played since 1993. “I don’t know what’s going on. It seems to get a lot more recognition, and it sort of came overnight.”
