PICK UP A COPY OF OUR NEW RECORD "Mañana, Mon Frère" AT THE COMMON MARKET, LOCATED AT THE CORNER OF COMMONWEALTH AVENUE & THOMAS AVENUE IN THE PLAZA MIDWOOD NEIGHBORHOOD.

Recent News

"Mañana, mon frère", was released locally on July 21st. The cd release party at the Evening Muse was huge succes, and many thanks are owed to the folks who showed up and supported us. So... THANKS! We couldn't do what we do without you (well, we could but it wouldn't be much fun). Now it's off to play some shows... We're going to try to get out of town a bit in the coming months. We begin in August opening for the Bottle Rockets at the Visulite on the 15th, then playing Snug Harbor on friday, the 17th. In September we head to Myrtle Beach and hit the Muse again. In October we will head to Winston Salem to play the Garage. More to be announced later.

Oh yeah... in even bigger news, we have a new bass player. His name is Matt Mangum and we're glad to have him. Luckily, he has a sly wit and a damn fine sarcastic sense of humor, so he fits right in. Reeve Coobs has also signed on with us and is going to be playing piano, percussion, and adding her lovely harmonies at some shows with us when her Near Misses schedule permits. Yes...we are jazzed about the addition of Reeve and Matt!

Last, we have some brand spankin' new t-shirts that will be available at the shows.... Be sure to pick one up so the kids (and the ladies) will know you are in the know.

Hope to see you soon!

Recent Press

From Creative Loafing (July 18, 2007): "I always thought bombing the Grammys would be a good idea," laughs gogoPilot's Jeff Williams, "but the problem is, right behind those assholes is a new level of assholes that are probably even worse."

For the humor-impaired, the 41-year-old veteran of the Charlotte music scene makes music, not Grammy bombs, in his home studio. But on the eve of his band's CD release party this Saturday, July 21, at The Evening Muse, Williams' expectations for Mañana, Mon Frère, gogoPilot's first full-length, are tempered by years spent in the local music trenches.

Williams cut his teeth in the early 1990s playing with Cellophane and Iodine, and the latter morphed into Lodestar, his longest running gig, in the mid-90s. It was during that era when Williams got to experience the music business' ugly side up close and personal.

"There was a period from '94 to '98 where people were kind of brutal to each other," he says of the local scene. "Everybody was out on the road trying to kill it to try and get signed, and it just got kind of catty. There was a lot of shit-talking and backstabbing. The mentality of the bands was like gangs -- us against them. And that's one great thing about Charlotte now, everybody's playing with different people and the scene's more fertile because of it."

Williams' latest band was a product of that cross-pollination. After Lodestar imploded, Williams formed gogoPilot from the ashes in 2003. The band's 2005 six-song maxi-EP, Armageddon Lullabies, featured a seven-piece collective and eclectic instrumentation like violin, cello, accordion and lap steel. Fueled in part by the disappointing '04 elections and the tortuous reign of George Bush, Williams' songs were outlets for his political angst.

But these days, Williams is just as content grinding the coping at the local skate-park as he is grinding out guitar chords. After 20 years concentrating on music, he picked up his skateboard two years ago and now rides five days a week if time allows. It's all about balance, he says, and he's not just talking about staying on the board.

"It's great to have a physical outlet, just tearing it up for a couple hours every day," he says. "I've been in bands and listening to live music from the time I was 15 to the age of 36. And you get to the point, surely there's something else."

If skate-boarding's proven to be a fountain of youth for Williams, the new album's songs are a return to his guitar pop roots. His band's been trimmed down to a four-piece comprised of Williams, Chris Ravenscroft (guitar), Matt Mangum (bass) and Tom Stanfel (drums). The stripped-down arrangements suit Mañana's hook-happy songs, an infectious mix of guitar pop, twang and indie rock with touchstones running the gamut from Elvis Costello and the Jam to Wilco and the New Pornographers.

The narratives may be less overtly political, but there's still plenty of Williams' trademark biting satire in unflinching songs about divorce, familial alcoholism, evolution, salvation and, unsurprisingly, the stupid side of rock & roll. Song-of-the-year candidate "Young Dumb Narcissus" takes on wannabe rock stars trying to hoodwink their way into the spotlight: "I'm a half-ass poet running full-speed down a dead-end road/I'm just some nobody who plays a guitar/Writes down generalities and clichés/And hopes you're dumb enough to buy it."

"I don't worry any more about whether a record I make fits in with what anybody's listening to," says Williams, "I do it now because I enjoy it. If I make a record, and one person likes it, or likes even one song, then I win. It's just one thing that I like to do; it's an outlet that helps keep me sane."

From the Macon Telegraph, (April 6, 2007): Sounding like a cross between Wilco and the Kinks, This indie band from Charlotte mixes American twang and British archness. They've also got a political bent, indicated by the title of their CD, "Armageddon Lullabies." Playing at 9:30 tonight at the Hummingbird Stage and Taproom, 430 Cherry St. 741-9130. $5.

From Creative Loafing (March 21, 2007): Local fixture gogoPilot play what I'd call emo proper -- there's not a lot of Technicolor hair-pulling and teeth-gnashing to be found, but rather a subtle blend of tones concerning themes of love and love lost, regret, sacrifice and subsequent salvation (or not, which is just as powerful, sez here, at least from a musical standpoint). Once a rollicking, whiskey-warmed collection of nontraditional instrumentation (and personalities), gogoPilot version 2.0 are of a straight-ahead, country-inflected power pop experience (power pop here meaning Cracker, or maybe Big Star). The boys are said to be putting the finishing touches on their next record at Pyramid treehouse "Sioux Sioux studio" (say it fast), to be released in the next few weeks. With Raised by Wolves and The Situationals.

Bio/History

gogoPilot is an indie rock/pop outfit from Charlotte, NC. The band formed in 2003, as a mostly acoustic ensemble featuring pretty, melodic songs, eclectic instrumentation such as violin, cello, accordion and lap steel, and the standard bass, guitar and drums. Original influences included a diverse collection of artists, ranging from the Beatles, Burt Bacharach and the Zombies, to modern acts such as Wilco, Guided By Voices and Those Bastard Souls. gogoPilot also mixed post-punk influences like early Echo and The Bunnymen and Lloyd Cole and the Commotions with the political leanings of the Clash thrown in for good measure. The band is the brain-child of singer/songwriter/guitarist Jeffrey Williams, whose past projects have included Lodestar, Iodine and Cellophane.

Though band members have fluctuated in past years, 2005’s six song “maxie-e.p.”, Armageddon Lullabies, was primarily recorded with the help of guitarist and sidekick Chris Ravenscroft, drummer Chad Wilson and bassist Chris Lonnon. Other musicians appearing on the record include Rodney Lanier (on lap steel, accordion and guitar), Ben Kennedy (..o and violin), Vance Carlisle (on piano), Reeve Coobs (on vocal harmonies) and Chris Walldorf (on percussion). Produced by wunderkind Joe Kuhlmann (owner of 36th Street Studios, as well as Charlotte's premier acoustic venue, The Evening Muse), the result is a c.d. that features strong song writing, melodic instrumentation and introspective songs about everything form the current political environment to very adult problems such as alcoholism, the drudgery of working life, relationships falling apart, and people-watching in an Italian train station…

In mid-2006, gogoPilot shifted artistic directions. Williams’ songwriting drifted back to the familiar terrain of his former band, Lodestar. The band’s power pop/indie rock/Americana sound has thrust the band into the spotlight as one of Charlotte’s more popular and influential original acts. gogoPilot is currently playing Charlotte’s premier venues, such as the Visulite Theatre and the Evening Muse, and playing shows in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee. Currently, the band's sound is moving in the direction of established indie acts such as Wilco, Josh Rouse and Pedro The Lion, while staying true to the roots of time-honored acts such as Elvis Costello, The Police, The Jam, The Who, The Beatles and the Clash. As always, strong songwriting is the focus and Williams is still penning often-challenging songs that show no fear of subject matter that some writers consider tough to handle: divorce, alcoholism, right-wing fundamentalism, the Iraq war and salvation, just to name a few. Williams’ gift for cloaking sometimes gritty subject matter in delicate and beautiful melodies is a rare find. Never maudlin, the end result for the listener is cathartic and uplifting.

Released in July of 2007, the band's second studio album, "Mañana, mon frère", (Tomorrow, my brother) was recorded in Williams’ home studio (Wasteland). Williams is also filling his time playing the role of producer for Reeve Coobs' debut solo recording, which is due out in 2007. (Coobs is a member of gogoPilot as well as one of Charlotte’s most popular female folk outfits, The Near Misses.)

gogoPilot’s current line-up is Williams on guitar and vocals, gogoPilot veteran Chris Ravenscroft on guitars and Tom Stanfel (formerly of Static and Clifton) on drums and percussion. Matt Mangum joined the band on bass in 2007. Reeve Coobs plays piano, percussion and provides harmony vocals with the band when her Near Misses' schedule permits, and Ben Kennedy, from local band Pyramid, joins the band on violin and cello occasionally.