Month: March 2019

Categories
Music Record Reviews

The Old, Weird (North) America of Bloodshot Bill

Here is a record to remind us what rock ‘n’ roll sounds like. In case you forgot, the unholy noise is what matters most. I still remember my sister harking back to her teenage years, when she was lucky enough to hear “Louie Louie” as it climbed the charts, and the wild speculation in her circle about how dirty the lyrics might be. Legible poetry was not part of the equation. Nor was a thesaurus necessary to feel the impact of Little Richard, the Trashmen’s “Surfin’ Bird,” or Charlie Feathers’ “Stutterin’ Cindy.”

The Old, Weird (North) America of Bloodshot Bill

It’s a spirit that Bloodshot Bill nails on his records, as one cut after another jumps out of the speakers as from a grotto of molten vinyl, like a vintage comic book suddenly come to life around you. That even his digital releases sound like this is impressive. While this torch-bearer of American murk hails from Montreal, he’s declared Memphis his favorite city, and it’s fitting that his latest album, Come Get Your Love Right Now, was released on Goner Records.

Bloodshot Bill’s latest is in keeping with his past gems, yet never fails to surprise. It’s not so much a formula as a bouillabaisse recipe upon which he can build any number of dishes. From the major/minor blurring of the opener that gives the album its name, echoing with brooding background mutterings, to perhaps a musical saw (?) in the next, “Take Me for a Ride.” There are Link Wray-like instrumentals, rockabilly doo-wop numbers, and even a honky tonk original, “Just Because.” All are full of the shouts and echoes of rollicking characters living in Bloodshot Bill’s universe. 

Bloodshot Bill

It should be noted that on record, the wildness is anchored down with a solid “band,” with hard rocking drums, electric guitar, and upright bass, all played by Bill, set in a well-crafted slapback landscape that will soon have you forgetting this was just released last month. Party-goers might well ask you, “What thrift store did you find these fuzzy 45’s in, again?”

Yet for all the magic of his production methods, there’s plenty of energy packed just in his delivery. The boldness of his vocal territory never fails to amuse and amaze. Give a listen online, then check out two upcoming one-man-band gigs where this fearless troubadour can be seen recreating his real gone songs in the moment.

The Old, Weird (North) America of Bloodshot Bill (2)


Bloodshot Bill appears Friday, March 29, at DKDC, 8:00 pm; and Saturday, March 30, at the B Side, joined by the Faux Killas and Jack Oblivian and the Sheiks.

Categories
Letter From The Editor Opinion

I Dreamed I Was Flying …

I’ve gotten lots of emails in the past few days. Many are gloating, “told you so, liberal scum” type deals. Others are from my fellow liberal scum suggesting that we “accept the findings of the Mueller Report and move on.” Only one problem with either of these suggestions: We haven’t seen the Mueller Report. In fact, Senator Mitch McConnell just blocked Senator Chuck Schumer’s proposal to replicate the House of Representatives’ unanimous vote to release the report.

Listen, people, it’s too early gloat, and it’s too early to lament. We have no idea what’s really in that report. Just chill. And bear in mind, if the report was really a good thing for Trump, the GOP would be passing it out on street corners and using it to sell MAGA hats, not trying to keep it under wraps. Don’t buy the “Trump is exonerated” line until we get to see the actual report and not a brief, butt-covering summation by Trump’s hand-picked attorney general. Stay woke.

And for the record, if the actual report proves that Trump was nothing more than an innocent but useful idiot in the (very real) Russian interference in the 2016 election, and not a knowing collaborator, I will say so in this column. Then you can gloat.

In the meantime, savor these words from Paul Simon’s “American Tune,” written during the darkest days of the Watergate era. Even better, go listen to it. Turn it up.

Many’s the time I’ve been mistaken
And many times confused
Yes, and often felt forsaken
And certainly misused
But I’m all right, I’m all right
I’m just weary to my bones
Still, you don’t expect to be
Bright and bon vivant
So far away from home, so far away from home

And I don’t know a soul who’s not been battered
I don’t have a friend who feels at ease
I don’t know a dream that’s not been shattered
or driven to its knees
But it’s all right, it’s all right
We’ve lived so well so long
Still, when I think of the road
we’re traveling on,
I wonder what went wrong
I can’t help it, I wonder what went wrong

And I dreamed I was dying
And I dreamed that my soul rose unexpectedly
And looking back down at me
Smiled reassuringly
And I dreamed I was flying
And high up above my eyes could clearly see
The Statue of Liberty
Sailing away to sea
And I dreamed I was flying

We come on the ship they call the Mayflower
We come on the ship that sailed the moon
We come in the age’s most uncertain hour
and sing an American tune
But it’s all right, it’s all right
You can’t be forever blessed
Still, tomorrow’s going to be another working day
And I’m trying to get some rest
That’s all, I’m trying to get some rest.

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

This, That

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

“I skate. I don’t do it out there,” says Mark Horrocks, pointing to a massive open space filled with ramps of various heights and an intimidating halfpipe.

Horrocks considers himself more of a long boarder and snowboarder. He is co-owner of Society Skatepark & Coffee, along with Matthew Wrage. The park is in the Binghampton neighborhood and opened last fall. It took some doing. The ramps were once the property of the recently closed Hazard County Skatepark in Atlanta. The Society crew headed there and dismantled the park. It took six semi trucks to get it back to Memphis.

Society is the only private indoor park in this area, which means, says Horrocks, that folks can “go year-round, rain or shine, day or night.”

Justin Fox Burks

Mark Horrocks, co-owner of Society Skatepark & Coffee

The park is ideal for parents who want their kids in a safe environment, while they can be inside in air conditioning and read or work on their computers and have a cup of coffee.

About that coffee — they offer Dr. Bean’s cold brew and assorted coffee drinks made with Vice & Virtue. They plan to highlight Memphis-roasted coffees and introduce some out-of-town brands as well. Inside a case is an eye-widening array of treats — huge brownies, rice krispies treats, and chocolate chip cookies, about which Horrocks says, “People have told us it’s the best chocolate chip cookie ever.” Everything is made in-house.

They also offer cold drinks and a few grab-and-go items, such as pasta salad from Franco’s Italian Kitchen. They plan to expand the grab-and-go menu soon with sandwiches and salads.

Justin Fox Burks

One corner of the front half of Society is devoted to Contact Skateboard Shop, which is run by Zac and Heather Roberts.

Contact offers everything a skater could need or want. Customers can custom-build their skateboards. There are decks from 5boro and Alien Workshop, wheels from Super Juice, and trucks from Ace. Many of the items are exclusive to the store.

Of course, you have to look the part. (How much of skating is style? “Everything,” Roberts says. “That’s all there is. It’s wild.”) They’ve got your New Balance and Lakai skate shoes, your Dickies Flex pants, and various branded T-shirts and hoodies.

Society offers lessons for the kids every Saturday for the wee beginners to the more advanced shredders. Horrocks says sometimes the girls outnumber the boys. There are also classes for adults on Monday nights.

At some point, Society plans to hold concerts and bring in pros for demos as well as hold competitions. In the spaces with the ramps, there is art by Birdcap, and a really stark and cool mural by Frances Berry surrounds the halfpipe.

At one point, Horrocks recalls asking himself, “Is this a good thing to do?” These days, he’s feeling pretty optimistic.

“For Memphis,” he says, “[skate culture]’s only going to grow.”

Society Skatepark & Coffee, 583 Scott, societymemphis.com

…

A few years ago, Ephie Johnson threatened her sons Andre and Jonathan that she was going to open a shop and have them work in it. They didn’t believe her. She opened her first Pop-a-roos on North Parkway Downtown in 2014.

The second Pop-a-roos opened in the Crosstown Concourse a few weeks ago.

The thinking behind Pop-a-roos was that she likes popcorn. Johnson’s dad was her inspiration. “My dad made all kinds of popcorn, fun different flavors,” she says, recalling that her dad made use of such ingredients as Smucker’s syrup.

Ephie Johnson

It was Johnson’s mother who really fostered her creativity. Johnson says that her mother can make anything taste good, and when her mother compliments her popcorn or asks her to bring her some, it’s the ultimate seal of approval.

Among the flavors she offers are: River Mix, Real Dill, Loaded Baked Potato, Sharp Cheddar, Banana Pudding, Strawberry Cheesecake, Birthday Cake, Nacho Cheese, 901 Mix, and Chicago Mix. Price points run from $2 to $20.

Among the more popular popcorns are the Chicago (caramel and cheddar) and River Mix (peanut butter, caramel, and cheese).

“I’m not going to tell you that much,” Johnson says when asked about her approach to making her popcorns. And she doesn’t.

Johnson also runs the Neighborhood Christian Centers, which offers assistance to those in need. Some of the Centers’ clients work for Pop-a-roos. “It’s popcorn with a purpose,” she says.

Among the offerings at Pop-a-roos are hot dogs and koolickles (pickles made with Kool-Aid). The purple koolickle is grape flavored and the red is well … “Red flavor can be whatever flavor is red,” Johnson says.

Painted on one wall of the new space in the Concourse is “It’s on and poppin.” Feels like a pretty apt motto for Johnson.

“I’m a black woman out here trying to make it happen,” she says.

poparoos.com

Categories
Editorial Opinion

No Backing Down. Release the Mueller Report.

Yes, we are dismayed, but not for the reasons you might think. We are not troubled by any imagined derelictions of the mainstream media or by any presumed credulousness on its part or by any putative conspiracy, in tandem with the Democratic Party, to mislead the nation about a fictitious involvement of Donald Trump, his campaign, or his administration with the Russian regime of Vladimir Putin.

What concerns us instead is the tail-between-the-legs attitude of some of our brethren in the Fourth Estate, or the chastisement of fellow journalists by the likes of The New York Times‘ David Brooks or gonzo progressive Matt Taibbi.

No, we have nothing to apologize for, those of us who pointed out the practical symbiosis between the Trump campaign and administration and the organized conspiracy of the Russian government to undermine both our democratic (small d) processes and the electoral chances of the Democratic Party.

No, we were not deceived, and we had no difficulty discerning a pattern in the ever-proliferating number of relationships between the Trumpians and the Russians, even if, bafflingly, special counsel Robert Mueller, who unearthed so many of them, supposedly did. (And we pause here to observe that, in these first few days of shocked reaction to the hands-off conclusions attributed to the Mueller report, what is being reacted to is William Barr’s summary of that report, an interpretation of its contents by an attorney general hired by Trump, in effect, to serve as the personal presidential lawyer that Jeff Sessions, Trump’s first AG, declined to be.)

Michael Flynn, the president’s first national security adviser, did have conversations with Russian officials, which he later lied about, promising them relief from sanctions properly applied by former President Barack Obama. He pleaded guilty.

Earlier, Trump’s most intimate campaign assistants, including a son, a son-in-law, and his campaign manager Paul Manafort, took a meeting — in Trump Tower in New York, no less — with Russian emissaries who promised them help with the campaign and dirt on Trump’s opponent, Hillary Clinton.

Even earlier than that, Manafort had agreed to share the campaign’s polling information with a Russian oligarch close to Putin, and presumably close also to the cyber-sabotage being organized and conducted by Russians, a dozen of whom would go on to be indicted at Mueller’s behest.

It goes on and on, the litany of relationships and the network of lies told in both countries to conceal them. In more recent weeks we have learned about Trump’s hopes for an extravagant payoff from Putin via the Russian dictator’s approval of a Trump Tower to be built in Moscow.

We have all been lessoned as to the fact that the word “collusion,” indicating an intimate working relationship, is not a legal term. Fine, we accept it for what it is, an indication of an intimate working relationship. And everything we have just described, along with much more that we don’t have space for here, is collusion on the face of it. We — and others in the media — have nothing to apologize for in having pointed this out. Let the American people know the truth, one way or the other. Release the Mueller report.

Categories
We Recommend We Recommend

The Residents

CREDIT: Jamie Harmon

The variety of work on display will be wide, ranging from traditional visual arts to virtual reality. There will be videography, performers, playwrights, musicians, and a pair of filmmakers, one from Memphis, one from France. The Crosstown Arts Residency Session’s spring studio tour gives Memphians the chance to explore the workspaces of 13 artists currently in residence at the Crosstown Concourse.

“You know, the Crosstown project grew out of a desire to do an artists residency,” residency coordinator Mary Jo Karimnia reminds. “This whole project is an integral part of what goes on here at Crosstown Arts. We have visual artists, musicians, writers, performers, and this is a chance to look into their normally private workspaces and meet the individual residents and see what sort of spaces Crosstown Arts has to offer.”

Jamie Harmon

Behind the curtain

The main purpose of the Crosstown residency is to give artists time and space to work. In addition to housing and workspace, artists are fed three meals a day five days a week. In return, the residents are asked to make art, participate in open studio tours in the spring and fall, and take part in artist talks like the one scheduled for April 9th.

“So there’s no other times, really for the public to access these spaces,” Karimnia says.

In addition to art, film, and musical and theatrical performances, there will be tasting samples from the cafe and drink specials.

“We want people to be able to interact with the residents,” Karimnia says. “That’s important to us.”

Categories
Cover Feature News

Spring Forward!

CREDIT: Photographs by Andrea Fenise

In celebrating the 200th year of our great city of Memphis, we are both redesigning and telling a new narrative of Memphis. Birthed from the soul of her heart, the sounds of her music, and nurtured by her food, there is a new generation of influencers telling new stories of forward movement and new energy in fashion, art, and lifestyle in our city. We captured their style and learned more about how they are using their fashionable influence to continue moving Memphis into a positive direction, stylishly.

Photographs by Andrea Fenise

Carmeon

“I grew up on the other side of the Hernando de Soto bridge in West Memphis, Arkansas. It was so close, yet so far away, so experiencing Memphis as an adult and creative professional, I now see that Memphis stretches so far beyond the Beale Street, Elvis, barbecue persona that is used to describe her. She has been home to me for almost seven years; it still seems that I discover something new, exciting, and soulful every day. A new art gallery being installed at Crosstown. New design-driven boutique hotels with amazing rooftop patios and restaurants boasting Southern fusion cuisine opening in the heart of Downtown. Each one bringing a new vibe, a new experience, and another excuse for a grand, social soiree. These make the perfect platforms for fashion-conscious souls, like myself, and inspire freedom in personal style that only a dynamic cultural environment can nurture and produce.

“Memphis is soulful but uncomplicated, bold but not loud, dynamic but approachable and never ‘trying too hard.’ As am I and the fashion scene that she has birthed. We all love a good jean and T-shirt, but just know that it comes with a statement and the unexpected. Because that’s our city. That’s Memphis.” – @nubiinterior

WARDROBE CREDIT

Both looks, everything from Indigo at The Shops of Saddle Creek

…

DENZEL

“Memphis culture is one of the most unrecognized treasures in this country. It’s full of art, passion, and diversity, which I love to implement into my style, like pairing Choose 901 tees with suits. The culture of the city allows me to bring a piece of home with me through fashion, and it’s exciting. It gives me the platform to show the guys of Memphis how to keep the 901 in your style while bringing in fresh brands like CockPit USA and Allen Edmonds.” – @denzeljalexander

WARDROBE CREDIT

Look 1 – Camo Look Allen Edmonds at The Shops of Saddle Creek

bag and shoes

Look 2 – Navy CockPit USA bomber jacket

Allen Edmonds grey suede sneakers, reader glasses, bag

…

EBONY & CORESA

“We came to Memphis for reasons outside of the arts (job opportunities and college), but once we got here, we begin to gravitate toward how vibrant of a community was blooming here — especially for artists and creatives of color. Memphis is a city where you feel you can jump right in and get things done, not just to ‘give back,’ but to move barriers so our communities have access to the resources they deserve.

“We met three years ago through our shared love of style, or as we call it, ‘creative expression.’ We both recognized the power in dressing our bodies as an avenue of empowerment and from that I risk connection, we spent the next two years traveling nationally, and internationally to creative experiences and exhibits.

“Still, it wasn’t until this time last year that we decided to team up and ideate on how to fuse the arts and entrepreneurship. That’s when MEMFOLK was born, capturing urban folklore in unimaginable ways.”

– @coco_nanh & @savvysunflower_ for @memfolk

WARDROBE CREDIT

Look 1 in front of greenery

Ebony – leather jacket, dress, and shoes Indigo at The Shops of Saddle Creek

Coresa – blazer, blouse, and purse Indigo at The Shops of Saddle Creek

Look 2 in front of brick and mint door for both – models’ own

…

KIM

“As a born and raised Memphian, it’s been delightful to watch the political and creative communities, like the fashion community, work together to shift the narrative of our city beyond barbecue, blues, and Elvis over the last few years. While those things are undeniably ingrained in our DNA and should be celebrated, Memphis is so much more than that, and you can see it when you look at the way that people dress, the restaurants and small businesses that open, and how the artists and musicians move. This growth has allowed me to use my own personal platform as a fashion blogger to showcase a different side of Memphis to outsiders, and people love it. She still has her small town comfortability, but Memphis has grown, and people are loving how cool she is.” – @kpfusion

WARDROBE CREDIT

Look 1 (leather jacket and pleated skirt) – model’s own

Look 2 – blouse, jeans, accessories Indigo at The Shops of Saddle Creek

…

BRITTANY

“A top executive of a leading direct sales cosmetic brand, coaching women across the globe to start their own business and go after what they want. After bringing LimeLife by Alcone to Memphis two years ago, I decided it was time to begin sharing my love of fashion and style through Memphis Fashion Week and through my life, style, and beauty blog, brittanymyerscobb.com, where I share my love of fashion, style, home decor, makeup, food, travel, and everything in between.

“As for my style, it’s a bit like my personality. I go for timeless, classic pieces paired with something bold. Traditional with a little bit of edge.”

– @brittanymyerscobb

WARDROBE CREDIT

Look 1 (orange dress) – model’s own

Look 2 – accessories from Indigo at The Shops of Saddle Creek; dress model’s own

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

Women of the South are Speaking Out

CREDIT: BertaCaceres.org

International Women’s Day was March 8th. National Women’s History Month started on March 1st and ends on March 31st. As this month comes to an end, I can’t help but feel that March needs to extend for a few more days, maybe weeks.

The days of the month don’t necessarily have to change (Just think about whoever would have the job of rearranging the rhyme “30 days has September.”), but what if we could live each day as if it were International Women’s Day, or each month as if it were National Women’s History month.

BertaCaceres.org

Honduran activist Berta Caceres

I don’t mean the type of celebration that, for example, ICE did on its Instagram page. That was a whole performative mess. The image posted on March 15th that read “ICE celebrates Women’s History Month, Strength through Diversity” left me with so many questions. Who is this intern that manages their social media? Are they a mastermind who has curated their Instagram page to make the irony and contradictions in ICE propaganda incredibly easy to find? Or do they really believe this stuff?

Either way, we better not be running things that way. We’re not going to be like those Democrats who tweet and post about listening to black women one day and then attack Ilhan Omar, a black Muslim woman, the next. When black women bring attention to the connections between black, brown, and indigenous struggles, as Omar has in addressing genocide in Central America and the role of the U.S., they are frightened. They are frightened by what black women have to say when they finally hold the mic.

Indigenous leader and environmental activist Berta Cáceres is known for her expression, “They fear us because we are fearless.” Cáceres was a Lenca indigenous woman born in La Esperanza, Honduras. She was dedicated to the protection of indigenous life and land. She led indigenous movements to defend natural resources that were threatened by the illegal projects of multinational companies exploiting natural resources and breaking international law. On March 2, 2016, Cáceres was assassinated in her home. Cáceres knew she was being targeted for being an outspoken advocate for human rights, as many environmental activists are. “They follow me. They threaten to kill me, to kidnap me, they threaten my family. That is what we face,” she stated.

Two years and 12 days after Cáceres’ assassination in 2016, Rio de Janeiro councilwoman, Marielle Franco was shot in her car on March 14, 2018. Franco was a queer Afro-Brazilian politician and human-rights activist. She was a favela resident, mother, and defender of human rights. Like Cáceres, Franco spoke out against injustice. She was known for addressing police brutality, economic inequity, and reproductive rights. In her campaign for city council woman, her motto was “I am because we are.” Growing up in the favelas, under-resourced, highly dense neighborhoods in the periphery of the city, she was a symbol of the resilience of Afro-Brazilians in creating community following the abolition of slavery.

Lia De Mattos Rocha, a friend of Franco, wrote about Franco’s life in a piece originally written in Portuguese and later translated into Spanish, then English. She noted how Franco marked a change from the traditional ways of Brazilian politics. “The change that we wanted to see in our institution,” she writes, “was embodied by her. Marielle was different from them, but she was like one of us: She came from struggles, social movements, black university collectives, Carnival groups, funk artist culture.”

Marielle Franco and Berta Cáceres were black, indigenous women who confronted structures that did not see them, or people like them, as human. They charged forward with dignity and marched fearlessly, knowing that black women and indigenous women like them have historically been targets of corporations and the state. Women like Franco and Cáceres continue to be targeted. They are familiar with this threat, and they carry that weight every day.

It is difficult for me to speak about them in the past tense, because in my heart, I feel them and their energy, commitment, and passion as alive. I see them in many black and brown women I know today. While these women are not in Honduras and Brazil, there are thousands of black, brown, and indigenous women there at this moment who very much embody Franco and Cáceres. But the women I know are in the U.S. South, the Mid-South, the deep South. They are often not seen; their work may not be shown in highlights of the evening news; but their communities see them. We see them protecting black and brown people, families, and communities, fighting for our dignity and our future. We see their pain and exhaustion. And in the bright moments of coming together, we see them shine.

I speak the names of Berta and Marielle into the days beyond International Women’s Day and National Women’s History Month. Their stories go beyond these few words, as do the stories of black, brown, and indigenous women around us. All we have to do is listen — really listen — and follow their lead.

Aylen Mercado is a brown, queer, Latinx chingona and Memphian pursuing an Urban Studies and Latin American and Latinx Studies degree at Rhodes College.

Categories
Theater Theater Feature

Friends & Foes

Philip Ridley’s Radiant Vermin is a comedy about a newlywed couple discovering the dream home they’ve always wanted can be theirs if they’re willing to do what it takes. What it takes is both awful and potentially in the service of some grander, even more awful agenda. Think Whose Line Is It Anyway? meets American Psycho (but British), all rolled up in a gloriously ham-fisted metaphor for a related set of familiar urban plagues.

Storytelling techniques eliminate the need for sets and costumes. Shocking events are shared directly with the audience via light narration and flashbacks, with three actors taking on all roles. Things come to a head in a climactic garden party from hell, when neighbors who’ve all recently moved into the almost mysteriously trendy area converge. With its terrific cast leading the way, Quark Theatre’s creative team plays every note in this darkly comic aria perfectly, delivering surprise laughter and even more surprising flashes of tenderness.

Michelle Gregory, Lena Wallace Black, and Chase Ring make up the tightest ensemble in town. They pull off an energetic balancing act that threatens to soar too far over the top, but stays just grounded enough for the human stakes to matter.

What’s the worst thing you ever did for security? Comfort? Luxury? Did you even know you were doing it? And who are the real rats? These are some of the questions at the core Radiant Vermin, a show that gets in its audience’s face a bit, while spoofing some contemporary British problems that sound awfully American.

Radiant Vermin is a kind of Macbeth for moderns exploring creature comforts and how they help us manage guilt and other unpleasant feelings. It asks us who the real rats are.

Radiant Vermin is at Theatre South through March 31st. I cannot recommend it enough. www.quarktheatre.com. There are a lot of plays about the civil rights movement in the mid-20th century. Too Heavy for Your Pocket may remind theater fans of things they’ve seen before, but any resemblance is purely superficial. Set a few bus stops outside of Nashville, in 1961, Jireh Breon Holder’s disarmingly unpretentious drama follows the lives of two young African-American couples who are just starting out in life, and practically glowing with the promise of a hopeful future. Things aren’t perfect. Day to day struggles include repossessed cars and infidelities. But these troubles are offset by opportunity, togetherness, and a genuine sense of hope. Were it not for the vintage threads and the occasional mention of Martin Luther King’s oratory, it might be easy to believe that Too Heavy is set in the later 1960s or early 1970s, as the spirit of protest collapsed into politics.

The characters Holder introduces us to are cut from patterns designed by Lorraine Hansberry, taken apart by August Wilson, and satirized by George C. Hunt. Sally’s a young, pregnant wife married to Tony, a kind but philandering husband. Evelyn’s a nightclub singer making ends meet for her husband Bowzie, a flawed but promising young man with an opportunity to attain a college degree — if he doesn’t screw everything up. Too Heavy risks cliche at every turn, finding newness and nuance in old tropes,

After attending Howard, in Nashville, young Bowzie — as close as this ensemble show gets to a protagonist — becomes aware that the relatively happy country life he’s lived doesn’t equate to justice. Against the caution of family and friends, he joins the Freedom Riders — the integrated activists who took buses into the most segregated parts of the deep South. That’s when the friends begin to confront the meaning and real cost of a brighter future.

With Patricia Clark directing, and an ensemble comprised of Marcus Allen, Rheannan Watson, Aaron Isaiah Walker, and Elizabeth Baines, Hattiloo’s production is unfussy with a subtle painterly quality to the overall design — like the set and characters all slid off a Charles White canvas. Its power is derived from uncommon intimacy, and there’s a lot of it bubbling just under the surface of this new old-fashioned play.

Too Heavy for Your Pocket at Hattiloo Theatre through April 14th. Hattiloo.org

Categories
Music Music Features

Ruby Vroom: Mike Doughty Recreates His Seminal First Album

CREDIT: Ben Staley

This year marks the 25th anniversary of a breakthrough album, one that, by bringing sampling up front and into a live context, came to redefine what a typical indie band could do. Soul Coughing’s debut, Ruby Vroom, came at a time when hip-hop sampling had reached new levels of versatility, incorporating everything from jazz breaks to cinematic soundtracks. Yet the New York-based group was doing something entirely different: a mash-up of jazz-derived grooves, eclectic samples, and the juxtaposed meanings of lyricist/singer Mike Doughty. Though they evolved as the 1990s wore on, their trademark sound was signaled from their first release. And so it’s entirely appropriate to celebrate the debut’s quarter-century mark with a tour that recreates the album in its entirety. I spoke to Doughty, now happily ensconced in Memphis, about the tour and its upcoming stop at Bar DKDC on Sunday.

Ben Staley

Mike Doughty

Memphis Flyer: Have you revisited the Soul Coughing material much since you went solo in the early 2000s?

Mike Doughty: Sure, I’ve definitely been playing individual songs in different formats — with bands, with just a cello player, or solo, absolutely. But not a whole album. I don’t understand why bands didn’t start doing this years ago. It’s really fun to be inside this longer piece of music. You can really feel yourself in the lake of it, you know?

It must be different when you’re revisiting your own work.

Not really. You sort of forget about that part. I guess I’m very in the moment when I’m doing it.

I always thought your lyrics were semi-extemporaneous.

Not really. A lot of them were written based on the sound of the words. So I guess that’s why it sounds improvisatory. My bands in Memphis — MOTICOS and Spooky Party — who I play at DKDC with, those are entirely improvised bands. So I’m plenty into improvisation. On this tour, I have a system of hand signals that I use to cue people to start and stop and get louder and quieter. So there’s almost live remixing going on in the middle of the tunes. I’m encouraging the players to improvise, but I’m not doing vocal improvisations.

What kind of band do you have on this tour?

It’s a quintet: me, Scrap [Livingston] on upright bass, and then guitar, drums, and sampler. And it includes three members of Wheatus, who are also on the bill on the tour. They’re not at DKDC because there’s three backing singers in that band and an additional keyboard player [Memphian and Dixie Dicks member Brandon Ticer]. So Wheatus is a bit large for that little nook.

I expect you’ll bring new arrangements to the old songs?

Yeah. A lot of it is similar, but also, it’s just the nature of how I play music that things are sliced and diced.

The samples, I suppose, will offer a lot of room for experimentation.

Yeah, that’s different. Just by the nature of it, that’s more improvisatory. And I play sampler, as well as Matthew Milligan. Sometimes I’m singing, sometimes I’m playing the sampler and not singing. It’s all live-triggered. It’s not like we just click on a thing and a loop plays.

Will Sunday’s show carry extra meaning, bringing the tour to your adopted home?

Yeah. I’m really excited to do it in Memphis. I absolutely love living here. I had the dumb idea of moving to Nashville when I was leaving New York, and a friend said, ‘You know, I’ve always wanted to move to Memphis.’ And I had never even considered it. So during my exploratory Nashville trip, I drove over and literally got an apartment in Midtown, just having visited for a couple days. I was like, ‘I’m sold!’ There’s something that feels really mystical about Memphis to me. There’s something magical about it. I just immediately felt at home. It’s been four years for me, and I bought a house two years ago. I live in Cooper-Young, so I’ll just walk home after the show.

Mike Doughty brings his 25th Anniversary Tribute to Ruby Vroom to Bar DKDC on Sunday, March 31st, at 8 p.m. $10.

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CREDIT: Memphis and Shelby COunty Film and Television Commission

State officials have given film companies $69.1 million in reimbursements or rebates for 68 production projects in Tennessee since 2007, according to a recent report, a move that has yielded $73.2 million in new taxes.

The Tennessee Entertainment Commission’s (TEC) February report said the “production industry continues to play a key role in the Tennessee economy.” Incentives have helped that sector grow, the report said, and the motion picture and video industry is set to grow in the state by 41 percent over the next five years.

The sector employs 6,016 people in Tennessee, ranking the state sixth among all states in overall employment in the film-production sector. The film sector has added 2,400 new jobs in the state over the last five years. In that time, the sector as a whole here grew by 135 percent.

Memphis and Shelby COunty Film and Television Commission

Cast of the Memphis-shot Sun Records.

Most of the state’s film jobs (4,441) are in Nashville, the report said. Memphis is not mentioned in the TEC report.

The productions generate spin-off revenue, too. Over the last nine years, production projects purchased $171.9 million in goods and services from about 10,400 Tennessee vendors.

The report estimates $419.5 million in new incomes were generated for Tennessee workers from those 68 incentivized projects. In total, incentivized film projects here yielded $655.6 million in total economic output for the state since 2007, according to the report. The report did not break down figures by regions or cities.

In January, MovieMaker magazine ranked Memphis (for the sixth year in a row) in the top 20 places to shoot in the country. Emmy and Grammy-winning writer and moviemaker Robert Gordon told the magazine that the 1990s-era John Grisham films laid down the tracks for the movie industry here.

“As a location, you can find streets to match most any era, and most any condition,” Gordon told the magazine. “Also, the crews are skilled, eager, and flexible. People I’ve worked with [on non-union shoots] are ready to do what’s needed, even if it means duties not normally assigned. They’re innovative and ready to try, and if you treat people right, they’ll go the extra mile, delivering you images you’d never have imagined.”

Companies shot 87 productions here last year, according to the Memphis and Shelby County Film and Television Commission’s annual report. These shoots created 843 jobs and spent more than $6.4 million. Projects included the Discovery Channel’s Street Outlaws and Tom Shadyac’s feature film, Brian Banks.

Tennessee offers production companies a 25 percent cash refund on certain costs. Wages for in-state crew qualify for the rebate, for example, while wages for out-of-state workers don’t. But not all projects are approved, and the approval process (run by the TEC) isn’t objective.

“Tennessee’s state production incentive program has limited funding and therefore is not ‘first come, first served,'” according to the commission’s website. “Projects are approved based on merit and the ‘best interests’ of the state.”

The commission offers film companies discounts on Memphis Police Department rates and hotel rates, according to the website.