Lawrence.com

Allen Epley is here to shatter myths. The Shiner singer-guitarist  one of the area's most prominent frontmen during the early '90s  is quick to blast holes in the theory that there ever was a "golden age" of local music in the first place.

"I think the myth of that time was bigger than it actually was," Epley says during a recent interview. "KC was supposed to break out as the next big thing after Minneapolis or Seattle or Austin or wherever the scene was. And then it didn't materialize."

The aftershocks of that letdown are still being felt around the area, according to Epley, who insists that music fans should keep their collective chins up when it comes to hometown pride.

"Every town, when we go (on the road), thinks that their town sucks the most," he adds. "It's inevitable, unless you live in New York or Chicago. I honestly don't think the people and the band's in town know how good it is in KC. Because out-of-town, they do know. They go, 'What the (expletive) is in the water in KC; what are you guys doing?' There's a million bands around here, and if you really break it down per capita there's a lot of great bands in this town  younger bands, too. The main zenith of the Kansas City scene has yet to be."

Maybe Shiner can help. With the recent release of its fourth effort, "The Egg," and a handful of high-profile gigs already booked, the band is looking to have a banner year. Though the group probably won't be accepting gold sales awards anytime soon, it remains one of the area's most acclaimed acts, a high-energy live group with a small-but-devoted fanbase. For now, that's probably more than enough.

Emocore excellence

Shiner's first CD, 1995's "Splay," was recorded and mixed in only five days  and it came across that way. A murky sound, combined with a bit too much of the then-trio's early math-rock leanings, made for a fairly inauspicious debut, one that Epley and company are happy to forget.

"I still cringe at several points on every record," the singer-guitarist says. "I generally have the same reservations about each record. I don't think 'Splay's' recorded great."

Determined to get it right the second time around, the trio more than made up for 'Splay's' shortcomings with 1997's "Lula Divinia," an album that perfectly balanced Shiner's alt-rock and hard-rock influences. Tim Dow's geometrical drumming and Paul Malinowski's pummeling bass laid a foundation for Epley's torn-jeans riffage and tenebrous vocals, sounding like a group that knew exactly where it was going. That sense of confidence, combined with Epley's knack for obsessive wordplay, got the band a fair amount of local attention. Unfortunately, songs like "Semper Fi," where the singer slurred his hellish lyrics across a telephone wire, were compressed with just enough distortion-pedal angst to get the band branded with the emo stamp.

"It's so funny that we've been tagged as an emo band," Epley says. "To me, emo was always Sunny Day Real Estate and stuff like that. When The Get Up Kids began to kind of define it, I was like, 'Oh, that's emo?' I just called it pop. But I can't worry about what people are gonna call us. I saw one of our records on eBay the other day that said, 'emocore excellence!' We've been called so much, and none of it has ever really affected us. But it's interesting to me that we've been lumped into an emo kind of thing."

No star

After the departure of Dow, Shiner was reconfigured as a four-piece, adding guitarist Josh Newton and former Molly McGuire drummer Jason Gerken to the fold. Gerken's drumming eliminated some of the band's overt number crunching, and the addition of Newton brought a beefy new element to Shiner's sound. Like Bruce Banner turning into the Hulk, Shiner morphed from workaday to monstrous.

"Adding Josh into the whole mix has been the real liberating thing," Epley says. "He's been the one who's really liberated our thoughts as far as what we can do. His background in music and what he does and the way heapproaches music, and the (expletive) that he loves  Brainiac or Aphex Twin  has really opened us up. Not that we have any Aphex Twin or Brainiac in us, but that side has been brought out a little bit through Josh."

Unfortunately, Shiner had already written most of the material for what would be its third effort, "Starless" by the time Gerken and Newton signed on. After demoing the new songs a number of times, the band members found themselves burnt out and a little too rehearsed by the time the final tracks were recorded.

"I honestly think we overworked it," Epley says. "You can sap some of the energy and life and intensity and urgency from a recording by overworking it and trying to get it perfect. We got it so perfect, it became less perfect."

"Starless" (like "Lula") was released by indie label Owned and Operated. Though Epley was unhappy with the label's distribution company, he's quick to credit the organization with rescuing the band.

"They gave us a hand up at that time," he says. "We wouldn't be here if they hadn't; they saved our lives. When they got us out of the water, after they gave us CPR, they weren't able to get us running again, but we were able to get us running again on our own."

Back to the 'Egg'

Shiner hit the ground running when it convened in Epley's basement to record the 11 tracks that comprise "The Egg." Recorded in nine days and mixed in six, the album marks a new chapter in the band's history.

"It's the best thing we've done as a band with any of the lineups," Epley affirms. "It's a pretty good reflection of where we're at, or where we were at a year ago when we began writing. We love it. It's weird because so often somebody hates it in the band, or somebody doesn't like some of it. But we were all like, 'Hey!'"

Though Shiner has never been a group that resorted to lighter-lofting choruses in order to sell a few more CDs, Epley isn't afraid of making music that appeals to a variety of fans.

"We're not trying to be all things to all people, but kind of," he says. "We have a style, but we also don't want to just do one thing so much. Our crowd is a mishmash of people. It's people who like Tricky and people who like Creed and people who like The Promise Ring. It's a pretty diverse unit of people, which I'm OK with. I'm OK with us being an enigma to some extent."

Shiner's crowd also consists of people who like Jawbox, Hum and the hundreds of other mid-level acts with whom the quartet's shared stages. Currently, Shiner is preparing for a Midwest jaunt, opening for indie it-band Death Cab For Cutie.

"I was a little concerned that it might be too much of an odd matchup for the crowd, but I think it's actually gonna be really great," Epley says. "I think there's some layover, more than I would even know, especially with their new record. It's pretty rockin actually."

In November, Shiner will travel abroad for its first European tour, a four-1/2 week stint back-to-back shows with no days off in-between. Though Epley has his reservations about flying at a time like this, he's focusing on the positives aspects of a dream gig.

"Since the attacks, we're all a little weirded out about the safety of everything," he says. "But we're gonna go, we're gonna tear it up, we're gonna have a great time."