Tonight in Macon: Washed Out!

Washed Out - Ernest Greene

Rolling Stone has labeled him as a one-man show crafting “impossibly gorgeous pop that mixes up woozy synthesizers, droney shoegaze textures and funky, sometimes danceable beats.” He’s not what you think though. After hearing the music of Ernest Greene, more popularly known by his stage name, Washed Out, it becomes actually difficult to imagine the fella who’s creating the music. Describing him during his New York debut, The NY Times labeled him “schoolboy-pretty,” referring to his common dress of an Oxford sweater with a collared, button-down underneath topped with dark corduroy pants and a pair of broken-in Clark’s. With his hands hidden behind his MacBook Pro working his worn-out midi-controls snugged close by, Greene sends some of the most beautiful sound waves out to his often sweaty, hipster-esque audience. Some react by bobbing their head, eye-brows raised in awe, but the majority of the fans dance in that club-groovin’ fashion with beers raised high. His music just gets in your bones. Makes you move.

After earning a degree in English, Greene went on to grad school and later earned a Masters degree in Library Science. Yeah, he’s intelligent, too. With the dream of becoming a librarian, Greene’s aspirations were suddenly interrupted when he realized that he could make a living creating music right out of his bedroom. “My neighbors must think I sing non-stop,” Greene says over our lunch together at one of my favorite spots in downtown Macon, The Rookery. Greene composes his beats, slaps headphones on, taps the “record” button, and sings. And what happens next is perhaps the most admirable part of it all. Thousands and thousands of fans listen to the new nostalgic, hypnotic bedroom electro-disco pop hit. Amazingly, every tune Washed Out creates gets leaked on the internet and finds itself being blurbed about on major webzines, such as Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, Gorilla Vs. Bear, and of course, your very own, The Blue Indian.

But what Macon doesn’t realize is that this indie-star who has gained recognition worldwide now calls downtown Macon, GA, his home. After recently marrying the high school knock-out, now UGA graduate, Blair Sexton Greene from Perry, GA, Ernest moved back to Georgia from Columbia, SC, and found a little, warm home in one of the loft apartments off MLK downtown. So yeah, these jams you’re listening to on your favorite music-webzines are being created right down the road from you. Well, they haven’t been since early March and won’t be until early May. Greene may have been making these hits out of hotel rooms, as he kicked off a massive tour back on March 6th with such prominent indie acts as Small Black, Pictureplane, and Beach House.

Look folks, let’s cut straight to it. Do me a favor. Don’t take my word for it. See for yourself. Washed Out will appear at “TheBlueIndian.com Presents WASHED OUT” at The 567 on Cherry Street in the beautiful city of Macon, GA today, April 17th. For more on Washed Out and the rest of your favorite indie artists, stay tuned here at www.TheBlueIndian.com.