Hard rock and getting fired — it’s an obvious combination.
Few things accompany the “stick-it-to-the-Man” fury that often follows a dismissal better than a tortuously distorted guitar and a well-timed kick drum.
But for Chapel Hill’s Eric Wallen blasting riffs is more than just hard-edged therapy. It’s the next step.
SEE MINOR STARS
Time: 10 p.m. Saturday
Location: Local 506
506 W. Franklin St.
Info: www.local506.com
As he stares down a layoff at UNC’s soon-to-be-closed Tar Heel Temps office, Wallen is taking the opportunity to fully pursue his life’s driving passion: music.
“This is what I’m meant to do, and this is what I love doing,” he said. “And when I don’t do it, I start seeing manifestations of unhappiness or whatever in my life.”
Up to this point Wallen has pursued music consistently if not doggedly. He is the guitarist for Ben Davis And The Jetts, and from 2000 to 2006 he was the frontman for My Dear Ella, a psychedelic Carrboro band that he said sometimes partied more than it played.
In the ashes of Ella’s collapse, Wallen formed Death Of The Sun, a harder rocking band with clear cues from the ’70s. Through more than two years of shelling new songs and a revolving door of backing players, Wallen whittled his project down to a sharply refined trio.
Tired of the constant expectation of death metal produced by the band’s name, Wallen re-dubbed the trio Minor Stars and prepared to release the band’s debut album.