Nashville throwback rockers Fly Golden Eagle launch fall tour Friday at JJ's - Sept. 26

photo Fly Golden Eagle is, from left, Richard Harper, Matt Shaw, Ben Trimble and Mitch Jones.

IF YOU GO• What: Fly Golden Eagle.• When: 10 p.m. Friday, Sept. 26.• Where: JJ's Bohemia, 231 E. M.L. King Blvd.•Admission: $6.• Phone: 423-266-1400.• Website: jjsbohemia.com.• Artist website: flygoldeneagle.net.

LISTENCheck out 12 tracks from Fly Golden Eagle's upcoming album, "Quartz," at soundcloud.com/ato_records/sets/quartz-bijou-by-fly-golden/s-lUrKd.

At the start of their three-year journey to create a new album, the members of Nashville's Fly Golden Eagle didn't have a sprawling, 26-track epic in mind. They just wanted to produce something that better represented the band.

Lead singer Ben Trimble, a Detroit native, almost single-handedly led the creation of the fuzzy psychedelic quartet's 2011 debut, "Swagger," which he mystifyingly describes as being "based on a smell." For the band's upcoming second album, "Quartz," to be released Oct. 14, he wanted to embrace a more collaborative spirit to create something "more tactile."

"With this one, we wanted to have the energy and a feeling of the whole band," he says. "Mainly, everyone plays multiple things on most of the songs, so it has more of that feel."

About the same time as he started writing, Trimble stumbled across Mexican director Alejandro Jodorowsky's "The Holy Mountain," a 1973 avant-garde drama dripping with symbolism. Trimble started watching the film for inspiration, began setting his songs to run in synch with it and "it just kept working out," he says.

Although there is an abridged, 12-track version of "Quartz" that will be released simultaneously, Trimble says the 26-track version is worth spending time on.

"It is a lot [to take in], but people either dig it or they don't," he says, matter-of-factly. "That's just what we felt like doing. Once it was all said and done and we got to listen to the whole thing fall together ... we were really happy with it."

Fly Golden Eagle will kick off a 27-date national tour in support of "Quartz" with a show Friday, Sept. 26, at JJ's Bohemia. The band was most recently in Chattanooga sharing the stage at Track 29 with Cleveland, Tenn., native and fellow ATO Records signee J. Roddy Walston and The Business.

Trimble says Friday's show will predominantly feature material from "Quartz" with a handful of songs pulled from "Swagger." Throughout, fans will hear a throwback brand of sometimes dark, sometimes funky rock laced with organ riffs and no-frills, classic production.

That sound has been heard on prominent stages around the country, from the Palladium in Los Angeles and SXSW in Austin to performances at this year's Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza festivals. They're also friends with labelmates The Alabama Shakes, with whom they frequently have toured and collaborated.

Even with that kind of success behind them, Trimble says, continuing on that curve is all about remaining levelheaded.

"We all just want to make music, and it's been fun and exciting to see everything that has been happening and other people enjoying it and getting the opportunity to play more places," he says. "You always believe in yourself and in what you're doing, so when everything is happening, it's exciting, but it's not like, 'Oh my gosh, this is crazy.' It's like, 'Oh, OK. Cool.'"

Contact Casey Phillips at cphillips@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6205. Follow him on Twitter at @PhillipsCTFP.

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