by Mark Jordan
A Joyful Noise
Beale Street, a place usually known for its sinful pleasures, will get to
show off its more spiritual side this Sunday. From 3 to 5 p.m. at the newly
relocated Center for Southern Folklore at 209 Beale, three local gospel
groups--the Shaw Singers, the Watson Family Singers, and the Spirit of Memphis
quartet--will perform and sign copies of Wake Me Up This Morning: Black
Gospel Singers and the Gospel Life, a new book in which all three are
featured.
Written by New Zealand journalist Alan Young, Wake Me Up This Morning
chronicles a resurgent gospel music culture in the American South. Young
originally came to this region to research authentic blues. What he discovered
was that the blues had ceased to be an authentic music form and instead
had become a commercial one. Meanwhile, Young posits, it is gospel that
best embodies the hopes, aspirations, and concerns of contemporary African
Americans.
Published by the University Press of Mississippi, Wake Me Up This Morning
is edited by University of Memphis music professor David Evans.
For more information, call the center at 525-3655.
And Then There Were Three
Six months ago Saliva wasn't even a fully formed band. Now the Bartlett-based
hard-rock group is one of the best unsigned bands in the country.
Saliva, which won the local Grammy Showcase held January 24th at the New
Daisy, went on to prevail at the regional showcase in Austin two weeks ago.
So this Saturday, they will face off against two more bands--folk rockers
Maggi, Pierre, and E.J., who won the Philadelphia showcase, and the ska-swing-pop
outfit Save Ferris, from the Los Angeles showcase--in New York at the national
finals. At stake is a plethora of prizes, including tickets to the Grammy
Awards, an artist's development grant, and free studio time.
More than 6,000 acts nationwide applied to be a part of this year's Grammy
Showcase, sponsored by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.
So for the boys from Bartlett to be one of three bands still standing is
no mean feat. Even if Saliva doesn't win the national showcase, the exposure
and experience they've received are bound to pay off in a big way.
So good luck Saturday, Saliva.
Oh No, Not U2 Again
As you probably know by now, tickets go on sale this Saturday for U2's first
Memphis performance in 15 years. In case you forgot, their last Memphis
concert appearance was as the opening act for the J. Geils Band, making
for what was easily one of the oddest musical couplings in history.
Anyway, this time through, U2 isn't playing second fiddle to anyone. Their
tour, dubbed the PopMart tour for its apparent kitsch themes, is going to
be a 62-city, 20-country affair. For the first time, the band is only playing
outdoor stadiums, and the announced production they will be staging sounds
like it will rival anything the Rolling Stones--probably the masters of
big arena shows--have ever mounted. Besides the world's largest television
screen, the PopMart tour will also feature "a single golden arch 100
feet high, a 35-foot-high mirrorball lemon, a 12-foot-wide internally illuminated
stuffed olive (on a 100-foot-tall toothpick), and a three-inch-tall squeaky
nun," according to tour organizers.
Tickets will go on sale at 8 a.m. Saturday at all Ticketmaster locations
with a 7 a.m. lottery determining purchase order. Purchasers are limited
to 10 tickets per person. Tickets will also be available by phone (525-1515)
and over the Web (www.midsouthconcerts.com).
And if anyone finds out what a "squeaky nun" is, let us know.
by Jim Hanas
Fuck, it's our way of life," says Stef, lead
singer of the dirgey hard-core band Seized, explaining why his band prefers
to play alternative venues like houses, garages, and warehouses. "You
don't put money in the wrong pockets," he says.
It's a Sunday night in December, and Seized, who hail from Sherbrooke, Quebec, are in the middle of a five-week tour, during which they'll play only one club. On this particular night, they're playing a tiny one-bedroom apartment on Marshall Avenue, opening up for local hard-core mainstays His Hero Is Gone. The 25 or so people who show up are asked for a $3 donation, much of which will go to the out-of-town band to help them make it to the next stop on their tour.
A table by the door is set up with pamphlets on a range of causes and organizations: a few about the local chapter of Food Not Bombs, an activist group that distributes food to the homeless; back copies of the Ohio-based Anti-Racist Action News; a flyer about setting up your own pirate radio station, from a group called Free Radio Berkeley. As the band starts playing, those in attendance jam into one of the apartment's small rooms to get close to the action.
Shows like this are happening all over the place these days, drawing sometimes large crowds of fans ranging from middle teens and into their twenties. From a tiny apartment to a cavernous garage to the second floor of what used to be a trophy shop, punk bands from the area are putting together do-it-yourself shows wherever they can, often featuring bands from out of town who manage to tour extensively without ever setting foot in an actual club.
So-called DIY (do-it-yourself) shows aren't anything new, a fact attested to by the term "garage-rock." What is new to Memphis is the emergence of a scene based almost entirely around such venues. The change is part philosophy and part necessity; in part to do with the anti-commercial and anti-consumerist ethic of many punk bands and part to do with the lack of anyplace else to play.
"The point of a lot of hard-core punk bands is anti-establishment and anti-corporation. If you put out a record on a major label, it seems to defeat the purpose," says Pat Cox of the local band F.M.D., adding that it likewise defeats the purpose to use a booking agent or play in clubs with high cover charges that don't have all-ages shows. Paul Burdette of His Hero Is Gone agrees, saying, "Politically, it's all about a music scene that's based around money. Whereas people set up shows for us because they like our band."
His Hero Is Gone and F.M.D. both made their way around the country last year on DIY tours with the bulk of the shows being booked "through kids," as Cox says. Todd Burdette, Paul's brother and frontman for His Hero Is Gone, explains that the underground network for booking shows is nationwide while remaining relatively tight. "I could go to a show in Greensboro, North Carolina, and pick a random person and within five minutes we would know people in common."
Cox and Burdette, who both say they broke even on their respective tours, also cite the communal aspect of underground tours as a reason for their attraction, breaking down the barriers between performer and audience. "It seems like it makes it more personal between us and the people we play for," says Cox. "If you do a DIY house show, the environment is more of a party."
But even aside from the anti-establishment and communal ethos of punk, the rise of DIY shows here in Memphis is linked to other events: the end of the Antenna Club and the recent uncertainty about the future of Barristers. Right now there are two places that regularly host DIY shows: a garage near Marshall and Monroe that also serves as rehearsal space for the local pop-punk band Pezz; and 902 South Cooper, the building that used to house Mid-South Trophy and Engraving. Both venues have had wildly successful shows even by club standards. Pezz played a Halloween show in their practice space for several hundred fans, while a double-bill of F.M.D. and His Hero Is Gone drew more than a hundred to 902 South Cooper on New Year's Eve. For a while, shows were also being held at what used to be the Pyramid Club downtown on Madison, but the tenants who put them on recently moved out.
"When the Antenna was around, to my knowledge, there weren't any [regular DIY venues]," says Burdette. The Antenna, which local musicians and fans alike are sure to miss more and more as time goes by, had a wide-open booking policy and was an easy place for bands of all types--from hard-core to surf rock--to get shows. "It's survival, really," says Marv Stockwell, guitarist for Pezz. "People have had to get up off their asses and think of something."
And the upsurge of DIY shows in the last year indicates that people are doing just that.
Shows like these are legal as long as there is no cover charge and operate instead on a donation basis. To keep a low profile, shows aren't advertised but promoted through word of mouth or through posters and flyers. A comprehensive list of upcoming events is maintained by Marcel Roy, a grad student at the University of Memphis, who runs the Memphis Ska, Punk, & Hardcore Web Page. The page has information on over a dozen local bands and show listings that include not only DIY shows but ones scheduled at venues like the New Daisy and the Alternative Restaurant on Cooper, which has lately been hosting shows by some of the area's more melodic punk bands.
Cox of F.M.D. is optimistic about how many bands are coming through town lately and about the outlook for alternative venues. "There's always been someplace we've been able to find to play. As far as a steady place to have shows, [902 South Cooper] seems good," he says. The downstairs of that building is due to open for business this week as the Spirit, Mind, and Body Community Center. Proprietor Bill Walker says the downstairs will feature a wide variety of New Age items, from books to hemp clothing, while the live music will continue on the massive second floor.
Cox adds that the local punk scene is a "lot more productive" than he's seen it before, pointing to the local chapter of Food Not Bombs and saying that he'd like to see more of that kind of political activism. "There's enough kids that do care to make it work," he says. "Punk should be about education and opening up avenues for people. You have to be about more than getting drunk and partying. That's what frat boys and jocks do."
Memphis Ska, Punk, & Hardcore Web Page: http://www.people.memphis.edu/~meroy/music/memphis.html