The Spiders

A quick search reveals that this is the third band to use the moniker “the Spiders” — it’s just too good a name to resist. The first Spiders was a New Orleans R&B party band in the ’50s, the second a Japanese British Invasion band (no kidding) and the third — this group — a rawk-and-squawk group from the Austin, Texas, area. Driven by guitarist Eric Shaw’s percussive part-punk-part-metal guitar lines and singer Chris Benedict’s Marc-Bolan-meets-Lux-Interior croon, the Spiders’ music gives glam polish to tense, driven noise. These Spiders simply rock, a strategy all too few bands seem willing to try (or able to execute) these days.