Grey 8s

"If you add up the numbers in 2015, you get eight," says Danny Burns, singer, guitarist, songwriter, and numerologist for Miami garage rock band Grey 8s, when asked about his plans for the upcoming year.

The group began in Dania, where Burns and drummer Andres Bedoya formed the foundation of a church band. According to the guitarist, it didn't take long for them to realize their musical tastes and religion might not be a holy union.

"We weren't down with all the Christian Baptist rules," he admits. "They looked down on us listening to the Beatles and Black Sabbath. So we stopped playing for the church because we didn't want a double life."

With some prodding, Burns admits the schism wasn't as clean as he may make it sound. "Actually, we didn't let the church know we were quitting for a year so we could use their facilities. We recorded the album using the mic the pastor uses for his sermons."

That untitled album is not streaming, nor available on vinyl, iTunes, or CD, because Burns says he and his bandmates wanted to make their music more mysterious. It is only available on cassettes, released by Cheap Miami and sold at Grey 8s shows, including January 17 at Kill Your Idol and January 21 at Bardot.

Of course, fans will have to look elsewhere for the Walkman or boom box to play that audio tape. But anyone who can hunt down yesteryear's technology will find muffled garage rock reminiscent of the groups that inspired Burns and his buddies' band name.

"Andres and I were thinking of two piece bands we liked. The most obvious ones were the White Stripes and the Black Keys, so we went in the middle," explains Burns about Grey. And what about the 8? "We liked the infinity symbol, so we flipped it on its side."

They also added a third member, bassist László Piringer, in part, according to the guitarist, "so someone else could keep the rhythm."

In this year that adds up to eight, the Grey 8s already have a tour of Florida and some dates in Chicago lined up, but they're dreaming beyond American borders.

"It's very far fetched, but we're trying to get shows in Hungary," Burns says. "Laszlo is from there. He says he can set it up. I'll be happy to get out there and just play on the street." - Miami New Times

Though still young in its run, multi-genre showcase series the Grand Collab is already becoming a good source for bright Florida talent discovery. At the November debut, West Palm Beach’s Hypoluxo gave me the surprise jolt of the night. This time (Feb. 22, Will’s Pub), it was, hands down, the Heavy Drag gang from Miami. I call them that because it seems several projects overlap in these four guys, and though Heavy Drag was on the bill, at least one other separate band was squeezed into the same set. As they tell me, most of the material played was actually the Grey 8s. Confused yet? I was. But the good news is that telling them apart didn’t matter too much because it was all exceptional.

Best I could tell, the beginning of the set was Heavy Drag. They’re part of the noisy new school of psych rock run by the likes of the Black Angels and the Warlocks, and they’re some of this genre’s best sonic dope dealers I’ve heard come out of Florida. After a little musical chairs on the instruments and a simple member substitution – presto! – they were suddenly the Grey 8s, who were equally dark and druggy but more punk. The deeper down the rabbit hole they went, their garage-hearted horizon even opened into some bluesy rock & roll. It’s a tangled little knot and a lot to process. But the versatile set by the two or so sister bands was a high-grade trip unified by great power and atmosphere. And so my list of Florida bands to watch grows by two.

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This Little Underground is Orlando Weekly's music column providing perspective, live reviews and news on the city's music scene. Read the latest column here.

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Email Bao: baolehuu@orlandoweekly.com - Orlando Weekly