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Rachelandthecity

Blogger. Photographer. Graphic Designer. Podcaster.

Jason “Hex” Freeman Prepares to Release First Solo Album, Hex & Hell

December 11, 2012 by Rachel Hurley Leave a Comment

Jason Freeman Memphis

Jason “Hex” Freeman has partnered with award-winning film director Craig Brewer (Hustle & Flow, Blacksnake Moan, Footloose) to release his debut album via Brewer’s BR2 Music Publishing. The ten-song LP is a menagerie of the swampy blues sound Freeman taught Samuel L. Jackson’s “God-fearing bluesman” character in Black Snake Moan. It is available on iTunes where it is a “New & Noteworthy” and can be streamed in full on Spotify or Kangaroo’s Soundcloud.

It’s surprising that there haven’t been more homegrown contemporary blues artists to spring forth in into the mainstream from Memphis in the last decade. The city is home to Beale Street, The Blues Foundation, and The Blues Hall of Fame, plus a plethora of musicians from ZZ Top to John Mayer have dropped in temporarily to soak up the bluesy soul of the city over the years. But there has yet to be a local breakout star to cast a shining light on the mid south’s oldest musical tradition. That could change with the release of Hex & Hell.

The album is a marriage of groove-heavy blues and rock, a note-perfect juke joint soundtrack created with the help of some of Memphis’ finest players, including Amy Lavere and Khari Wynn(Public Enemy) on bass, Adam Woodard (Harlan T. Bobo, Jack O., Star & Micey) on organ, Krista Wroten (The Memphis Dawls) on violin, Jana Misner (The Memphis Dawls) on cello, Suzy Hendrix on sax, and Daniel Farris (The Coach and Four) on drums.

Don’t let the term “debut” fool you, though. Just as in most overnight success stories, this narrative is a long time in the making.

The Memphis-born Freeman, who has been called “ a walking blues encyclopedia and folk/blues wizard,” has spent the last decade honing his skills playing solo and with the jug band-inspired Bluff City Backsliders alongside current Sun Studio engineer Matt Ross-Spang. Freeman also wrote the score for MTV’s Savage Country and contributed tracks to the Brewer-directed and Academy Award-winning Hustle & Flow. Not to mention, Hex & Hell’s “Magic In My Home” was included in the remake of Footloose. In the last few years, Freeman has become masterful at coupling sight and sound.

For more on this amazing performer, check out an excerpt from Meanwhile in Memphis.

Hope Clayburn Puts a Spotlight on Meanwhile in Memphis

December 5, 2012 by Rachel Hurley Leave a Comment

Hope Clayburn Memphis

You never know what kind of musical genius you’re going to happen upon on a Saturday night in Memphis. We ran into Hope Clayburn last week at The Cove playing to a packed house for a fundraiser for a local music documentary, Meanwhile in Memphis, which was directed by her Soul Scrimmage band mate Robert Allen Parker. Clayburn is prominently featured in the documentary, and the North Carolina native has come to see Memphis as her musical home.

The Soul Scrimmage ensemble has had a revolving cast of players over the years; the current line-up includes guitarist Robert Allen Parker Jr., bassist Khari Wynn, trumpet player Victor Darnell Sawyer and drummer Paul Taylor. The band is an eclectic mash-up of jazz, R&B, reggae and Afro-pop, and they throw a dance party like you would not believe!

Clayburn kicked off her musical career while attending college at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. Her first band was called Baaba Seth and has been described as a “world beat-styled jam band” and is credited with turning Clayburn onto African music.

After graduation, she went north and joined New York area-based band Deep Banana Blackout. Clayburn became a full-fledged professional musician and ended up recording several records with the group and spent the next half-decade on tour.

Clayburn kept touring after the breakup of Deep Banana Blackout and ended up spending several years on the jam band circuit, sitting in and guesting with the likes of Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Gov’t Mule, and DJ Logic. Eventually, Clayburn decided to take a break and go back to school to finish her nursing degree. Her sister, a doctor with the Church Health Center in Memphis, suggested a move down south.

Now, when Clayburn isn’t leading her flock during one of her soul sermons, she works as a nurse in the trauma unit of the Regional Medical Center at Memphis, treating victims of car accidents, gunshot wounds and a myriad of other unfortunate bodily injuries.

Check out a video of Clayburn and her Soul Scrimmage recording at Ardent.

Hope Clayburn’s Soul Scrimmage Records at Ardent: SMILE from Meanwhile in Memphis on Vimeo.

Paul Taylor: Memphis’ Own Prodigal Son

December 2, 2012 by Rachel Hurley Leave a Comment

Paul Taylor Memphis

Multi-instrumentalist Paul Taylor is often regarded as one of the best musicians in Memphis. A sought after session player and solo musician, he’s dabbled in a little bit of everything over the years. Currently, he is leading his band The Merry Mobile and on occasion filling in on drums with Hope Clayburn’s Soul Scrimmage. He grew up the son of local musician Pat Taylor and has had music infused in his psyche since he was born. He spent his teenage years hanging out with other second generation players like Steve Selvidge and Cody and Luther Dickinson, eventually forming DDT with the sons of Jim.

He also spent several years being a member of Amy LaVere‘s group (as featured on the MTV series $5 Cover), and playing with other local legends like Shelby Bryant, bloodthirsty lovers, and Antenna Shoes. He has released two solo albums, 2007′s Open/Closed aND 2009′s Share It!, on Makeshift Music.

He spent the last few years touring with worldwide acclaimed singer/songwriter Chuck Prophet, but his primary focus these days is definitely The Merry Mobile. You can catch him live every Sunday night at The Buccaneer. Check out more about one of our favorite Memphis musicians in the Meanwhile in Memphis documentary.

Paul Taylor (from Meanwhile in Memphis, Disc 2) from Meanwhile in Memphis on Vimeo.

The Fall and Rise of Snowglobe

September 28, 2012 by Rachel Hurley Leave a Comment

A surprising thing happened back in 2006, the year that Snowglobe broke up: they made another record.

Well, sort of.

The album, Oxytocin, was released nationally and was the 9th most added record on college radio in May of that year. Touted as a solo project for Brad Postlethwaite, but still released under the name Snowglobe, the idea was to have the other members follow suit with their solo directed albums. A record release show happened at The Hi-Tone but was billed simply as Brad Postlethwaite.

Although Snowglobe had a loyal following and was considered on-the-verge, Postlethwaite felt the pressure of approaching the end of his twenties and realized that making records wasn’t exactly paying the bills. So he told his band mates that he planned to stop touring and return to the University of Memphis to prepare to enter their Ph.D. program. In the eyes of co-leader Tim Regan, Postlethwaite was in essence quitting, so Regan, who very much wanted the band to continue, quickly found a replacement in Luke White of the Coach and Four. However, before the addition was even announced, drummer Jeff Hulett decided that he had also tired of the road and planned to begin working on a solo project. Regan packed up and moved to Knoxville, and as far as anyone knew, that was the end of Snowglobe. But according to Postlethwaite, he never realized that he was quitting the band.

“I was very confused as to what was actually happening with Snowglobe because I wasn’t able to continue with the way things were going,” he says. “There was this kind of all or nothing thing going on; I had to be able to drop everything I was doing or just not be in the band.”

In addition to the break-up of the band, Postlethwaite landed at a crossroads in his relationship with his long-term girlfriend. With two major parts of his life in limbo, he found himself with a lot of free time on his hands. So, he began writing songs and working on old Snowglobe songs that had been left off previous albums Doing the Distance and These Land Brains. He was still friends with everyone who had been in the band and naturally they fell back into the same patterns of playing together. Before the band broke up there had been an idea tossed around of each member directing a solo album under the Snowglobe moniker. Postlethwaite began accumulating so much material that he decided to reintroduce the idea.

In the end, although the record clearly says Snowglobe on the cover, the definition of what Snowglobe was to become had to be redefined. In addition to Hulett on drums, bassist Brandon Robertson and trumpet player Nashon Benford, a wide array of Memphis musicians pitched in on Oxytocin. Luke White played guitar; Aaron Sayers played drums, Jonathan Kirkscey added cello, Mark Edgar Stuart and Chang Li switched off on double bass, J.D. Reager sat in on drums and guitar, Anna Acosta played the violin, and John Whittemore added some pedal steel guitar.

“I’d go into Unclaimed Recordings, and it started off that whoever was there would play on the songs,” says Postlethwaite. “At one point every drummer I had ever worked with was in the room so it as very awkward trying to decide who was going to play on it. The band was still changing drastically, but I still decided to keep the name.”

The outcome was the most cohesive album Snowglobe had ever released. Postlethwaite’s songs had always been more orchestral pop than the indie rock output of Regan, and they flowed more evenly without the change-ups in songwriting. With a plethora of instrumentation including flute, euphonium, violin, cello and even saw, the record is lush and layered, upbeat and melancholy as it explores Postlethwaite’s relationship not only with his girlfriend but with his family and friends. The album was named after a hormone referred to as the “love” hormone.

“Oxytocin is this hormone that kind of, well they don’t know exactly what is does, it’s not like a hormone can make you love someone, but it’s involved with sex, with child bearing, with social memory…” Postlethwaite explains. “They have experiments where people have been giving Oxytocin nose spray, and it makes them more trusting, but most of the experiments show that the hormone is directly related to monogamy.”

So, the man who was left with nothing the year before, not only reconnected with his band, but he was also able to sort things out with his once girlfriend and current wife who acted as muse for many of the songs on the album. The only thing missing was Regan.

“I wanted him to be involved, and for him to participate and be part of the band as he was,” says Postlethwaite.

Regan and Postlethwaite did end up smoothing things over, and three albums have been released under the Snowglobe moniker since Oxytocin, and there is already another record recorded and waiting to be released.

Even though Regan was left reeling from the irony of the situation, he moved on and formed a new band called Antenna Shoes, which coincidentally was backed by fellow Snowglobers Bedford and Robertson, along with White, Paul Taylor on drums and Andy Grooms on keys. The band put out an album on Shangri-la Projects before Regan moved again, to Austin, TX this time, to join indie darlings, Oh No Oh My. But it seems Snowglobe will always be close to Regan’s heart.

The band has had many reunion shows over the past five years and continues to make music together today, most recently headlining Rock for Love 6 this month.

The Ballad of Harlan and Yvonne

September 26, 2012 by Rachel Hurley Leave a Comment

Harlan To Bobo Memphis

Too Much Love, the critically acclaimed debut from the mysterious Harlan T. Bobo, was originally supposed to be titled The Fall of the Bobo Empire. It’s a step by step walkthrough of the breakdown of his romantic relationship with Memphis artist Yvonne Bobo. Imagine a gravel-voiced Beck recording an album with all the elements of both country and soul, and meeting somewhere in the middle. Hailed by The Memphis Flyer as the best record to come out in the decade of the aughts, the success of the album caused lots of interest in the 40-ish singer from parts unknown.

Bobo is notoriously closed-lipped about his earliest years, only relaying a funny story from his childhood involving a tree, a ukulele, and a sock monkey, preferring to perpetuate his mystique. When describing himself in his teenage years, it’s hard to determine if he is being sincere or pulling your leg.

“I wore a dashiki, had long hair and was a big fan of Malcolm X at a time when Molly Hatchet ruled the earth,” says Bobo. “I got beat up a lot; I was very much into the hippie civil rights movement long past its prime.”

While he doesn’t often give up his place of birth or his given name, he will admit that at some point he went to college and studied art, which makes sense with the consistent inclusion of props, murals, paintings and the like in his live shows. Any given performance might include Bobo dressed as a clown, angel or Christmas tree.

It was not until the period when he lived in San Francisco in the late eighties that he becomes more forthcoming. After spending some time living on the streets, racking up a significant criminal record and a nasty heroin addiction, he registered with the local police as a drug offender and ended up in a half-way house. He was able to convince the authorities to allow him to go out at night and make his living playing pedal-steel guitar in a drag band that played spooky country music in local bars. It was in one of these bars where the Ballad of Yvonne and Harlan began.

“I was making a mechanical monkey from egg beaters and chicken skin, I would cure skin off chickens, and sew it, and it was named Bobo. And so Yvonne was sitting by herself looking at a candle, and I invited her to my table as a friendly gesture,” explains Bobo. “It turned out that her last name was Bobo, and so was my monkey’s. So I offered to show her my monkey.”

A month later they were on their way to Mexico to get married. However, an unfortunate accident involving a barbecue grill and Yvonne’s ankle made the couple rethink their hastiness. Instead, Bobo renamed himself in tribute to his new love and followed Yvonne to Waynesboro, TN where she started a woodworking apprenticeship, and he went about setting up a recording studio.

“I was ready for a different kind of adventure and Yvonne was full of adventure,” says Bobo. “We lived in a shoebox in the middle of the woods for a year and a half. I had taken an old shack and tried my best to turn it into a recording studio with the worst equipment you could buy at a flea market, I was trying to give it up (music), but it was always still there.”

Eventually, Bobo did give up and quit playing altogether.

“Playing just didn’t seem vital to me – just musically there were a lot of people, I mean there was a lot of shtick going on, I should talk, but there were a lot of people trying to become rock stars.”

After Yvonne’s internship had come to a close, the couple moved to Memphis and Bobo took a job at Memphis Scenic building installations for play and movie sets. It took almost three years of soaking in the music of local musicians like Jeff Evans, Jack Yarber, and Nick Ray before Bobo decided to throw his hat back into the ring and give music another try.

“I stalked Nick Ray when he worked at the thrift store” confesses Bobo. “His stage presence was very rock and roll without being ridiculous, and he was certainly putting on a show.”

After meeting Shawn Cripps at a party, he was invited to play with him and Ray in The Limes. This led to his inclusion in the Ray fronted band and his eventual reputation as the go-to bass player for everyone in the close-knit midtown music community. It was during this time that his relationship with Yvonne began to crumble. While they found themselves in a perpetual state of limbo, Bobo discovered that his out-of-sync relationship gave him something that he hadn’t felt like he had ever had before: a story to tell.

“I had always written music but never written lyrics or sang – for some reason, I just never felt that I knew what I wanted to say,” says Bobo. “Then I went through an extended period of doing everything I was afraid of and singing and writing songs was part of that.”

So, in 2002 Bobo began documenting his complicated relationship with Yvonne in song.

“I put it under my bed for about six months and wouldn’t let anybody hear it because I didn’t like it,” says Bobo. “It was hard to hear myself. Eventually, it just trickled out to friends who asked to hear it and so I would burn them a copy and make them a cover.”

As Bobo received more and more positive reaction to the music in the fall of 2003, he decided to try to sell the album in a few local record stores like Goner, Shangri-la and Last Chance. He continued to burn each CD himself and make individual covers. The record stores could not keep the albums in stock and after around 700 handmade covers, he determined that the record had taken over his life and he might need to seek some outside help.

“I think I lost my eyesight making those covers,” laughs Bobo. “I have to wear bifocals now.”

Goner Records released Too Much Love in the spring of 2005. A simple internet search pulls up countless websites citing it as one of the best records of 2005, classifying it as a “classic” and “masterpiece.”

A new record was recorded called “I’m Your Man” and Bobo stayed loyal to his muse. While Yvonne and Harlan are no longer romantically involved, he insists that they are family and
even spent some time working for her, their lives staying intrinsically entwined for some time, even though the couple became romantically involved with others. Bobo’s fascination with loyalty has always seemed to propel him.

“When I tried to put myself in other relationships that had potential, but it was my unwillingness to separate myself from Yvonne that’s caused 75 percent of my failure,” admits Bobo. “Part of the whole problem with love is that we start out thinking that it’s something that is supposed to make you feel good, but it’s not a lollipop – it’s a bleeding heart in a beaten bag, it’s meant to teach you a lesson, it’s gonna take you through life, it’s not just gonna pacify.”

Since the conversation happened a few years ago, Bobo has been able to move on, becoming married, having a son and moving to France. But you can still catch him playing the occasional solo show in Memphis, like the packed house he played to a few weeks ago at Otherlands.

Even with his newfound purpose, Bobo still continues to struggle with demons from the past and what he feels is a lack of humanity among men. While his songs may chronicle the sadness that comes along with failure, he still believes in the power of relationships and considers himself an optimist.

“I would hate to believe that the value of loyalty doesn’t have any validity to it, but it may not,” laments Bobo. “I do feel like a failure in my relationship with Yvonne, but I’m the comeback kid.”

The Life and Times of Jack Oblivian

September 24, 2012 by Rachel Hurley Leave a Comment

Jack Yarber is a name that music snobs throw around like some sort of rock and roll currency. He may be “Memphis’ most influential active rock musician.” Known to his most dedicated fans as simply Jack O. (a moniker he held while serving tenure with local legends The Oblivians), Yarber still lives up to the theory that in Memphis you can hardly be taken seriously as a musician if you play in less than three bands. Yarber has been or is a member of Johnny Vomit & the Dry Heaves (a high school punk project that also featured future Squirrel Nut Zipper Jimbo Mathus), new-wavers the End, ’68 Comeback, Tav Falco’s Panther Burns, The Compulsive Gamblers, The Oblivians, Knaughty Knights, South Filthy, The Cool Jerks, The Limes, Loose Diamonds and the Natural Kicks. While most if those bands exude an ultra-cool underground vibe, Yarber’s introduction to rock was pretty similar to most guys in his age bracket.

“When I was a kid I liked comic books, and that got me into Kiss and through Kiss, I discovered The Beatles and The Stones,” says Yarber. “I just wanted to play guitar or drums, and I even picked up the sax for a while, I’m not a master at any instrument, but I’m OK on some.”

Yarber moved to Memphis in the summer of ’87 to play music with his cousin. The cousin ended up returning to Corinth, MS while Yarber decided to stick around. It was a chance meeting with Greg Cartwright that led to the formation of The Compulsive Gamblers, a band that seems to receive a lot more respect in hindsight than they ever did when they were actually together.

“It was weird the way I met Greg, we put an ad in the paper, the Memphis Flyer, looking for a drummer for our band, and this guy showed up, and I told him that the band had broken up and he told me I ought to meet this guy Greg, and then about two years later we started calling ourselves the Compulsive Gamblers,” explains Yarber. “We did two seven inches and recorded a bunch of songs on home recordings, we recorded in Easley, but we never really had an album. Our CD came out after The Oblivians started playing, before that no one was really interested in putting it out.”

The Oblivians, still Yarber’s most well-known band, was formed in 1993 and included Yarber, Cartwright, and Eric Friedl), with all three members performing on drums, guitar, and vocals, switching during shows. They were well known as a staple in the garage rock movement of the ‘90s.

“We never really had a set plan, but I didn’t think we were garage rock like the Woggles, I thought that we were more aggressive garage rock – it was just rock and roll to us.”

But even with sold out tours in the States and Europe, their DIY aesthetic kept them under the mainstream radar and off the radio dial.

“The first European tour was a highlight – we started off in Holland and went to Germany, France Spain, and Belgium, we ended up doing a couple of gigs in England. We were being treated like rock stars, with free everything, we were trying to drink it all and eat it all – by the time we got to England, our shows weren’t getting listed, and we couldn’t find the promoters, it was back to a reality check.”

By the late nineties, the thrill was gone, and the members all went their separate ways, Cartwright started The Reigning Sound; Friedl started the Goner Records store and label, and after a couple of solo records Yarber hooked up with Scott Bomar and started The Tearjerkers. Bomar eventually became more involved in film scoring, working on both Memphis-filmed Craig Brewer productions, Hustle & Flow and Black Snake Moan, and starting his musical collaboration The Bo-Keys. Eventually, the band evolved into a project solely based around Yarber penned songs, currently known as The Tennessee Tearjerkers.

“Jack is one of the finest songwriters around,” says Bomar. “He’s one of the biggest unknown rock stars in town. I am a huge fan.”

The first Tennessee Tearjerkers album, Bad Mood Rising didn’t go over too well with former Oblivians fans.

‘That was my mental breakdown record – cause I didn’t know what I was doing and thought I might as well just document it” says Yarber. “People thought it was too classic rock and had too many slow songs.”

Then came Don’t Throw Your Love Away, which made a much better impression, landing in the number one spot on the Memphis Flyer’s Top 15 Local Albums of the Year. It’s the sort of attention that Yarber is still not used to.

“I just think people thought it was not so crazy – but it’s still not exactly what I had in my head, I think The Flipside Kid was closer to what I really wanted,” he says. He followed that album up with 2009′s Disco Outlaw and 2011′s Rat City.

While Yarber has definitely been paid more in lip-service than he ever has in royalties, he still isn’t phased. He’s played with every legit musician in Memphis and has toured to high acclaim all over Europe, and guested on about a million projects.

“I kind of look at it like there’s no insurance plan, so I pretty much know at this age, if I were gonna do something else, I would have turned around and done it years ago,” says Yarber. “I think about getting out of it sometimes, but then before I know it I’m playing in three bands. I tried to work five days a week, but I like these hours better.”

Jack Yarber (aka Jack Oblivian) is a featured artist in the new film Meanwhile in Memphis.

The Warm Up with Kids These Days

October 28, 2011 by Rachel Hurley Leave a Comment

tumblr_ltslxbKmqw1qzri8bo1_500We were really excited to welcome young up-and-comers Kids These Days to Ardent Studios this afternoon. The 7 piece band met while still in high school and have been making music together now for close to two years.

KTP, as they call themselves, blend soul, funk and hip hop to make smooth melodies that make you want to sway along to the rhythms – but they’re keeping their options open when it comes to defining the genre of music they play. Influenced by everything from jazz to indie rock like The Pixies, they are definitely ardently trying to defy definition and make their own way through the mass musical landscape.

Amy Lavere Talks Sun Studio, Tsunami

December 8, 2009 by Rachel Hurley Leave a Comment

Amy Lavere
Amy Lavere is happy to be back in Memphis, the place she has called home for ten years. The bass-thumpin’ singer-songwriter just landed back in the Bluff City after two months of playing to sold-out crowds across the U.S. as part of Lucero’s Ramblin’ Roadshow & Memphis Revue and opening for breakout star Seasick Steve all over Europe.

The star of MTV’s $5 Cover loves touring, but she’s excited to be back at home in her cozy Cooper-Young neighborhood while she recharges her battery and gets ready to head back into the studio to record a new album in February. And how does the tiny, bright-eyed chanteuse like to spend her downtime? At her favorite restaurant, of course! 

“The first thing I want to do when I get back to town is my favorite restaurant circuit, and Tsunami is always first on my list,” says Lavere.

Tsunami has been a midtown staple for over ten years and is known for owner/chef Ben Smith’s delicious Pacific Rim cuisine along with its use of local organic ingredients, not to mention the colorful cast of local regulars that populate bar. Just months after Tsunami opened in July 1998, it was voted Best New Restaurant by Memphis magazine. It has managed to maintain one of the top three spots in the categories of “Best Seafood” and “Most Creative Menu” in Memphis magazine’s readers’ poll every year since. The cuisine has become so popular that the restaurant has even warranted its own cookbook, the aptly named Tsunami Restaurant Cookbook.

Over drinks at the crowded bar on a Friday night, Lavere waxes philosophical about her time on the road and how good it feels to be back in Memphis. While she loves experiencing life on the road, meeting new people and eating in a new city every day, there’s always something comforting about being home. And whether she’s seeking a perfect glass of wine with friends or the perfect meal to mark a special milestone, Lavere does it at Tsunami.

“As a starving artist, Tsunami has always been my special occasion restaurant, I even had my first record release party here. The neighborhood is so rich with characters and I love the philosophy that Ben Smith has about food, he tries to use organic produce as exclusively as possible, and they even compost, and that’s not the most prudent thing to do.”

While Lavere’s music has gained a worldwide following, she is also known far and wide for her tours of Sun Studios where she has worked for five years. While she was in Europe on tour last month, she was floored by the number of people who approached her because they had taken her tour at Sun.

‘The magic that happens there absolutely resonates in the hearts of music lovers all over the world.”

Sun Studios, of course, is the legendary recording studio opened by rock pioneer Sam Phillips that kicked off the careers of music luminaries such as Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, Charlie Feathers, Charlie Rich, and Jerry Lee Lewis.

These days it is one of Memphis’ most popular tourist attractions, hosting thousands of visitors every year and well known for its colorful tour guides, most being musicians themselves.

“There’s not a lot of turnover which says a lot about the way the business is run and the way they treat the owners treat the people that work for them,” says Lavere.

As our conversation about food, music, and Memphis comes to a close, Lavere shares with me what she might have done if a career as a musician had not been possible.

“If I hadn’t been a musician I would have been a nutritionist/architect/chef/wine connoisseur/tour guide.”

Other than architect, Lavere seems to have all the bases covered.

The Loudersoft of Mouserocket

April 16, 2008 by Rachel Hurley Leave a Comment

mouserocket memphis

Four years after their self-titled debut album was released in 2004, Mouserocket is back with their sophomore effort, entitled Pretty Loud, which is set for release on Chicago’s Tic Tac Totally Records on April 29th. The band started as a collaboration between former Big Ass Truck and current Vending Machine member Robby Grant, and the ever-prolific Alicja Trout, who has put out records with Lost Sounds, Black Sunday, and River City Tanlines. Mouserocket’s new album will be a vinyl release with a CD of the music included in the packaging.

Backed by Hemant Gupta on bass, former Big Ass Truck drummer Robert Barnett on drums and Jonathan Kirkscey on cello, Mouserocket is a perfectly named outfit that blends the loud-quiet-loud melodies that made bands liken Nirvana and the Pixies all the rage back in the ‘90s. These days the band would probably be more comfortable with recent comparisons to bands like Television, Sonic Youth, and Yo La Tengo, while their Myspace page claims the band’s influences are home recordings, thrift store keyboards, Love, Devo, German Shepards, Claire, Fender amps and Motley Crue.

Motley Crue should be genuinely flattered.

[Read more…]

Tim Regan Discusses new band Antenna Shoes

February 29, 2008 by Rachel Hurley Leave a Comment

Antenna Shoes

While many musicians find it hard to locate the time to be in one band, Tim Regan is thriving as a songwriter in three. He joined Snowglobe in the late 90’s after returning to Memphis from college at UT Knoxville. After two albums, a fair amount of regional success and a slew of day jobs to keep him occupied between gigs, in 2006 he was offered the opportunity to join Austin-based Oh No! Oh My! as a touring member and was eventually asked to join the group full time (we hear it was his dance moves that won the band over).  So, he took a hiatus from Snowglobe, made Austin his home base and went on tour. When the tour ended and both bands were still figuring out their next move, Regan went into Young Avenue Sound and made an album.

“I had a lot of songs, and I wanted to put them out. It was something I had been working on anyway, and the opportunity presented itself. With Snowglobe I had a sh**load of songs I needed to do something with and they could have worked with Snowglobe, but they might not have so I pressed on” explains Regan.

Luckily, when it came time to put together the backing musicians for the project, Regan did not have to look far.

“I went around and pretty much picked the best musicians I knew, and they just happened to be my friends,” he says.

Those friends include three Snowglobers, Nashon Benford on horns, Luke White on guitar, and Brandon Robertson on bass, and Steve Selvidge and Paul Taylor on guitar and drums respectively, all fantastically revered musicians in the local Memphis music scene.

“I actually did not join the band; I was already in it before it started. Tim just expected me to play with him, and I had no reason to say no” says Robertson.

The themes of the new album, Generous Gambler, set for release on April 1st from Shangri-la Projects, are often forlorn and introspective, engulfed in dense orchestral psych rock. But Regan assures us that he is as happy-go-lucky as anyone could be.

“I really hope the songs come off downtrodden because that’s what makes me feel uplifted. Happy songs make me feel constipated” he laughs. “I feel comfortable feeling sad, I’m not sad at all, but it makes me feel awesome, I put on the Smiths or the Cure, and I feel awesome.”

“The whole theme I’m trying to write about is based on a Richard Brautigan poem called, “It’s Raining in Love.”  It’s the purest thing I’ve ever read in my life – like when you like a girl a lot, and you end up saying stupid shit – it’s so perfect.”

Other influences include Kirk Vonnegut, Henry Miller, Mark Danielewski, Hunter S. Thompson, and whoever writes those Choose Your Own Adventure books…

“I think I get more creative ideas from literature than music, music blows my mind every day, and I’m supposed to top that, I read way more than I listen to music and I listen to music always, ” he says.

Now that the record is set for release next month, Regan, who is currently on tour with Oh No! Oh My! in Europe, plans to drag the band he calls the best he has ever been in on the road for as much touring as possible which will include playing in Austin during SXSW this month. He is also working on new albums with both Snowglobe and Oh No! Oh My! His strong musical work ethic should keep him on the road for much of the next year. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

“I love being on the road. I love everything about it, I love taking people’s houses over for the evening, I love meeting new people, I love coffee houses with internet access. I love when I go on tour you always have the coolest thing to do that night in town; people are super cool to you, and when you’re not doing it sucks, but that’s what books are for.”

Canasta Is My New Favorite Band

February 1, 2008 by Rachel Hurley Leave a Comment

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When I received the press packet for Canasta’s debut album, We Were Set Up back in 2006 it looked more like an invitation than a one sheet. Since most of the CD’s that stack up on my front porch weekly seem to blend in with one another in their anonymous orange envelopes, the contents inside wrapped in Xeroxed copies of reviews and form letters, Canasta’s embossed envelope and personalized note seemed unique from the start. It occurred to me that if the band had taken such time and care in their packaging, making it seem more like a gift than a mass mail-out, that surely the music they had recorded on the plastic disc inside had been achieved with as much, if not more, fine detail. I was not disappointed.

The band is made up of six members and a plethora of instruments including Jeremy Beckford on guitar and vocals, John Cunningham on keyboard, clarinet and vocals, Elizabeth Lindau on vocals and violin, Matt Priest on vocals, bass, trombone and percussion, Josh Schnable on piano and vocals, Colin Sheaff on drums and vocals. The outcome is full, layered, chamber pop. Oft compared The Decemberists and Arcade Fire and scores of other sophisticated songwriters; the band has been making music together since 2002 when four of the current members landed in Chicago after college. After releasing their EP Find the Time in 2003, they entered North Branch Studio, home to Smog and Jeff Tweedy, to record their debut full-length album which was released to wide critical acclaim.

Canasta’s We Were Set Up is a brilliant collection of intelligent, compelling, ultra-melodic orchestral pop songs. After dropping it into my stereo for the first spin, it was not removed for the next three months. Even though it has been close to two years since I first received it, hardly a week goes by that I don’t still give it a spin. In the beginning, it was “Shadowcat” that I focused on. The song laments a broken relationship and how Jesus came between the protagonist and his lover. As a person that doesn’t claim any religion, I still found myself fascinated by the story and rarely grew tired of hearing it. The more upbeat “An Apology” was always a favorite too. Lately, I’ve been entranced with the melancholy of “Heads Hurt First” and “Just a Star.” Every time I think I have dissected the album from top to bottom I find something new to love about it, and that, to me, is what makes a great album.

When I first started doing my weekly radio show almost one year ago, the very first song I played was one “An Apology.” When the show aired I immediately received emails from many of my peers praising me on the show and relaying how surprised they were that they had not heard of the band, I kicked the show off with. Far too often, it seems, in the business of music you come across groups that you fall in love with but you fear might slip through the cracks. My biggest concern for the band is that they stay a cult fave and miss out on the breakout success many bands with far less talent have received as of late, and while that might even be preferable to some, in my opinion, it would be a tragedy. This band should be given the opportunity to make as much music as possible. I love my first Canasta album, but I can’t wait to hear the second, third and fourth.

A Night With Daniel Johnston

August 28, 2007 by Rachel Hurley Leave a Comment


Daniel Johnston memphis

Memphis is a weird town. When Jack White was a visitor while mixing the Grammy® winning album Get Behind Me Satan at Ardent Studios, he was mostly ignored as he hung around the city’s midtown bars. I’ve often spied bands like The Hold Steady, The Black Keys, Dr. Dog, Lucero and many others enjoying a cold one at local dives without much fanfare. Musicians make up the fabric of our history which both helps and hinders us. There are so many great local bands; we sometimes forget to show up when national acts make their way to our town. We’re also very well known for our late start times for shows. 11:15 PM is known as hipster hour and rarely does The Hitone begin to fill up before then. It’s a late-night town, with the entertainment district serving alcohol until 5 AM, and there’re a couple of places I could steer you towards that will still be hopping at 9 AM Saturday morning.

That’s why I was so blown away by the turnout for Daniel Johnston’s performance at The Hitone on August 9th. I happened to be at the bar at 6:30 PM setting up an art installation, which some might say I set up on purpose, but I really hadn’t put two and two together at that point. I entered the building to see Harlan T. Bobo and his backing band on the stage with Harlan on drums, which was very out of the ordinary. I came to learn that Harlan’s group, whom he sometimes refers to as The Chimps, were going to be backing Johnston this evening, and I could tell that Harlan was pretty psyched about it. As we painted one of the back walls, my comrades and I stopped as Daniel came from the back room and took the stage for sound check. I confess, I’m no huge fan, but after seeing the documentary The Devil and Daniel Johnston, I was certainly fascinated.

Dressed in a Sun Studios t-shirt, black pants and white leather sneakers he seemed less like a hipster icon than someone’s weird uncle that spent his days reading conspiracy theory magazines. He held in his hand a handwritten lyric sheet and he and the band ran through several songs. We watched momentarily and then went back to painting our wall. Around 7:30 I decided to run out to get takeout for my group so that we could eat before the doors opened at 9 PM.

As I exited the building I was in shock. It is rare to see a line in front of the Hitone; it is even more unusual to see one while the sun is still shining. As I made my way down the line of people that wrapped around the building, people shouted, “Is he in there?”

There were easily 50 people already in line for a show I wasn’t sure 50 people would show up for. Shows how much I know. As I pulled back into the parking lot after picking up our dinner, the line had easily doubled. I made my way through the swarms of people with our food and went back to the bar. As I sat and ate Harlan, and his cohorts practiced. Harlan conducted the group with great enthusiasm and suddenly my excitement to see the show shot up tenfold. After we had, eaten we went back to painting and got lost in time for an hour or so. When I came around the corner again, it was barely past 9 PM and the bar was half-full. I took my usual seat at the sound booth and watched the crowd continue to filter in. By 9:30 the sound guy, my friend Joel, began to be hounded by folks asking if he would help them get their friend in. I felt nature’s call and ducked into the green room to use the cleanest bathroom facilities.

In the back room, I found my friends Maggie and Drue hanging out and chatting up Johnston. I came and took a seat next to Maggie just as he remarked, “My, there are some lovely ladies here tonight.”

I introduced myself and shook his hand. I was then immediately sent to retrieve the Polaroid we had been using for our art installation and returned to take a photo of my friends and Mr. Johnston. He signed a drawing for Drue, and we then left him alone to prepare for the show. As we stepped back out into the main room, we felt the temperature quickly go up 10 degrees. The Hitone is not known for its air conditioning, and unless you have been living under a rock, you might have heard a little something about a massive heat wave rolling through the south this past August. The crowd had once again doubled and was easily at 400 in a room that fits 300 comfortably. Harlan and The Chimps took the stage and ran through a string of lovely numbers, including “One of These Days,” “I’m Your Man,” and my personal favorite “Left Your Door Unlocked.” Any other night this performance would have been thrilling enough. However, tonight the crowd was tense and lying in wait.

When Johnston finally took the stage, it was quite a feat. To make it there at this particular venue, you must walk through the middle of the crowd. Sweaty arms and hands reached for Johnston and patted him on the back. Good thing he has schizophrenia and not claustrophobia. The actual performance was of little consequence. The crowd loved him but if you were not a longtime fan you might have been confused as to what all the fuss was about. There were several songs that the crowd sang along to word-for-word about speeding motorcycles and Casper the friendly ghost. However, it still seems if it weren’t for a chance appearance on a long forgotten MTV show, Cutting Edge, about Austin’s underground music scene which featured Johnston and his homemade cassette tapes, folks like Roky Erickson and Kurt Cobain might have never become a fan. Some may recall Cobain wearing the in infamous frog/alien t-shirt that read simply “Hi, How Are You?” (also the name of one of his early recordings). If not for that show, he might never have been befriended by Gibby Haynes and covered by everyone from Tom Waits, The Flaming Lips, Pearl Jam and TV on the Radio. Personally, I have to admit that I was surprised by the man’s talent to encompass so many with his naivety and simplicity – but I guess sometimes the most interesting things are so merely because they are so unexplainable – which is the most accurate way to explain Daniel Johnston.

The Final Solutions CD Release Show

July 11, 2007 by Rachel Hurley Leave a Comment

Final Solutions

Explaining the lineage of The Final Solutions could take days. The Memphis punk rock super group had their earliest incarnation over a decade ago while playing their first official gig in 2001. However, the sum of its part, up until now, has been greater than its whole. Fronted by Zac Ives, co-owner of the hippest record store in Memphis, Tn, with guitar and drums by two of the cities’ most over-the-top front men, Justice Naczycz of The Secret Service, and Jay Reatard of seminal punk band The Reatards respectively, and bass by Tommy Trouble, also known for his work with Chopper Girl and Memphis Babylon, the members have made names for themselves on their own. However, with the release of their latest album Songs for Solutions, the sum has multiplied exponentially.

On June 6th the band came together to celebrate the release of said record. As the band is easily one of the most entertaining live acts in the city, The Hitone was crowded with a mixed bag of local hipsters and punk royalty. Local writers from The Commercial Appeal and The Memphis Flyer hung out and joked with the band like they were all part of a special club. The interesting thing is, while if this were a show outside of Memphis, which the band rarely plays, the crowd might have been slightly miffed to see the band members standing in the crowd casually waiting for opening act The Barbaras to play. However, since it is Memphis – seeing Zac, Justice, Tommy and Jay is a pretty standard thing.

When The Barbaras took the stage wearing thongs while they played tight pop-punk ditties, it seemed strange that The Final Solutions would ask such an outlandish act to open for them. It’s not always a good idea to be upstaged by your openers. The Barbaras swigged beer and fed ice cream to the crowd as they won them over with their tight compositions. However, watching the Solutions watch with goofy grins on their faces made it clear that they booked the band so that they would be entertained as much as anyone else.

When the Final Solutions finally hit the stage, the crowd was tense with excitement. The usually mild-mannered Ives is an unintentionally charismatic performer, enveloping the audience into the performance instead of projecting one onto them. He is one of the cities’ most favorite musicians to photograph as was apparent by the number of photographers angling for a choice position in front of the stage.

The band kicked things off with “Tammy” from the new album, followed by “In a Coma,” ‘Path,” “Rubber Stamp Test,” and then fan favorite, ‘My Love is Disappointing.” Between each song drummer, Reatard egged on his fellow band mates with how bad their performance was. It is often hard to determine if Reatard’s antics are for show or if they are sincere. I’ve often expected one of the berated members to turn around and tackle Reatard, but they mostly seem to take it in stride. The rest of the set included Ives’, Naczycz’s, and Trouble’s frantic posing as they fired off “Brown Panther,” “Sex Head,” “I Am Now,” and the finale “Fuzz Pedal” all within 21 minutes. That’s right; the show lasted 21 minutes. No encore, no apologies, just punk rock.

2 Chicks and a Broom Rock Out at Cooper-Young Festival

September 13, 2006 by Rachel Hurley Leave a Comment

Two Chicks
When you think of the rock and roll lifestyle, a clean house is not exactly the first image that comes to mind. However, cleaning houses is precisely how many Memphis musicians, artists, writers and students pay their bills while they pursue their dreams. Candace Mills didn’t start out to be the patron saint of the arts when she started Two Chicks and a Broom in 2002; she was just trying to make some extra money while she pursued her History degree at The University of Memphis. What started out as a side job has progressed into a business with over 500 clients and 30 independent contractors which will celebrate their 2nd year in their new digs at 885 South Cooper with a backyard party during Cooper-Young Fest which will include performances from Noise Choir, Antique Curtains, Jack Yarber and Harlan T. Bobo.

Although there is only one chick in charge, the company has always worked like a cooperative, giving the workers a lot of freedom, which is key when it’s time for a band to go on tour.

“That’s always been really important to me,” says Mills. “I want everyone to have the freedom to pursue their calling and be able to pay their rent.”

Members of local bands Snowglobe, River City Tanlines, Final Solutions, The Coach and Four, and Giant Bear supplement their income working for Mills.

“My boss is the patron saint of starving musicians,” says Mike Larrivee of Giant Bear. “It would be incredibly difficult to do what I do with any other job.”

All chicks (or in the case of the male employees, chucks) buy their own gear, and the company claims to be the only green clean company in town which means all of the cleaning products they use are non-toxic and biodegradable. Two Chicks also sells green cleaning products.

“The reason we are green is that we didn’t want to add any more toxicity to the environment” explains Mills. “We are actually removing toxins and being minimalistic in the products we use in the home.”

The backyard concert is Mills way to celebrate her employees and be a part of the Cooper-Young Festival.

“We have so many musicians involved; we just wanted to have a party and let the musicians showcase their work and last year was a grand opening office party for our new digs on Cooper. We had so much fun last year that we decided to do it again this year.”

With a consistent waiting list of 15 people trying to become “chicks,” the positions are highly coveted.

“It’s sort of a pit stop, but no one ever quits” laughs Mills.

Show starts at 2:30

Giant Bear Too Big For Memphis

September 5, 2006 by Rachel Hurley Leave a Comment

Giant Bear Memphis

Giant Bear can be hard to define regarding musical genre. They’re not exactly roots, folk, or Americana. They’re not bluegrass, country or rock. But they’re a little bit of all of those things. Their sound falls somewhere between cowboy noir and the best band to ever play on a front porch. Since being named by The Commercial Appeal as a “band to watch” in 2006, the six-member group has crossed the country more than a few times, lost their van to a fire, played to empty bars and packed houses, and put out their debut album on their own label.  Friday night they return to Memphis for a hometown show at The Hitone with Jeffrey James and The Haul.

Giant Bear, which includes Robert Humphreys on bass, Jeff White on guitar and banjo, Mike Larrivee on guitar, slide guitar and mandolin, Jeff Nuckolls on drums, Jana Misener on cello and Daniel Guerra on a host of wind instruments, developed quite organically from two other local bands. Ruffin Brown band, which included Larrivee and Misener, and Okraboy, which included White and Humphreys, were both asked to play Dan Montgomery’s CD release party in 2005 and enjoyed playing together so much they began booking shows together, often playing sets together during the shows under the Giant Bear moniker. Eventually, the two bands morphed permanently into one.

“We played a bunch of shows separately and just got off on each other’s styles. Ruffin Brown Band was more of an art band and then it changed shape and became more of an acoustic thing. Then we played with these guys, and we all sounded different, I thought they sounded like the Violent Femmes at first,” explains Larrivee. “It worked out because their song structure was more traditional, it was pretty effortless. You have to pay attention to stuff like that. We just realized that it was too easy. One night we had a show together, and we just all stayed on stage.”

[Read more…]

Chess Club Makes A Break For It

July 19, 2006 by Rachel Hurley Leave a Comment

Chess Club Memphis

While Jason Barnett and Doug Walker, the founders and masterminds behind local power pop band Chess Club, would have you believe that they’re not encompassed in the Memphis music scene. But having your debut full-length record, entitled A Generation of Pleasure Seekers, produced by Jeff Powell (known for his work with Primal Scream, Afghan Whigs, Big Star, Bob Dylan, and Alvin Youngblood Heart), with guest performances by local heavy hitters Susan Marshall (Memphis Rhythm Band) and rapper Free Sol, doesn’t exactly qualify them as outsiders. One could call them lucky, maybe, but certainly a band with more than a few admirers. Many of those admirers will gather Saturday night when they host a CD release show at Neil’s on Madison, a venue they claim is one of the best sounding rooms in the city.

Walker, who plays piano and keys for the group, moved to Memphis in 1991 from Columbia, MO to follow his dream of learning to play the blues.

“I moved down here with a romantic idea that didn’t pan out,” says Walker. “I quickly realized that a white boy from the Midwest ain’t gonna make it.”

After playing in a number of bands, some semi-successful, others not so much (Walker spent some time living on a bus in NYC playing with a group called Junk), he met Barnett through a former girlfriend. They sat at a party one night and discussed their musical ambitions. After talking about playing together for over a year, Barnett pushed things into action towards the end of 2003 when he drunkenly called up Walker and invited him over to jam.

“The fist night we were like, ‘wow this is really cool’” says Walker. “The songs are certainly influenced by our previous bands; they’re what happen when hard core punk and industrial guys try to write pop.”

After playing a plethora of local gigs and releasing three EP’s, the group, who has had no less than 11 people come and go as their rhythm section, finally settled on drummer Dave Wells and bassist Jason Hatcher.

“We were kind of cracking the whip and not really letting people in,” admits Barnett.

Their big break came when they caught the ear of Cameron Mann of Young Avenue Sound.

“I’d actually been keeping up with them for the last two years and came across their old EP about a year and a half ago. I was struck by two things: Jason’s vocals, very falsetto and unique delivery and second, Doug’s gigantic keyboard set-up and his choice of old-school analog synth sounds,” says Mann. “I decided that I wanted to get them in the studio to do something.”

“We talked for about a year with them, and they connected us with Jeff Powell, and we looked at it as a co-op opportunity,” explains Barnett. “It was a combination of them hooking us up and us bringing our friends in; it’s just that our friends are all top-notch musicians.”

Mann inked a production deal with them for Young Avenue Records, and a plethora of locals were as called in, including Free Sol,  accordion player Rick Steff (Cat Power, Lucero) and Billy Swan’s daughter Planet Swan. Marshall, who is the wife of Powell, acted as den mother during the two weeks of recording and also shows up on two songs, Boy on a Bicycle and Leche Marron. But it was working with Powell that seems to have made the biggest impact on the album.

“Jeff coaxed out the best performances, he did a really good job of making us feel at ease,” says Barnett. “We all have our shortcomings as musicians or writers or people, and he was really good at getting a good performance without making an issue out of those things.”

“What came out in the end was something that everyone involved is very proud of,” says Mann. “It is a diverse record that showcases the band’s range and treads the line between pop and indie rock. In fact, the band describes their sound as “pop noir.”

Memphis Welcomes New Venue: The Complex

July 12, 2006 by Rachel Hurley Leave a Comment

The Edge

It’s no secret that for a city known around the world for its music legacy, Memphis has long been lacking in a premier small venue that had the ability to host national acts as well as our own up-and-coming local heroes in the style they are worthy. Known by many musicians as the home of the “side stage,” our fair city has plenty of junior varsity league establishments, such as The Hitone, Young Avenue Deli, Murphy’s, and The Buccaneer, which host live music on an almost daily basis. However, the sound quality of these venues has often been compared to playing in somebody’s basement. And while The New Daisy on Beale has been charging a restoration fee since I was in college, back in the early 90’s, the only makeover the place seems to have gotten in the last decade appears to be the level of talent that’s being booked there. And I’m voting for the “before” picture.

Enter The Complex, a venue located on in Madison in what The Center City Commission calls “The Edge” neighborhood, just west of the UT Medical Center and before you hit downtown proper. While the venue cut their teeth with the all-ages emo crowd, after a sold out show with local darlings Lucero last fall, and a steady growing number of national acts choosing to book shows at the venue, including indie rockers Say Anything, underground hip-hop hero Defari, and old school legend KRS-One, there’s a new player in town and they want to show the local scene how a real music venue should sound.

“Most of the venues here don’t cater to professional level sound systems,” says Adrian Neverez, co-owner of the Complex. “Memphis promotes itself as a place to come see history, but we don’t promote Memphis as a place to come see the new musicians.”

When Nevarez relocated to Memphis from Los Angeles in 2002 to help his cousin Bert Ganboa with his real estate ventures, starting a live music venue wasn’t exactly on his list of things to do. When they first found The Complex, it was filled with offices and a small recording studio that sometimes hosted shows for local rap artists. After they had booked a few small events, they found out the owners weren’t interested in keeping the place, and the wheels started turning.

While Nevarez and Ganboa had a vision for a venue with world class sound, putting together, a sound system wasn’t exactly their expertise. By chance, in the middle of their upgrade, Bert met Angelo Earl, a local session musician known for his work with both Stax and Motown artists, and invited him down to take a look at their new project.

“It was an accident, I was working with a singer-songwriter and had been in Memphis for two years,” explains Earl, “and I was pretty ready to leave again, I ran into Bert, and I walked into the place, and I saw the potential that the place had.”

Earl ended up designing the sound for the venue and becoming a partner in the venture.

“These guys let me use my creativity to put the room together right,” says Earl.

In addition to a great sounding room, The Complex has a growing reputation as one of the best Mexican restaurants in town. Due to legislation that prevents bars that do not serve food from having a liquor license, Nevarez and Ganboa decided instead of just sticking in a fryer and offering standard bar rub; they would ask Ganboa’s father to relocate from Bloomington, CA where he owned mexican cuisine staple El Maya for 35 years. They now boast a full menu of authentic Mexican cuisine with everything from quesadillas and burritos to fish tostadas and avocado tacos.

The Complex is conveniently located directly in front of a trolley stop and is in the same neighborhood as Sun Studios, Club Escape, Delta Axis, and a planned community theater; parking can still be a major hindrance in enticing people to drive the extra mile past midtown to check out a show. There is a gated parking lot next to The Complex that Nevarez and Earl have sought out to help alleviate the problem. However, since it is owned by The University of Tennessee which has a standard policy of not allowing weapons or alcohol on campus property, it’s not very likely that will happen. The good news is that as the area builds more lofts and condos, neighborhood traffic will continue to grow.

Bret Krock-Preston Releases New Album with The Lights

May 16, 2006 by Rachel Hurley Leave a Comment

Bret Krock Preston

After over a year of sporadic shows and an undetermined future, supergroup The Lights, featuring singer/guitarist Bret Krock-Preston, local producer and sound engineer Kevin Cubbins on guitar, and the hardest working rhythm section in Memphis, John Argroves on drums and Mark Stuart on bass, are finally ready to record their debut album.

“We weren’t able to play for a whole year due to scheduling,” explains Krock-Preston. “Kevin was producing, John was playing with The Glass, and Mark was playing the Secret Service.”

While mostly a side project for the rest of the group, Krock-Preston, 29, who was originally born in Memphis but grew up in Mobile, AL, has grabbed the reigns of the project and has plans for an epic double CD to be self-released in the fall. In the meantime, the band plans to continue doing warm up sets supporting other local acts, including opening for Arma Secreta and Augustine this Saturday at the Hi-Tone.

Krock-Preston started his Memphis music career after returning from Alabama to become an English major at The University of Memphis. Growing up in a family filled with musicians, he started playing guitar in his mid-teens.

“My mom and her dad are virtuoso pianists, and they tried to teach me piano, but I wasn’t interested. But my mom had a twelve string guitar, and I picked that up when I was 15,” he says. “Lately I’ve been inspired a lot by a CD my mom made for me of a symphony my grandfather (Robert Horsely) wrote that was performed by The Memphis Symphony Orchestra. That, and a lot of movie scores.”

With that type of musical background, it’s no wonder Krock-Preston sites as one of his biggest influences, other than The Beatles, as the illustrious Electric Light Orchestra.

“Jeff Lynn is one of my heroes, he’s a very understated rock star, he’s not even really a rockstar, he was just in a very popular,” explains Krock-Preston. “He produced a lot of really great records for Roy Orbison and The Traveling Wilburys.”

Before The Lights, Krock-Preston performed in another favorite Memphis band called Eighty Katie.

“We used to make up stories about where we got the name, we don’t remember, so we told people that it was an aeronautical maneuver that pilots used to get out of the way of missiles, and it just kind of stuck.”

The band played Cheap Trick inspired power pop while aspiring to irony-free arena rock.

“We weren’t being ironic; we wanted to be the biggest rock band in the world. We watched a lot of Kiss and took it to heart.”

After one local release, the band imploded and Krock-Preston found himself once again flying solo. Then by chance, he ended up in the studio recording a couple of cover songs with Cubbins and Stuart, and the seeds of The Lights were planted.

“We never really mapped out anything, initially it was going to be very basic rock in the vein of arena rock, but over the course of the first few months as I was writing songs for it, it changed, and I started watching Kubrick movies and I wanted to write really grand songs with vague lyrics that seemed epic.”

The sound is still heavily influenced by power pop but has also been described as sounding like Badfinger filtered through Ok, Computer.

In the meantime, before their debut CD is released, Krock-Preston plans to play more solo shows, which includes an opening slot for at Andrew Bryant’s CD release show June 1st at the Hitone. It’s a great outlet to try out new material and an excuse for him to play the piano; he’s still hoping to add more songs to his repertoire before The Lights begin recording songs next month for their ambitious double-disc debut.

“The goal is to make a great album, to have people enjoy the songs and the ultimate hope in some way, is to have a song you wrote impact someone’s life,” says Krock-Preston.  “The first couple of years I was in the Lights, I had a nonchalant attitude, but now I really want people to see us because otherwise, you’re just playing to the soundman and the wall.”

Blair Combest Releases Follow Up Album Produced by Cubbins, Postlethwaite

April 5, 2006 by Rachel Hurley Leave a Comment

Blair Combest

When Blair Combest sings on his latest record, “My stomach hurts, and there’s a pain in my back,” he is not using creative license. The singer has had 30 surgeries due to kidney stone problems. At age 25, pain is something he is no stranger to. You can hear it in the sadness in his gravel-tinged voice on his latest self-titled record, due for release from Makeshift Music Saturday, April 8th. However, chatting with him in person is something different altogether. Combest exudes charisma and while his lyrics are smart and literary, in person his sense of humor shines through.

Combest was born in Jackson, TN, but moved to Memphis when he was 5. He did not come from a particularly musical family; his father is a doctor specializing in pediatrics, and his mother is an interior decorator. None the less, he picked up a guitar at 10 and learned to play by writing his first song, an ode to chocolate and cigarettes. While the Dylan influence is easily heard in Combest’s music today, growing up, he was not the earnest artist some might expect.

“He was wild and crazy and not like anyone else you’ve ever met, he would do anything to make you laugh,” says longtime friend Kyle Baker, who attended Houston High School with Combest. “He was kind of ADD, but the one thing that was constant with him was music.”

It was a chance meeting at age 18 with Brad Postlethwaite, of Snowglobe and Makeshift Music fame, in a CK’s Coffee Shop in Germantown that has been one of his most influential musical experiences. The two musicians immediately formed a bond and began writing songs in the parking lot. They released two home-recorded records within two weeks.

[Read more…]

Arma Secreta Prepare to Release New Album, A Centuries Remains

December 14, 2005 by Rachel Hurley Leave a Comment

Arma Secreta

While many artists are inspired by relationships between both friends and lovers, math rock outfit Arma Secreta, which is Portuguese for “the secret weapon,” tends to cover more imaginative territory. Their forthcoming album A Centuries Remains contains songs covering such a wide array of topics as a brainwashing operation disguised as a hair salon, two aspiring ninjas working a at car wash, and a song about an amateur astronomer obsessed with premillennialist eschatology – which is the study of the end of all things (not to be confused with teleology which is the study of final things).  If the content of their music seems a little off-kilter to most, well maybe that’s exactly what they were going for.

“I don’t write music to be understood by other people, I write music that I think is fun to play, and I write it for my own benefit,” explains singer and multi-instrumentalist Chris Wark. “I try to write stuff that doesn’t sound like anyone else, and I don’t listen to a lot of new bands because I don’t want to be influenced by them.”

Arma Secreta was formed in 2003 by high school friends Wark and drummer Brad Bean after stints in other local Memphis bands, including Staynless and Doubt, respectively.  And while it’s certainly not out of the ordinary for a group to want to sound original, Wark’s particular place in life while recording last year was not necessarily run of the mill. Shortly after the conception of the band, he was diagnosed with stage three colon cancer. He was 26 years old.

[Read more…]

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Testimonials

  • Peggy Phillip

    Peggy Phillip

    Station Manager at WMC-TV

    "Rachel is a bright and personable individual. She is a hard-working self-starter, capable of achieving any goal she sets her mind to. She truly understands and embraces communication on various platforms and was an Early Adopter in all things "internet."

      While at WMC Action News 5, she injected passion and pizzazz into the assignment desk and on special projects. Personally and professionally, she was a positive force in our news department."

     

  • Tim Sampson

    Tim Sampson

    Communications Director for The Stax Museum of American Soul Music
      "Rachel Hurley is one of the best communicators in Memphis, Tennessee, and has been a tremendous help to the Stax Museum of American Soul Music and Stax Music Academy. Through her popular blog and other means of communication, she has been of invaluable help to us in helping spread the word, promote events, and help keep the Stax Museum name in front of people in the music industry, which is of paramount importance to us. I would highly recommend her for any position that includes communicating with people at any level."

     

  • Marvin Stockwell

    Marvin Stockwell

    Founder of Rock for Love

     

      "Rachel Hurley is a person with great ideas and the confidence to make them happen. She is on the leading edge with social media and has proven she knows how to leverage its potential to achieve real-world results. She is also passionate about Memphis and making it all it can be. Rachel finds creative ways to be helpful. Rachel is a leader, and is equally adept during the big-picture phase and in handling the nitty-gritty details."

     

  • Parker Hayes

    Parker Hayes

    Videographer
      "I worked with Rachel on a number of "Ardent Presents" videos and also a series of videos for the Folk Alliance. Rachel was always organized and prepared for everything I was involved with at Ardent. She's a true professional and a great communicator. Any company would be lucky to have her on staff."

     

  • Alyssa DeHayes

    Alyssa DeHayes

    Publicist at Riot Act Media

     

      "Rachel is one dynamic lady. She is constantly implementing new ideas to advance the public image and recognition of Ardent Music, and create a web identity for them. As a publicist at Team Clermont, I've had the pleasure of working with Rachel as she sets up performance opportunities for our bands passing through her city (which are mutually beneficial for everyone involved: publicity for Ardent and for the band,) eloquently conducts interviews, and creates engaging web content. Rachel is a busy networker, and has developed strong relationships all over this industry."

     

  • Amy Lavere

    Amy Lavere

    Musician
      "Rachel is a wonderful person. In every situation I've encountered personally or professionally with Rachel I have found her to be very centered and positive. I am also aware that a great many of the innovative studio and artist promotional projects established over the past few years at Ardent have been of Rachel's doing.
      I first became aware of Rachel through her popular blog. She very honestly reviewed music and events and became the most feared music writer in Memphis. She kept the music community honest, helped raise the bar of craftsmanship and kept any phony hype at bay. She wasn't particularly well loved by some local bands back then, but over the past few years it has become clear that Rachel is passionate about good music, musicians and has dedicated her time and career to lifting it up, getting it out there and doing it well.
      She has the utmost respect in the music and recording community. I am a big fan. She would be an asset to any industry she became involved in."

     

  • Danny Flamberg

    Danny Flamberg

    Principal, OmniChannel Marketing at Opera Solutions
        "Rachel is among the savviest social media thinkers I know. As my editor at Talent Zoo for two years, she consistently had her finger on the pulse of consumers and brands as they negotiated and developed a new media universe.
        She is smart, easy to work with and full of ideas. She understands business and technology fundamentals and how to apply them competitively in the marketplace. She has a very pleasant manner and can seemingly get along with almost anyone. She sees 5 moves ahead because Rachel has an innate feeling for how people relate to each other and how they use technology to facilitate and enhance relationships.
        Intensely curious, with a sharp mind and even sharper wit, Rachel sees the big picture but can also focus intensely on the critical details. She will be one of the people that define and drive the next stage of social media adoption and use.
        I expect amazing things from her. If I had the opportunity to hire her as a community manager or as a content creator or as a strategic partner, I'd grab it in a New York minute."

     

  • Brandon Herrington

    Brandon Herrington

    Founder of Fareveller Music Festival
      "Rachel knows social media better than anyone I know. She always has. Ever since the inception of Rachel and the City, she has been at the forefront of the latest ways to socially connect people with the arts culture in Memphis. When I founded Fareveller Music Festival, I quickly valued her as a partner in establishing a credible online presence within the community. Everything she did worked great for me!"

     

  • Mike Williams

    Mike Williams

    President of Memphis Police Association
      "Rachel was an integral part of my campaign for Memphis Mayor. Not only did she consult with us on how to make the most of our marketing on a nominal budget, she researched and consulted on my mayoral platform. Her contributions were a tremendous asset and we would not have been as successful without her contributions. She is an extremely bright team player who can accomplish anything she sets her mind too. She is the reason Bruce VanWyngarden, Editor-in-Chief of The Memphis Flyer remarked, "I don't know who's going to win the mayor's race but @mikeformemphis def has the best social media game."

     

  • Richard Billings

    Richard Billings

    CEO of Leafless

    "Rachel is a highly motivated self-starter that is able to manage multiple projects. She is well organized and worked well with our staff and customers. While working with Leafless she helped build our social media presence through several previously unexplored channels."

     



901.619.5717 (texts preferred)
rachel@rachelandthecity.com
Current City: Denver, CO!

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