Imagine floating in a lazy kayak down a river. Suddenly, you notice a single towering tree on the bank that has caught fire. It cracks and plummets down right on top of you! There is pain, and then nothing. The rest of the story comes to you in anecdotes, after you wake up in a hospital bed missing part of your skull.
The Log Noggins. Left to right: Wayne Redden, Adrian Brinkley, Cole Laughter
That’s the true story at the root of the brand new song from western NC blues-rock band, The Log Noggins. Guitar player, singer and WCU alumnus Adrian Brinkley didn’t have to go out on a limb for the lyrics to the new Nov. 28 single, “Drag Me Out” – he witnessed it all firsthand.
The somber and moody blues-rock track artistically retells the story of the relaxing day on the river gone awry four years ago from Brinkley’s perspective. The story behind this song is the titular tale behind The Log Noggins’ band name.
After the tree fell, injuring Brinkley and knocking him out, the musician’s friends called for help. A helicopter took Brinkley to the hospital, where he underwent brain surgery for a subdural hematoma – a condition characterized by internal bleeding under the protective layer surrounding his brain.
“There was three months where they had to remove a section of my skull,” Brinkley said. “The swelling was severe enough they had to ‘let it breathe.’ For a while I was with a squishy head!”
After about 50 staples, 6 days in a coma, and one semester off from school, Brinkley was back to business as usual with a new and improved plastic skull. Since all that went down right around the time Adrian and the rest of the band were starting to get serious with their practicing, writing and gigging, it just made sense to take on The Log Noggins as their name.
Musically, “Drag Me Out” sees the band branching out from some of their formerly explored sound.
“Drag Me Out” official art
“It feels really good to us,” Brinkley said. “And the way Wayne mixed it is really spacey and atmospheric almost. I love that reverb.”
Wayne Redden plays drums for The Log Noggins and records and produces their songs, including their debut self-titled EP and other recent single, “Dirt Track.” The band recorded the new song, “Drag Me Out,” with effects, meaning very little had to be done in the production process. The result is a song that Brinkley and Redden believe has the same exact energy as the moment when it was recorded. The band went about the writing and recording processes differently than ever before.
“Whether we’re meaning to or not, we’re always just reinventing ourselves,” Redden said. “Our sound is always evolving. For me, the reason is because I would just get bored otherwise! It seems like every song we write, we’re reinventing what we are.
“The last song we did – “Dirt Track” – was this really classic southern rock sound like Lynyrd Skynyrd, but this [“Drag Me Out”] has a kind of ambient, darker tone. I thought of it as like southern gothic literature, but in a song.”
As The Log Noggins keep moving forward, they also reflect on their roots.
“I’m glad I went to Western,” said Brinkley, who graduated Spring, 2018 with a degree in Accounting. “Playing at No Name [in Sylva] really helped this band. We think about those gigs at No Name and Soul Infusion as some of the foundation for us.”
Catch The Log Noggins Dec. 21 in Asheville at the Orange Peel’s 18th annual Make-A-Wish Benefit Concert with Andalyn, Marvin King Revue, Billingsley, Andrew Thelston Band and STIG, and stay tuned for new music in 2020.
Check out The Log Noggins on Spotify.
