July 2009 Archives

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. 

It's official: Drone metal pioneers Sunn O))) will appear at the Bijou Theatre on Thursday, Sept. 24, with Eagle Twin. Tickets are just $15 and go on sale Friday morning.

Here's an excerpt from Lee Gardner's review of Sunn O)))'s album, the alternately creepy and majestic Monoliths & Dimensions:

Those who favor Sunn 0))) in vintage wall-of-RAARRR mode and those who embraced the buried-alive black-metal screeching may not find much to champion here, but the band manages to crawl its way to a new evolutionary step while evading the worst excesses of the ham-fisted metal trope-cum-trap that "orchestral = classy."

Cincinnati music blog Each Note Secure got the scoop on the title of Royal Bangs new album last week. Let It Beep, the band's second album, will be released sometime this fall by Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney's Audio Eagle label.

There's a download of "My Car Is Haunted" from the disc at the blog.

Royal Bangs will celebrate the release of Let It Beep at the Catalyst on Sept. 3. The band sets out for a tour of some of the baddest-ass clubs of the East Coast and Midwest with Carney's side project Drummer in October. 

EDIT: Album title corrected from Let It Bleep to Let It Beep.

Even more local reunion news: Local New Wave pioneers Candy Creme and the Wet Dream are trying to get back together for at least one show, apparently prompted by the fact that next year would be the band's 30th anniversary.

One snag, according to band members, is that they can't track down guitarist Kevin Pugliese. If you have any info, you can reach the rest of the band through their new MySpace page.

Highlights for this weekend include: 

• The muscle-car-philosophy cult classic Two-Lane Blacktop at the Bijou Theatre on Friday and Saturday nights. Lee Gardner calls it "existentialism for people who don't read much but know how to work a timing light."

• Alt-folk troubadour Ray Raposa and Castanets at Pilot Light on Friday night.

• Tennessee Stage Company's Shakespeare on the Square is underway on Market Square. Hamlet tonight and Sunday, A Midsummer Night's Dream on Saturday. Bring a camp chair.

• The Handmade Summer Trunk Show all weekend and the Dirty Guv'nahs at the Shed in Maryville.

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.)

Does anybody have news about last night's Hank III show at the Valarium? Word has it he played for five or six hours, well past the usual end of Valarium shows. 

Local promoter AC Entertainment's bringing an assload of doom and stoner metal to the Orange Peel in Asheville in September for the two-day Planet Caravan music festival, named after a song from Black Sabbath's Paranoid. (That's where the subject hed comes from.)

The lineup includes Clutch, the reunited doom pioneers Pentagram, England's Orange Goblin, the very excellent Kylesa, Sweden's Burst, the recently reunited YOB, whose new album on Profound Lore is getting early raves, Wino from St. Vitus and the Obsessed, Astra, Revolution Mother, Taddy Porter, Orchid, and Knoxville's Pick Up the Snake. 

Dates are Friday and Saturday, September 18 and 19. Tickets are $79.50 and go on sale Saturday, July 18. For more info, check out the official website. 

Speaking of reunion shows, it looks like the Relentless Blues Band and the Scenesters aren't the only local acts getting back together this month.

The Longbranch MySpace calendar (you may need to be logged in to MySpace to view the linked page) says Cold Hands--defunct the last few months since singer/guitarist Henry Gibson joined the Royal Bangs--will play on Friday, July 31. (I'd ignore the listed 8 a.m. start time.)

The big 10 for $10 show at the Valarium with Poison the Well was canceled last night after a fight broke out and spread into the parking lot. Doors opened at 3 p.m., with 10 hardcore bands lined up for the all-ages show. According to reports, the show was over by 3:30 p.m.

Video of the post-fight scene here.

UPDATE: Poison the Well has released an official statement in response to the cancellation through their publicist:

Last night the show was cut short when a scuffle broke out between crowd members and security guards. The incident occurred a few songs into the local openers set and what transpired was a flurry of police and reprters and ultimately a cancelled show. Though we were not involved in any way we would like to apologize to anyone who had purchased a ticket or was planning on attending. We, as a band never condone this kind of behavoir and always maintain as safe and brotherly an envoironment at our shows as possible. Unfortunately the actions of a few can sometimes effect many. It's still unclear to us who is responsible for the fight, the security or the kids but either way it should not have happened. We will always continue to ensure that our shows are safe and fun for all. Again, our apologies to those whom
were there to have fun and partake in the family like atmosphere that we have been
experiencing on this tour thus far. We will do whatever we can to return and make it up.
Sincerley,
PTW

The online calendar for Catalyst in the Old City says the Royal Bangs will hold a CD release show on Thursday, Sept. 3, which suggests the band will have a new album out around that time.

Back in the 1980s, the Relentless Blues Band was a staple of Knoxville's music scene. (They placed 34th in Metro Pulse's Best Knoxville Bands Ever poll earlier this year, tied with Erick Baker and Wh-Wh.) And now they're back, playing happy hour sets at the Catalyst courtyard in the Old City from 5-9 p.m.

Here's a bit Jack Rentfro wrote about the band in Cumberland Ave. Revisited:

A couple of years later, (Jacaranda) devolved from the double lead guitars-and-drums-Allman Brothers paradigm back into the trio that started it all. Montage was the name of this new, streamlined strategy of the Cortses and Jones. It was, regardless, "original, kick-ass" music, as Corts put it. Guest keyboardists with Montage included Leo Schmied, Joel Fairstein and Marcus Shirley. In 1988, Montage ceased to exist and Ed joined forces with local guitar madman, Don "Mad Dog" Rutherford, and dynamic frontman and bassist, Michael Delaney, to form the original edition of the Relentless Blues Band. This assemblage continues to exist in some form, usually with a Corts somewhere, sometimes with blueswoman Cheryl Renee on vocals. Jones, "Detroit Dave" Meer, Ladd and the Cortses are also known as the Nairobi Trio, a musical alter-ego that has played Knoxville clubs since 1989, usually presenting "obscure covers and rock classics" as their bill of fare.

And '90s indie rock band the Scenesters are getting back together for a reunion show at Barley's on Friday, July 31, with John Davis of Superdrag and Superdrag bassist Tom Pappas' Whip!

 

Tonight's Jay Reatard show has been moved from Pilot Light to the Catalyst. It's just across the street and much bigger. 

Etta James' Aug. 15 show at the Tennessee Theatre, already rescheduled once, has been canceled.

Call the Tennessee Theatre box office at 684-1200 or Tickets Unlimited at 656-4444 for refund information.

In response to the Daily Times' feature on local deathcore-band-made-good Whitechapel, Randy Neal and a few other KnoxViewers are trying to come to grips with what death metal is and why people like it.

We wrote about Whitechapel here and here.

Mic Harrison and the High Score and J.C. and the Dirty Smokers kick off the new Old City Live concert series tonight. It should be about as close as Knoxville's music scene gets to old-school kick-ass country, with a bonus of two of the city's best guitarists in the High Score's Robbie Trosper and the Smokers' Andy Wood (also of Down From Up).

The series is held at the Old City Courtyard behind Southbound Bar & Grill--the old Hooray's/Thinq Tanq/Red Iguana/Club 106 space at 106 S. Central St. Gates open at 7 p.m., music starts at 8, and unlike Sundown, you can get liquor.