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The local electro-acoustic/chamber pop ensemble Shortwave Society, just a week away from a headlining show at Pilot Light with Asheville's Stephaniesid, had their van, loaded with a pile of gear worth $25,000, stolen in South Knoxville last night.

It's a bad deal for any band, but it's particularly devastating for these guys, who depend on samples, programmed percussion, and homemade synthesizers to make the music they do. Singer/songwriter Grant Geren says it's "a nightmare" and worries that they'll have to cancel shows for the rest of the year.

Details from Knox Blab:

LARGE, WHITE 15 PASSENGER DODGE RAM 3500 WITH THE WORD "CAUTION" ON THE BACK IN BLACK LETTERS. THE FRONT GRILL AND RIGHT TURN SIGNAL ARE ALMOST COMPLETELY MISSING AND BUMPER IS BENT.

Gear in van: Roland handsonic, v-drum kick trigger, L1 Bose Tower w/ mixer and bass speaker, homemade synthesizer, Vintage Fender Rhodes with stand, Roland space echo peddle, RE-20 dynamic microphone, fender deluxe guitar amp, Line 6 delay modeler, Baggs DI box, yamaha mixing board MG-122X, Mooger Fooger Ring Modulator, Boss digital tuner pedal, Mod Tone tremor pedal, 4 DI Boxes, a pandeiro, a djembe, 18' crash cymbal, gretsch snare drum, Monster Power Conditioner, many stands cables, full box of shortwave Cd's, 50+ shortwave t-shirts.

R.B. Morris has followed a lot of paths during a three-decade career as poet, playwright, and musician. But none of them would have obviously led him to his latest post, which is songwriter-in-residence at the University of Tennessee's National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis.

The Institute is designed to face the "ongoing challenges of maintaining a safe food supply, avoiding economic disruptions caused by emerging infectious diseases, and evaluating methods to better manage the inevitable disease outbreaks that develop due to globalization," which"may best be investigated by integrating modeling and mathematics with the biological studies which are critical to the formulation of public policy to address these challenges." (That's all according to the NIMBioS website.) The songwriter program is intended "to encourage the creation and production of songs involving ideas of modern biology and the lives of scientists who pursue research in biology."

It's a month-long program that will last through June and include up to five songwriters. No word yet on what exactly will be done with the songs that are written.

The Knoxville Horror Film Festival is officially over, but you won't be able to tell this weekend: the same group that organized the fest at Relix Variety Theatre in Happy Holler last weekend is hosting a two-hour recap at the same place on Friday night, Oct. 29, at 7 p.m., followed by a screening of black-metal documentary Until the Light Takes Us, which will in turn be followed by a performance from Knoxville black-metal band Argentinum Astrum.

Lee Gardner reviewed Until the Light Takes Us here.

Admission to either the recap or the UTLTU screening is $5, or it's $8 for both.

It might be a surprise to their fans, but everybody doesn't like Mumford and Sons, the exceedingly popular young English folk-rock band (think Coldplay meets the Decembrists) that sold out its Nov. 8 show at the Valarium in a matter of days.

The story making the Internet rounds is that Mark E. Smith, the curmudgeonly lead singer and mastermind for British postpunk legends the Fall, revealed his contempt for the band in an interview with Australian mag The Brag. The full interview isn't available online, but the Quietus offered this excerpt, which reveals Smith to be (surprise!) kind of a bastard, but is also pretty funny:

"We were playing a festival in Dublin the other week. There was this other group like, warming up in the next sort of chalet, and they were terrible. I said 'shut them cunts up' and they were still warming up, so I threw a bottle at them. The bands said 'that's the Sons of Mumford' or something, 'they're number five in charts!' I just thought they were a load of retarded Irish folk singers."

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. 

Superdrag frontman John Davis has a busy summer ahead of him, most of it related to side projects. He recently played an Alex Chilton tribute show with the surviving members of Big Star, and he's got a solo show coming up at Barley's on Friday, June 4. It's the John Davis Liberation Front, which is apparently 40 minutes of solo material and 20 minutes of Davis talking about the ongoing conflict in Darfur, Sudan. Flesh Vehicle, the Nashville band led by Superdrag bassist Tom Pappas, is opening that show.

Then, on Friday, July 9, Davis is regrouping with his pre-Superdrag bandmates in 30 Amp Fuse--Mike Smithers and Joey Sanchez--for a one-off reunion show. They'll be playing at Barley's and performing the Wind-Up album in its entirety. I hope I can find my copy of that between now and then... (Thanks to Steve Wildsmith for the tip.)

Finally, Davis' alter ego Johnny Flame is recording tracks for a song-for-song tribute to the Misfits' 1982 superclassic album Walk Among Us. There's no release date yet, but you can hear a few early samples at Davis' MySpace page.

The Bearden nightclub Level 10 has shut its doors for good, as of May 15. The club opened last summer as a combo sports bar/live-music club and morphed over the last few months into a full-time dance club. Neither approach was enough to keep the Western Plaza spot in business, apparently. According to former general manager Dinah Scott, "It's shut down and is not scheduled to re-open."

Today's First Friday, so there's art, box wine, and fruit-and-cheese plates all over downtown. There's plenty more to do this weekend, though. Here are some highlights:



• Wendy Williams, the AVN Transsexual Performer of the Year for 2009, will be signing autographs at Rainbow Video in North Knoxville today at 5 p.m. Jesse Fox Mayshark interviewed Williams for this week's issue.

• The John Myers Band, led by the local veteran R&B singer John Myers (above), is performing at Knoxville Museum of Art's Alive After Five series at 6 p.m. The show is free. Jack Neely profiled Myers in 2007, and I reviewed his new CD this week.

• Royal Bangs play at Barley's Taproom tonight, with former Bang Brandon Biondi's band Coolrunnings--whose remix of Twin Sister's "All Around and Away We Go" was featured on Pitchfork earlier this week--opening.

• The Night of 1,000 Dollys, an annual celebration of all things Dolly, moves to Club XYZ in Happy Holler tonight. The party includes biggest hair, biggest boobs, and Dolly look-alike contests and late-night Dolly-themed drag shows. It's 21 and up and admission is $3, unless you have a Dollywood season pass or ticket stub, in which case you get in free. 

• Local "anti-pop" stars Hudson K celebrate the release of their debut album, Shine, at the new Relix Variety Theatre in Downtown North, on Central Street, on Saturday night at 8 p.m. Tickets are $10, which includes a copy of the disc. Janet Jay interviewed Hudson K singer/pianist/songwriter Christina Horn this week. 

• Cellist/singer/songwriter Ben Sollee, whose scheduled headlining performance at last month's Dogwood Arts Rhythm N' Blooms festival was canceled when volcanic ash stuck Sollee in Sweden, will hold a makeup performance at the Knoxville Botanical Garden on Sunday at 7 p.m. Tickets are $25-$75. The expensive seats include a reception with Sollee. Discounts are available for Rhythm N' Blooms passholders. Jack Neely interviewed Sollee here. 

If you've had trouble getting reception for WDVX the last few days, you're not alone--the station's been reduced to its online broadcast since a lightning strike early this week knocked out its transmitter. The station administration had already been trying to raise money for a new transmitter, and now they're asking for emergency help to get the new transmitter installed and the station back on the air.
"Right now we are still broadcasting online and hosting our live events," Jennie Cassie, WDVX's director of development, writes in an e-mail. "I want your readers to know that WDVX will be back on the air soon and that they can still listen online or come on down to our events (Blue Plate/First Friday/Wild Wing Cafe) for some cool live music!"