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Music Notes
edited by Mark Jordan
The State of Memphis Jukes
As Beale Street becomes less and less bluesy and more and more
“gentrified,” the health of Memphis’ juke joints – those little
mom-and-pop social clubs where the city’s lesser-known, less-accommodating
blues musicians do their thing – becomes increasingly important.
So it was very distressing a few months back, when complaints
from neighbors forced the closing of Wild Bill’s, an up-and-coming
juke joint in the Vollintine-Evergreen area. It seems Wild Bill’s
owner Willie Story didn’t have all the correct permits to run
a nightclub with music and beer in that neighborhood. Fortunately,
in a move that gives hope to those who were afraid local government
would turn its back on the small music entrepreneurs in the city,
the Memphis and Shelby County Land Use Control Board a few months
back granted Wild Bill’s a “special use permit” which has allowed
it to open back up. In making its decision, the LUCB rightfully
noted that “the site has been written up in national publications
for the quality of its ambience and musicians. In essence, this
is the place to hear the blues.”
But no sooner has Wild Bill’s gotten back on its feet, however,
than another local juke is felled. Dorothy’s Lounge – better known
by its old name, Green’s Lounge, and arguably the city’s most
famous and popular juke joint – was gutted by fire in the middle
of the night recently. No one was hurt. It’s not known whether
the club’s owners, guitarist Wilroy Sanders and his wife Dorothy,
had any insurance or can afford to rebuild. Keep tuned to this
space for further developments. – Mark Jordan
Review: Fleetwood Mac
Mick Fleetwood was the first to take the stage at The Pyramid
last Friday night, November 14th. As he pogoed toward his massive
drum kit, the sold-out crowd cheered with expectancy. Two and
a half hours later, they had gotten what they came for – no less
and very little more.
This year’s model Mac have perfected their act to a science. The
songs – even the between-song-banter – were a carbon copy of their
new live disc The Dance. But Fleetwood Mac have never pretended
to be an improv act, and for refined pop precision, they are still
without peer. Their creative indulgences actually resulted in
the show’s only regrettable moments – Fleetwood’s “body-drumming”
routine and Lindsey Buckingham’s self-induced primal scream therapy
belied an otherwise flawless night of strictly regimented but
thoroughly enjoyable nostalgia. – Matt Hanks
New Stuff In the Bins
A few things to look for next time you’re in your local record
store:
Loverly Records is putting out its second collection of singles
spanning 1995 and 1996. As with all Loverly releases, there is
some crap mixed in with the gems, but where else will you find
such genuinely original and good music as Lorette Velvette’s “Dirt”
or Professor Elixir’s Southern Troubadours’ “Wind That Shakes
the Cotton,” not to mention the first singles from the Satyrs,
sure to be one of the city’s best bands for awhile to come.
And there are new releases from three of Memphis’ hardest-working
blues bands. The Reba Russell Band’s Buried Treasure is anything
but that. Once again Russell stands out and shows why she is one
of the best song-belters around.
The Cate Brothers strike a mellow R&B mood on their new CD on
Big Burger Records, Struck A Vein.
And finally, most promising is the dirty, deep, and funky new
CD from the Memphis James Trio, Fit For A King. A thoughtful mixture
of covers and originals make up this disc, which shows that there
is a younger generation of authentic blues players around who
will be able to take the solo when today’s older masters are ready
to step out of the spotlight. n–M.J. |
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Full Blown Grifters
Memphis’ indie-rock con men return home from the road.
by Mark Jordan
 he Grifters are held up in a hotel somewhere in Colorado when
they call.
“The tour is going great,” says bassist Tripp Lamkins. (Actually,
like his bandmates, guitarists/vocalists David Shouse and Scott
Taylor, Lamkins also does duty on a variety of other instruments;
Stan Gallimore, thankfully, sticks to the drums.) “Everyone’s
actually getting along great. No one’s punched anyone else out,
and the shows are going great.”
Nine years into their existence, the Grifters, who along with
Dayton’s Guided By Voices may be America’s favorite
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PHOTO BY TREY HARRISON |
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The Grifters
with special guests Blue Mountain and the Satyrs
Thursday, November 27th
The New Daisy Theatre |
least-known band, are once again stealing their way across North
America, riding in a cargo van with their gear in tow behind.
The past three months or so have taken Memphis’ indie-rock kings
over much of the West Coast and Midwest, playing large Daisy-size
theatres and small college bars alike. But now they’re working
their way home, where they’ll close out the tour with (fittingly)
a Thanksgiving show at the New Daisy.
It’s been a tumultuous year for the Grifters, one full of record-label
conflicts and rumors of a breakup fueled by successful side-band
projects from Shouse’ Those Bastard Souls and Taylor’s Hot Monkey.
But now, as the year comes to a close – and following a refreshing
stint on the road – Lamkins says the band seems ready to move
ahead.
“For a while there it was pretty rocky. Everybody was upset about
this, that, or the other. But once we got on the road and the
shows started coming together, we remembered what brought us together
– the music,” Lamkins says, his voice trailing off into a mock
rock-star sincerity that still doesn’t negate the truth of what
he’s saying.
“It’s nothing different for any one of us to say we’re quitting.
It changes every day. Some days you get in the van and someone’s
sitting in your seat and you’re going, ‘God damn it. I’m quitting
the band.’ Then they buy you a cup of coffee, and everything is
okay,” he adds. “After this tour we’ll probably just take a break
from the Grifters for two or three months and pursue different
stuff.”
Much of the tension surrounding the band lately has involved their
current record label, Sub Pop. Since debuting Nirvana in the late
’80s, the Seattle-based label has been trying to shore up its
indie-rock rep by signing such alternative darlings as Sebadoh
and the Grifters. But at least in the Grifters’ case, money troubles
and a high staff turnover have meant that the label hasn’t been
able to give the band all the support it needs.
Meanwhile, Sub Pop continues to tinker with the Grifters’ formula
in search of a crossover pop hit. The first experiment in this
resulted in last year’s breakthrough-that-wasn’t, Ain’t My Lookout,
which cleaned up the band’s sound considerably. And now their
newest Sub Pop release, Full Blown Possession, takes the meddling
to a new level. Possession is the first record in a long time
for the Grifters that was actually thought out before they went
into the studio.
“It seems like we used to have band practice all the time,” Lamkins
says. “We would get up 20 songs that we knew how to play and then
just go and record them. Somehow [before Possession], the cycle
changed on us, and we were going in the studio with no songs and
writing them in the studio and then learning them together after
they were recorded.”
In addition to being more thought-out, Possession also found the
Grifters for the first time recording a significant number of
songs outside of their longtime home base at Easley Studios.
“We went to that Sun Studio down on Beale Street – Sun West or
Sun on Beale I don’t remember,” Lamkins says. “It’s in the old
Daisy Theatre., and they had a service where you could go in there
and do karaoke-type recordings; you know: come in and sing an
Elvis song to take home with you to Germany. So it’s not a full
studio, but it’s enough of one. And we didn’t have much time to
finish the record and Easley was booked, so we decided to go in
there and cut it live.
“It was different, but it ended up being a good thing because
it made us approach the songs differently. It kind of took a safety
net out from under us that is usually over at Easley’s.”
Lamkins says the band was pleased with the basic tracks they put
down, but that the real conflict with Sub Pop developed over the
album’s mixing, which for the first time was taken out of the
band’s hands.
“[Mixer] Nick Sansano was great. We just have a lot more fun mixing
things ourselves,” Lamkins says. “The problem we had with the
record was in the mixing and just sort of the smoothing out of
it. We like the wrinkles.”
But wrinkles rarely sell records or hit the top of the charts,
which begs the question: Can the Grifters make it in the mainstream,
or are they destined for cult-band obscurity like Big Star?
“That does seems to happen to a lot of Memphis bands, doesn’t
it? That’s not the worst fate,” Lamkins says. “It’d be nice to
have some kind of hit on the radio just so I could collect a fat
BMI check for a couple of years. I don’t think we’re destined
for that kind of success, though. It doesn’t seem to be in our
cards, and we don’t seem to be the kind of people to pursue it.
We’d probably just mess it up somehow.” n
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