Month: March 2004

Categories
Music Music Features

A Breath of Fresh Air

House DJ legend Dave London is on the turntables when I step into Stop 345. A guy in a leopard costume is hugging on a couple of glittered-up girls in skimpy outfits. Another guy, sporting silver face paint and dressed as some sort of Aztec Sun God, wanders through the crowd, holding his oversized headpiece to keep it from falling off. NRGLuv Productions is throwing a party called “How Memphis Got Its Groove Back,” and throughout the building, kids are partying.

But I’m not here for that. I’m on a mission to find a good rush — an oxygen rush. Local entrepreneurs Kelly Derscheid and Robin Kendall of Oxygen Rush have set up their mobile oxygen bar at the club, and I’m here to give it a try.

There’s no one sitting at the eight sleek silver chairs positioned in front of the bar, so I plop down. An attendant takes my five dollars and hands me a lime-green nose cannula that looks like one of those plastic things you see in people’s nostrils in the hospital. He hooks it to a small silver machine with four tubes of brightly colored liquid.

In the tubes are four different flavors of oxygen — Eucalyptus, Cloud Lime, Lavender, and the Beach (a wisteria blend) — and the attendant tells me I’ve got five minutes to try them all. By flipping a switch underneath each tube, I can turn each flavor on or off at will.

I place the cannula in my nostrils and turn on the eucalyptus. A surge of mentholated air shoots up my nose, and I’m whisked back to my childhood days of Vicks VapoRub. Next I try the lavender and a soothing calm comes over me. Give me a pillow and I could probably go to sleep if it weren’t for that bass-pumping techno blasting in my ears. The lime and wisteria flavors are crisp and tropical, but I just keep going back to that invigorating eucalyptus.

A guy walks up to the bar, takes a look at me, and giggles. At that point, I realize how silly I must look hooked to a machine by my nose. Then he hooks up too. My five minutes are over, and I stand up feeling slightly more energized.

Oxygen bars have been popular for a while in larger cities, but in Memphis, the trend is just getting started. For the past year, Derscheid and Kendall have run the only mobile oxygen bar in the city, setting up at various nightclubs and parties on the weekends.

“Nightclubs like it because it keeps people awake and wanting to party longer,” says Derscheid. “It doesn’t change your blood alcohol level by any means, but as you drink, you get tired, and the pure oxygen helps you stay energized, especially when you’ve been dancing for 30 to 45 minutes.”

Breathing the flavored air has been touted as a way to gain energy, reduce stress, and help ease headaches. Normally, we breathe in 16 to 21 percent oxygen but while hooked up to a recreational oxygen-dispensing machine, the dose is much higher: 87 to 92 percent. Fans claim it’s this higher percentage of oxygen that creates extra energy, though a recent article in FDA Consumer Magazine dismisses the assertion due to a lack of scientific evidence.

“We get the occasional skeptic, and if you don’t like it, that’s fine,” says Kendall. “But at least try it before you make a judgment on it. Most people who actually do sit down and try it end up liking it.”

Kendall says Oxygen Rush makes no medical claims because they’re not dealing with medical-grade oxygen, which is generally 99 to 100 percent pure. And while there may not be any real health benefit, a statement from the American Lung Association claims “there is no evidence that oxygen at the low-flow levels used in bars can be dangerous to a normal person’s health.” Oxygen bars, however, are not recommended for people with certain health conditions, such as heart disease or asthma. Oxygen Rush has a license from the FDA to dispense oxygen, which is supplied by an oxygen-bar supply company.

The oxygen comes in 32 water-based flavors such as mint-rosemary or sugar cookie. Derscheid has even designed a special menu to help customers find flavors that complement their cocktails — for example, Death By Chocolate oxygen is a good match with a chocolate martini.

Oxygen bars also have become staples at day spas and salons. The Hi Gorgeous Salon in Midtown recently opened one. Derscheid and Kendall say they have dreams of opening a fixed location too.

“People are always asking us where they can find us so they can come and breathe anytime,” Derscheid says. “We know there’s an interest here, and we’ve got some ideas about how we want to work it. It wouldn’t just be an oxygen bar. We’d probably have drinks and some laid-back live music.”

The Oxygen Rush bar will be set up at Club 152 (152 Beale St.) on Friday, March 26th. For more information, go to OxygenRush.net.

Categories
Opinion Viewpoint

What the Proprietors Saw

With the convention center, trolley, and now the FedExForum almost finished, how strange that the next big proposed downtown project hinges on interpretation of a document written in 1828, when wild bears and Indians roamed the town.

The Riverfront Development Corporation (RDC) wants to remake downtown’s front door or promenade by replacing some public buildings and parking garages with an apartment building and an office building up to 40 stories tall. Over half of the promenade would remain public park, sidewalks, or open space. A group called Friends of the Riverfront opposes the plan.

In 20 years of writing about downtown, I have heard numerous references to the city founders and “the heirs” and the founders’ bequest that created the promenade between Front Street and the Mud Island parking garage. But until last week I had never looked at the original document itself or a copy of it. It was long past time to check the original sources.

So I visited the Shelby County Archives, where archivist John Dougan dug into the Shelby County Register’s Office deed book of 1828 and produced a handwritten copy. The problem was that some of the writing was hard to decipher and some was illegible. A trip to the Memphis Room at the Central Library, however, turned up a transcription in J.M. Keating’s History of the City of Memphis and Shelby County, published in 1888.

Memphis was founded in 1819 — a date that splits the difference between the appointment of commissioners for the Chickasaw Treaty in 1818 and the opening of a land office on the bluff in 1820. The names to remember are Overton, McLemore, and Winchester. John Overton was a judge. Marcus Winchester was the first mayor. And John McLemore was, according to historians, one of the most influential and enlightened men of his day. Together they were known as “the proprietors” of the land on which Memphis was founded.

What happened between 1819 and 1828 is relevant and instructive to what is happening today with the RDC and the riverfront.

Charles Crawford, professor of history at the University of Memphis, says the proprietors were “hardheaded, realistic businessmen.” But they did a remarkable thing. They dedicated a web of squares, alleys, streets, and the promenade to public use while keeping the rights to operate a ferry or two at the waterfront.

Crawford agrees with Keating’s judgment that “Up to that time (1820) no scheme, plan, or plat had ever been made for an American city on so generous a scale. Every emergency in the life of a leading commercial point was provided for.”

So, did the early citizens of Memphis rise up in gratitude and call them blessed? No.

“The people of Memphis were opposed to the proprietors and did everything they could to hinder and hamper them,” wrote Keating in 1888. One sore point was the promenade and access to the river. Someone cut a road through it to the river, then another, dividing the promenade into three parts.

In 1828, Judge Overton wrote a letter to William Lawrence and Winchester expressing his concern about the division of the promenade. He complained about the “great want of appreciation of the liberality of the proprietors in laying out the town” and suggested his critics were “stupid.” Imagine a public official talking that way.

The proprietors, “having been informed that doubts have arisen in relation to their original intention,” decided to restate their vision and file it in the record books. The language is a little cumbersome but worth quoting since it is likely to come up in public meetings, City Council sessions, and maybe even another court case:

“In relation to the piece of ground laid off and called the ‘Promenade,’ said proprietors say that it was their original intention, is now, and forever will be, that the same should be public ground for such use only as the word imports, to which heretofore, by their acts, for that purpose, it was conceived all right was relinquished for themselves, their heirs, etc., and it is hereby expressly declared, in conformity with such intention, that we for ourselves, heirs and assigns, forever relinquish all claims to the same piece of ground called the ‘Promenade,’ for the purpose above mentioned.” (The entire document can be seen at the Flyer Web site, MemphisFlyer.com.)

It was 1828. No one contemplated that bridges would some day be built across the river, much less the arenas and condominiums that followed.

Today, one thing Memphis arguably lacks is a skyline and Front Street worthy of its blufftop location. For better or worse, the vision of the proprietors is responsible for that.

E-mail: Branston@memphisflyer.com

Categories
Opinion Viewpoint

Shredded

Pity poor George Bush. For some reason, he has been beset by delusional aides who, once they leave the White House, write books containing lies, exaggerations and — this is the lowest blow of all — do not take into account the president’s genius and all-around wisdom.

The latest White House aide to betray the president is Richard Clarke, who was in charge of counterterrorism before and after the attacks of 9/11. He says Bush “failed to act prior to September 11 on the threat from al Qaeda.”

As with former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill, another fool who had somehow risen to become chairman of Alcoa, Clarke’s account of his more than two years in the Bush White House was immediately denounced by a host of administration aides, some of whom — and this is just the sheerest of coincidences — had once assured us that Iraq was armed to the teeth with nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons.

Among them, of course, was Condoleezza Rice, who on Monday insisted in a Washington Post op-ed essay that Bush not only did everything just right, but so, really, did Bill Clinton. Both administrations “worked hard,” she writes.

Clarke, however, says the Bush administration not only belittled the terrorist threat — China and missile defense were its initial preoccupations — but took its own sweet time coming to grips with al-Qaeda.

From the start, he says, certain White House aides were fixated on Iraq, and after September 11th, apparently so was Bush. He said he encountered the president the next night in the Situation Room. “See if Saddam did it,” the president ordered.

“But Mr. President, al-Qaeda did this,” Clarke says he replied. The president persevered: “I know, I know, but … see if Saddam was involved. Just look. I want to know any shred.”

As Rice did prior to her Post article, Vice President Cheney’s chief aide, Lewis “Scooter” Libby, virtually blamed the Clinton administration for September 11th. In a New Yorker interview in 2002, he listed terrorist attacks on U.S. or allied interests going back to 1993 and concluded that America had shown only weakness in response.

The United States did do precious little. But it took awhile to stir the U.S. and pinpoint bin Laden. That juncture was reached during the Clinton administration when, among other things, an attempt was made to kill bin Laden with missiles. If the Clinton administration had indeed acted slowly, what can then be said about the Bush administration, which had been specifically warned by Clinton aides about al-Qaeda? Clarke says he asked for a Cabinet-level meeting or access to the president to discuss the al-Qaeda threat. For eight months, he got neither.

Instead, he says, the administration was obsessed with Saddam. As did O’Neill, Clarke says that the September 11th attacks were viewed by some high administration officials as an opportunity (pretext?) for going after Saddam. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz wondered out loud why so much attention was being paid to bin Laden when Iraq was the clear danger. Iraq was on the table by September 12th.

The White House has opened its guns on Clarke. He is being contradicted and soon, as with poor O’Neill, his sanity and probity will be questioned. It’s getting to be downright amazing how former White House aides tell the same tale — a case, the White House wants us to believe, of hysteria or unaccountable betrayal. I’d like to believe my president, but as Clarke quotes him in a different context, “I’m looking for any shred.”

As with Saddam, it doesn’t exist.

Richard Cohen is a columnist for The Washington Post.

Categories
News The Fly-By

The Blotter

And with so many deadbeat dads around too: Officers responded to a disturbance March 18th after a man came to a residence on Clinchport Circle demanding to see his child. The child’s grandmother told the man that the child was not his and ordered him to leave the property. The child’s mother reiterated to police that the child was not fathered by the man.

We don’t even know where to begin: A woman was repairing a tile/wood floor in an apartment on Claybrook when a man who was painting in the same apartment said, “I am gonna underbid your a– to get the floor job.” The woman told him to go ahead but later heard him on the phone telling somebody, “If I don’t get this floor job I’ll just beat this b—- with my crutch.” The woman went home and called police.

Ever heard of Parcheesi? Scrabble? Sports? On March 19th, police received a wounding call from a man on Union. He told them that the night before he had been playing in the street with a friend. The friend threw his knife in the air, caught it, then swung it around, and lost his grip. The knife caught the man on the wrist and the two friends went to The Med.

So, ordinary people own those things? A man called police March 17th after buying five ATM machines for about $28,000. The man said he had received two of the machines and installed them in bars. But both machines were taken by another man, who had bought the same two machines from the suspect. The man never received his other three machines.

— Compiled by Mary Cashiola

Categories
Letters To The Editor Opinion

Postscript

R.I.P. The Pig

To the Editor:

Thanks to Chris Herrington for the Local Beat article on 107.5 The Pig (March 18th issue). I knew something was up when the playlist started to change this past winter. And when they finally switched formats, it was like a kick in the you-know-where. The Pig was second only to WEVL as the most unique and free-flowing station in Memphis.

As the article stated, no one should be too surprised, considering the screwed-up legacy of Flinn Broadcasting. I don’t have to look any further than the late WTCK 1210 AM, which played some of the most incredible deep soul and blues I’ve ever heard. It went off the air due to the megastorm of last July, and now in its place is another sorry-assed golden-oldies format.

When the end finally came, I had nowhere and no one to turn to, until I saw your article. And by the way, contrary to the mention of the “white-folks-world” of The Pig’s format, I am black.

If you can find me a station in Memphis that has the Clash, U2, B.B. King, R.E.M., Ani DiFranco, Bob Marley, the Cure, the Rolling Stones, and Al Green on its regular playlist, please let me know.

David Moore

Memphis

To the Editor:

The now-defunct radio station The Pig filled a distinctive niche on the commercial end of the radio dial. Unfortunately for its fans, The Pig was a business, and as such it was answerable to the bottom line.

I have been the volunteer host of “House Bayou” on WEVL-FM 89.9 for the past five years. WEVL has regularly featured local and regional artists throughout its 28-year history. We have done so without commercial interruption due to the generosity of our listener members. WEVL programmers are knowledgeable and passionate about the type of music they play, genres that include Americana, jazz, gospel, and zydeco. WEVL remains dedicated to featuring diversified programming with a special emphasis on music of the South. Tune in.

Susan Maakestad

Memphis

A Runaway Train?

To the Editor:

I want to compliment the Flyer for your excellent editorial (“A Runaway Train?,” March 18th issue) opposing the light-rail line from downtown Memphis to the airport. It makes no sense at all, for the many reasons made clear in the editorial.

I believe the Madison Avenue trolley line to the so-called Medical Center was a big mistake too. As past president of the Memphis Area Chamber of Commerce, I am convinced we need to plan ahead more logically. Let’s have more good things like FedEx and Graceland and our wonderfully restored downtown.

James L. Fri

Memphis

To the Editor:

As a Midtown resident, I am thrilled with the new Madison trolley line. I’ve been riding it to work at UT every day, and I’ve ridden it downtown twice. As a former San Francisco resident, I’m aware of the ride appeal of trolleys and cable cars.

To get Midtowners to leave their cars at home and take public transportation, the ride has to be pleasant. Smelly, noisy busses just can’t compete with cars, while trolleys can. In San Francisco, the trolleys and cable cars are tourist attractions in themselves.

I agree with your editorial (“A Runaway Train?,” March 18th issue), however, that the line needs to be extended further east. The $19 million that is left might be able to extend the line to McLean and Overton Park. With a bit more money thrown in from the city, county, and state, we might get to Overton Square.

I agree that express busses would be better for getting to the airport, but a trolley line connecting the various entertainment areas would be a tremendous addition to the city.

Herbert D. Zeman

Memphis

Bush, Bush, Bush

To the Editor:

Last week, President Bush rolled out his reelection campaign ads. They were attack ads. Why must a sitting president campaign by attacking his opponent rather than relying on his record? He has held this job for more than three years.

Worse, if you check the facts, the Bush ads are misleading to the point of lying. John Kerry has never discussed “raising taxes.” He wants to let Bush tax-cuts expire on people making more than $200,000 thousand a year and give tax breaks to the middle class — the hard-working majority that drives our economy.

Without some tax relief, we are unable to be the consumers this country needs to drive our economy and create jobs.

Please listen closely to these ads: John Kerry wants to weaken security? Bush is creating new jobs? The Medicare Reform Bill is good for seniors? Please.

Mack Greenslade

Memphis

To the Editor:

I know that Iraq is better off without Saddam Hussein, but removing him from power was never the reason for a ”preemptive” war.

The American people and the world were told of imminent danger, an active nuclear weapons program, and stockpiles of chemical and nerve agents. To date, we’ve found exactly nothing, and I don’t think it’s from a lack of looking.

There sure were intelligence breakdowns, and who’s ultimately to blame? Look no further than George W. Bush, who has yet to account for his miscalculations and rush to war.

Dr. Gerard J. Billmeier Jr.

Memphis

To the Editor:

On the anniversary of the beginning of the Iraq war, we should all remember the more than 500 families of American soldiers who have lost a loved one.

We also should not forget that the Bush administration rushed us into this conflict without an exit strategy or the help of the international community. We should not forget that the Bush administration told the world that Saddam had stockpiles of chemical weapons, nerve agents, mobile WMD labs, and the delivery systems to strike our allies. We should not forget that this administration told us there was an imminent threat to American lives. We should not forget that al-Qaeda, not Saddam, was behind the 9/11 attacks.

As Americans, we need to hold President Bush accountable for misinformation and find out with certainty if this administration deliberately misled us.

Laura A. Perry

Memphis

To the Editor:

The Pentagon’s 2005 budget doesn’t contain any money for military operations in Iraq or Afghanistan. The White House won’t ask Congress for that money until January 2005 — after the November presidential election.

The Bush administration needs to face accountability for its actions. Even Bush’s own top weapons inspector, David Kay, called on the administration to admit that there are no weapons of mass destruction: “I think in this case the evidence is out there to the extent that the president really needs to say to the American people, ‘We made a mistake.'” [NBC News 3/15/04]

Congress has a responsibility to hold the president accountable for his actions and should censure him for misleading the American people.

Corey Mesler

Memphis

To the Editor:

It’s well known that President Bush doesn’t believe that global warming is much of a threat or even a real phenomenon, ignoring the consensus of atmospheric scientists the world over. On the other hand, Bush has advocated spending billions on an antiballistic missile system, again ignoring the advice of scientists who question its efficacy.

So what do these issues have in common? Andrew Marshall. Mr. Marshall is the defense department planner at the Pentagon who was the prime mover of the ballistic missile defense system. He has headed a think tank to evaluate risks to national security since 1973 and was personally picked by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to lead a review on smart weapons.

Late last year, an unclassified report was released by the Pentagon on the national security implications of drastic climate change. The report was commissioned by Marshall and authored by CIA consultant and former head of planning at Royal Dutch Shell, Peter Schwartz and Doug Randall of the Global Business Network. In brief, the report states that increases in greenhouse gases, instead of gradually warming us, will melt Arctic ice, changing ocean currents and indirectly cause an abrupt cooling of the Northern Hemisphere. This will result in droughts and all sorts of extreme weather, which in turn will create such severe social disruption that it becomes a national security concern.

If Marshall is so trusted by the Bush administration, then Bush has an obligation to explain why he has done nothing about global warming. If Marshall is not to be taken seriously, then why did the administration put so much stock in his opinion on ballistic missile defense?

Bush can’t have it both ways. The American people deserve an explanation.

Bill Runyan

Memphis

To the Editor:

John Kerry is challenged by Vice President Cheney to disclose the names of foreign leaders who hope the Democratic candidate will defeat Bush in November.

The irony is amazing. Congress has been trying to cut through the Cheney armor of deception and secrecy regarding who attended the Veep’s energy policy meetings. Cheney won’t tell the courts, Congress, or investigating committees. Cheney is playing a far more serious game of hide-and-seek than Kerry.

Never underestimate the power of the Bush administration to deflect attention away from the real issues.

Ron Lowe

Nevada City, California

The Memphis Flyer encourages reader response. Send mail to: Letters to the Editor, POB 1738, Memphis, TN 38101. Or call Back Talk at 575-9405. Or send us e-mail at letters@memphisflyer.com. All responses must include name, address, and daytime phone number. Letters should be no longer than 250 words.

Categories
News The Fly-By

Kicking Out Crime

Sometimes there are more important things than money.

Since July 1997, the district attorney’s Drug Dealer Eviction Program has authorized about $13,000 in rewards to citizens who make tips to Crimestoppers, but a majority of the tipsters never pick up their money.

“I tell them here’s your tip number,” said Jackie Condrey, criminal investigator for the program. “They’re like, I’m not interested. I just want this out of my neighborhood.”

Recently, the program made its 1,500th eviction. Condrey screens about 2,600 cases a year, partly by going through copies of all felony drug arrest records and determining if they happened in a rental property. If the tenant — an actual drug dealer or not — was arrested for a felony amount of drugs in or around the property, Condrey contacts their landlord to have them evicted.

“Some of [the landlords] have been scared. They like the fact that we take the responsibility off their shoulders. We let them say the D.A.’s office says [the tenant] needs to move,” she said.

Danny Quinn has been a landlord for about 20 years, buying run-down apartment buildings, kicking out those he calls “bad people,” working on the properties, and then selling them.

“The rebuilding is very easy. The hard part is getting rid of the bad people,” he said. “They tend to shoot you and get upset. Most of the time, if they’re dealing drugs, it may be their area of town, and they don’t like to be displaced.”

Quinn wishes the program could go further because he has seen so many landlords look the other way. He recently bought a 34-unit building where a tenant of nine years had been dealing drugs.

“Everybody in the complex knew it was a crack house,” he said. “Actually, the front of the building was spray-painted with the words ‘crack house’ with an arrow pointing to his front door.” Quinn took over the building and the guy was gone 45 days later. “Some landlords really don’t want [district attorney] Bill Gibbons sticking his nose in their business because, frankly, they don’t have to live there,” Quinn said. “They’re going to rent to whoever can pay.”

Condrey said the program has no way to track dealers once evicted but noted she has evicted some individuals from more than one place. The ultimate goal is not just for a person to leave the neighborhood but to get tired of being moved around and leave the county.

“The biggest requests I get,” said Quinn, “are for security bars and dead bolts: How much stuff can you put around me to keep me safe? The key is not bars or locks. The key is telling bad people we don’t want you living here.” n

E-mail: cashiola@memphisflyer.com

Categories
Sports Sports Feature

Dry the Tears

This is about winning basketball. If winning basketball, the way we play it right is not good enough, then we go to the next season. It’s not life or death for me, folks. Won’t ever be. I’ve won enough games, done enough good things, I’ve taken this program to another level — completely — from when I took over.”

— Memphis coach John Calipari’s postgame comments after his Tigers beat Charlotte January 17th

It’s time for the University of Memphis basketball program to “go to the next season,” and a little sooner than Tiger fans would like. But having won 22 games, shared a regular-season conference title, and spanked an SEC foe in the first round of the NCAA tournament, Calipari would be right to dismiss any whining or finger-pointing in the aftermath of the Tigers’ whipping at the hands of Oklahoma State last Sunday in Kansas City.

Once the pain of a season-ending loss subsides — and remember, such is the fate for 64 of the 65 teams in the Big Dance — the time comes for self-evaluation, from head coach to third-stringer. There is more to feel positive about with Tiger basketball than there has been in years, but Calipari would be the first to emphasize that the mission has hardly been completed. So what to expect for 2004-05?

™ Be true to the ones you love. Calipari simply has to step up and declare his intentions for next season. The St. John’s rumors have some legs (just like those at Pitt not so long ago), and Calipari is the only man who can summarily take them out. The Memphis coach is as savvy in his media relations as he is in his substitution patterns. And despite having already received a six-figure raise and contract extension, Coach Cal is going to drive his ticket price as high as the market will allow … and leave every door open that may have a bidder behind it. As much good as he’s brought the U of M program, this waffling every spring is damaging. Calipari demands fierce loyalty from his team, his fans, his student body. He bristles when the local media “turn” on him and his program. He had the chance to eliminate doubts in Kansas City and ducked. Our arms are extended, Coach.

™ Build around Banks. You want a silver lining to the second-round dismissal in the NCAAs? Look no further than Sean Banks falling out of the national spotlight (having scored all of 17 points in the two games). Banks will be the most talented returning Tiger since Lorenzen Wright in 1995. Conference USA’s reigning Freshman of the Year will be a favorite for All-America honors next season, and his team’s humbling this month may simply accelerate his development. Unlike his coach, Banks has said the right thing when asked about the possibility of his leaving the program for the NBA draft (“no”). He’ll be desperately needed to offset the loss of Antonio Burks, more in terms of leadership and guts than in his role on the court.

™ Find strength from within, not from Conference USA. Isn’t it ironic that not one of the celebrated C-USA programs on their way out after 2005 survived the tournament’s first weekend, while little ol’ UAB knocked off the top-ranked team in the country and will carry the conference flag into the Sweet 16? All of Tiger Nation — particularly those of us in the media — need to quit the nostalgic fretting over what the U of M will do without Louisville, Cincinnati, and Marquette. Little can be done to reverse the mass exodus, and the fact is, these aren’t the programs against which Memphis should be measured. Calipari was somewhat prophetic on the eve of the Tigers’ season opener last November at the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic in New York. Said Coach Cal, “The whole point of coaching college basketball — aside from teaching life skills and getting these kids prepared for life after basketball and helping them develop their game for their pro aspirations — is to get in the NCAA tournament and advance. To be in a great league, but be in the weakest situation … it hurts you.” Ask Nevada how important a great league is.

™ Help is on the way. Presuming Calipari’s incoming recruits are academically eligible, the roster for 2004-05 may be a good deal more complete than the seven- or eight-man rotation of this past season. Kareem Cooper, a 6’11” center from Washington, D.C., should bring some offensive presence to the post that was sorely lacking this year. Hamilton High’s Shawne Williams is a taller version of Banks, if not equipped with the same skills. As for the void at point guard, Darius Washington of Orlando will compete with Clyde Wade (assuming the latter can put his legal troubles behind him) for playing time. With so much new blood being introduced, the value of stalwarts Anthony Rice, Rodney Carney, and Jeremy Hunt can’t be overvalued.

Categories
Politics Politics Beat Blog

Long Shot

Don’t bet on the prospect of ultimate success, but in the wake of Monday’s vote by the Shelby County Commission to let the University of Memphis Tigers out of their lease at The Pyramid, Commissioner John Willingham is renewing his efforts on behalf of casino gambling at that downtown facility.

And Willingham, who expects some help this week from his commission mates at a specially called Wednesday meeting, already has some in Nashville, where two “captioned” bills (i.e., legislation whose purpose is specified but whose details have yet to be filled in) have already been introduced to that end.

Shelby County legislators pushing the bills — one of which would begin a constitutional-amendment process to legalize casino gambling at The Pyramid, the other of which would authorize “lotteries” (not to be confused with the existing state lottery) and games of “skill” in Tennessee — are Larry Miller in the state House of Representatives and John Ford in the state Senate.

Governor Phil Bredesen, who had previously been thought unalterably opposed to such legislation, relented on that stand last week in Memphis, where, along with state Senator Steve Cohen, he presided over a ceremony bestowing Hope Scholarships, paid for by the new state lottery, to the first crop of local students to qualify for them.

While still professing to be “not at all sure” that gambling would be a solution to the financial predicament of Memphis and Shelby County, Bredesen said he would be prepared to listen to the opinions of “government and business and community leaders.”

The commission’s proposed action in approving the bills this week would be a partial compliance with the governor’s statement.

Willingham thought he had the votes to put the commission on record behind the legislation on Monday, but a vote at the body’s regular meeting was delayed by the technicality that a formal vote had not been taken in committee to add the proposition on Monday’s agenda.

That was a point made during the regular session by Commissioner Marilyn Loeffel, a declared opponent of casino gambling, and her view was upheld by county attorney Brian Kuhn.

Regardless of whatever show of support the commission or other local sources might provide to the bills, many observers believe they have little to no chance of passage. Said Senator Cohen, who labored for 16 years to get a state lottery approved through the amendment process: “That’s about as likely to happen as [the Rev.] Adrian Rogers is to enter Platinum Plus.” (Rogers is a prominent local Baptist minister, and Platinum Plus is a well-known topless club.)

• At least one member of the Germantown Democratic Club thought last week’s column dealt too kindly with 9th District U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr., who seemed clearly further to the right than most of those gathered to hear him, and, among other things, exonerated President Bush from lying about the presence of WMD in Iraq and advised members to put aside their conviction that Florida’s electoral votes were “stolen” by the Republicans in the 2000 presidential election.

At one point, asked about campaign finance, Ford told the members: “You wouldn’t believe how many of my good Republican friends will contribute when I ask them.”

Said the member, who asked not to be identified, in an e-mail: “I thought the GT Club was a bit hostile to Jr. … He sure as the devil became agitated with us. … Did we attend the same meeting? Of course we are going to be polite. That is what my generation was taught when we were young, but he had some pretty hostile and adversarial questions thrown at him by our members, and I had the impression that many of our members were not pleased with his thoughts.”

Gathering at a reception after the swearing-in March 19th of new Circuit Court Judge Donna Fields were (l to r) Circuit Court Judge George Brown, Paula Casey, General Sessions Judge Phyllis Gardner, and Judge Fields. Governor Phil Bredesen officiated at the ceremony, which was held in the old Supreme Court chambers on the third floor of the Shelby County Courthouse. Fields replaces retired Judge Robert Lanier.


GOOD DAY FOR GENEVIEVE: At the express request of Governor Phil Bredesen, Genevieve Cohen (center), mother of state Senator Steve Cohen (left), took her bows Friday at a ceremony at the University of Memphis honoring 20 brand-new Hope Lottery Scholars from Memphis and Shelby County. Mrs. Cohen also received a tribute from Memphis’ Morris Fair, a member of the state Lottery Board, who told her, “You reproduce well!” That, of course, was a compliment as well to Cohen, who received praise as “the father of the lottery” from Bredesen, a sometime antagonist during last year’s legislative battles over the state lottery structure.

Following is a list of 18 local Hope scholars, their high schools, and their chosen colleges:

1. Amber M. Casem, Ridgeway H.S., University of Tennessee, Knoxville

2. Teundrawl Coleman, Frayser H.S., Undecided

3. DeShawn J. Davenport, East H.S., University of Tennessee, Knoxville

4. Brittany L. Forbes, Wooddale H.S., University of Memphis

5. Candice L. Gray, Craigmont H.S., Rhodes College

6. Jordan E. Hewitt, Mitchell H.S., Undecided

7. Jacob S. Kleiman, White Station H.S., Undecided

8. Truc Nhu Ba Le, Overton H.S., Christian Brothers University

9. Brandon J. Patterson, Germantown H.S., University of Memphis

10. KeShunda M. Pittman, Raleigh-Egypt H.S., Tennessee State University

11. Kelvin L. Pollard, Whitehaven H.S., Austin Peay State University

12. Jarvis J. Randall, Cordova H.S., University of Tennessee, Knoxville

13. Heather L. Ross, Bolton H.S., Rhodes College

14. Fabio A. Sarria, Central H.S., Christian Brothers University

15. Dionne M. Smith, Westwood H.S., University of Memphis

16. Tasia H. Todd, Booker T. Washington H.S., Christian Brothers University

17. James Austin Walne, Collierville H.S., University of Tennessee, Knoxville

18. Earl A. Wynne, Hamilton H.S., Undecided

Categories
Music Record Reviews

Short Cuts

Pawn Shoppe Heart

The Von Bondies

(Warner Brothers)

Lately, Jason Stollsteimer has been known more as Jack White’s punching bag than as the singer for Detroit’s Von Bondies. That November episode of fisticuffs was the climax of a long history between the two musicians — they played together in a previous Detroit band, and White dated guitarist Marcie Bolen and produced the Von Bondies’ first album, Lack of Communication — but it unfairly places Stollsteimer in a supporting role to White. As Pawn Shoppe Heart, the Von Bondies’ rip-roaring major-label debut, ably proves, Stollsteimer is definitely a lead.

So are Bolen, drummer Don Blum, and bass player Carrie Smith. Pawn Shoppe Heart was produced by Jerry Harrison with both precision and spontaneity. Each member has a distinct personality and brings a unique element to the mix: Blum flails on high-hatless drums; Bolen dispenses compact, catchy guitar riffs; Smith supports everything with dependable bass lines; and Stollsteimer wails like the unholy spawn of Rhett Miller and Glenn Danzig. But most important, all four Von Bondies play as a single dynamic unit.

The interplay between instruments and personalities often sounds like a co-ed Sleater-Kinney, and while the Von Bondies cannot approach the righteous anger or social relevance of that Washington State trio, their boy-girl-boy-girl composition and he-said-she-said songwriting make for some fascinating gender tension. On “The Fever” — surely one of the best songs to spell out its title since Carla Thomas’ “B-A-B-Y” — Stollsteimer sings, “She don’t know what she’s talking about she can’t sing, she just screams and shouts,” to which Smith replies, “He thinks it’s easy/but it’s not easy.” On the album’s first single, “Come On Come On,” Stollsteimer wonders “Was it right to leave?” and “Will I never learn?” while Bolen and Smith complete the call and response, chanting the song title and pushing him toward his emotional breaking point.

Lyrically and vocally, Pawn Shoppe Heart beats with sexual antagonism — in lines like “I’m a broken man/With my broken band” and the delicious bad-date put-down “You’re not that social/Just a good drinker” — as if men and women could never reconcile their differences in perspective and experience. On the other hand, the tight interaction between guitars, drum, and bass, which creates a dizzying momentum on songs like “Crawl Through the Darkness” and the cathartic title track, suggests that music might bridge that gender gap. — Stephen Deusner

Grade: A

Underachievers Please Try Harder

Camera Obscura

(Merge)

A literal and figurative four-letter word, “twee” is a category that polarizes indie-rock fans. More so than emo, it is the music that, in a genderless fashion, sits down to pee. With roots in the post-punk pop of the Marine Girls (later Everything But the Girl) and Young Marble Giants, twee-pop came to fruition in the latter part of the ’80s with the Pastels and the Field Mice. A case could be made that Calvin Johnson’s Beat Happening and his K label carried the U.S. torch, but I’ve never understood the appeal of Beat Happening.

Back to the other side of the Atlantic and bam! (or more like “er, pardon me”), Belle and Sebastian emerged. All of a sudden everything was cute and cutely literary, and the world was regaled with tales of rolled-up knickers, stream-wading, and bicycle baskets — all saddled with a flaccid undercurrent of class discourse. Belle and Sebastian eventually grew out of this and into an enjoyable Zombies/Smiths/Lambchop hybrid. But now Camera Obscura are here like a time-traveling, acutely precious mid-’90s footnote.

From Glasgow, naturally, Camera Obscura have surgically nailed every nuance of early Belle and Sebastian and redirected the whole affair through (mostly) female vocals. Pop smarts meets precocious naval-gazing at the starting line with the ’60s easy-listening vibe of the opening “Suspended from Class,” which boasts the memorable chorus “I should be suspended from class/I don’t know my elbow from my arse.” One thing, one thing, that sets this apart from its genre ancestors is its countrypolitan aura, like an indie-folk treatment of late-period Byrds.

Not a good gift for the badass in your life, Underachievers is nevertheless a workable and elegantly crafted facsimile of a recent era and is more than suitable for fans of the genre. — Andrew Earles

Grade: B-

Convict Pool

Calexico

(Quarterstick)

Typically, EPs either document a musician’s tentative steps in a new direction or serve as a money-making dumping ground for a chockablock assemblage of covers, remixes, outtakes, and studio doodling. They aren’t usually intended to be thematically cohesive or accessible to anyone outside the artist’s most loyal fan base.

An exception to the rule: Convict Pool, Calexico’s short-form follow-up to 2003’s standout Feast of Wire. This EP is perhaps one of the band’s most focused releases, an intriguing introduction to Joey Burns and John Convertino’s unique mixture of indie rock and Latino flourishes. While their previous releases contain numerous incidental and/or instrumental tracks scattered among highly structured songs, on Convict Pool, Burns and Convertino emphasize songwriting — not just their own but others’ as well, including Love’s “Along Again Or” and the Minutemen’s “Corona.”

But the best tracks are Calexico originals. The title track, a surprisingly affecting ballad about inhumane prison conditions, sounds like a dark sequel to “Across the Wire” from Feast. “Sirena” spins desert superstitions into a desperately driven ballad full of haunted imagery, ending this strikingly strong EP on a high note, figuratively if not literally. —SD

Grade: A-

Calexico performs Wednesday, March 31st, at the Hi-Tone Cafe.

Honey in the Lion’s Head

Greg Brown

(Trailer Records)

Honey in the Lion’s Head, the 18th and latest release from Iowa Åber-folkie and singer-songwriter Greg Brown, is a traditional tour de force. With only one Brown-penned tune on the album, the rest are traditional or neo-traditional songs that resonate as brightly today as they did tens or even hundreds of years ago. Like Bob Dylan, Brown has that rare ability to take a ubiquitous folk tune and infuse it with meaning for the present day. He transforms the often whimsical nursery rhyme “Who Killed Cock Robin?” into a powerful meditation on life and death. And in Brown’s able hands, “I Don’t Want Your Millions Mister” becomes a direct response to favorite son George Dubya’s policies, where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, as well as his divisive “if you’re not for us, you’re against us” mentality. Brown sings, “Think me dumb, if you want, mister/Call me green, or blue or red/There’s one thing that I know, mister/Hungry children must be fed.”

This work is obviously a labor of love as well as a true family affair: One of Brown’s daughters designed the album cover, while his other two provide backup vocals, as does his new bride Iris DeMent, who croons behind Brown on “Jacob’s Ladder.” For the most part, the arrangements are beautifully done but spare and simple, except for Blind Willie Johnson’s gospel tune, “Samson,” which Brown saddles and rides like a galloping stallion. With his wonderfully rich baritone and impeccable phrasing, Brown takes old chestnuts like “Old Smokey” and uncovers the raw emotion behind the originals. With Honey in the Lion’s Head, Brown relishes his roots in a loving celebration of everyday life, land, and folks. — Lisa Lumb

Grade: B+

Categories
Cover Feature News

They came from Memphis

Austin, Texas, promotes itself as the live music capital of the world, and every March it goes out and proves it. The city’s annual South by Southwest music festival might be the largest annual gathering of touring bands, rock critics, and industry insiders in the country.

Lucero’s Ben Nichols is locked and loaded for the Reigning Sound’s showcase.

For years, Memphis has reaped some of the fruits of the festival in terms of an avalanche of local shows picked up by bands on their way to or from Austin. But this year, Memphis invaded Austin with its own avalanche of travelin’ bands, starting last Wednesday night with roots-rock/jam-band Stout (whose 8 p.m. set I missed due to road construction in Waco) and Lucero, who played a late showcase for their record label, Tiger Style. Friday night, MADJACK Records put its entire roster on display at Coyote Ugly, while a reconfigured Big Star plugged in at the Austin Music Hall. And, on Saturday, the closing day of the festival, an entire two-block section of downtown Austin turned into a celebration of Memphis garage rock, with locals the Cool Jerks, Viva L’American Deathray Music, the Lost Sounds, and the Reigning Sound playing alongside a bevy of bands influenced by the Memphis scene.

And in between those sets was a host of Memphis-connected acts, from ex-pats like Garrison Starr, Megan Reilly, and members of the Drive-By Truckers to Murfreesboro’s Glossary and Mississippians like the Preacher’s Kids and Sharde Thomas and the Rising Star Fife & Drum Band (see Local Beat, page 57).

The Flyer was there to cover this Memphis invasion and to take the pulse of a festival that purports to capture what’s new, exciting, and emerging in pop music. Here’s what we found:

No Biz Like Show Biz

South by Southwest math: Fifty venues times six bands per venue times four nights equals 1,200 showcase concerts.

If the number of concerts seems overwhelming, consider this: That’s only the “official” nighttime showcases. Most bands pick up extra shows at unofficial nighttime events or at day parties sponsored by publicity firms, record labels, or media outlets. And while all that music is happening, there’s business being conducted all over town, with industry panels and trade shows cramming the calendar at the convention center. The reality of SXSW is that, while the showcase events are the draw, they’re only the epicenter for a swirl of other music-biz activity.

Lucero was probably the busiest of the locals in Austin last week, following their Wednesday night showcase at Buffalo Billiards with a packed outdoor gig at Emo’s Annex Saturday afternoon. Then, Saturday night, the band headed off the strip to participate in a bill at the Terrible One bike park on Sixth Street, playing in the middle of a ramp while fans sat on ledges around them. The night before, the Lost Sounds may have matched Lucero for rock-and-roll romance value, playing at a converted church called the Church of the Friendly Ghost.

Lucero also spent the week meeting with a couple of entertainment lawyers and a couple of prominent indie labels (one of which offered the band a contract on the spot) to plot a future that seems unclear because their current label, Tiger Style, is experiencing difficulties. One meeting occurred at the Four Seasons hotel, which prompted guitarist Brian Venable to remark that “the hotel staff looked at us a little weird. I think they have a hard time distinguishing between people in town for South by Southwest and the local homeless.”

The Hives’ Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist and the

Reigning Sound’s Greg Roberson hang out

at Emo’s between sets.

MADJACK artists were busy Friday afternoon before their showcase that night at Coyote Ugly. The Tennessee Boltsmokers drove to College Station, home of Texas A&M University, for a live community-radio performance, while Cory Branan played the trade-show day stage at the convention center before a sparse crowd of catnappers, laptop clickers, and networking attendees. A bemused Branan pitched his show to the handful of Memphians in the audience. Playing his song “Skateland South,” Branan looked up in mock mournfulness at the “trade show” banner when he sang the line “I’ll share all my fame with you.” Soon after, Venable cracked the joke of the day when Branan asked him from the stage what he wanted to hear and Venable deadpanned “Play something from the first album.” (Branan’s debut, The Hell You Say, was released a couple of years ago and recording on the follow-up that was supposed to start in February got delayed.) But, as unexcited as Branan was about playing the trade show, he wasn’t in bad company; Robyn Hitchcock and Andrew Bird played the same day.

Later, Branan and guitarist sidekick Steve Selvidge peered through the window to catch some of ex-Memphian Garrison Starr’s Thursday night set at a sold-out Coyote Ugly, while Lucero drummer Roy Berry caught up with ex-Memphian Megan Reilly at her Friday night showcase at the Ritz. Selvidge later tracked down Drive-By Trucker and ex-Memphian Patterson Hood at a Bug publishing party. Lucero couldn’t stay away from recent tourmates Against Me!, with most of the band spotted in the crowd at the Florida punk band’s day set at Emo’s Saturday (which was a festival highlight) and bassist John Stubblefield hopping on stage to pitch in with backup vocals.

But it wasn’t only acquaintances and fellow locals that Memphis musicians checked out. Berry was talking up sets by indie-rockers Electrelane and the Constantines while Venable tried but failed to work his way into the overflowing Saturday afternoon set by punk sensation Ted Leo. Branan, meanwhile, tagged along with his publicist Shelby Meade to a late-night party off-site, where he came back unimpressed with New York buzz band the Walkmen but amused by the “hissy fit” thrown by indie-rock prankster Har Mar Superstar.

Local musicians took the opportunity to get away from the madness too, or to escape “the van culture,” as Venable called it. “We’ve been in bars for the past 32 days,” Venable said. “At this point, going to some of the shows seems like going into the office on your day off.” To get away from it all, Venable and Nichols went to see the film Hidalgo (because, apparently, nothing breeds band camaraderie like taking in a rousing adventure yarn together), while members of the Lost Sounds stayed at their hotel and went swimming. And while his bandmates were hanging out in the clubs, the Reigning Sound’s Greg Cartwright went to his tour van and went to sleep.

There was also plenty of Memphis-related action away from the performances. At the convention center on Thursday, there was a well-attended panel discussion about Big Star. Former Memphian and current Austin-based music writer Kent Benjamin moderated, with the panel including Big Star drummer and Ardent Studio manager Jody Stephens, original bassist and current aerospace engineer Andy Hummel, Posies and current-edition Big Star members Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow, and former Ardent engineer Terry Manning (currently working on the next R.E.M. album at his Bahamas studio). Missing were Big Star frontman Alex Chilton, who doesn’t participate in these kinds of events, and Third/Sister Lovers producer Jim Dickinson, a last-minute scratch who was there “in spirit,” which meant in the form of a worn vinyl copy of his ’70s solo album Dixie Fried, which Benjamin propped up on the table.

The timing of the panel coincided with a new batch of Big Star-related activity. Chilton, Stephens, Auer, and Stringfellow are at Ardent this month working on the first new “Big Star” album in 30 years, and a book on the band is set to be published in November. The panel itself was pretty subdued, filled with meditations on late Big Star founder Chris Bell and reminiscences of the Memphis teen scene that gave birth to the band. “The main thing behind Chris leaving the band was that he had produced this wonderful piece of music; he had done his job and then the record people went out to promote it and failed utterly,” Hummel said.

“In Memphis at that time, well, it was a very strange place. You couldn’t be different at all,” Manning said, remembering being sneered at on the street for having hair that would seem conservative today. “When you went to school dances, the bands played soul music — ‘In the Midnight Hour,’ ‘Knock on Wood.’ Nobody wanted to hear the Beatles or the British Invasion. And we were all rebelling against that.”

Manning, whose eloquent observations dominated the panel, described Big Star as the first “street band.”

“I saw the Stooges and the New York Dolls,” he said, “and they wanted to be the Rolling Stones. Big Star was really the first band I’d seen get on stage in T-shirts and jeans and just be themselves.” The reconfigured lineup of the band performed a showcase (which was panned by the local Austin press) Friday night at the Austin Music Hall.

Another event at the convention center was Flatstock, a gathering of concert poster makers from around the country. The event was sponsored by GigPosters.com, the “meeting room or dorm room” of the American Poster Institute, according to Memphian Andrew Vastagh of Boss Construction, who, along with his wife Christa, was there to show off his work. Also participating in Flatstock was Michael Carpenter, an employee of local ad agency Red Deluxe, whose poster-making sideline, Nokturnal, has won him national clients in addition to his work for local bands and clubs.

Also at the convention center, MADJACK Records was participating in the Indie Village networking and meeting project along with scores of other indie labels, including In the Red, Kill Rock Stars, and Lookout. MADJACK’s Friday night showcase at Coyote Ugly (where the club’s trademark dancing bartenders hoofed across the bar to the tune of the recent Junkie XL remix of Elvis’ “A Little Less Conversation”) seemed to be the preferred gathering spot for local bizzers. The Memphis and Shelby County Music Commission’s recently hired associate director of business development and community relations, Wayne Leeloy, was there cheering on local artists after spending the day networking and brainstorming at the convention hall. Current local Recording Academy president Jimmy Davis was also spotted in a crowd that included Billboard columnist Chris Morris.

Indie Hip-Hop Is the New Garage Rock Is the New Alt-Country

For writers, fans, and prospecting bizzers alike, one thing South by Southwest is indisputably about is trendspotting. The festival not only offers a glimpse at scenes on the rise but at how scenes hold up after the hype has receded.

An article in the festival’s preview guide by Austin-based music writer Jim Caligiuri noted that a few years ago alt-country was where the buzz was at SXSW, but the spotlight has since dimmed on the genre. No argument there, but it didn’t take much looking around to see that the genre still has plenty to offer even with its “next big thing” tag discarded. Thursday night’s showcase of rootsy female singer-songwriters, including Garrison Starr, Mindy Smith, and Alison Moorer, reached club capacity quickly. Earlier that day, the Texas-based New West Records (which has become a haven for great roots artists fed up with or abandoned by major labels) showed off perhaps the strongest alt-country lineup in the industry at a picnic in which the Old ’97s, the Flatlanders, and the Drive-By Truckers delivered fantastic acoustic sets.

The not-really-so-alt-country Lucero played to the biggest crowds of any locals at SXSW (save maybe Big Star) with their well-attended showcase Wednesday night at the mammoth Buffalo Billiards. The performance itself was disappointing, with the band seeming to go through the motions (playing some songs too fast and Ben Nichols shouting rather than singing) and with the sound mix a little off. But the band rebounded with a fine show Saturday afternoon that mixed spirited takes on old songs such as “Kiss the Bottle” and “Little Silver Heart” with That Much Further West standouts “Hate & Jealousy” and “Tears Don’t Matter Much.” And with Eric Lewis & Andy Ratliff delivering pitch-perfect bluegrass and Cory Branan roughing up his songs, the MADJACK showcase offered proof that there’s still plenty of life left in the acoustic guitar.

But as far as trends go, alt-country is really yesterday’s news once removed. The new genre to beat up on this year was garage rock. The Austin Chronicle took potshots at Saturday’s garage-rock showcase headliners the Hives for not being as popular as they were last year and for not “saving” rock-and-roll. (SXSW unanswerable: What’s more of a drag: cookie-cutter hipsterdom or jaded critical backlash?) But if garage-rock was “over,” the memo never showed up at Red River and Sixth on Saturday, where garage-rock-themed showcases at Emo’s and Beerland were big successes.

Tyler Keith of Oxford’s the Preacher’s Kids set the tone at a blazing afternoon set at Beerland when he introduced a new song called “I Wanna Be a Lost Cause.” And the rest of the lost causes in this scene rocked well into the night. Memphis’ Viva L’American Deathray Music and the Cool Jerks opened the showcase at Emo’s, where the Hives were headlining. Deathray ended their set with a “Sister Ray”-style noise meltdown, frontman Nick Ray playing guitar using his microphone as a slide. The Cool Jerks followed, with Jack Yarber, Scott Rogers, and former Neckbones Forrest Hewes and Dave Boyer all taking turns with vocals and with Austin music-scene stalwart (and Yarber’s partner in the band South Filthy) Walter Daniels joining them on harmonica.

In between those sets, I got to chat with Hives singer Pelle Almqvist, who watched both performances. Almqvist is a huge fan of the Memphis garage-rock scene, especially Cartwright-Yarber collaborations the Oblivians and the Compulsive Gamblers, and has toured with the Reigning Sound. “I was a big Oblivians fan when I was 16 or 17 and had a chance to see them in concert when they toured Europe,” Almqvist said. “When we were going on tour in America, we had gotten to be pretty popular, so we wanted to take bands on the road with us that we really liked, so [we asked the Reigning Sound].”

At Beerland, the In the Red showcase offered both the good and bad of the genre. Wisconsin’s Mystery Girls (named after a Compulsive Gamblers song) were garage-punk-by-numbers and Portland’s Hunches were simply an indulgent mess. But Chicago’s Ponys were a revelation with their mix of Tom Verlaine vocals, hypnotic guitars, and bass-heavy, cymbal-free percussion. They played before the not-really-so-garage-rock Lost Sounds, whose furious set was one of the fest’s frenetic highs, with Jay Lindsey and Alicja Trout unleashing a torrent of sound and energy (and hair) as they switched off between guitar and synth. And that set the stage for the Reigning Sound.

Over at Emo’s earlier, I’d mentioned to bassist Jeremy Scott that my original hope of bouncing between the two clubs in order to see the Hives would likely be foiled by the large crowds. Scott, in what seemed to be an entirely sincere observation, said, “I don’t think you’ll have a problem getting in to see us.” But Beerland was packed with a long line waiting futilely outside well before the Reigning Sound took the stage to turn yesterday’s news into timeless literature. Just seconds before the first drumbeat kicked in, Lucero’s Ben Nichols yelled, “The best band in the world!” And whether that assertion is true or not, Scott, Cartwright, and Roberson spent the next hour proving it.

But if alt-country and garage rock are trends on the wane, the new big thing at SXSW appeared to be indie hip-hop. Where the alt-country and garage-rock shows seemed to draw fairly insular, partisan crowds, the Rhymesayers and Definitive Jux showcases at Emo’s on Wednesday and Thursday night were far more diverse affairs. Hip-hop heads and punk rockers mixed with indie kids, rock critics, and assorted others (I saw Old 97’s guitarist Ken Bethea at the Def Jux show!), packing both shows and creating a vibe that gave off a palpable excitement.

At the Rhymesayers set, the Minneapolis-based label showed off its newest star, Brother Ali, an overweight, lazy-eyed, albino, Muslim MC who came out to the blaring sounds of Muddy Waters’ “I’m a Man” and lived up to all that conceptual baggage and then some. His half-hour set was incendiary and self-deprecating, smart and funny and passionate and combative. The next night, New York’s Def Jux presented its nationwide roster of underground hip-hop stars: California’s Jean Grae rapped over tracks from Scarface’s “On My Block” and J-Kwon’s “Tipsy” and sought to bridge the divide between hip-hop’s underground and mainstream, teasing the crowd: “It’s okay to party to underground music. That’s what hip-hop was born for, to party. Don’t act like y’all don’t go out and get drunk and tried to pick folks up.” She was followed by the Boston tag-team of Mr. Lif and Akrobatik and then by label owner El-P and his signal artist, Brooklyn’s Aesop Rock.

The crowd excitement for each of these sets dwarfed that of most of the rock and roots shows I saw at SXSW, and I can only imagine what it was like when British MC Dizzee Rascal performed, since his showcase coincided with that of the Reigning Sound. The fan enthusiasm and artistic energy of the indie hip-hop scene proved at SXSW to be far more than just press hype. Too bad Memphis couldn’t have contributed to it, but if locals like Memphix and the Iron Mic Coalition continue to develop, there’s always next year.

“This goes to those whose love is so strong you can shut your eyes and see it when you listen to their songs.”

That line comes from “Multiples,” an early song by the rapper Sean “Slug” Daley from the hip-hop group Atmosphere, who acted as the ringleader to the indie-hip-hop celebration at SXSW, presiding over the Rhymesayers showcase and introducing Aesop Rock at the Def Jux showcase. I don’t know if Slug performed the song during his own headlining slot at the Rhymesayers show, since I had to leave to make the Lucero showcase. (Being forced to make such decisions is perhaps the cruelest part of the SXSW experience.) But it might be the perfect theme song for not only those hip-hop coming-out parties but also for what was best about the festival as a whole.

For all the biz shenanigans and herd mentality and old pros going through the motions (B-52’s opening for Junior Senior at Stubb’s, which prompted this observation from my wife: “I’d be okay with this if I was at the state fair”) and major-labelers trying to recapture lost momentum (hello, Papa Roach), at its best, SXSW could still be about the music, about art and culture instead of just taste-making and commerce.

And for this music fan, that purer, nobler quality was embodied most by three compellingly similar artists, all of whom put their transcendent music across with fairly old-fashioned guitar-rock.

Elizabeth Elmore got her start in the punk band Sarge, one of the most promising indie bands of the late ’90s. A few years back, she disbanded Sarge for law school and a more promising legal career. But there she was in Austin Thursday night at the Ritz, opening the showcase of her new label, punk stalwart Lookout, with her new band, the Reputation. It was like the rock-and-roll equivalent of that Godfather III line Silvio always quotes on The Sopranos: “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.”

With a mind as sharp as her tongue, Elmore’s songs pick apart every bad relationship she’s ever been in or heard about with a truly fierce intelligence and an artistic obsessiveness that borders on the frightening. Why is this woman touring the country with an indie band making no money when she could be well on her way to a six-figure law career, you ask? But then you watch her play and you figure it out. With her blond hair falling in front of her face and her guitar at her waist, Elmore rocks with a surly, suffer-no-fools intensity that evokes the Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde, and when she bites into a song, she’s both transfixed and transfixing. She seems to be back on the road with a band because she has to be.

And you might be able to say the same thing about Craig Finn. Finn led the one-of-a-kind Minneapolis band Lifter Puller in the mid-’90s but broke up the band and moved to New York for a safer, more lucrative (“more” — ha-ha) office job seemingly months before Lifter Puller’s now-intense cult following bloomed. But there he was again Friday night at the Elysium on Red River with a new band, the Hold Steady, whose first album had come out only days before. Why is this guy doing this again, you think? Then he answers.

“I got bored when I didn’t have a band, so I started a band, man,” Finn sings to open the show, “and we’re gonna start it with a positive jam. Hold steady!” And then we’re off. With his ace new bar band behind him (Lifter Puller bass player Tad Kubler exploring his Skynyrd fixation on guitar this time), Finn stalks the stage more like a stand-up comic than a rock-and-roll singer, rattling off dizzyingly smart and funny rant-like lyrics and engaging in a form of frontman’s Tourette’s, where he seems to be carrying on a combative conversation with the voices in his head between verses.

You’d think it was a schtick if Finn didn’t convey such a total involvement in what he’s doing. But his Elvis Costello-meets-Peter Sellers stage presence seems less a put-on than a bit of Jekyll-and-Hyde split personality. (I spoke with Finn the day before, and he seemed sort of quiet and shy.) Finn seems utterly transformed by the act of playing in this little bar band that seems ready to conquer the world. The next day, a writer covering the gig for The Austin Chronicle predicted it’d be one of those shows that, a decade later, people would brag about being at.

Which brings me to the Reigning Sound’s Greg Cartwright. Who knows if mild-mannered Cartwright ever thought about doing anything else, but as a three-time dad (with a newly arrived baby girl), he doesn’t cut the kind of figure most people would envision for a garage-rock frontman plying his trade in beer-soaked punk-rock clubs. I chatted with Cartwright before he took the stage at Beerland Saturday, and he spoke with insight and humor about the cultural and social differences between Memphis and his new home in Asheville, North Carolina, and told funny anecdotes about his recent songwriting collaboration with ’60s icon Jackie DeShannon. Then he joined bandmates Greg Roberson and Jeremy Scott on stage and he changed.

The vibration started with Roberson and Scott’s flawless foundation then snaked up Cartwright’s spine and through his hands and mouth and out into the crowd. Cartwright’s entire body shakes when he plays, as if all the best parts of all the great records that this obsessive music fan has consumed can’t wait to leap back out of his body in new form. Songs likes “Stormy Weather” and “Time Bomb High School” were eruptions. Pre-Reigning Sound songs like “Stop and Think It Over” and Cartwright’s Saturday-night gospel version of “Live the Life” sounded like the alternate-universe classics they surely are. And by the time the band shut down the night, and thus the festival, with Elvis’ “Suspicious Minds” and Sam & Dave’s “You Got Me Hummin’,” Memphis hadn’t just invaded Austin. Memphis had taken over.