September 2009 Archives

Pigeon Forge native Jimbo Whaley and his band Greenbrier have been added to the line-up for Wednesday's Tennessee Shines show at the Bijou Theatre.

The show also features Mike Farris, Tim Easton, Amy Speace, and Randall Bramblett.

Here's what's on tap for the weekend:

• Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang, who were the rhythm section of Galaxie 500, have performed and recorded together as Damon & Naomi since the early 1990s. In that time they've amassed an impressive body of dreamy folk pop, some highlights of which have just been collected on the anthology The Sub Pop Years. They're opening for A Hawk and a Hacksaw at Pilot Light on Saturday at 10 p.m. Admission is $8. Krukowski discussed the records he's been listening to lately here. 

• John Paul Keith (ex-Viceroys, ex-Nevers, ex-Stateside) and his new Memphis band the One Four Fives are coming to Barley's on Saturday at 10 p.m. in support of the rollicking album Spills and Thrills and the new vinyl/digital single "Knoxville Town" b/w "Memphis Girls."

• The Catalyst is mixing up some badass big-city dance music with local and regional jam bands at KnoxTasY, a two-day fest starting at 6 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. Highlights will be Sub Swara, Future Rock, and M80 Dubstation. One-day passes are $20; Friday and Saturday admission is $35.

Damon & Naomi photo by Norman Ghoslon 

It's almost impossible to overstate just how influential Sunn O))) has been in the last 10 years. Their two most recent albums, The Black One from 2005 and this year's Monoliths and Dimensions, are each an apex of sorts--the first as the culmination of the band's droning doom/black metal, the second as a masterwork of intense and unexpected majesty. As Eric Dawson wrote in his profile of the band:

"On Monoliths and Dimensions, Sunn O))) expanded their sonic palette to include a Viennese women's choir, avant-garde trombonist Stewart Dempster, and arrangements by composer Eyvind Kang. Perhaps the most unusual contribution comes from Sun Ra and John Coltrane sideman Julian Priester, who can be heard to most striking effect on the 16-minute album closer "Alice," a song dedicated to Alice Coltrane. That track alone seems to have elicited more purple prose from critics and bloggers than any single Sunn O))) album, and if you hear it you'll understand why. Resembling modern composition more than metal, the track winds down with a duet between Priestley's trombone and a harpist in a finale so improbably lovely it must have surprised even Anderson and O'Malley. Though the doom duo's drones are present throughout the album, grounding it in their by now familiar sound, it could be they've reached some sort of pinnacle with the Sunn O))) brand, and one can only wonder where they'll go from here."

Then there's the Southern Lord label run by Anderson and O'Malley, which has provided exposure for Japanese fuzz rockers Boris, helped (for better or for worse, depending on your perspective) create a commercial profile for American black metal, and pretty much invented the record-nerd/metalhead boutique-label business model.  

Marianne Faithfull's concert at the Bijou, scheduled for Oct. 16, has been "postponed until further notice." The press release issued by her management says Faithfull's U.S. dates from Oct. 12-22--which included stops in Asheville, Nashville, and Atlanta--have been postponed due to a scheduling conflict.

Faithfull's new album of covers and standards, Easy Come, Easy Go, was released in March.

Last night, the august panel of local music experts (WUTK's Benny Smith, Katie Cauthen, and Carey, whose last name I missed; Eric Nowinski of Rock Snob Recording; singer/songwriter Karen Reynolds; Lisa Cyr and Ben Bannister of the Square Room; Jeff Cuellar of AC Entertainment; and me, even though I'm no expert) for the Square Room's Sound Off competition gathered with all appropriate solemnity to sort through the 59 submissions and whittle them down to 25 semifinalists.

Here's who we picked:

The Black Cadillacs
Kevin Hyfantis and the Bishops Band
The Butcher Brothers
The Basement Lights
Seeing Skies
Vinyl Thief
Enigmatic Foe
Madre
Ga-Na-Si-Ta
Granpa's Stash
Big ountry's Empty Bottle
Kelsey's Woods
Michael Davis
Scott McMahan
Cain & Annabelle
Joey English
Hudson K
The Songbirds
Britta Adams
Ol' Sweet Lou
The Dirty Johns
Kamuy
Sounds of Sirens
HiLites
Aftah Party

The lineup for the first show on Wednesday, Oct. 7, is Scott McMahan, Kevin Hyfantis and the Bishops Band, the Black Cadillacs, the Butcher Brothers, and the Basement Lights. Admission is $3.

Winner of that set goes on to the finals in March; finals winner gets studio time, an EP release, a release show at the Square Room, and a spot at Sundown in the City next year.

Two days of slow-and-low stoner and doom metal kick off in a couple of hours over in Asheville with Planet Caravan. Tonight's lineup includes Knoxville's Pick Up the Snake and headliners Clutch, plus Kylesa, Burst, Atlanta's Zoroaster, Bison b.c., Tombs, and the legendary Wino. Tomorrow's got Pentagram, Orange Goblin, the Gates of Slumber, and Yob. I interviewed Yob's Mike Scheidt last week; you can read it here. 

For a review of Yob's awesome new album The Great Cessation, go here.

You know "Ace of Spades," right? Motörhead's signature song, an existential meditation wrapped inside a gambling anthem? There are good reasons it stands above the rest of the band's 30-plus-year catalog. But there's also M'head gold way beyond the group's biggest single. Here are a handful to consider as you count down the hours until tomorrow's big show at the Cherokee Survivors Bike Rally in Cherokee, N.C.

1. "(We Are) The Road Crew," probably Motörhead's second-best song, a steamrolling tribute to the grunt troops of the music industry. From Ace of Spades (1980).

2. No Sleep 'Til Hammersmith, the monumental live album from 1981 with definitve versions of "Capricorn" and "Iron Horse/Born to Lose."

3. "Iron Fist," "Overkill," "Bomber," "Eat the Rich," "Motorhead"--the big hits from the late '70s and early '80s, all of them standards.

4. 1916, the band's 1991 album, one of the strongest top-to-bottom discs in their catalog, featuring the toxic boogie of "I'm So Bad (Baby I Don't Care)," the surprising anti-war ballad "1916," the barreling rockers "Going to Brazil" and "Shut You Down," and the quirky Ramones tribute "R.A.M.O.N.E.S." Best of all is the wicked freethinking anthem "No Voices in the Sky."

5. "Sacrifice," from the 1995 album of the same name. Sounds like a Viking invasion.

6. Just don't forget that Motörhead isn't a nostalgia act. They've never broken up, never really taken any sort of hiatus, the current lineup's been together since 1992, and they've released an album every two years or so for the last 20 years, most of them solid to very good, with some highlights that match the band's best.

Read more about Motörhead here. 

 

World Grotto, the eclectic Market Square nightclub with the indoor waterfall, will soon be under new ownership. Owner Susie Dew, who opened the club in 2004, announced the sale through Facebook on Tuesday.
"Friends, Fans and Lovers of World Grotto, it is with a heavy heart that I write to tell you that this coming weekend will be the last we will spend together at what has been the World Grotto for the past 5 years," Dew wrote. "During this time there have been countless hours of dancing, so much love shared through laughter, smiles, hugs, and beautiful memories made for many. When I began the Grotto I had a strong vision to bring world culture and art to my beloved home town, and to create a space for artists share their passion."
The new ownership is expected to announce its plans this week. See next week's issue and metropulse.com for more information. 
World Grotto will host a farewell celebration on Saturday night. The stage will be open to all performers; Jonathan Sexton, Cruz Contreras, Erick Baker, Dishwater Blonde's Davis Mitchell, and Arpetrio have already signed up to play. It's also a potluck, so bring something to share.