The Shimmies

The Brothers Galloway—Jimmy, Sean and Stephen—have been making music together for years. But it wasn’t until the summer of 2006, when they added drummer Jack Gingerich and stumbled upon a name with the help of a friend and a little wordplay, that The Shimmies really began to take shape.

“Our buddy Iestyn [aka The Dr. Yes Experiment!] came up with our name since my name is Sean and my brother’s name is Jimmy,” explained the eldest Galloway, who plays guitar and sings alongside Jimmy.

The result is a well-conceived and well-executed take on the more melodic side of indie rock.

Having all grown up in various parts of Butte County and currently residing in Oroville, the Galloways are familiar with the Chico music scene, and it seems to be only a matter of time before they really begin to put their footprint on it. The Shimmies participated in the Ethos Music Camp in the summer of 2006, and have since played shows with Bear Hunter and Aubrey Debauchery.

There’s good reason the band has been tapped to share the bill with some of Chico’s better-known acts. The Shimmies’ songs are packed with a strong sense of atmosphere, layered with beautiful harmonies, piano and guitars that shift effortlessly from spacey passages to distorted riffing and solos. Their music also packs quite an emotional wallop, thanks in large part to the range of the vocals, which are just as likely to bask in the hushed beauty of a quiet melody as they are to tear the house down with a fierce scream.

With a brief tour of California already under their belts, The Shimmies plan on heading out for a full West Coast tour sometime in 2008.

The members also plan on finding a way to release some of the material they have recorded. Some of their songs can be heard on their MySpace page, but The Shimmies have a wealth of material tucked away. It’s been recorded under different circumstances and in different places, so there are some consistency and continuity concerns that have kept the band from simply throwing it all together in album form. They likely will end up splitting the material into a couple of EPs.

Deliberate, thought-out decisions such as this separate The Shimmies from many of their peers.

GIVE A LISTEN TO: “Negative Capability” —unhinged pop-rock tempered by haunting falsetto and piano.