edited by Mark Jordan
Cooking with soul
Don Nix isn't as well known as his former band mates Donald "Duck"
Dunn and Steve Cropper, but his musical contributions are no less significant.
In the early 1960s Nix played saxophone with Dunn and Cropper in the Mar-Keys,
one of the earliest Stax bands and a group that would later spawn Booker
T and the MGs and the Memphis Horns. Nix left the Memphis music scene in
1965 and became a producer and one of the early pioneers of Southern rock.
He worked with Freddie King, Albert King, and Delaney and Bonnie. He also
recorded a couple of highly regarded solo albums, Gone Too Long and
Skyrider.
Now Nix has turned his attention to two other creative endeavors -- writing
and cooking. Road Stories and Recipes -- which Nix will be in town
to sign Thursday from 7 to 9 p.m. at Davis-Kidd Booksellers -- is a unique
combination of autobiography and cookbook, with Nix retelling tales from
his 35-year music career and telling readers how to concoct such edibles
as Don Henley's Texas Chili and John Mayall's Shepherd's Pie. What, no recipe
for Memphis soul stew?
Sounds around town
There are a couple of particularly noteworthy shows this week. On Thursday,
Keith Sykes' Songwriters' Showcase settles into its new home at Black Diamond
with a couple of familiar friends -- Alex Harvey, composer of the classic
"Delta Dawn," and Paul Craft, who wrote the hit "Brother
Jukebox." Also performing will be Memphis' own Gerry Finney, whose
Road to Peace disc was recently released.
And Newby's this week is hosting a three-day benefit for children with AIDS.
The C.A.N.N. (Children's AIDS Network National) Music Festival will feature
St. Louis' Dr. Slinky and Straight Up Buzz on Thursday, the Seven Sons of
Otis and Tyron Super T Friday, and Dayroom and Big Ass Truck on Saturday.
The doors open at 9 p.m. all three nights, with the music kicking off at
10 p.m. Cover is $7, with $1 of every ticket going to the C.A.N.N.
Center news
Things
have been hopping at the Center for Southern Folklore on Beale lately, with
plenty of famous folks dropping by and plans for some fun events in the
works.
Two weeks ago the songwriting team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller paid
the center a visit. The composers of "Hound Dog" and "Under
the Boardwalk" were in town to receive the key to the city, which was
presented to them by Orpheum director Pat Halloran during a performance
of Smokey Joe's Cafe, the musical revue that features their songs.
After the show, the rock-and-roll legends strolled down Beale and ended
up at the center, where Stoller teamed up with local legend Mose Vinson
for some improvisational boogie woogie (see picture).
Also, starting April 6th, the center will start throwing a monthly blues
brunch. Providing music for the first Blues Brunch will be Big Lucky and
His Mighty Men of Sound. The buffet will be catered by Bobo's Gay Hawk Restaurant
and will include mostly Southern food. Future Blues Brunches will be held
on the first Sunday of each month, and there are plans to add an afternoon
of gospel music to the program as well.
by Matt Hanks
o you've heard
about this new craze that's all the rage with the kids. Although it has
yet to produce its first teen idol, "electronica" is the word
on the lips of everyone who muses on music these days. Proponents tout it
as new rock for the post-modern age, while detractors say it "just
sounds like disco."
Both
verdicts are hasty. They're also wrong. You can bet that electronica won't
be the next big thing simply because a lot of rock critics are betting it
will. Substantial trends in popular music -- the ones that don't just reflect
our culture, but shape it -- have never been forecasted by the media. The
rock critic has always played catch-up and always will.
As for the disco tag, we're not talking about Dee-Lite or Depeche Mode here. This is music for the new "global village," music endowed with an eclecticism that's as ambitious as it is exhausting. Try and rein it in under a single genre -- particularly a pre-existing one that petered out nearly 20 years ago -- and you'll miss the point entirely.
One thing's for sure: With alternative music on the ebb, artistically and financially, electronica stands to be popular music's last attempt at reinvention before the millennium. If you're a follower of fashion, you owe it to yourself to figure out what all the fuss is about.
In this case, enlightenment has come from the most unlikely of places -- MTV. The station that has spent the last decade and a half testing the depths of popular culture's lowest common denominator is quietly redeeming itself with a program called Amp. Presently, Amp airs twice weekly at 1 a.m. on Friday nights and midnight on Saturdays. Unfortunate time slots, to be sure, because most of MTV's demographic are out during those hours. But those who do tune in find some of the most adventurous and, yes, relevant programming MTV has ever done.
Watch one installment of Amp and you'll notice some interesting conceptual distinctions. For starters, there's no host. "We didn't think [a host] would work with the kind of programming we envisioned," says Amy Finerty, Amp's director of programming and talent relations.
She's right. From the whiny neuroticism of Alternative Nation's Kennedy to 120 Minutes' Matt Pinfield, the hosts of MTV's other left-of-center shows have traditionally been their biggest liabilities. The absence of such a "personality" on Amp helps streamline the program and, according to Finerty, "encourages the viewer to listen more intently."
Streamlining is one of Amp's chief concerns, and the show employs some innovative techniques to ensure a smooth ride. Promotional spots and commercial segues for Amp consist of cryptic, heavily treated images that look like outtakes from Tron. Artist and director credits for the videos appear only once, at the beginning of each clip. And as one video draws to a close, it is mixed, aurally and visually, with the next; for a few seconds, you literally see two videos at once. "I'm sure on some level, the visual mix is illegal," admits Finerty, "and someone will probably end up suing us. But for now, it works really well for the show."
One thing that allows for Amp's seamless transitions is the content of the videos. Many of them are more like short films. A clip by the German trio Oval consists of a series of computer-generated ovals spinning on different axes and intersecting at different points like Saturn's orbiting rings. Another (really weird) video, by France's Daft Punk, depicts a day in the life of a half-man/half-dog with a broken leg. Despite these physical misfortunes, our man/dog musters the courage to ask out a girl, only to miss the bus that she catches and watch her ride off into the night.
The artists themselves don't make an appearance in either of these videos, and you probably wouldn't recognize them if they did. Programming videos by obscure artists -- some of whom only sell a couple thousand records -- is Finerty's most admirable accomplishment. "We're really trying to get away from the traditional rock-star image with this show," says Finerty. "[Amp] exists on a different visual level, and it makes you listen differently too."
Still, this isn't a completely rock-star-free zone. Videos by David Bowie and Nine Inch Nails have aired on the show, and as the major labels clamor to catch electronica on the ground floor, Amp's profile and cache are on the ascent. Two Amp alumni, Prodigy and the Chemical Brothers, have already graduated to buzz-clip status and the round-the-clock rotation that comes with it. Finerty reports that the show will soon start airing in the major-label-dominated 8 p.m. hour once a week, but she insists its aesthetic will remain intact.
"This show is really heavily supported internally," says Finerty. "There's no test markets, no charts; I can play anything I want. I've programmed [other shows on] MTV, so I know what it's like to get pressure from outside. I just don't care."