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Skull City sound

By Staff | Jun 5, 2009
From left: Chris Baker, Chris Brown, Matt Kline, James Day, John Miller, Robbie Gillette and Dustin Lawyer rage along with singer Matthew Metz, foreground, of Sabertooth Lazer.
Meighan Young, left, opened Skull Fest with her brand of porch-hootin-archival-acoustic-mountain-blues. Originally from Hagerstown, she fell in love with the local music scene as 14 year old following bands like The Red Oranges and others. "These bands are why I decided to come to Shepherdstown." says Young.
Sabertooth Lazer Frontman Ryan Sauve pauses inbetween songs to catch his breath. Sauve, brash, irreverent, and creative, has started more musical projects than most people can recall. His ensembles rarely stayed active for more than a few months at a time, but they were an important sonic laboratory for local musicians. Almost every rock band in town can claim a direct link to one of Sauve's groups.
Ben Townsend mans the audio board at Skull Fest. Townsend is the cerebellum on the Skull sound. He has trained countless local musicians, and his house, The Dudio, has been the default recording studio for many local bands.
Singer/songwriter Tucker Riggleman inside the Dudio. Riggleman represents a new wave in Skull City music which is combining the aggressive performance style of the first wave sound with acoustic instrumentation and deeply personal songwriting.

Skull Fest 2009 was an all-day celebration of the youth culture and music scene in Shepherdstown (Skull City). Held in Martinsburg Saturday, it was a reunion of punk, noise, nerdcore rap, and folk musicians from the past eight years. Above, dude on dude attitude was on full display as the barrier between band and audience was broken down by frenetic slam dancing and crowd surfing.