Author: Andrew Earles

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Keeping the Basses Loaded

Looking at the last three decades of underground rock and metal reveals the undeniable truth that the Melvins deserve a seat at the same table with bands like Sonic Youth, Neurosis, Fugazi, Dinosaur Jr., the Pixies, and other undeniable pioneers that exacted an influence well beyond their immediate, real-time surroundings with serious and ongoing longevity that remains today.

In broad, simplistic terms, the Melvins’ chronology has two artistic peaks; albeit ones surrounded by an ocean of noteworthy-to-great releases. From 1989 to 1994 and across five full-length albums and several EP releases, the Melvins blazed (perhaps the wrong word for it) a trail that left a major impression on the future of heavy underground rock and metal that reverberates to this day. The Melvins more or less invented and then refined a very particular, wholly unprecedented and boldly experimental form of metallic post-hardcore that should be seriously studied as a ground zero for the modern idea of heaviness in sound and essence.

This era and the band’s surface-level legacy has gone on to be incorrectly defined by the most obvious sonic characteristic at hand: the most intimidatingly huge guitar riffs that had ever emerged from any faction — metal or otherwise — played at the slowest possible crawl. Endlessly imitated and found throughout the realm of doom/sludge metal, the best examples of what the Melvins perfected during this time can be found on most of the Lysol album, Bullhead’s opening track (“Boris,” from which the similarly trailblazing Japanese band would later derive its moniker), and the anomalously riff-free crawl of live staple “Night Goat” (track 2 on the Houdini album and one of the band’s best-known singles). It’s worth mentioning that the two latter albums released during this stretch, 1993’s Houdini and 1994’s Stoner Witch, might also be the band’s best pre-Y2K documents, and both were released on major label Atlantic Records.

The Melvins’ next creative (and first real critical) highpoint was made possible when they landed on then-fledgling Ipecac Recordings, the label of Faith No More/Mr. Bungle singer and well-known stylistic chameleon Mike Patton. With Kevin Rutamis (previously of the Cows) and former godheadSilo frontman, Mike Kunka, serving the cause as part of the Melvins’ constantly rotating bass position, they released a disparate trifecta of full-lengths in quick succession — The Bootlicker and The Maggot in 1999 and 2000’s The Crybaby.

These individually themed releases (heavy/metallic-crunch, Ween-like weirdness and electronica, and an all-covers album) appeared to spark a growth spurt in the Melvins’ fan-base and gave it a cult-like status, helped significantly by the band’s focus on road-dogging due to their now well-known notoriety as a live band of singular, sometimes mind-shattering intensity. In fact, the Melvins’ command of a stage translates beyond the heavy music and metal fan demographic, as it is not uncommon to find folks with much different taste in music that will nonetheless never miss a chance to see the band live.

The Melvins hit their second and much more complex stride around Y2K. Circumnavigating the static core of Buzz Osbourne (singer/guitarist/all-around strong personality) and drummer Dale Crover creates a tendency toward lineup adjustments and ever-frequent collaborations that have stuffed the band’s catalog with themed albums in recent years. But the best was 2006’s absorbing of the two-piece band Big Business (drummer Coady Willis and bassist Jared Warren). This gave the Melvins a not-so-secret weapon of great live presentations: double drummers. And 2006’s (A) Senile Animal features the “consummately Melvins” centerpiece of “A History of Bad Men,” a song used to great effect in the first season of HBO’s True Detective.

For the 10-year anniversary of this membership addition, this summer’s Basses Loaded album takes the band’s fondness for lineup adjustment to its logical extreme by featuring every member that has played under the Melvins banner over the last decade, including Nirvana’s Krist Novoselic, Jeff Pinkus of the Butthole Surfers, and Steven McDonald of Redd Kross. Another great Melvins’-related development this year was the vinyl reissue of the band’s three major label albums (the best two are mentioned above), originally released between 1993 and 1996, by Third Man Records.

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Music Music Features

Forgotten bands of Memphis

To drastically deviate from this column’s normal approach, the bands below were randomly picked from a much larger (and still increasing) master list of defunct Memphis acts whose legacies deserve better digs in the historical narrative of local underground music history. Each band recorded, at the very least, a demo. Physical formats of officially released music, should they exist, are only obtainable in a used or new-old-stock capacity, and the music can be sampled on YouTube and Bandcamp. Our imaginary future compilation of rarities or series of reissue campaigns would start with the following:

The Hot Dogs

THE HOT DOGS / HOT DOG

Ardent Records released the Hot Dogs’ proper full-length, Say What You Mean, in 1973 and promoted it with four 45s released the same year as well as in 1974, with the final being a non-album double A-side of the Hot Dogs’ version of Johnny Cash’s “I Walk the Line.” Say What You Mean is one of the early ’70s’ best meetings of Byrd-ish cosmic country-rock, the proto-power-pop associated not only with Ardent’s best-known band but also Todd Rundgren’s classic Something/Anything? double LP from 1972, the macro-hooks of Bob Welch-era Fleetwood Mac, and the elongated pastoral psych of Parachute-era Pretty Things. The Hot Dogs were core duo Greg Reding and Bill Rennie (also in Albert King’s touring band and in a late-’70s Black Oak Arkansas lineup), who were joined in the studio by guitarists Jack Holder and Robert Johnson and drummer Fred Prouty. Also figuring prominently is Terry Manning, whose production made it one of the best examples of the Ardent “sound” (he also contributed a few songs to the final track listing). Perfectly clean copies of Say What You Mean are common and should set you back $5-$10.

 

REUBEN JAMES

Filling an approximate nine-month period of inactivity early in His Hero Is Gone’s legendary 1995-2000 run, Reuben James (named after a song by Kenny Rogers and the First Edition) was Paul and Todd Burdette from that band, Billy Davis and William Harris (also formerly of Copout like Todd Burdette), drummer Brent Shrewsbury, and bassist Lee Lawrence. Compared to His Hero Is Gone, Reuben James was more melodic and boasted more breathing room in song structures, vaguely foreshadowing Davis and the Burdettes’ post-Y2K powerhouse, Tragedy. Reuben James recorded 11 songs live to eight-track reel-to-reel in August of ’96, but the master was later lost, leaving only the cassette mix heard on the band’s Bandcamp page. Make sure to check out the Reuben James (misspelled as “Ruben James” and incorrectly dated at one year before the actual show) set on the YouTube channel of user “icewaterbob.” Shrewsbury resurfaced behind the kit in Vegas Thunder before his current focus of working in film and video, while Lawrence plays bass in the excellent Arctic Flowers.

STAYNLESS

Active from 1997 to 2000, Staynless was four unfairly handsome and nicely attired gentlemen who created a near-perfect example of a distinct sub-strain of post-hardcore behind a deep familiarity with Slint, Rodan, and June of 44. An awesomely dynamic and confident live band, Staynless left behind three 7″s and one full-length album (released on CD only) that was appropriately engineered by Steve Albini. Guitarist/singer Chris Wark would go on to lead Arma Secreta, while other guitarist Tony Dixon and drummer Daniel Farris spent much of the last decade as half of the Coach and Four.

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Music Music Blog

Rocket Science Variety Show #29

It could be argued that the Memphis underground music scene has never enjoyed as consistent and long-running a booster as the Rocket Science Audio Variety Show. Thursday night will mark the 29th time Robin Pack has assembled his long-running and resilient labor of love (for local music) in the form of a multi-format showcase and free online “webisode”. Any local entity that creates 29 of ANYTHING for the benefit of artistic/creative posterity should be applauded. The variety show has survived early-2016 rumors of a possible hiatus (or end to the production altogether) and has diligently powered through the scaling-down to an episode every 2 – 3 months, as opposed to what must have been a stressful and challenging monthly schedule that defined much of the show’s history up to #24/#25 late last year. Thursday night’s extravaganza will feature Secret Service, Chickasaw Mound, comedian Hunter Sandlin, puppets, magic with Mitchell, and Pickle TV.

Justice Naczycz’s Secret Service was formed during the early part of the last decade when he was concurrently occupying the guitarist slot in Jay Reatard’s best known and busiest “side project” – the onstage catastrophe known as the Final Solutions. The Secret Service’s economic arena-garage-butt-rock was omnipresent on local bills for much of the 00s before going quiet in recent years, but the reemergence of Naczycz’s power-trio should be cause for celebration and there should be plenty of onstage energy at hand.

Profiled via a Flyer feature just a couple of months ago in May, Jesse Davis’ (son of local rock stalwart, Jimmie Davis) Chickasaw Mound is a shambling, sugary, reverb-loving and sometimes melancholy DIY pop-rock package that brings to mind the more classically melody-oriented corner of the contemporary garage-pop/punk underground. Featuring a sort of local super-group-as-backing band in drummer Ben Bauermeister (Magic Kids/A55 Conductor/Toxie), Keith Cooper (The Sheiks), Coletrane Duckworth (Aquarian Blood and son of Memphis legend, Jim Duckworth) and a focus on Davis’ soulful (“Soul-Rock” is an oft bandied-about term) pipes, the band has an undeniable Memphis feel to it. But to hint at a distinctly non-Memphis influence, look no further than the name of track three on the Chickasaw Mound’s Bandcamp-only album, Magic Sounds of Our Sanctuary: “I Wish My Girlfriend Was Belinda Butcher” (look her up in lieu of further exposition). Points for that one on title alone. This release was made available almost a year and a half ago, but Chickasaw Mound should now have a self-released 7” in the works to serve as a proper debut.
   
Local funny man Hunter Sandlin’s variety of inspired, over-the-top self-deprecating sad sack stand-up will be a fine addition to the evening, as should RSVS staples “Magic with Mitchell”, the show’s resident puppets and their problems, plus of course, Pickle TV’s mindf*** montage intermissions of heavily-altered (obscure to household name) TV commercials, programs and stock footage. Episode 27’s segment that begins with “Offensive Cat Commercial” (posted below and about as workplace appropriate as blasting the dialogue from Scarface) and morphs into a period-confused country club advertisement is highly recommended to anyone with a soul, as this near-perfect below-the-belt marriage of stupid and brilliant recently had this writer laughing obnoxiously at the computer screen and rewinding incessantly.

RSVS has always operated as a free event and has boasted a level of production quality (especially regarding the live music performances….which makes sense considering who’s behind the show) that beats the hell out of most if not all of what one might come across on cable-access. To assist with making each hour-plus package happen, the proverbial hat was passed to give the bands and comedians a little something to take home, but Thursday’s event will have a $5 cover charge; a more-than-fair asking price for what you get and insurance towards a future of further episodes.

$5 cover, arrive at Rocket Science Audio studio no later than 8:50. Broadcast begins at 9:00 pm prompt. Free on the internet here.

Rocket Science Variety Show #29

Rocket Science Variety Show #29 (2)

Rocket Science Variety Show #29 (3)

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Music Music Features

Blasts of Static

Earlier this month, Fat Possum Records announced that the label would grant a long-overdue reissue campaign to the second and third Grifters full-lengths, 1993’s One Sock Missing and 1994’s Crappin’ You Negative (title taken from one of the best lines in Raising Arizona). Both albums, along with a slew of related 7″s and an EP, were originally released by our own Shangri-La Records but had fallen out of print during the post-millennial years, especially on vinyl.

The Grifters, formed by Stan Gallimore (drums), Tripp Lamkins (bass), Dave Shouse (vocals, guitar), and Scott Taylor (vocals, guitar) in 1990 out of the ashes of A Band Called Bud, had already hit the road hard and built a small nationwide following after the release of their 1992 debut So Happy Together. When they dropped sophomore effort One Sock Missing in 1993, the band garnered its next level of attention. Either unfairly lumped into the then-exploding Lo-Fi scene or the deconstructionist blues leanings of the also popular Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, the Grifters really sounded like very few of their contemporaries.

Dark, heavy, extremely noisy, fatalist, and often very catchy, the band made the absolute most out of the economical accommodations provided by Easley Studios, creating layer upon layer of noise pop in which there was actually quite a bit going on to the attentive ear. Printing Easley’s phone number in all of their liner notes was also a huge driving force in making the studio a major destination (Pavement, Sonic Youth, etc.) as the middle of the decade played out.

It could also be argued that this era of the Grifters played a big hand in spreading Ohio’s Guided by Voices to a larger underground audience, as both bands often found themselves touring together. One Sock Missing contains veritable Grifters’ classics “Bummer,” “She Blows Blasts of Static” (also a stand-alone 7″ on Shangri-La), “Corolla Hoist,” the brooding urban-psych nightmare of “Just Passing Out,” and wailing emotional catastrophe, “Encrusted,” among many others.

1994’s Crappin’ You Negative was a noticeable step forward and capitalized on the momentum achieved by slightly scaling back on the abstract dissonance and songs that just fell apart out of nowhere. Local shows had become capacity affairs at the Antenna and Barristers, and the Grifters were getting a ton of great press nationwide. Crappin’ You Negative, also recorded at Easley, kicks off with the bulldozing “Rats” and, like its predecessors, isn’t afraid to delve into the darker, more depressed enclaves of early ’90s indie rock with songs like “Dead Already,” “Junkie Blood,” and “Black Fuel Incinerator.” Each album side closes with one of the Grifters’ great sleeper “hits”; the plodding-but-beautiful dirge of “Felt Tipped Over” on the A-side and the stumbling power-pop brilliance of “Cinnamon.”

Live shows, of which quite a few serve as formative memories for this writer, could be a total mess or could be transcendent but were always worth seeing as the Grifters really made one proud to claim Memphis as a home base. As mentioned above, the band was getting noticed outside of town in magazines like Spin, and following a set at CBGB in NYC in 1994, The New York Times wrote:

“Beneath the fuzz and the clatter, the secrets of the band’s underground allure lay intact. The guitars were dipped deep in the blues tradition of their hometown, and the rhythm section often took detours into jazz. Mr. Shouse had a sixth sense for pop melody that made the audience work to retrieve the perfect pop pearl that lay inside cracked new rockers.”

Fat Possum’s release date for the two reissues is August 12th. Record label head honcho Bruce Watson explained that this project was a long time in the making.

“I’d always been a big fan, and we started talks with the band and Sherman (Willmott, of Shangri-La Projects/Records) around the turn of the year, and everyone came to an agreement about us buying the masters and making this stuff available on vinyl again,” Watson said.

“There isn’t any bonus material, because I don’t think any existed really, but each album will have great liner notes by Andria Lisle.”

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Music Music Features

Lamb of God Returns

CREDIT: Travis Shinn

As arguably one of the biggest acts to emerge from the mid-’00s “undergrounding” of high-profile metal, Lamb of God was riding its long and continuing ascent in June 2012 when attention on the band began to increase exponentially on the back of a most unfortunate turn of events. A good six months into the touring cycle behind his band’s seventh studio album, Resolution, Lamb of God singer Randy Blythe was arrested by Czech police on suspicion of manslaughter and charged with “committing intentional bodily harm.”

The charges concerned a concert from two years earlier when a fan sustained head injuries (immediately leading to a coma and eventual death several weeks later) after being pushed from the stage by Blythe. Lamb of God was caught totally by surprise, as they didn’t even remember the specific show and were unaware of the damning European press coverage following the event, or that the Czech police had already investigated and charged Blythe, simply because no one was contacted by the United States Department of Justice after the D.O.J. turned down overseas requests for assistance.

Blythe was swiftly put behind bars in a Czech prison for what remained an open-ended incarceration, due to the challenges of meeting a bail figure that was repeatedly increased. Thus began an unpredictable and authentically dramatic saga unlike any other in metal’s long and dark history of finding itself on the wrong side of the law. In March of 2013, after a six-day trial that could have easily ended badly, the Czech court arrived at a verdict that removed Blythe’s criminal liability regarding the incident. Many readers might be aware of how things played out, as there was much media coverage and an astonishing amount of support that traversed and transcended the metal community.

The Richmond, Virginia, band formed as Burn the Priest in 1994 and operated at the underground DIY level for six years, releasing several demos, two split-EPs, and one self-titled, full-length debut in 1999 before a name change to Lamb of God was implemented based on a desire to avoid being misinterpreted as a Satanic metal band. The next album and first to carry the Lamb of God moniker was 2000’s New American Gospel. A progressive combination of rewired and intensified thrash metal informed deeply by Pantera’s mid-tempo groove and breakdowns, New American Gospel appealed out of the gate to a fan base that would grow behind the band’s next two years on the road.

2003’s As the Palaces Burn attracted some nice reviews in mainstream media outlets like Rolling Stone and scored high in the metal press’ year-end tallies. The Lamb of God sound was well-established by this point and filled a need with its less cartoonish, more streamlined metal onslaught that spoke to both young and old fans of the form, unlike the then-waning silliness of Slipknot or the overt faux intensity of System of a Down. The increased airplay of the album’s three singles laid the groundwork for Lamb of God’s proto-breakthrough, Ashes of the Wake, their first for major label Epic Records. It debuted at No. 27 on the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of over 35,000 and remains the band’s best-selling back catalog title as it approaches gold certification.

But Lamb of God’s next two albums, 2006’s Sacrament and 2009’s Wrath, would secure the band’s status as a global force and perhaps the biggest Trojan horse to sneak otherwise mainstream-untenable elements of metal extremity to a wide audience since Pantera’s similar coup during the ’90s. Both album’s debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and had first-week sales of over 60,000 and collectively yielded three Grammy nominations for Best Heavy Metal Performance for “Redneck” (perhaps Lamb of God’s best-known calling card) in 2007, “Set to Fail” in 2010, and “In Your Words” in 2011, respectively.

This period brought many other next-level “firsts,” and the band spent the better part of six years on the road and satiated fans between studio efforts with two live album/DVD titles. In 2010, the band released the 10-year anniversary Hourglass career retrospective that featured a much-drooled-over “Super Deluxe” edition packaged in a big coffin. The package contained a three-CD anthology, a career-covering vinyl box set, The Art of Lamb of God book, a 4-by-6 “Pure American Metal” flag, and, most notably, a Mark Morton Signature Series Jackson Dominion D2 guitar. The aforementioned seventh album, Resolution, was released in January of 2012 and added some thrashier guitar riffs and song structures to Lamb of God’s meat-and-potatoes metal to keep things out of an artistic rut.

Then, as covered previously, everything went to hell a few months later, and a short hiatus followed as the band waited for the outcome of Blythe’s case and figured out what to do next. For a minute, Lamb of God’s future as an active band was up in the air, but the five-some returned to the studio, and out came last year’s VII: Sturm und Drang, an album informed by the inevitable influence of Blythe’s situation but also one with more sonic surprises than the band is known for. The record included the distinct vocals of guest Chino Moreno of the Deftones on a track, plus Blythe’s most extended venture into clean singing on the song “Overlord”.

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Record Store Day 2016

CREDIT: Chris Shaw

For Shangri-La Records, prepping for Saturday’s 9th annual Record Store Day means opening a few hours early.

“We said 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., but usually we open a little earlier because of the big line of people. As soon as we’re ready, we let them in. I think last year we opened at 8:30 a.m.,” Shrangri-La Records owner Jared McStay says.

Bolstering the lot of official Record Store Day titles Shangri-La plans to have on hand Saturday will be a major increase in the rest of the store’s stock of new vinyl.

“We’ve done a lot of other ordering and will have more new inventory than we’ve ever had,” explains McStay.

“We ordered direct from Sundazed, Matador Records, Merge Records, a few one-stops, and a cool import wholesale house, to name a few distributors. I’m making a big bet on Record Store Day this year, as we pretty much over-ordered, but it’s usually a good day. I don’t know if you’d call it a store-wide sale, per se, like our ‘Purgefest’, but we’ll also be putting out bins of good discount records that we’ve never had out before.”

After “excuse me,” “can I squeeze in there?” and “sorry” have been politely uttered into an ambient drone for five or six hours, a veritable parking lot mini-festival will commence at 2 p.m. with Toy Trucks, followed by Fresh Flesh, and Jana Misener — formerly of the Memphis Dawls. Next up will be Tim Prudhomme’s recently conceived band, Dimplebones. Headlining the afternoon will be James and the Ultrasounds, the band’s first local appearance since returning from a European tour.

Wedged in between Prudhomme’s Dimplebones and the latter is the reunited original lineup of McStay’s primary musical endeavor, the Simpletones. One of the true gems to come out of the Memphis underground scene of the ’90s, the first incarnation of the trio featured McStay on guitar and vocals, Jim McDermott on bass, and Mark Miller on drums. This version released the Joe’s Cool Sign demo tape and a clutch of fidelity-challenged but fantastic 7″s between 1991 and 1994 before switching monikers to the less litigious “The Simple Ones.”

“We’ve been practicing most of what’s on the Joe’s Cool Sign demo tape and a lot of what’s on our three 7″s that came out before our Shangri-La releases for what will hopefully be a good 30-minute set,” McStay says. Last but not least, Shangri-La’s parking lot Record Store Day extravaganza is dubbed “Jughead Fest” due to its falling on McStay’s birthday (origins of the nickname are unclear).

Chris Shaw

It will be no sweat to split one’s afternoon between Shangri-La and what’s planned a mere 1.6 Midtown miles away at Goner Records. Timed with cross-rocking between the two destinations in mind, Goner will be presenting a three-band bill at the Cooper-Young Gazebo that kicks off at 1 p.m. with Austin, Texas’ Nameless Frames, a garage-y, post-punkish trio with a debut, self-titled full-length on Super Secret Records released this past February.

At 2 p.m. will be the live experience that is Aquarian Blood, the extra-Ex-Cult project of J.B. Horrell and his wife Laurel that not only debuted on vinyl with a 7″ that was Goner’s official Record Store Day 2015 release but, more importantly, had its first full-length scheduled for release on the label later this year.

Then, at 3 p.m., the venerable Tyler Keith & the Apostles will rock the Cooper-Young intersection an hour closer to its future Sunday morning hangover. Regarding the hours leading up to the music, Goner will be accenting their Record Store Day haul (which will in turn be YOUR haul, or part of it) with a bulking up of store stock, which means more of the best prices on great used vinyl that one could hope to find on a nationwide level.

Oxford, Mississippi’s participating venue, End of All Music, is giving goodie bags (of limited edition store-related swag) to customers who purchase records throughout the day and will certainly be stocking nearby Fat Possum Records’ three Record Store Day titles: the 10th anniversary edition of Jay Reatard’s amazing Blood Visions LP on white vinyl (also includes a 7″ of Blood Visions demos), a 12″ EP of a Daft Punk edit medley of five Junior Kimbrough songs into one 15-minute piece of music (the b-side is etched), and the Junior Kimbrough Tribute LP featuring Iggy Pop, the Black Keys, Spiritualized, and others (on clear vinyl). For other End of All Music-related Record Store Day news, make sure to check out the store’s blog.

For a list of all Record Store Day releases, visit www.recordstoreday.com

Record Store Day at Goner Records with Aquarian Blood, Nameless Frames, and Tyler Keith, Saturday, April 16th at 9 a.m. Free.

Record Store Day at Shangri-La Records with Fresh Flesh, Simpletones, Dimple Bones, and James and the Ultrasounds, Saturday, April 16th at 8:30 a.m. Free.

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Bitchin Bajas at Murphy’s Tuesday

CREDIT: Jeremiah Chiu

Bitchin Bajas was launched by Chicago musician and engineer/producer Cooper Crain (who has recorded albums by Circuit Des Yeux, Moon Duo, Times New Viking, Running, and Endless Bummer, among others). The rock- and structure-resisting, mostly improvisational Bitchin Bajas (a trio of Crain, Dan Quinlivan, and Rob Frye) have amassed their own sizeable body of work that tastefully and sometimes beautifully reimagines a vast array of past-drone, minimalist, ambient, pastoral psych and electronic touchstones.

At its strongest (see 2014’s double-length, 77-minute self-titled album on Drag City), the trio adds and subtracts layer upon layer of synths, tape machines, assorted loop-generating effects and instruments, flutes, guitars, bass, organs, xylophones, field/found-sound recordings, processed vocals, and many other sources of sound to create rewarding experiences of pulsating and relaxing prettiness for the willingly immersive listener.

Jeremiah Chiu

Bitchin Bajas

The most recent release by the band is a definite curveball and should no doubt increase the trio’s profile exponentially. Released on March 18th, Epic Jammers and Fortunate Little Ditties (Drag City/Palace Music) is a democratic and epic (nine tracks across an LP and 12″ EP) collaboration between Bitchin Bajas and one of America’s most accomplished, unique, and timeless songwriters, Bonnie “Prince” Billy (Will Oldham). After the Bajas served as Bonnie “Prince” Billy’s crack backing band for a Record Store Day one-off in which the trio properly dialed back to allow for the singer’s unmistakable voice to take the wheel, the immensely-prolific Oldham invited the trio over to his house for a recorded jam session.

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Still Creepin’

Cleveland’s Bone Thugs-N-Harmony first came together at the beginning of the ’90s under the highly unlikely (and wisely scrapped) moniker, The Band Aid Boys. The then five-member group of MC’s Bizzy Bone, Wish Bone, Layzie Bone, Krayzie Bone, and Flesh-N-Bone adopted the B.O.N.E. Enterprises name for the recording and release of their underground debut full-length CD/LP, Faces of Death. It was made under the studio guidance of then-mentor (and older brother of Krayzie Bone) Kermit Henderson, who released the album in 1993 on his own small label Stoney Burke. The group pushed itself to many labels and throughout the industry and eventually endeared themselves to former N.W.A. member and Ruthless Records owner Eazy-E through a live audition in his dressing room. Eazy was impressed enough to get serious about the group and sign them to Ruthless with the caveat that they be known as “Thugs-N-Harmony,” though a middle ground was met and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony would soon be one of the most distinctive and important mainstream hip-hop groups of the ’90s.

Bone Thugs’ debut for Ruthless was 1994’s eight-song EP, Creepin on ah Come Up, which circulated amongst gangsta-rap audiences for a short time until breaking through to the mainstream and peaking at No. 12 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart on the backs of the hit singles “Thuggish Ruggish Bone” (No. 22 on the Billboard’s Hot 100 and No. 2 on the Hot Rap Tracks charts, respectively) and “Foe tha Love of $” (No. 4 on Hot Raps Tracks). The latter featured a verse by Eazy-E, who would go on to mentor and guide Bone Thugs’ career for a year until succumbing to complications from AIDS in March of 1995, though Ruthless Records continued to be the group’s label during their highly successful run throughout the ’90s and into the next millennium. 1995’s E. 1999 Eternal, the first proper full-length album by Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, upped the ante considerably by becoming an absolutely massive hit and the group’s biggest selling title.

The singles “1st of tha Month” and “Tha Crossroads” truly introduced to a large-scale, mainstream audience what was a style of hip-hop that went way beyond “horrorcore,” G-Funk, and gangsta rap elements and combined into something musically unprecedented at that level. Bone Thugs’ popularization of their signature “chopper” style of hip-hop was truly one of the seven phonetic wonders of the MC’ing world when it hit big in the mid ’90s. In between extremely catchy choruses sung in the G-Funk style was the group’s lightning-speed rapping, itself so fast that it seems stream-of-conscious (far from it and masterfully crafted lyrically) as it undulates to and fro, taking on the role of an additional primary melodic hook for each song.

E. 1999 Eternal (the “E” being in tribute to Eazy-E) and its follow-up, the epic-length The Art of War (1997), were categorically huge hip-hop releases that rebirthed at an above-ground level the violent lyrical content, which had run its (first) course by the mid-’90s, typically associated with gangsta rap. It was during this era that the “Mo Thugs” entity was established as a collective and record label focused on up-and-coming or affiliated Cleveland-related artists, and five albums were released by Mo-Thugs (which numbered almost 40 members, including the Bone Thugs MCs) between 1995 and 2009. Art of War‘s “Look Into My Eyes” showed up on the Batman & Robin soundtrack and peaked at No. 4 on the Hot 100 chart, while “If I Could Teach the World” won an American Music Award in 1997.

Bone Thugs also dealt with the continuing absence of member Bizzy Bone later in the ’90s and prior to this a feud with our own Three 6 Mafia over what was at the time considered stylistic cribbing, as both groups had a similar sound and Three 6’s had actually been in place since 1989. (DJ Paul explained last year on Blurred Culture’s Live With Steve Lobel that the whole thing was essentially a misunderstanding and not “a real beef.”) 2000’s BTNHResurrection did not repeat the success of its predecessors, and internal conflict with Bizzy Bone (over his own issues with Ruthless Records) soon meant solo albums by Bone Thugs’ members, but the rappers returned in 2002 with the shockingly graphic and very much politically charged departure, Thug World Order, their final album for Ruthless Records. 2006’s Thug Stories signaled a new label relationship with Koch Records and did better than the previous two by selling almost 40,000 in its first week and peaking at No. 25 on the Billboard 200, not to mention that it was first album Bone Thugs made as a trio (minus Bizzy Bone).

The next year’s Strength & Loyalty (on Interscope imprint Full Surface Records) kept the comeback coming, peaking at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and featuring guests like Mariah Carey, the Game, will.i.am, Akon, Bow Wow, and others.

2007 saw Bone Thugs-N-Harmony win the American Music Award for Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop Band, Duo or Group. In 2010, following an official reunion of all five Bone Thugs members (Bizzy Bone returned after years of acrimony, and Flesh-N-Bone was released from a prison stretch), the album Uni5: The World’s Enemy was released by the group on their own label BTNH Worldwide (distro’d by Warner Bros.), but only Layzie, Bizzy, and Flesh Bone would be the core members on 2013’s The Art of War: World War III.

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Wolfmother returns to Memphis

In 2005, Sidney, Australia’s, Wolfmother arrived when one rock heyday was in its 11th hour and another underground metal-originated movement was just about to find wider-scale popularity. This fortuitous timing and combining of influences from both movements brought quick success to the power-trio, which was sustained until after the release of its second album Cosmic Egg in 2009. The past five years have seen some ups and downs for the festival-favoring, hard-rock/’70s-metal endeavor of founder Andrew Stockdale and different backing lineups, but it looks like the recently released Victorious might help return at least some of the spotlight the band enjoyed earlier in its career.

There’s no doubt that the 2000-2005 era was one defined by near or full-on mass acceptance of guitar bands offering up their version of a style that was already well-established by whatever underground movement happened to respectively birth and develop it over the preceding years. This gave us the Strokes and Interpol, plus brought the White Stripes and the Hives up from their more grassroots origins. A ton of other bands and factors played into this as well, but by mid-decade it had given way to a widespread re-embracing of heavier fare, thus giving different modicums of higher exposure and success to Dead Meadow, Queens of the Stone Age, the Sword, Sweden’s Witchcraft, and, in some indirect manner, this helped contribute to the blindsiding mega-success of the far more commercially viable Wolfmother.

Guitarist/vocalist/principle songwriter Andrew Stockdale, bassist/keyboardist Chris Ross, and drummer Myles Heskett cherry-picked the right characteristics from both the former “new rock” era and the latter “retro-metal” salad days, and the Wolfmother name came not long before playing their first live show in spring of 2004. Signed to Australian major-label imprint Modular Recordings by August of that same year, the trio released their debut four-song, self-titled EP a month later, and it gained respectable purchase on the ARIA Australian Singles Chart. The EP was recorded in Detroit by Dirtbombs bassist Jim Diamond, best known for recording the first two White Stripes albums then suing the post-fame version of the duo over crediting disputes (Jack and Meg won the dispute).

Wolfmother toured for months in support of the EP and signed an international record deal with Modular parent label Universal Music Group. The trio’s self-titled, full-length debut was released in Australia at the end of October 2005 and elsewhere around the world on subsequent dates. Recorded by in-demand, hard-rock/metal producer Dave Sardy, the album was certified 5x platinum in Australia as well as gold in the U.K. and U.S. by 2007, where it peaked at No. 22 on the Billboard 200. Much of the stateside success was due to the 2006 mega-hit “Woman” (the fourth single released from the album), which took the 2007 Grammy award for “Best Hard Rock Performance.”

Wolfmother is a deft, hard-rock repurposing of the White Stripes, is stuffed to the gills with Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin riffs, and is presented as a more melodic, less “scary,” and much more commercially viable stoner-metal package than what the Sword or High on Fire had to offer. Tall, skinny, well-dressed, and coifed somewhere between Grand Funk Railroad’s Don Brewer and the MC5’s Rob Tyner, Stockdale added the appropriate guitar moves and cut a figure built for the festival stage. Once the debut broke in the U.K. and U.S. by mid-2006, Wolfmother was soon assuming prime slots at festivals around the world. The band followed up the album with the four-song Dimensions EP in 2006, then a live video album titled Please Experience Wolfmother Live in 2007 and contributed the song “Pleased to Meet You” to the Spider-Man 3 soundtrack that same year.

In early 2008, Wolfmother’s label announced via press release that “irreconcilable personal and musical differences” had ended the band. However, Wolfmother’s sophomore follow-up album was already in the works, and after a brief spell with the Raconteurs drummer, Patrick Keeler, Stockdale reassembled what he called “Wolfmother Phase II,” a quartet with Ian Peres on bass/keyboards, Aidan Nemeth on second guitar, and Dave Atkins on drums. The lineup was made official by January of 2009, and, later that year, the longer, heavier, and all-around bigger Cosmic Egg appeared and peaked at No. 16 on the Billboard 200 and sold boatloads in Australia.

As a sign of the changing musical landscape, the next few years were not as commercially fruitful for Wolfmother, and Stockdale had to steer the band through more lineup turmoil and other challenges. He released what was to be the band’s third album, 2013’s Keep Moving, under his own name, then two months later resurrected the Wolfmother moniker for a string of live dates. In March of 2014, Wolfmother’s third proper full-length, New Crown, was released out of nowhere as a digital download on Bandcamp. Self-produced and self-released without any promotion, the album still sold well in Australia and cracked the Billboard 200 at No. 160. Signaling a return to the band’s earlier years, this month the fourth Wolfmother album, Victorious, was released by Universal Music Enterprises (or UMe). It was recorded by noted producer Brendan O’Brien (also former vice president of Epic Records) at Henson Recording in Hollywood. Stockdale wrote everything on the album and performed all of the vocals, guitars, and bass himself, with keyboards contributed by regular touring bassist Peres and drums handled by Josh Freese and Joey Waronker.

The tour that brings Wolfmother to Memphis is known as the “Gypsy Caravan Tour” and will feature a trio configuration of the band with Peres on bass and Alex Carapetis on drums.

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Jucifer at the Hi-Tone

The husband-and-wife duo of drummer Edgar Livengood and guitarist/vocalist Gazelle Amber Valentine have been making and releasing music as Jucifer for over two decades. Formed in 1993 and initially based in Athens, Georgia, the band is allegedly named after the “The Juice is Lucifer” statement made during the O.J. Simpson murder trails. Jucifer was, over its first few years of activity, marketed by various labels as a more “indie” or “alternative” offering, and their sound during the second half of the ’90s occasionally danced with this blanket assessment, albeit in a loud, abrasive, and metallic fashion. Having developed into something that, more often than not, truly defies classification on the whole, Jucifer is nonetheless tagged as sludge or doom metal to avoid unpacking the complex reality of the duo’s stylistic mastery and invention within the context of all that is heavy, perpetually intense, and inventive, not to mention unpredictably melodic and catchy.

Jucifer

The succinct and, it’s assumed, band-generated wrap-up of what to expect on record and live goes like this: “23 years of annihilating ears and insides. Genre = Obliterate. Sludge, doom, grind, thrash, death, crust, black, combined. Notoriously nomadic, live in their tour bus. ALWAYS ON TOUR.” The duo has seen its seven full-lengths, five EPs, and two DVD titles released by Relapse Records, Alternative Tentacles, and, at one time, major-label subsidiary Capricorn Records (via that imprint’s relaunch around Y2K). Additionally, the band’s own Nomadic Fortress Records handles certain release formats. Jucifer has only gotten better at everything they do since the release of their 2006 debut for Relapse Records, If Thine Enemy Hunger (album No. 3 overall). Especially recommended are recent albums like 2010’s Throned in Blood, and the 2014 record District of Dystopia.

Jucifer at the Hi-Tone, Saturday, Febraury 13th at the Hi-Tone,8 p.m.  $10-$12.