I’ve never been to Chapel Hill, but when I listen to Shakermaker, I can’t help but imagine what it’s probably like. I can picture the kind of city that must have inspired and given birth to music like this: A leafy green city full of streets lined with Victorian-style rental houses. And inside the houses the wood floors are scuffed by secondhand furniture and nice sound equipment, and people gather on porches a lot to try out new guitar riffs. And, when 9pm or so rolls around, everyone finds their way to the local venue to support the local bands. The venue is, of course, filled with girls in dressy black skirts, and shy boys who are actually really good dancers, if you get up the nerve to ask them.

Don’t correct me if I’m wrong about all of this, okay? Shakermaker puts me in a really warm headspace, and it’s something I’d like to hang onto for a little while.

Thoroughly intelligent, charming, and melodic, often deceptively easy to listen to, the music of Shakermaker has been shaking up the local scene in Chapel Hill since the early 2000s. Members Mitch Eubanks and Jesse Moorefield have been friends since they were both members of the same high school marching band. The two got together after school to rehearse (non-marching band) music together under the Shakermaker moniker. “We often would have parties over at my house while my dad was away on business,” says Moorefield. “One time we got caught, and my dad banned us from practicing in our living room. With no place to practice, we kind of disbanded.” Years later, after college and a move to Chapel Hill, Eubanks and Moorefield met up with Brian Toomes and Jeff Feasel, and solidified the current line-up. The four played early shows at local venues like the now-defunct GO! and Cat’s Cradle, where today Moorefield is a production manager.      

Describing the music of Shakermaker is, frankly, something of a challenge. Reading reviews of the band’s albums can be an entertaining exercise; taken all together, the various references to sound-alikes and related genres may give the false impression that Shakermaker’s music is unfocused. And, I suppose, it’s fair to say that they don’t exactly fit into a neat category. Calling a band “category-defying” or even “experimental” is such a cliché nowadays that I hesitate to use it, but I’m afraid to get myself tangled up by trying to define this sound. There is, as many reviewers have said, indeed a touch of ’60s pop here; the luminous harmonies and silky vocals of “Frenchie” call to mind early Beatles records. On the other hand, I’ve had a Dan Fogelberg flashback or two during songs like the road-weary “Santa Fe” (and I mean that as a compliment). “We’re some mix of rock and pop, old and new, I guess,” says Toomes. “A friend of ours called us ‘friendly rock.’ We’ve been listed on posters as ‘psych-pop’ and I’ve heard ‘’60s-rock,’ too. I guess it depends on what song you listened to last.” 

When asked about the 1960s association, Eubanks has a more detailed explanation. “The association probably comes from our loose approach to style and home recording techniques,” he says. ”There’s a wide range of sound and a freedom of experimentation; we’re at our best when trying something new and untested. Our ears love novel ideas that work.”

However you want to phrase it or categorize it, it does work. You get the feeling that you’re sitting on that fabled front porch listening to them bounce ideas off one another, and whatever you’re hearing might never be created again. It’s that freshness of technique, that novelty of invention, which they’ve somehow managed to capture. And yet there’s a common thread here; as any fan of the band would probably claim, in spite of the distinct variation in sound from album to album, song to song, I could pick a Shakermaker tune out of a line-up in an instant.

A mistake that’s often made, particularly when a band is compared to early ’60s pop, is to assume that the sunshine of their sound is synonymous with simplicity. But you shouldn’t let the cheerful references and danceability fool you. There’s nothing simple or simple-minded about the haunting, nighttime highway hum of “Bleed the Brakes”, or the curbed desperation vibrating just beneath the surface of tracks like “Somewhere Warm.” This is a band with an endlessly complex repertoire of sounds from which to draw, and what seems to be the endless energy to draw them. “Typically Jesse, Mitch, or Brian will write a song,” says Feasel. “This person (the ‘honcho,’ if you will) leads the song with guitar and vocals, and the remainder of the band rotates to fill out the other parts. I’m the ‘designated drummer,’ though all four of us play the standard kit of canonical rock-band instruments, so in the future any arrangement is possible. Then Jesse’s dad layers on the pedal steel, and you’ve got a Shakermaker song.” (Note: This is the same Jesse’s dad who originally forbade the group to practice in his living room. The band says they won’t let him forget that.)

Shakermaker’s most recent album, a self-titled group of 11 self-produced songs, was released on April 17th, and their earlier effort, 2006’s Music Room, is available locally in Chapel Hill or by contacting the band directly via their website. They’re currently playing plenty of local shows and planning a possible tour, as well as increasing their online presence by making the recent jump to iTunes and YouTube. 

As far as my image of Chapel Hill… well, it’s not tarnished any by Toomes’ description of the local scene. “We have access to many great shows down the street,” he says. “We work with musicians; our regular bar is full of musicians. We talk UNC basketball with local venue owners. The students come and go, but the musicians are always here, working during the day and performing at night. We’re not operating out in a void, and the local music pushes us to do better.”

Whether Chapel Hill really matches my idyllic imaginings or not, any place that produces and supports bands like Shakermaker is a place I wouldn’t mind visiting.

Listen: Various Tracks [at myspace.com]

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