The Shakes

The Shakes

The Shakes is a Nashville-based group. The name is shared by several different acts, including a rock and roll group from Philadelphia, a jangly garage pop band from Adelaide, an old-time string trio from Harrisonburg, Virginia, and a Chicago band that forms around 2010 and plays its first show with Noise Apparel in August of that year.

One version of The Shakes forms in early 2005 as a rock outfit built around Clint Woolsey, Marcus Brown and Phill Mann. After a series of line-up changes, Mike Thompson and Paul Zettler join, and the group becomes a five-piece with three guitars. Its sound is described in terms of rock and roll, garage rock and power pop, with links to lo-fi garage pop, social anxiety and love sickness in the Adelaide group’s material.

The Philadelphia version is presented as a rock and roll group, while the Adelaide act is compared with The Dismemberment Plan, Interpol and Pavement. The Harrisonburg trio is an old-time string group from the Shenandoah Valley. The Nashville band also performs at SXSW.