Music Notes
by Jim Hanas and Mark Jordan
New Stuff in the Bins
Local artists have been real busy releasing new product since our last CD
roundup, so let's get right to it.
After a number of delays, Alicia Merritt's debut disc, Celtic
Dream on Rockingchair Records, is finally in the stores. As the title
suggests, this album of Irish and Scottish-style folk music is ethereal
and haunting. And the combination of Merritt's beautiful voice and Mark
Yoshida's production makes the finished product as good as any major-label
Celtic release.
Music Aboard the Titanic, recently released on Memphis' Inside Sounds
label and featuring a host of local musicians, is a wonderfully evocative
companion disc to the current Wonders exhibition. With a prologue and epilogue
by producer/arranger Carl Wolfe, the bulk of the CD is taken up with actual
selections from the White Star Line's songbook. A combination of classical
and popular period pieces, the music goes a long way toward recreating the
Edwardian era. But this disc is also a tribute to the R.M.S. Titanic's
legendary band. As the unsinkable ship did just that, the Titanic's
band, led by Wallace Hartley, stayed on board to play music for the frightened
passengers until they themselves were swallowed by the icy North Atlantic
waters and swept up in the currents of history.
Grayson Wells' Tranquility Base, out on Frankenstein Records,
is something a little different for a local release, an album of new-age
music. Or space or ambient or head music or whatever fans of this kind of
stuff prefer to call it. Regardless, what we're talking about is a record
of lush synthesizer music in the best tradition of Mike Oldfield and Jean
Michel Jarre.
For those of you who like the hard stuff, Shangri-La has just put out a
self-titled, vinyl-only release of tracks recorded in 1991 and 1992 by local
hardcore band Man With Gun Lives Here. Along with Copout and the
Taintskins, Man With Gun -- whose distinctive triangular icon can still
be seen scrawled on buildings and bathrooms all around town -- was one of
the forebears of current Memphis hard-core bands like FMD and His Hero Is
Gone.
And finally, on the blues side there is Oh Glory, How Happy I Am: The
Sacred Songs of the Rev. Gary Davis, a self-explanatory collection from
Memphis guitarist Andy Cohen. The titular Davis was a blind South
Carolinian who, starting in the 1920s until his death in 1972, made his
mark as a practitioner of country-blues and gospel played in an East Coast-ragtime
style. So why, as Cohen asks in his liner notes, "does a Jewish leftist
repeat the works, folkloric and original, of a fundamentalist preacher ?,"
The answer: "I play and sing these religious songs because they represent
to me the core repertoire of America's greatest composer of rural liturgical
music. He had griot-proportional gifts as a musician, composer, arranger,
adaptor, folklorist. Reverend Gary Davis demands interpretation, the same
as Mozart or Chopin or Bach, Joplin or Jelly Roll. He was that good."
Amen to that.
A Cricket Comes to Town
As the original guitarist for Buddy Holly and the Crickets, Sonny Curtis
has played some memorable gigs, not the least of which was his band's 1957
appearance at New York's Apollo Theatre, where the Texas combo became one
of the first white acts ever to grace that stage. But in years to come,
when Curtis, in his winter years, looks back over his career, one show that
will stand out will undoubtedly be the one he's playing this Saturday at
Alex's Tavern. Why would a gig at a tiny Midtown bar mean so much to Curtis?
Because he'll be playing for his daughter on one of the most important days
of her life. Sarah Curtis is a Rhodes College student (and former Flyer
intern) who will be graduating this week. And to help celebrate, Papa Curtis,
whose post-Cricket career has included penning such classics as "I
Fought the Law" and The Mary Tyler Moore Show theme, will play
a short set at Alex's starting around 9:30 p.m. for Sarah and her friends.
Sure beats the crummy watch I got when I graduated. The show is free and
open to the public, so if you want to see a legend up close, head on over.
Live New Bands
Stuck in a rut? Here are four young Memphis bands you've got to go see.
by Jim Hanas and Mark Jordan
ou know
how it is; sometimes you just get in a rut. You hang out with the same people,
go to the same bars, listen to the same bands, and it all just gets really
stale. Well, don't ever say we at the Flyer don't try to help our
readers. We've selected four up-and-coming, must-see bands that are definitely
worth your time if you're looking for some new sounds. Not all these bands
are brand-new -- some have been around for more than a year. But right now
they all have the new-band buzz. In a few months we may be talking about
four entirely different groups. So next time you see their gigs advertised
in the Flyer, check them out. You might not be able to get a good
seat ever again.
The Clears
Do you remember the '80s? Well, the Clears sure do. Though they might not readily admit it, this Memphis trio has followed the theorem that all things once cool shall be cool again to bring the music pioneered by artists such as Devo and Gary Numan back around to relevance. Granted, this is New Wave with a difference, filtered through a decade of rap and grunge. But the inspiration for Brad Pounders' simple, jerky drumbeats and Shelby Bryant's Moog-ish keyboard sounds is undeniable.
Rounded out by guitarist Alicja Trout, the Clears look the part onstage as well. Usually dressed in black, they play standing up and almost instinctively make the jerky, Animatronic movements associated with electronic music. So far their live appearances have been rare -- they usually pop up at Barristers, where they have opened for Jeff Buckley, and at private, art-set parties -- but in the coming months, with one CD coming out on the Resort Theory label and another on Sonic Youth member Steve Shelley's Smells Like Records, you can bet that when they do play, it will be packed.
Delorean
If you like spacey, ambient noise rock, then you must go see Delorean. Their initial incarnation included former Impala saxophonist Justin Thompson and guitarist/vocalist Lori Gienapp. Their new five-piece lineup -- minus Thompson and Gienapp -- adds keyboardist Brendan Spengler, who plays a variety of keyboards from a Moog to a Roland electric piano. Now the emphasis is less on vocals and more on hypnotic soundscapes that spill into tinny guitar crescendos and, occasionally, full-on sonic abuse.
Guitarist Rob Brimhall explains that they try to treat their sets as one sustained song. To that end, they bring into play a wide range of tech toys -- including a yard or so of effects pedals and even a pre-synthesizer oscillator.
So if you like the mesmerizing tranciness of techno, but prefer it with the warmth that only comes from instruments with moving parts, these are your guys.
The Pawtuckets
Of all of Memphis' alternative country rockers -- a scene which also includes the worth-seeing Mudflaps and Riverbluff Clan -- the Pawtuckets are probably the least well-known and the most surprising. After all, the Mudflaps Chris Scott and the Riverbluff Clan's Jimmy Davis have been acknowledged talents for years. But how did a band as well-developed as the Pawtuckets come from out of nowhere?
As demonstrated on their recently released debut CD, Cloud 9 Ranch, principal songwriters Mark McKinney (guitar and vocals) and Andy Grooms (keyboards, guitar, and vocals) have distinct compositional voices, the tension between which makes the Pawtuckets a lot more interesting to listen to than the glut of bands who seem to write the same song over and over. But regardless of who wrote it, once lead guitarist Kevin Cubbins and the rhythm section of drummer Meyer Horn and bassist Mark Stuart get their chops on a tune, it becomes a different beast. In fact, since the recent addition of Horn, the band -- which has been known to play the Poplar Lounge, Young Avenue Deli, and Newby's -- has developed a wild improvisational side to go with the fine songwriting.
Seven Four Slide
The collaboration between singer Mary Van Dyke Roudnev and guitarist Ben Lansing has been going on for years -- first as a band called Blank and now as Seven Four Slide -- but they've only started playing out a lot recently. Sparked by the release of their debut record and by a steady lineup that includes cellist Tina Paulson, they've played three warm-up gigs for Jeff Buckley at Barristers and recently threw a record-release party at Murphy's.
They play an ornate sort of art rock with soaring, operatic vocals, abrupt rhythms, and a guitar edge that is at once hard and heady. Lansing is a serious guitar technician who has studied blues, jazz, classical, and country playing and has managed to synthesize it all into a tight style, leaving room for the vocals and, of course, the cello. Their sets usually also include a guitar-driven instrumental that ax fetishists won't want to miss.