Banding together

West Virginia is not usually known for its music scene or propelling bands into the rock 'n' roll mainstream, but with a little help from some hardworking musicians, this could all change.

Tucker Riggleman, bassist for the Shepherdstown, W.Va.-based band The Demon Beat, could be the person to lead this revitalization of rock and roll in West Virginia.

Not only does Riggleman play in The Demon Beat, but he is also a solo artist who pumps out heartfelt folk songs that conjure up comparisons to Saddle Creek's record Bright Eyes. Riggleman doesn't stop at just being an artist either. He is the president and manager of the independent record label Big Bullet Records.

When asked about the origin of the band name The Demon Beat, Riggleman said that it was derived from the early belief that rock 'n' roll was the "devil's music." This is a rather ironic name choice considering that they are in the forefront of bringing back aggressive rock and roll to West Virginia.

The Demon Beat was on their first official tour Nov. 20 through Nov. 26, snaking their way across the state of West Virginia and into Ohio in support of their new self-titled EP. On several of these dates, they played with fellow Mountain State band Russian Tombstones.

"I've known the members of The Demon Beat for a while now," said Dylan Balliet, vocalist and guitarist for Russian Tombstones.

As for the tour, Balliet said Russian Tombstones and The Demon Beat hooked up out of sheer luck and good timing.

"We both happened to be planning tours at the same time and helped each other out on dates where we knew it'd just be easier for one group or the other to just do the work for both bands," Balliet said.

While The Demon Beat has yet to play in Huntington, Riggleman said the band does well in Maryland.

"Being in a band in West Virginia is a double-edged sword," said Riggleman. "We go over well in Baltimore because we are a sort of a novelty from West Virginia, but being from here it is also easy to get overlooked."

Although the band gets some attention being from West Virginia, Riggleman said he found it funny because they do not live all that far from Baltimore.

Easily disregarded because of being from this area, Balliet said it is important for bands to stick together and help one another book shows.

For example, Balliet said The Demon Beat was recently interested in playing in Wheeling, W.Va. Russian Tombstones had just played there and the band's bassist Jason McCarty is friends with the owner of the venue. The Russian Tombstones then offered to get the show at Yesterday's for The Demon Beat rather than have them try to get in touch with the club owner, which many musicians know can oftentimes be tricky.

"We play at (123 Pleasant Street, Morgantown, W.Va.) a lot in various bands and know the owner pretty well, so it was easy for me to get that," Balliet said. "(The Demon Beat) let us hop on their Charleston show too, and we're really grateful for that and excited and just for playing with them in general. I think there are already some plans for future shows together around the state."

In the same spirit of bands helping bands, Riggleman is using Big Bullet Records to assist bands near Shepherdstown.

"(Big Bullet Records) is more like a community opposed to a regular record label," Riggleman said.

According to Riggleman, the current focus of the label is to release a compilation disc of Big Bullet artists, which is slated for release in early 2009.

For more information, The Demon Beat can be contacted at www.myspace.com/thedemonbeat.

Justin Hawthorne can be contacted at hawthorne2@marshall.edu.