Sleeper Agent

There are many markers of success in the first-year career of Sleeper Agent, the overachieving Little Garage-Pop Act That Could from Bowling Green, Kentucky. Drummer Justin Wilson, however, prefers to recall the one that best captures the goofy joie de vivre of his group. The date was March 2, 2011, the final day of the first leg of their grueling tour with local buddies Cage the Elephant. This was their first real tour, so Wilson and his bandmates—female singer Alex Kandel, singer-guitarist Tony Smith, bassist Lee Williams, guitarist Josh Martin, and keyboardist Scott Gardner—wanted to commemorate the occasion. They dispatched Gardener, dolled him up in a cheerleader’s outfit—doughy gut and all! —and unleashed him onto the stage to crash their giggling friends’ set. “He’s already got this huge mane of curly hair,” Wilson, 24, enthuses. “He looked like a pom-pom already!” This tour, in all its agony and ecstasy, embodied Sleeper Agents’ rock & roll dream—and that night, they realized they were living it. The key to Sleeper Agent’s steady ascent, recently punctuated by their rollicking shows at SXSW, is disarmingly simple: the band members know how ... more...