Human Cannonball has jumped into the deep end this year, as the band works on mixing its new album, tentatively titled Let’s Be Friends.
Frontman Jesse Remnant finished touring with Southeast Engine last Saturday, and is now able to devote his energy to completing the record.
Human Cannonball is a Dayton-based indie band featuring Eric Cassidy of Shrug, Ken Hall of the Rebel Set, Bryan Lakatos and Dan Stahl, in addition to Remnant. It will headline a show at Casa Cantina, 4 W. State St., tonight, which will also feature Duke Junior & the Smokey Boots and Yakuza Heart Attack.
Since the release of Southeast Engine’s Canary, many notable music critics have been paying attention to the band, which has been featured on iTunes, played on National Public Radio’s World Café and mentioned in Paste Magazine.
“It was awesome. My brother (Adam Remnant) is a frequent tweeter, and he let us know that iTunes was tweeting about Southeast Engine,” Jesse Remnant said. “It was really exciting and cool.”
This, in turn, has led to more exposure for bands signed with Misra — the label Southeast Engine is part of — including Human Cannonball. The band plans to start playing more shows in Athens, Dayton and regionally, once it sets a release date for the new album.
This will be the first time that Human Cannonball and Duke Junior & the Smokey Boots share the stage.
“I’m excited to play with Duke Junior — I’ve never actually played with them, but they’re kind of an Athens staple by now,” Remnant said.
Duke Junior & the Smokey Boots have been busy, as well. With its second album in the mixing stages, the band was recently featured in Billboard’s Battle of the Bands.
“It was definitely a good experience for us, and really good exposure, too. We were very happy to be involved with it,” said Jessica Kaufmann, who sings and plays guitar.
The band was one of three semi-finalists picked to represent the Midwest, but did not advance any further in the competition.
This will be the first time Duke Junior has performed with a full band in Athens in quite a while.
“We’ve been playing out of town and in the studio for a while, so we’ve been updating some of the songs and plan to try it out on Friday. It should be a great show,” Kaufmann said.
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