Results tagged “Metro Pulse” from Live Like This

John Myers, the local singer and songwriter who achieved some minor success as a soul singer in the 1960s and early '70s, is releasing his first ever solo album and one of just a few records he's made since the Hearts of Stone's 1970 Motown disc Stop the World.



Jack Neely chronicled Myers' career, which started at Green Elementary School and continued through the East Knoxville club scene with Clifford Curry to a mid-'60s appearance on The Merve Griffin Show and Motown, in 2007.

Myers' new album, I Ain't Goin' Nowhere, will be available at the Knoxville Museum of Art's Alive After Five series on Friday, May 7. Myers will perform with the musicians from the disc--Sean McCullough on keyboards, Chris Durman on acoustic guitar and harmonica, Steve White on mandolin, Maria Williams on bass, Steve Corrigan on drums, and Kevin Abernathy on electric guitar.

It's a free show, and starts at 6 p.m. 

Well, Big Ears is finally upon us. You can read a massive amount of Metro Pulse coverage here, you can keep updated on official news here, and here's a recent blog post from Atlanta's Creative Loafing on the festival.

Starting tomorrow afternoon, MP staffers and contributors will be trying to keep up with everything that's going on. What we expect to see: mind-bending performances by minimalist composer Terry Riley; lots and lots of skinny white kids at the Vampire Weekend show on Saturday night; and lots of surprises. We have no idea what to expect from Andrew W.K.'s late-Friday show with the fancy string ensemble Calder Quartet, or his lecture at KMA on Saturday.

You can keep up with us here, on Facebook, and on Twitter. And, of course, in the real world. 

The brand-new national publicist for the long-running local band Senryu, who just happens to be the subject of a feature in this week's issue of Metro Pulse, has just released the band's song "Inkling," the title track from their new album, as an mp3. You can hear it here.

Senryu's having a CD release show at Pilot Light on Saturday, March 13.

Shannon Stanfield, who was part of the local music scene for years as a journalist, photographer, and musician, died on Sunday after a two-year battle with cancer. Stanfield was a member of several local bands over the years, but is probably best remembered as the frontman of the country-rock band the Clintons, whose heyday in the late 1980s and early '90s helped establish the template for groups like the V-Roys.  

Stanfield also took photos for Metro Pulse, the News Sentinel, and Knoxville Voice, and wrote the Town Hound column on local music for the News Sentinel in the late 1990s.

Randall Brown at the News Sentinel wrote a brief obituary here. There's also a long tribute thread on Knox Blab. That thread includes a link to an mp3 of one of the Clintons' last shows, at Patrick Sullivan's in 2008.

Atlanta prog-sludge heshers Mastodon have just announced dates for their spring tour, which includes a stop at the Valarium on May 21. The band's still touring in support of Crack the Skye, which was released way back in March. This leg of of the tour includes Baroness, Between the Buried and Me (who just played at the Bijou Theatre on Friday night), and Valient Thorr as support.

Both Crack the Skye and Baroness' Blue Record were on Metro Pulse's list of the best albums of 2009.

From Alan Sherrod's MP classical music blog:

"Word has it that Knoxville Opera is having a little cocktail party as part of this week's First Friday in the S&W Grand from 6 to 9 p.m. I've also heard they are calling it Opera After Hours at First Friday. And, I wouldn't be a bit surprised if members of the Knoxville Opera Studio were there to entertain those that drop in on the downstairs bar area."

Read Alan's profile of Rachele Gilmore, who's starring in KOC's production of Lucia di Lammermoor next weekend, here.

Veteran St. Louis alt-country band the Bottle Rockets have just been announced as the headliner for this month's Tennessee Shines concert at the Bijou Theatre on Wednesday, Feb. 24. They'll be performing with Ruthie Foster, Sarah Siskind, and actors from Carpetbag Theatre, who'll be singing pieces from their musical Between a Ballad and a Blues, based on the life of Howard Armstrong.





I wrote this story about the band back in 2002, when they were about to play a show at Blue Cats. They'd just released Songs of Sahm, a tribute to Texas singer/songwriter Doug Sahm. Jack Neely wrote about Tennessee Shines last year.

Big Ears band Gang Gang Dance have jumped from the NYC boutique label Social Registry to venerable major indie 4AD, home to fellow Big Ears participants the National and St. Vincent (and former home to Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance, and the Pixies).

The band will release its 4AD debut, the follow-up to 2008's Saint Dymphna (and one of MP's picks for the best albums of that year) sometime in 2010.

Looks like Americana newcomers Kelsey's Woods (with ex-Metro Pulse sales rep Russ Torbett on stand-up bass) will be opening the Old City Live show tonight with John Cowan and the Grassbillies. 

The Square Room has just announced Sound Off, a music tournament-style competition for area bands and solo artists that starts in September and runs once a month for five months, concluding with a final showdown in March.


The grand prize includes studio time at Rock Snob Studios, packaging and pressing of a CD EP, guaranteed radio airplay on WUTK 90.3 FM, and a headlining show at the Square Room.

Judges will select 25 contestants from all the entries, and those acts will be grouped in sets of five for each monthly performance. The rules says: "The 25 semi-finalists and 5 finalists will be judged on a variety of criteria. Crowd reaction will account for 30% of the scoring and 'celebrity judges' will score the remaining 70% of each band/musician's performance on various levels of skill such as songwriting, cover song, stage presence."

For full detail and an entry form, visit Metro Pulse's Sound Off page. (We're sponsoring the contest.)

Pilot Light has corrected the date for Fat Possum blues singer and guitarist T-Model Ford's performance this week. Originally announced for Thursday, July 2, it's actually happening on Wednesday, July 1. (That scuttles Metro Pulse's coverage for this week, but you can read plenty about Ford here and here.)

Show (probably) starts a little earlier than usual Pilot Light time--it's scheduled for 9 p.m., with an opening set by sorta locals Jose P Orchestra. Admission is $10, 18 and up.

Stuff to do tonight:

• It's First Friday, so art+free booze all over downtown. 

* The Best of Knoxville Party with the Dirty Guv'nahs, Jon Worley and Cornbred Blues Revival, and DJ Slink at the Cider House. More free booze.

• The 1220 CD release show at the Catalyst.

• The Felice Brothers at Barley's Taproom.

• Southern Culture on the Skids at the Square Room.

• Celebrate the grand opening of Southbound Bar & Grill with some trashy women and Confederate Railroad. 

The Big Ears Festival kicks off in just a few hours. We're going to be covering it as close to live as possible with a team of staffers and contributors--Matthew Everett (that's me), Travis Gray, Charles Maldonado, Dave Prince, and Nick Huinker--throughout the weekend, with notes on the music, commentary on what a mass gathering of experimental musicians and their fans have on downtown Knoxville, celebrity sightings, hopefully some perspective from out-of-towners, and some longer essays on the events.

The big events tonight include Matmos in a special version of Knoxville Museum of Art's Alive After Five series at 5 p.m.--the official start of the festival--Fennesz in a rare U.S. apperance at the Bijou Theatre at 8 p.m. (one of three shows he'll do this weekend, though it's his only solo gig), experimental trumpeter John Hassell with his group Maarifa Street at the Bijou at 10:30 p.m., anti-comedian Neil Hamburger at Pilot Light at 11 p.m. and Hello City, a collaborative set by local bands Bright Shuttle, Double Muslims, Fecal Japan, Mountains of Moss, New Madrid, and Psychic Baos.

Some tests will probably appear soon as we try to collectively catch up to 21st-century journalism, and regular updates after that. Stay tuned, tell your friends, get out to some of the shows, and give us some feedback. Politely, if possible.

Counting down Metro Pulse's (un)official (and probably totally unreliable but still way fun to put together) list of The Best Knoxville Bands Ever over on Knox Blab. 

The annual Metro Pulse music issue is due out on Jan. 29 and will feature The Best Knoxville Band Ever. 

A couple more lists, this time straight from Metro Pulse, before Christmas: the Best Albums and the Best DVDs of 2008. 

Best albums, in alphabetical order, are:
AC/DC, Black Ice
Erykah Badu, New Amerykah Part One (4th World War)
Beach House, Devotion
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!
El Guincho, Alegranza
Fleet Foxes, Fleet Foxes
Gang Gang Dance, Saint Dymphna
Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III
Motorhead, Motorizer
TV on the Radio, Dear Science.

Only one of those--Lil Wayne--was mine. I second lee's selection of Gang Gang Dance, though. I didn't even bother to make a full list of my own, but it probably would have included Wetnurse's Invisible City, Torche's Meanderthal, and Tricky's Knowle West Boy, and maybe Amon Amarth's Twilight of the Thunder Gods.  

Things to do in Knoxville this weekend:

Friday, Dec. 5: It's First Friday, so wander around downtown, eat and drink for free, and check out some local art and music. After that, head to Metro Pulse's Christmas Party at the Valarium with the Dirty Guv'nahs, the Cornbred Blues Band, and DJ Slink.

Saturday, Dec. 6: The Square Room is hosting its first show on Saturday night with New York cabaret-rock band My Brightest Diamond.

Sunday, Dec. 7: You have to pick between David Byrne at the Tennessee Theatre or Job for a Cowboy with Hate Eternal, All Shall Perish, Annotations of an Autopsy, and Animosity at the Valarium. (I'm probably going with Hate Eternal.)

EDIT: Sunday's decision might have just gotten easier for some of you. Hate Eternal singer/guitarist Erik Rutan was hospitalized last week for a kidney infection and the band won't be playing.

Former MP editor Jesse Fox Mayshark contributed this list of music he's listening to to NYC blogger Kenneth in the (212).