Charleston-based group Oh Ginger to play at Conundrum Music Hall on Wednesday
It rings through the background of up-tempo pop hits and laces through smooth jazz rhythms as nothing more than an instrument in the line of percussion.
It's the vibraphone, like the xylophone or glockenspiel that outfitted the inside of your elementary school's music room. And Oh Ginger, a Charleston-founded acoustic duo, has one mission in their music: to bring the vibraphone to the forefront.
Oh Ginger will perform at Conundrum Music Hall, in their first east coast tour, Wednesday with N JETTY M and Jason Lescalleet.
Michael Hanf, half of Oh Ginger, graduated from the College of Charleston in 2008 with a degree in music with a concentration in vibraphone. He's always played folk and country music as a singer/songwriter, and he knew vibraphone wasn't commonplace in either genre — really, more added background in percussion tracking.
"I wanted to make it a real part of my music — like the guitar or mandolin," Hanf said. "It's an important instrument to get out there and no one else seems to be doing it right now."
Hanf met Lindsay Holler, the guitarist and co-vocalist of Oh Ginger, while he was at school in Charleston and the two began to casually play together as an acoustic group. But now, the band has stretched across the east coast all the way to New York.
Hanf also plays the vibraphone in a Danish dance rock band called Hess is More which has played South by Southwest, Montreal Jazz Festival and a host of places in Turkey, Russia and Brazil. He's also involved in an experimental theater project in Pittsburg that will be touring France and Australia in the fall.
Holler plays in Charleston-based group Matadero with musician Ron Wiltrout and is working on new music with the Western Polaroids.
So between Danish dance rock and acoustic indie rock, where do the two strike their musical balance? Similar music libraries and personal tastes have lent to a set stocked with both originals and covers that include Sonic Youth, Elvis and Radiohead.
A favorite set signature is "Tonight You Belong to Me" from the 1979 Steve Martin movie "The Jerk." They have eclectic tastes, but they share them.
"We just like good songs," Hanf said.
Their musical pulls come from Ryan Adams and Gram Parsons, but there's one duo that has defined the pair's performances: bluegrass singer/songwriters Gillian Welch and David Rawlings. The Americana, bluegrass background of the duo ties back into Hanf and Holler's folk and country beginnings, but it's the lower-key stage time that resonates with Oh Ginger.
"A lot of work tends to be heavily orchestrated, but to just have two people on stage, it's kind of amazing," Hanf said.
It's the challenge of the "really epic, hard songs," according to Hanf, that bring the acoustics and uniqueness of the vibraphone into play. Hanf said when the songs are played by a duo, it all "boils down to a really beautiful melody."
"With just the guitar, vibraphone and vocals, there is a lot of room for the music to breathe," Hanf said. "There's a lot more room for the audience to relate to us."
And, with the known risk of sounding cliché, Hanf said he hopes Oh Ginger's music "makes people feel less alone."
Oh Ginger is working on their third EP, the first two titled "Oh! Ginger" and "[ohginger]." With Hanf in New York and Holler in Charleston, there have been a lot of songs written via email, with solo performances and writing being pulled together as the one act.
The group's upcoming EP, due out next month, will include a full band with the hopes of a more hard rock arrangement. Hanf sees the two touring as both a full band and an acoustic duo, with the opportunity for stripped-down coffee house shows and larger-scale rock venues.
Wednesday's show will be the two's first real string of performances, with Columbia holding the potential to be their big "claim to fame," Hanf said.
Doors open at 7 p.m. and the show begins at 8. Tickets are $5. For more information, visit ohginger.bandcamp.com or conundrum.us.