August 2010 Archives

If you (and/or) your band want to get into the Square Room's Sound Off competition, you've just got a few days left to submit your application. The deadline for submissions is Monday, Aug. 30, which is now less than a week away.

The winner of the contest, which takes place between October and March, will get a two-day recording session at Rock Snob studio, $400 worth of customized merch from Nouveau Graphics, airplay on WUTK 90.3 FM, and a CD-release show at the Square Room.

Twenty-five bands will be selected for the competition. They'll face off, five at a time, at monthly showcases, with the winners of the first five rounds advancing to a final on March 2.

For complete rules and an application, visit the Square Room website.

The intrepid investigators at The Smoking Gun have turned up a tour rider for Sheryl Crow, who's playing a sold-out show at the Tennessee Theatre on Wednesday, Aug. 18.



It's a revealing document. The rider has a detailed green section that requires 19 backstage recycling bins, local and organic produce, reusable dishware when possible (recyclable or biodegradable dinnerware when it's not), locally sourced spring water, recycling containers for the audience, and a helpful list of suggestions for making a greener venue (energy-efficient lightbulbs, no-idling policies for service vehicles, eco-friendly cleaning products and recycled paper products, and energy credit programs).

Which is all very good. It's the kind of stuff all of us should be doing at home and at work. But most of the rest of us don't travel, as TSG says Crow's tour does, in a pair of 45-foot buses and two tractor trailers. That recycled TP probably doesn't count for much after the impact of those behemoths is calculated. 

Some things that have recently crossed my desk that I probably won't get around to reviewing for the print edition:

Secondhand Serenade
Hear Me Now (Glassnote Records)




Sweeping, weepy, wimpy emo that makes the Plain White T's sound like Motorhead. It also makes me feel like I should shut my door--it would be very embarrassing if any of my co-workers caught me listening to this.

Street Sweeper Social Club
Ghetto Blaster (Cooking Vinyl)



The second release from the rap/rock group led by ex-Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello and MC Boots Riley from Bay Area hip-hop duo the Coup. I actually think Morello's a great guitar player, but I've never had much room in my life for RATM. This is not good. Covers of L.L. Cool J's "Mama Said Knock You Out" and M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes" (which is actually a sort of half-cover of the Clash's "Straight to Hell") are not good. I think it's entirely possible that some fusion of rap and rock could work; there's really no good reason that it can't. But it hasn't happened so far.

Magic Kids
Memphis (True Panther)



These guys are playing at Disc Exchange on Aug. 25, the day after their debut Memphis is released, as part of their national record-store tour. Bright, shiny not-quite-power pop, it's cute and almost charming, but ultimately the Beatles/Beach Boys harmonies and jangly guitars make me feel like I'm in preschool.  

There was a lot of talk at Big Ears in March about the festival as a kind of cultural outreach program for Knoxville--like, let's show these big-city cool kids what we've got. Well, whether Sufjan Stevens' appearance at Big Ears with the all-star indie chamber-pop ensemble Clogs had anything to do with it, or whether he would have come to Knoxville anyway, he'll be performing at the Bijou Theatre again on Nov. 5 as part of his just-announced North American tour this fall.