A great dish for a chilly day …
The first person to correctly ID the dish and where I’m eating wins a fabulous prize. To enter, submit your answer to me via email at ellis@memphisflyer.com.
The answer to GWIE 55 is the cornbread/roll basket at the Cupboard, and the winner is … Cory Prewitt!
Dreamstime/Mario Beauregard
KISS
Four distinct members of a team, each with his own passionate fan base . . . but better as a unit than they’d ever be as solo acts. Together, they pack arenas and bring fans to their feet screaming in exultant joy. They are Mike Conley, Marc Gasol, Zach Randolph, and Tony Allen, the Grizzlies’ longtime fab four.
But read that intro again. Could the same not be said for rock-and-roll Hall of Famers KISS? As a card-carrying member of the KISS Army since well before any of the Grizzlies’ fab four were born, I’ve had this column brewing since the first pyrotechnic introduction of the Grindfather at FedExForum. Line up these two bands and it’s not hard to connect the dots.
The Catman (originally Peter Criss, currently Eric Singer) — Marc Gasol
The backbone, the heartbeat, the pulse of his team. A position that requires a proper combination of muscle and touch, rhythm always paramount. I like to picture Gasol in his younger, shaggier days with the Grizzlies when I see him wearing the whiskered face-paint made famous by Criss. Gasol rose from obscurity (overshadowed by the older brother for whom he was traded) to become the first Memphis player elected to start in the All-Star Game. Just as Criss carried the vocals for “Beth,” the ballad that ironically carried his speaker-blowing band to the top of the charts in 1976.
The Spaceman (originally Ace Frehley, currently Tommy Thayer) — Tony Allen
This is the easiest pairing of the four. Whether you picture Allen kicking Chris Paul in the head or pummeling teammate O.J. Mayo on an airplane, the Frehley classic “Shock Me” would make for a nice soundtrack. Muscle-flexing, arms pumping during timeouts (as the rest of his team listens to instructions). Full-body gyrations upon the ball being awarded to Memphis after a turnover. Not to mention nightly assignments to lock down the opponent’s top scoring threat. If any Grizzly ever spontaneously bursts into smoke (as Ace’s guitar did for hundreds of concerts), it will be Tony Allen. His tenure in Memphis has been a “Rocket Ride,” to say the least.
The Demon (Gene Simmons) — Zach Randolph
Line the Grizzlies up on the baseline and ask for a volunteer to regurgitate blood and, later in the show, spit lighter fluid over a burning torch (thus, “breathing fire”). After Allen is excluded (imagine the consequences of a flame in his hands), there’s only one man for such showmanship. Just as Gene’s bat-wing makeup has become the definitive “face” of KISS, so Randolph embodies the Grizzlies’ most successful, enduring run as NBA championship contenders. The only way I see the ferocity of Randolph’s image growing is for him to add knee-high boots with scales and seven-inch fangs as platforms.
Z-Bo’s soundtrack would open with “I Love it Loud” and close with “God of Thunder.”
The Starchild (Paul Stanley) — Mike Conley
Their surnames are similar, and each is the youngest member of his band. (Paul is the youngest of the original four KISS members.) Every group needs a front man, and the Grizzlies’ longtime point guard has been front and center for his team since starting 46 games as a 20-year-old rookie in the 2007-08 season. No one has sung more KISS tunes than Stanley and no one has played in more Grizzly games than Conley. When Conley drains a three-pointer and brings that “okay” sign to his face, I like to picture his right eye within a black star. Conley’s signature KISS song? As the franchise’s career leader in steals, it has to be “I Stole Your Love.”
Grit and grind all night. And party every day.
GRIZ
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Frazey Ford
Indian Ocean
Nettwork
You can hear Frazey Ford’s voice and presence develop from her early ensemble work with Canadian folk trio the Be Good Tanyas in the early 2000s through her current solo work. The Tanyas were a standout band in a crowded field of jangle folk. They kept the sounds acoustic, letting the instruments slyly accommodate their voices. The Tanyas borrowed heavily from the mythical South of white women who sit on the porches of rotting shotgun shacks. But the playing and the singing engage the ear and heartbeat more than many of the genre’s bands. Vancouver-based multi-instrumentalist John Raham, produced the Tanyas last record, 2006’s Hello Love, and Ford’s solo debut, Obadiah, a record that wanted to be a Hi Rhythm record so bad, it couldn’t stand it. That brought them to Memphis.
The liner notes of Ford’s second solo album Indian Ocean mention (in order) Ford, Raham, and then “Memphis Connection” Robert Gordon and Royal Studios engineer Boo Mitchell. It’s a Memphis record, recorded by Mitchell and supported by the three Hodges brothers (bassist Leroy, organist Charles, and guitarist Teenie), horn duo Jim Spake and Scott Thompson, with appearances by Doug Easley and soul blues stalwart James E. Robertson Jr. Bringing a soulful white woman to Memphis is a reliable tactic that worked for Dusty Springfield and Cat Power. Mark Ronson took American soul to Great Britain with Amy Winehouse and Adele before bringing his team to Memphis and recording what is, as I write this, the Number 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 for the second week in a row: “Uptown Funk.” Indian Ocean is the last credit on Teenie Hodges’ All Music page; he passed away in June of 2014, while the record was still in production before it’s release last October.
The unmistakable magic of these brothers is evident on the downbeat of opener “September Fields.” Charles Hodges bubbles the cauldron of his Hammond organ. Leroy Hodges delivers his patented syncopated notes bouncing between the big fundamentals. Teenie’s iconic, sparse strums and arpeggios are in place. But does Ford’s voice stand up? Does someone from the whispy world of jangle folk have the displacement to race in this engine class? It’s a tough call. Ford has a fluttering, airy sound to her voice that struggles to keep up in the bandwidth as this group rises into a crescendo on “You’re Not Free.” I think she is a super talent who has no business around cymbals. Fortunately, she’s in one of the driest drum rooms in audio history. The more muted arrangement in “Done” suits her and highlights her ability to hover over a note with a lot of feeling. The Hodges’ tick-tock rocks her vulnerable voice like a baby in a crib. Do they steal the show? Yes, they do. But when Ford’s Leslie-speaker swirl voice finds the plateau between beats, it works.
It’s always great to see talented people drawn from far away to participate in our musical culture. Gordon and Mitchell are leading Memphis’ cultural vanguard at the moment. Congratulations to Mitchell on “Uptown Funk’ and to Gordon for the reception of his film Best of Enemies at Sundance. They should be proud of Indian Ocean, too.
Kirk Smithhart Band
Message in the Sky
Self Release
Kirk Smithhart was 19 when his band won the Gibson Guitar Award at the 15th International Blues Challenge in 1998. The Jackson, Mississippi, native worked his own band for a decade before joining Cody Dickinson’s Hill Country Revue, a project that grew out of larger-band experiments by the North Mississippi Allstars and took wing during Luther Dickinson’s stint with the Black Crowes in the late 2000s. For Smithhart to fill Luther’s shoes tells you how nuanced his guitar playing can be. His latest album, Message in the Sky, covers a wider range of sounds.
Opener “Send for Me” is a spacious blend of guitars chiming in harmony: slides, acoustic and electric steel strings deftly set out into the stereo field. Drummer Edward “Hot” Alexander’s dramatic toms stand out early. His resume also includes work with O’Landa Draper’s Associates, Voodoo Village, and Cody Dickinson’s Hill Country Revue. Keyboardist Pat Fusco plays a Rhodes piano on “Can’t Take it Back.” The combination of static guitars and oscillating Rhodes is a sonic time machine to late ’70s and early ’80s FM hits. When one of these songs wants to follow an influence, Smithhart indulges. He has listened to some Joe Walsh along the way. There are radio-grunge sounds of the ’90s. The songs in question are not hints of these sounds, but all-in explorations of sounds that Smithhart or anyone else his age heard growing up. Had this record been released in 1980, he would be a superstar.
Many of the old cranks who like to dust up Facebook with provocative nostalgia will flip for the sound of this record. It’s blues derived rock, which — like meat, motors, and questionable uses of fire — is not for everybody. But Smithhart has made a refreshingly earnest record that is a fascinating map of influences from the late 20th century.
This record gets straight to the point of an argument that never stops, especially in Memphis. A listener has the right to ask, “Is this music? Or is this a case of music being used to serve someone’s social-posturing needs?” The latter is important. As homo sapiens, we need to distinguish ourselves in the course of finding a mate: We collect records and go the “right” shows. Fine. But that music is usually of a cheaper variety. By contrast, there are people whose primary vocation is music or a serious, lifelong interest. With a few exceptions, this longer arc is where the craft is practiced and the art happens. Smithhart is a perfect example of the lifer.
I mean all of the following as compliments: Smithhart is an unapologetic guitarist. This album is stridently disinterested in what is happening now in mainstream popular music and in the court of critical reception. There is too much evidence of Bad Company for this to work in the Nashville Injection Mold Record Extruder. What you are left with is an earnest, uncategorizable, American mix-up. In that regard, it reminds me of Charlie Rich: a true talent who followed his musical muse and let others worry about categories.
Zigadoo Moneyclips
Her|Story
Self-release
This is a lively, upbeat collection of jam-pop tunes from Leigh and Zac Baker with help on bass from Jamie Davis and drummer Paul Taylor. Davis and Taylor are an acrobatic rhythm section. Horns and fiddles augment the sound in sparse, long melodies notably in the title track. The inevitable reference-making starts with the band’s own shout-out to They Might Be Giants. White bands with festival funk underpinnings and trumpets will always live under the shadow of Cake. You can’t completely clean the 311 off of the sound, but you can tell it works well in the last financial refuge of the American musician: the festival. Should we go ahead and call this festival music? Is festival is a genre? It is now. Zigadoo Moneyclips have a sound that is perfectly matched to a large-scale P.A. outside. Wicked drums and bass with horn punches that tense up and release into breezy choruses, particularly on “Esmerelda.” Don’t miss “Jig,” in which the drummer does things you can’t do. The Beale Street Music Festival organizers should get them into a good spot.
At this past week’s Board of Adjustment meeting, board members reviewed a request from what appears to be payday loan establishment that offers a little something extra.
And by “a little something extra” I mean chicken.
14. DOCKET: B.O.A. 14-72 (City)
LOCATION: 5411 Elvis Presley Blvd.
APPLICANT: Chicken and Checks, LLC
USE DISTRICT: Commercial Mixed Use-3 (CMU-3) District
REQUEST: Variance to allow a payday loan establishment within 1,320-feet of a residential district and within 1,000 feet of an existing payday loan establishment (UDC Subsection 2.6.3M(1&2).
That’s right folks. Chicken. And checks. Where you can cash your payday loan check and, presumably, get some chicken.
May God and Jack Pirtle have mercy on our souls.
Changes may be ahead for the Memphis trolley system as city leaders weigh in next week on the plan to bring the trolleys back.
The trolley system was shut down last June after two trolley cars caught fire on the Madison Line in separate events only seven months apart. Trolley 452 caught fire in November 2013. Trolley 553 caught fire on April 7th of last year. Both trolleys were burned beyond repair.
After the shutdown, the Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) brought in a team of rail and transportation safety experts to review the system and help get it back on track. MATA leaders have said they would reveal the trolley plan to the public once the consultants finished their work. But the plan hasn’t surfaced yet.
Even though trolleys haven’t rumbled past Memphis City Hall in nearly eight months, they were on the minds of Memphis City Council members last week.
Justin Fox Burks
MATA President Ron Garrison
MATA President Ron Garrison asked council members to approve the use of $1.1 million in pre-approved capital funds last week for rail facility improvements. But council members asked Garrison to bring his request back to city hall next week, along with his plan for the trolley system.
Councilmembers Harold Collins and Shea Flinn expressed concerns about the system, especially the Madison Line. Flinn said he and Collins were “far from alone” about questions of trolleys on Madison and called the route a “difficult situation.”
Flinn said there have long been problems with trolley utilization overall but especially on the Madison Line.
“While we’re in repair and rebuild mode, we should be in rethink mode,” Flinn said. “The city has exhausted a lot of resources on this amenity, and I’m not sure we’re getting the bang for the buck from it that we could be. As we have this forced stoppage, we need to try and think of how we can make this a more-utilized asset.”
Collins said he’s seen and heard about problems of dependability on the trolley system. Any continuing trolley service needs to simply work for the citizens of Memphis, tourists, and business owners, he said.
“If we’re thinking about investing an enormous, no … if we’re going to reinvest potentially an enormous amount of money on this project [we should see a plan],” Collins said. “But nobody seems to agree on or like what they’re doing now.”
When asked what potential changes he’d like to see in the trolley system, Collins said he wanted better connectivity across the city. He recalled a former plan to take a trolley or even a bus from the end of the Madison Line all the way to the corner of Madison and Cooper. The move would help better connect downtown and Midtown.
MATA’s work is focused now on the repair and recertification of five trolley cars, all of them the larger cars. MATA says those are in the best condition and can also carry the most people.
When they are ready for service, the trolleys will bring service first to the Main Street Line. As more trolleys are repaired, they will be launched on the Riverfront Line and the Madison Line.
Garrison is scheduled to bring MATA’s trolley plan to city hall next Tuesday, February 3rd for a review by the council’s Public Works and Transportation Committee at 8:45 a.m.
As a general rule, drinking and cycling at the same time is probably a bad idea — unless someone else is doing the steering.
That’s the case with the new River City Pedalers party bike, a mobile bar that’s propelled through the streets of downtown by pedal power. Patrons do the pedaling (and the boozing) while co-owner and licensed party bike operator Russell Young does the steering.
“We saw [Nashville’s party bike], and thought, ‘Ding, ding, ding! Memphis needs that’,” said co-owner Carolyn Young. “We’ve been working on getting this launched here for almost two years, but we didn’t tell a soul, just in case it didn’t work out.”
Bianca Phillips
Carolyn and Russell Young on the party bike
But luckily for the husband-and-wife team, it did. They purchased a 10-seater party bike from a manufacturer in Arizona, and Russell took the training course to learn how to operate it. They were open for business on December 31st.
For now, the bar is BYOB because current ordinances don’t allow for serving alcohol on a mobile unit. But there’s a cooler on board, and the Youngs are happy to stock it with whatever their customers bring to drink.
“Beer has to be in a cup, and we allow stops for people to get off and grab a drink. We can’t serve your beer because we’re not allowed to, but one of your people can serve,” Carolyn said.
Although they’ll occasionally pick up random riders around Beale during slow times, they prefer bookings of eight to 10 people — tour groups, bridal parties, birthday parties, or just groups of friends looking for a fun, new way to tour the city.
Here’s how it works: Riders sit on each side of the bar, and each bar stool has a set of pedals. The riders provide most of the power to make the bike go, but there is an electric motor that Russell can activate to accelerate uphill.
“I tell everybody that you’re working off that beer,” Carolyn said.
The bike tops out at a speed of about 7.5 miles per hour, and just like with downtown’s horse carriages, it can only be operated on streets with at least two lanes. On Riverside Drive, the bike is allowed to travel in the new bicycle lane. They operate all around downtown from the Pyramid in the north to the Memphis Farmers Market in the south.
Before launching River City Pedalers, the Youngs had been looking for a way to add a little more excitement to their careers. Carolyn previously cleaned houses for a living, and Russell still operates a construction company.
“For years, we’ve been trying to find something for us to do after our 50s, and we’re really into the whole entertaining thing,” Carolyn said.
The party bike seemed like the perfect fit. And since its launch on New Year’s Eve, the bike has been a hit downtown. This past Saturday, when the weather was just above 50 degrees, they had three party bookings. And they’ve already got groups booked for Memphis in May weekend.
Currently, patrons pay $20 per person to ride, but when the weather warms up, they’ll begin charging $24 a head. Although there are only 10 bar stools, the bike can hold l4 people since there’s a non-pedaling bench on the back of the bike.
To book a tour, call 825-7519. A website is in the works, but for now, River City Pedalers can be found on Facebook.
Larry Kuzniewski
Jeff Green seconds before leaving a very large impact crater where the FedExForum used to be.
It was the most physical game these two teams have ever played against each other; the final score is reflective of that, not to mention the fact that both teams’ field goal percentages were well south of 40%. But the Grizzlies won, 85-74, and they did so by doing what they’re most known for: churning out brilliant defensive play after brilliant defensive play, unleashing Zach Randolph to fight through ferocious interior defense to the tune of 21 points and 18 rebounds, making just enough big plays from the perimeter to keep OKC honest, and most of all feeding on a crowd who, on Wrestling Night, hoisting World Grizzlyweight Championship belts, watching Ric Flair dance around and cheering on Jerry “The King” Lawler as he fought an Oklahoma City challenger during a real honest-to-God wrestling match during halftime, made the Grindhouse ring like it only does during Games That Matter.
Tonight was the loudest I’ve heard the building since the Warriors rolled into town before Christmas. The belts were cool, but the reason the place was packed had nothing to do with promotions.
The hard-fought nature of the game wasn’t surprising given the history between these two teams (up to and including the Zach Randolph “punch” to the face of OKC’s Steven Adams that earned him a suspension for Game 7 of last year’s playoff series) but the violence seemed especially pitched last night, on both ends of the floor. Anyone traveling through the restricted area with the ball seemed to expect—and receive—a great deal of contact, which more often than not wasn’t whistled for a foul. The referees last night were clearly of a mind to “let them play,” and for a team like the Grizzlies that can really thrive on basketball games that more closely resemble a barfight, it was like unleashing an eight-year-old in a Chuck E. Cheese with a potato sack full of tokens.
Maybe the best outcome of the game was that the Thunder fell to 23-24 on the season, and with Phoenix winning at a steady rate lately, anything that puts space between the Suns and the Thunder is a good thing for the Grizzlies, who are starting to build their own lead for the 2nd or 3rd seed. The Thunder may now be below .500 on the season, but that doesn’t mean it’d do the Grizzlies any good to have to play them in the playoffs. WE’ve seen that happen just a few more times than anybody wants, and as much fun as it is to watch them battle, I’d prefer the Grizzlies (2) play someone who isn’t the Clippers, Thunder, or Spurs in the playoffs for a change but most importantly (1) have a straightforward first round series where they just have to take care of business against a team that they are better than.
Larry Kuzniewski
Zach Randolph had 21 and 18 against the Thunder on Wrestling Night, which was very appropriate.
Game Notes
➭ Zach Randolph continued his streak of dominance, putting up 21 points and 18 rebounds against a Thunder interior defense that has given him all kinds of trouble over the past four years of playoff series. Inside, against the squad of Nick Collison, Steven Adams, and Kendrick Perkins, Randolph struggled a little out of the gate, but soon found his shot, and with Serge Ibaka occupied trying to keep This Year’s Scoring Marc Gasol from doing what he’s done in so many other big games, Randolph was able to take over in a way that only he can in these sorts of ugly, smashmouth games. Maybe the fact that Ric Flair went over and introduced himself to Z-Bo during one of the timeouts while he was on the court and gave him a big hug inspired Randolph to pull out some Nature Boy moves of his own.
➭ Jeff Green did this:
Jeff Green is awesome. Against his former team, he was really solid, and was especially good on defense, not something he’s consistently good at. Last night he was part of the Grizzlies’ clampdown on everything OKC was trying to do, and it was glorious to watch. He also backed down Kevin Durant in the post a couple of times for layups, something I’m sure he did on a regular basis in practice while he played for the Thunder. Green showed a level of comfort and familiarity on the court last night that we haven’t seen from him often yet in his short Grizzlies career. Hopefully last night was a preview of where Green will be in March and April.
➭ With Vince Carter out with a “left foot tendon injury” being “reevaluated at one-week intervals,” as noncommittal of an injury report as I think I’ve ever heard, the immediate beneficiary last night was Nick Calathes. In 9 minutes, he had 4 points and 2 assists, but his real impact wasn’t in the usual counting stats. Calathes was mostly playing at the same time as Beno Udrih, and Calathes’ length allowed him to be a real problem for OKC on defense. He’s credited with 2 steals and a block, and he was even more active than that suggests, getting his hands in the Thunder’s passing lanes, knocking away balls that Westbrook then had to go chase down, and just generally being a nuisance. If the Carter injury clears up enough time in the rotation for Calathes to get significant minutes and continue the upward trajectory he started on last year, it’s a definite silver lining to an unfortunate injury situation for the Grizzlies.
➭ There was another Greek-American Grizzly who had a good night that wasn’t totally reflected in the box score last night: Kosta Koufos. His toughness really paid off against Perkins and Adams in his minutes spelling Marc Gasol. He had 4 points in 7 rebounds in his 15 minutes, and generally anchored the interior when Gasol and Randolph clearly needed a breather. We also saw Joerger’s preferred way to deploy Koufos—paired with Zach Randolph—and those were solid minutes, and really it’s probably the best way to take advantage of the skillsets of both players at the same time, without them getting in the way of each other.
Tweet of the Night
Matt Hrdlicka managed to capture this exquisite Conley-Gasol-Randolph hockey assist fast break:
Stay woke round Mike and Marc and No-Headband ZBo. https://t.co/mxbcD2FTzd
— Matt Hrdlicka (@theRealHrdlicka) February 1, 2015