If you go
› What: Kansas Bible Company› When: 10 tonight, Oct. 13.› Where: JJ’s Bohemia, 231 E. M.L. King Blvd.› Admission: $5.› Phone: 423-266-1400.
Having horns in a band can be liberating, but it can also create an expectation of a certain style of music for fans. Mike Ruth of Kansas Bible Company knows all about it.
"We've always looked at having horns as being freeing, but socially it can box you in a little. But so does our name," he says with a big laugh. "People see them and think we are a neo-soul group or a ska group or an old-school R&B group."
They don't think psychedelic pop, which is what KBC plays. The Nashville-based band will be at JJ's Bohemia tonight, Oct. 13.
As for the name, people tend to think the group is a Christian band. The name comes from the Ryan and Tatum O'Neal movie "Paper Moon." In the film, the father-daughter (in real life, too) scam artists used it as one of their made-up businesses while they conned people.
"I don't think anybody thought we'd be around this long," Ruth says of the name. "I have no idea what people think when they hear it."
The eight-piece band first got together around 2008 at Goshen University in Indiana. They kind of broke up for a bit and then got back together in earnest in 2010. After moving to Nashville, they released their first record, "Hotel Chickamauga," a collection of jammy psychedelic songs.
The name comes from the fact that their first apartment was a 10-room house on Chickamauga Avenue in Nashville.
"We've since met people from Chickamauga, Ga.," Ruth says.
The newest record, "Adios Amigos," is more pop.
"We wanted to focus on composition more," he says.
"We wanted to write good pop songs but still have a psychedelic sound and edge to it. We wanted to have good songs with horns instead of letting our freak flag fly so much."
Ruth says the guys in the band are currently working on a new album "sort of independently." He says as each person writes a song, he does as much of the recording as he wants to and then the others add to it.
"It's a lot more informal, so we'll see how it goes."
Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354.