There’s been something about the summer of 2025 in Durham, NC that has just seemed a little off to me. It’s not because of the humidity acting like it’s trying to rival South Asia during monsoon season.
It’s not any of many possible things. What it is though? Here we are in August and Spider Bags have not played anywhere outside yet this summer.
Dan McGee formed the Spider Bags in the mid 00s after moving to the Durham, NC area from New York following the split of his band the DC Snipers. For the unfamiliar, an easiest way of encompassing what the Spider Bags sound like is to simply say they’re an American Rock-n-Roll band. Big, bright guitars, a rhythm section that appears brash and ragged but are locked in on the same brain planet, blowing off steam by stompin’ three-chord bangers, 70s country twangers and outre rock droners like they’re making wine. McGee’s crooned and howled words fueled by cynicism, filtered through hard hangovers, hayseed heartache and bookstore loitering.
The Spider Bags debut album, A Celebration Of Hunger, came out in 2007 on Birdman. They’ve released five albums since, including one, Bad Girl, where the band backs boisterous soul siren, the late Reese McHenry. Their 2014 record Frozen Letter and 2018’s Someday Everything Will Be Fine came out on the locally based and internationally renowned label Merge.
Unfortunately, there will be no such Spider Bags outside thing happening this summer.
In early May of this year, word came across the social media sphere that Dan was in the hospital and that his family had set up a GoFundMe to help pay his medical bills.
On April 23, Dan McGee—beloved father, friend and musician — collapsed from a brain aneurysm, which flooded the space around his brain (a subarachnoid hemorrhage). Friends rushed him to UNC Hospitals, where an expert neurosurgery team threaded a tiny platinum coil into the aneurysm and sealed the bleed, saving his life.
He is still not out of the woods and a long fight still lies ahead.
He will be in the Neuro‑ICU until at least May 7 to watch for a complication called cerebral vasospasm as they clear the blood from his brain.
On Saturday, August 23rd at the Pinhook in Durham, NC some of Dan’s friends are throwing a shindig to help him out with a knockout billed benefit.
Personality Cult have put out one of my favorite albums of this year and Verity Den put out one of my favorite albums of last year. Both bands rule for different reasons. The former for heads down and full speed ahead high sheen garage pop; the latter for its mood of cooling mist illuminated by neon lights purple and green southern gaze. I gotta admit that I am familiar with Titus Andronicus but not all THAT familiar. Recently, a buddy of mine texted me “TITUS!” That’s a Good enough endorsement for me.
Steve Oliva has been a constant musical partner of Dan’s since 2011 as the bassist in the Spider Bags.
Here are a couple shots of Dan from when Spider Bags played outdoors on a summer night in Durham last year. The camera was a Praktica LTL. I’ve talked about some times before.
Shot it with my favorite budget 35mm black and white film, Fomapan 400. It’s cheap. It can also be unpredictable. It’s a particular beast I keep thinking I’m gonna train. It will always glare and grain. It often looks greasy and glorious at the same time. It’s made in the Czech Republic from a company that has been around since 1921. It’s Foma, man. Snobs be damned!
Some good news on the Dan front was delivered on August 6th with this GoFundMe update from the McGee family.
Dan had surgery yesterday and it was completed without major complication. He can now begin the road to recovery.
The surgeon said that he should make a full recovery and be able to return to life as usual in time.
Another Spider Bag story
That's the Bag I'm In
I moved to North Carolina from Michigan right as the country was starting to shut down for the pandemic in the late winter 2020. I did not move because of the pandemic, my wife and I already had our plan in place. Of course, many parts of that plan were kiboshed (the job I had lined up etc) but the house sold and the job I’d been at for a decade had alr…
Some other Fomapan photos
Not Perpendicular Nor Parallel
Some things have been moving for Durham, NC’s band, The Obliques, since we wrote about them a couple of months ago. In April, this quartet of high school kids—comprised of Angus Gering (guitar/lyrics), Jackson Steffens (guitar/lyrics), Pablo Blackwell (drums), and Donivan Russell (bass)—played their first show outside of family garages and so on. That n…
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I can’t say Sharp Pins are exactly bumpin’ out of car radios or blaring from boomboxes in the park. Still, I wouldn’t say WXYC in Chapel Hill wasn’t on a mission to make that happen when their DJs locked onto “Bye Bye Basil” from this Chicago entity’s 2023 debut, Turtle Rock. Precious and shambling, the song’s lo-fi principles and ‘60s Mod/Brit expressi…