Rising up from the murk and mud of the underground, Gonerfest 22 has emerged in the form of a gigantic bipedal fish to announce what will be in store this fall, from Thursday, September 25th, through Sunday, September 28th, 2025. And with many puzzling over the apparent closure of Railgarten, Gonerfest’s host since 2021, it comes as a relief to hear that this year’s festival has found a new home at Wiseacre Brewery on Broad Avenue.
The big news, of course, is that the fest will be headlined by “Zamrock” legends W.I.T.C.H. (purveying Zambia’s unique blend of traditional African sounds and psychedelic rock) and Missoula/Seattle indie rockers Silkworm. Also included in the initial list of confirmed bands are Sydney, Australia’s (via L.A.) “egg punks” Tee Vee Repairmann; Athens, Georgia’s rockers Pylon Reenactment Society; Auckland, New Zealand’s post-punks Guardian Singles; Sydney’s garage punks Itchy & the Nits; and up-and-coming Chicago popsters Sharp Pins.
Part of a rich flowering of edgy psychedelic rock in Zambia, W.I.T.C.H. (an acronym for “We Intend To Cause Havoc”) were formed during that country’s golden post-independence days, headed by lead vocalist Emanuel “Jagari” Chanda, and were soon embraced as one of the greatest “Zamrock” bands of the 1970s. With the economy collapsing at the end of that decade, and facing increased government authoritarianism, W.I.T.C.H., like most Zamrock bands, were reduced to playing daytime shows to avoid the curfews, then faded away. Cut to 2012, when Chanda was invited to the U.S. to perform. In 2013, “New Witch” began touring again with a lineup including Chanda and new members from the Netherlands, Germany, and Switzerland. The band’s previous discography has also been re-released.
Silkworm, meanwhile, formed in 1987 and released nine influential albums and many singles, EPs, and compilations over an 18-year period, as well as touring worldwide in North America, Europe, and Asia, notably playing every state in the continental U.S. (except Delaware, for some reason). The group recently played together as a dual-guitar quartet, for the first time in thirty years, at Steve Albini’s memorial in 2024, and the experience was so rewarding that they began to discuss regrouping for some additional events — which now will bring them to Gonerfest.
Silkworm (Photo courtesy Goner Records)
Early Bird Gonerfest 22 golden passes go on sale March 19th at 10 a.m. CDT. They are $150 each for entry into all official shows. Single-day passes will be available at the door, according to venue capacity. For more info and tickets, click here.
Immersion (Photo: Ben Newman); SUSS (Photo: Bob Krasner)
When Colin Newman and Malka Spigel started their synthesizer duo Immersion back in the 1990s, part of electronica’s appeal was the chance to reinvent oneself. “We were very into the electronic music when it started; it felt like a fresh movement.,” says Spigel. “It freed us from our past, and we could start fresh ourselves, without people’s expectations of what we did before.”
“Yeah, there was an element in a lot of dance music at the time of it didn’t really matter where it came from,” adds Newman. “It didn’t matter who the people were, what gender they were, what color they were, or what language they spoke, because it was instrumental music. So I think for the first time in the history of what you might call popular music, you lost that kind of axis of basically Britain and America — and in Britain, Jamaica — really having the majority of the markets. Suddenly you could really come from anywhere. And that really opened up the whole scene. Although the roots of techno were in Detroit, and roots of house were in Chicago, they were not adopted at the same level in America as they were in Europe. So Berlin and other places, you know, became centers of techno, and that was kind of interesting.”
Newman, of course, had already sought out and created alternatives to the usual pop fare with Wire, whose debut, Pink Flag, with its stop-start breakdowns, semi-spoken/shouted vocals, and angular riffs created a stir in the music world of 1977. For the band at the time, though, punk was already a cliche: They were rejecting both classic rock posturing and punk posturing at the same time. They were, perhaps, the first example of “post punk.”
And yet, as Newman pointed out years ago on The Guestlist podcast with Sean Cannon, “There was no such thing as post-punk. We were just ‘not punk.’ But we were not punk in a way that was familiar with punk already.” Wire was thus premised on reinvention. “Punks hated us … Our songs were too short or they were too slow. We were too weird. We were too arty. We looked wrong.”
By the 1980s, with Wire and his own solo albums, Newman was still questing for new, unique sounds, and in 1985 he came to produce an album for the Israeli synth band Minimal Compact, which included Spigel. They became a couple and eventually married, as both explored the potential of synthesizers in their separate projects. Ultimately, they formed Immersion and released Oscillating in 1995.
And reinventing themselves was part of the appeal of electronica at the time. As Spigel says now, “We liked how mysterious the artists were. Even the famous ones were kind of hiding, not really showing who they were. And the music, of course, was inspiring.”
Embracing the sonic world of synthesizers has served them well, and since 2021 they’ve expanded Immersion’s sound to include collaboration with other artists, under the umbrella term of Nanocluster. The debut Nanocluster album saw Immersion collaborate with Stereolab’s Lætitia Sadier, German post-rock duo Tarwater, and electronic musicians Ulrich Schnauss and Scanner. Released in June 2024, Nanocluster, Vol. 2 had guests Thor Harris — the charismatic percussion player from Swans and Cubzoa — and Jack Wolter from Penelope Isles. And this year has seen the release of Nanocluster, Vol. 3.
On the new album, the couple are collaborating with the American “ambient country” band SUSS, described by Uncut magazine as “Eno’s Apollo Atmospheres crash-landed in America’s Sonoran Desert,” and by Pitchfork as “Neither rawboned nor ramshackle … their elegantly composed brand of ambient country stands as tall and clean as a brand-new pair of cowboy boots.”
A trio of veteran musicians Pat Irwin (the B-52s, Raybeats, 8 Eyed Spy), Bob Holmes (numun, Rubber Rodeo), and Jonathan Gregg (the Combine, the Linemen), SUSS combine traditional instruments like pedal steel, National steel guitar, mandolin, harmonica, baritone guitar, and harmonium with synthesizers and loops to create their a spacious, cinematic sound.
This sense of adventure makes them perfect partners for the Nanocluster project. As SUSS’ Bob Holmes notes in a press release, “Collaboration is an important aspect of the type of music SUSS makes. Whether we are collaborating with each other, or with musicians and artists outside of the band, the exploration and discovery of the unknown is central to our creative process. When Colin & Malka approached us to collaborate with them on Nanocluster, it seemed like a perfect fit. Their use of rhythm, synthesizers, bass and atmospherics felt very complementary to our instrumentation. As expected, the results were unexpected and our music was taken to a place where we would not have gone otherwise.”
Unexpected results can be good or bad, as Spigel points out. “It’s risky. There’s always nervous moments where you think, ‘Is it gonna work? Do they get the concept? Do we find a common ground?’ But surprisingly, so far, we’ve found a really beautiful common ground with every artist we’ve worked with, and we end up being friends. So that’s good.”
A common thread runs through every Nanocluster project, in that every album is ultimately initiated and brought to a close by Immersion. As Newman notes, “The thing that all the collaborations have in common, certainly from the recording side, is that we always finish and mix it, just to give it some kind of sense of continuity, and we do that with absolute inclusion of everything that our collaborating artist has given us. And they can say anything they want about how it ought to be. I mean, SUSS’ way of mixing is very different to ours. We tend towards something which you can hear all the all the nuance on it. They tend to like mix a bit more like jazz.”
Spigel adds, “But they’re into space, which is one of the things that draw us to them.”
The modern miracle of file sharing has been critical to Nanocluster. “With SUSS, they would send us four or five tracks with sounds that we could play over, and we did the same for them, and we built what ended up being the album,” says Newman. “It was all done remotely — actually, before last week, we never met them. We met them for the first time in New York when we rehearsed.
“I think once they kind of realized and trusted us that we could actually finish this off and produce something that was really something that we could all be proud of, that was probably the hardest moment. Once we were past that moment, then we started going very much into their world, and then finding what we could do that was really out of SUSS’ aesthetic. One is vocals. ‘In the Far Away’ started off as almost a kind of neoclassical piece, with the cycling pianos and that kind of vibe. And then Malka was like, ‘I think I’ve got a vocal for this.’ And so we put the vocal on it, and sent it. And they were like, ‘We love it!’ Also, having drums, which are a thing that SUSS don’t have, but actually they were encouraging all of this to be harder, tougher.”
Finally, as Spigel points out, “I think we did what felt right, within the music. It’s about what’s right for the piece.”
The latest Nanocluster collaboration will appear at the Green Room at Crosstown Arts Tuesday, March 18, at 7:30 p.m., with each band performing their own set before joining together for a third set as Nanocluster.
Yo-Yo Ma (Photo: courtesy Memphis Symphony Orchestra)
It has been said that if a person can count on the fingers of one hand all the musical experiences that transport you to another realm, then you are very lucky indeed. The Memphis Symphony Orchestra’s concert on Tuesday, February 25th, with guest cellist Yo-Yo Ma was just that — a transformative and life-affirming experience.
Playing to a glittering (black-tie optional), excited, sold-out audience, Maestro Robert Moody and his talented Memphis Symphony Orchestra musicians not only rose to the occasion, they uplifted their rapt listeners.
The orchestra opened with John Williams’ “Superman March,” a well known favorite from the movie Superman. What followed was a splendid performance of Death and Transfiguration by the great German composer Richard Strauss. A tone poem, this Opus 24 is surely one of Strauss’ highest achievements. Written for a large orchestra, demanding of every player, the reading by Maestro Moody and our symphony was a triumph in every way. Bravo’s echoed throughout the Cannon Center.
Okay, let’s be real. Yo-Yo Ma was the reason for the sell-out. Rightly so. He is a consummate artist, not only as a musician, but also as a human being. His ability to draw every member of the orchestra, every member of the audience, into his world is nothing short of astounding. The cello concerto by Antonín Dvořák is a masterpiece. The performance by Yo-Yo Ma and the Memphis musicians transported the audience into the heart and mind of a great composer, and told his story.
Then, encore! Yo-Yo loves to spotlight local talent in every place he visits. On this special night he brought to the stage Memphis’ pride and joy – “Lil Buck” Riley, who is known for a style of street dance that orginated in Memphis called “jookin.” Now a world superstar, Lil Buck began his career with Katie Smythe’s New Ballet Ensemble. The treat was a dance interpretation of “The Swan” by Camille Saint-Saëns. Yo-Yo and the cello section accompanied. It was an unbelievably beautiful capstone to a stellar evening of music.
Missy Elliott (Photo: Derek Blanks with crowdMGMT), The Killers (Photo: Chris Phelps), and Anderson .Paak (Photo: Israel Ramos)
With the new year barely begun, many of us are still recovering from holiday indulgences, just trying to get it in gear. Not so for the magical elves at Mempho Presents, who have clearly been working overtime to book yet another stellar spring music lineup.
Following last year’s successful debut, RiverBeat will return to the banks of the Mississippi River this May 2nd through 4th, with Missy Elliott, The Killers, and Anderson .Paak & The Free Nationals headlining this year’s celebration. Other notable acts include Benson Boone, Cage the Elephant, Khruangbin, Ludacris, Public Enemy, and many more.
As is now standard Mempho practice, the lineup is heavy with local Memphis musicians. Producer Lawrence “Boo” Mitchell will be returning this year with Royal Studios Blues Jam featuring Bobby Rush, Duwayne Burside, Garry Burnside, Kent Burnside and Kinney Kimbrough. WYXR will be presenting the Memphis Rap OGz featuring local artists La Chat, Crunchy Black, Al Kapone, Skinny Pimp, DJ Zirk, Gangsta Pat, and DJ Spanish Fly. And the festival’s Sunday Gospel Celebration is also back, featuring local Memphis gospel legends The Wilkins Sisters, The Sensational Barnes Brothers, The Jubilee Hummingbirds, and Elizabeth King.
“RiverBeat is more than just a music festival — it’s a celebration of Memphis’s rich musical heritage and its vibrant future,” Jeff Bransford, Festival Producer at Mempho Presents, noted in a statement. “From blues and soul to rock and hip-hop, we’re looking forward to our second year as we continue to elevate Memphis’ position as a premier destination for live music and cultural experiences.”
The festival has implemented significant improvements for 2025, including two main entry points — the newly optimized North Entrance that puts attendees immediately in the heart of the action, and the Butler Street entrance, designed to enhance Downtown accessibility and support local businesses. The festival grounds will feature the return of a Ferris wheel, family-friendly activities, diverse food vendors, and nightly fireworks displays.
While some of the national acts featured have long employed local musicians, as when local axe man Khari Wynn plays guitar for Public Enemy, many full-fledged local acts will also appear, such as MonoNeon, FreeWorld, Iron Mic Coalition, Lina Beach, Salo Pallini, Black Cream, Joybomb, Jombi, Deaf Revival, the Neckbones, and Asheville-Memphis hybrid band The Hypos.
Three-day general admission tickets go on sale today at a discounted rate of $199 and VIP at $849, including all fees. The daily lineup will be announced in early February along with sales of single-day general admission and VIP tickets. Visit RiverBeat.com for more information.
The new “90 for 90” exhibit at Graceland (Photo: Courtesy Elvis Presley’s Graceland)
The anniversary of Elvis Aaron Presley’s birth, January 8th, has always been a time of reflection and dual meanings, as it also marks the day in 1935 that his twin Jesse Garon was stillborn a half hour before baby Elvis emerged. Yet that’s just one among a host of dramatic moments that punctuated one of the 20th century’s most epic lives. And even after all these years, the exhibits at Elvis Presley’s Graceland have never captured the whole story.
With that in mind, Elvis Presley’s Graceland launched a new exhibit this Wednesday, January 8th, full of never-before-seen gritty objects from a life well lived. Four days of festivities surround the opening of the new yearlong “90 for 90 Exhibit” that celebrates Presley’s life.
The new exhibit features 90 curated “stories” told through items specially selected from the over 1.5 million artifacts housed at the Graceland Archives at Preseley’s home in Memphis. These artifacts, each embodying a unique moment from the singer’s life, range from iconic items easily recognizable by fans to rare, personal pieces that capture Presley’s private moments out of the spotlight.
The earliest known photo of the Presleys (Photo: Courtesy Elvis Presley’s Graceland)
One such artifact, never displayed until now, is the earliest known photo of the Presley family, taken around 1938, cataloged as inventory no. 1 in the Graceland Archives Collection database. This is the original black-and-white photo found inside the family’s steamer trunk. The exact date of the picture is unknown, but Elvis appears to be two or three years old. It’s a gripping slice of life from the earliest days of the young family.
Other artifacts range from the trivial to the profound. Few may realize that Presley’s ’70s passion for racquetball actually led to a business venture, Presley Center Courts, founded in 1976, intended to become a nationwide chain of branded racquetball and spa facilities. Commemorative paddle rackets from that time are included in the exhibit.
So is the original film reel of The Frank Sinatra Timex Show: Welcome Home Elvis television special; a poem, “Why God Made Little Girls,” that Presley treasured; a road case of stage scarves from 1977; and, arguably the most badass of them all, a special pair of nunchucks personalized for “Master Elvis Presley.”
Many of the artifacts in the new exhibit have never been seen on display until now. (Photo: Courtesy Elvis Presley’s Graceland).
This yearlong exhibit will run through December 2025 and can be toured as part of the Elvis Presley’s Memphis entertainment complex. Throughout the coming year, Graceland will unveil additional new exhibits and refresh some existing spaces to enhance the visitor experience, so stay tuned. A full schedule of events going on now is available at Graceland.com/Birthday.
A week later, and the Memphis music community is still reeling from the cold-blooded murder of bassist Blake Rhea. As Bob Mehr reported in the Commercial Appeal last Thursday, the musician was at Louis Connelly’s Bar for Fun Times & Friendship on South Cleveland Street in the early morning hours of Wednesday, November 6th, when he was involved in an argument with another man. That led to the two stepping outside, where security cameras recorded the other man first possibly stabbing, then shooting Rhea point blank in his car before running off. Rhea was pronounced dead on the scene. Later that day, police “arrested and charged 51-year-old Edward Wurl with first degree murder in the shooting.” Wurl was also charged with being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm.
Fox 13 News later reported that two witnesses in the bar claimed that “Wurl and Rhea had both been recently involved in a romantic relationship with the same woman. The witnesses then positively identified Wurl from a six person photo lineup.” WREG News Channel 3 reported that “court records show that Wurl was convicted of burglary and unlawful wounding in 1994.” WREG then quoted bar owner Louis Connolly as saying, “Stories like this are so common that we have become almost numb to them. We are thankful that the violence did not come into the bar. But that doesn’t make this any less heartbreaking, and our thoughts go out to the victim and the victim’s family.”
Since that fateful night, those who knew Blake best having been struggling to pick up the pieces, recalling his easygoing humor, his skill and sensitivity as a musician, and his role as a much-loved teacher at School of Rock Germantown. Having played in such pivotal bands as CYC, American Fiction, John Németh, Lord T & Eloise, The Gamble Brothers Band, Marcella Simien, and, most recently, Southern Avenue, his brilliance had been celebrated for years by fans and fellow musos alike.
Just how many lives Rhea touched will be apparent on Saturday, November 16th, from 4-8 p.m., when Railgarten will host “Blake Rhea’s Encore,” a celebration of his life, featuring performances by bands who were especially close to him, including Jombi, American Fiction, Salo Pallini, and (possibly) “Tierinii, Tikyra, and Ori from Southern Avenue.”
Speaking to the Flyer this Thursday, Southern Avenue’s drummer, Tikyra Jackson, was still trying to get past a feeling of unreality, having toured extensively with Rhea over the past year. “I’m still just taking it in,” she confided. “We spent all year together. It’s so weird, knowing that we’re gonna get back into the vehicle and it won’t be the same vibe.
“He had already toured a lot [in the past], and so he kind of was, like, staying home. He was a teacher. But he came back out on the road for us, because he liked us and he enjoyed what we were doing. So over this past year we were able to create something together. I was able to be a part of his life.”
Asked if there was a special bond, as there so often is, between the drummer and the bassist, Jackson replies, “Yeah. And it’s all on camera too. I have my camera set up by my drum. So when I’m watching this footage, it’s like, you can see that connection between us. And for this latest record that we’ve made, he recorded on half the record. Luther [Dickinson] was on bass on the other half. So yeah, Blake was a great part of what we played. We played the new record before we even went into the studio. We had some shows before the studio session, just to go into the studio more comfortable. So he was a part of the early process of getting from the stage of the writing to actually making it happen, making it happen live.”
In the studio, Jackson notes, Rhea’s contributions were memorable. “He was open to trying different things,” she said, noting that “his touch, his flavors in the music” were memorable. “One of the songs, ‘So Much Love,’ is very iconic to me because of the bassline that he came up with.”
Recalling all this, it was hard for Jackson to go on. “I don’t know, man, even talking to you now, I’m like, I feel like I’m experiencing new emotions and new realizations. But what a beautiful thing to capture his soul on the record, you know. And it’s not like it was 30 years ago. This was him living and breathing just yesterday, you know?”
Jody Stephens sings from the heart, stepping out front during Tuesday's concert. (Photo: Alex Greene)
When Jody Stephens and Chris Stamey put together a new version of Big Star two years ago, the quintet was a new group. And yet the band, which also includes Pat Sansone (Wilco), Jon Auer (Posies), and Mike Mills (R.E.M.), was hardly a bunch of rookies. Indeed, they all were unapologetic fans of that ’70s band that never quite made it, even as it lived on in their hearts and creative minds. And so, when they played WYXR’s Raised By Sound Festival in 2022, it was a revelation and a delight, but no great surprise that they pulled off the tribute to the band’s debut album, #1 Record, with aplomb.
And yet, being a “new” band, they had some rough patches at the time. Mills, battling a cold, was just shy of bringing his A game. The group as a whole still had to work out some details, as evidenced by their grinding to a halt during the bridge of “O My Soul,” only to begin the song again with brilliant results.
Now, two years later, it’s the 50th anniversary of Big Star’s second album, Radio City, and the same quintet is back in the saddle this fall for a series of 10 select dates in the U.S. and Europe. The kickoff show for the tour was at Crosstown Theater this Tuesday, and in the two years since this more stripped-down group formed (compared to the more sprawling bands assembled for the Big Star’s Third concerts a decade ago), they have become even more of a living, breathing unit. While the 2022 show was excellent, Tuesday’s show was jaw-dropping.
It isn’t that the group has grown more precise; rather, they’ve now internalized the material to such a degree that they can loosen up with it. And that is entirely appropriate, given the nature of the album they’re saluting in this round of shows. When it was recorded, Radio City marked the reconfiguration of the band as a trio led by Alex Chilton. Chris Bell, who founded the group, had left in frustration to pursue a solo career. And the album, while intricately crafted and performed, thus reflected Chilton’s greater embrace of the raucous, the chaotic, and the wild. It was nothing like the shambolic masterpieces he would later create as a solo artist, but a bit unhinged nonetheless, and therein lies its charm.
There were still plenty of echoes of Bell’s sensibility in Tuesday’s concert. Indeed, the group kicked off the show with “Feel” and several other chestnuts from #1 Record, the album’s cover projected behind them. A few songs in, the background changed to Radio City, and Stamey quipped, “Something is trying to tell us to move on to the next album.”
And move they did, as they brought some of Big Star’s rowdiest material to life. “That’s just fun to play!” quipped Sansone after they’d ripped through “O My Soul,” this time with no confusion, full steam ahead. After an especially stomping version of “She’s a Mover,” where Stamey seemed to capture a bit of Chilton’s old cutting delivery as he sang, “She name was Marcia, Marcia the name, she look like a dove, now,” the singer exclaimed to the audience, “Can it get any better than that?”
Stamey lit up even more before they launched into “When My Baby’s Beside Me.” As he explained, “This was the first Big Star song I ever heard, and I had to pull my car to the side of the road to hear it. In the Winston-Salem area back then, we thought these songs were hits! They were playing on local radio!” Indeed, each player’s inner fan boy seemed to emerge before our eyes as they conjured up the sounds that had first captivated them as teens.
Pat Sansone, Jon Auer, Mike Mills, Jody Stephens, and Chris Stamey as the Big Star Quintet (Photo: Alex Greene)
The players’ enthusiasm for the material was contagious. And yet it wasn’t all raucous abandon. Several quieter numbers stole the show, including “Way Out West,” “India Song,” and “Thirteen,” where Stephens stepped out from behind the drums to sing. And, from the tender to the tumultuous, the voices of all five players created vocal harmonies of a richness and beauty rarely heard these days.
Not to be outdone, Sansone shone in a solo rendition of “I’m in Love with a Girl” that was so heartfelt, you might have thought he wrote it himself. Auer, too, sang with moving, vulnerable soul on the quiet sections of “Daisy Glaze.” Never did the lyrics “nullify my life” seem so desolate.
Mills, for his part, also shone, especially on a crisp, propulsive “September Gurls.” Before singing it, he thanked Jody for letting him take on the vocal duties, promising him that “the check is in the mail.”
Mills also sang as the band closed their encore with what Mills said was “a rare moment of earnestness from Alex,” the lovingly ambivalent “Thank You Friends.” The group, who made many comments about their admiration for each other, and the joy of working together, may have been singing it to the audience who shared their love for the city’s best loved “unsuccessful” group — or they may have been singing it to one another, now a tight-knit ensemble of El Goodos hell-bent on keeping their favorite music alive.
It’s official: as of its closing moments this past Sunday, Gonerfest 21 has been successfully completed. Now it can drink in the state of Tennessee, the joke goes, and now it has fully embarked on its third decade. And, truth be told, it really did feel like our favorite fest had experienced some kind of growth spurt this year, even if some of its participants chose to go alcohol-free.
See interviews and more from the four-day weekend in this exclusive compilation on the Memphis Flyer YouTube channel.
In fact, the common sentiment seems to be, more than ever, an overwhelmingly head-spinning “What just happened?” Perhaps that vibe was amplified because Sunday, traditionally given over to Gonerfest’s rootsier, less distorted side, was instead dedicated to very much the opposite this year, as Oneida proceeded to forge a new approach to rock music before our eyes.
Taking in all their work as a whole, Oneida excels at musical world-building, blending synth sounds with their chugging rock band foundation in an approach that’s both sonic and harmonic, noise-laden and sing-song. And they bashed out one textured tune after another. “I wanna hold your hand/Between my teeth/I won’t draw blood/Don’t wanna stain the sheets,” as one song went. But it was their finale, “Sheets of Easter,” that really took the audience to a different plane.
Bobby Matador of Oneida (Photo: Tad Lauritzen Wright)
Kicking off with the phrase, “You’ve got to look into the LIGHT,” the song then consists of the band relentlessly, mercilessly repeating the last word, mantra-like, along with a single chord hammered out in eighth notes for approximately 19 minutes. “Light, light, light, light, light…” they sang, though the syllables began to morph after a while. Live stream viewers may have refreshed their connections, thinking the video was glitching. It wasn’t! Naïfs like me, unfamiliar with the song, were bewildered, amused, or offended, not knowing how or when it would end. Was it performance art? An MK-ULTRA-like experiment in which we, the audience, were lab rats? A sophomoric prank? Personally, I went through something not unlike the five stages of grief as I listened, from denial to anger, bargaining, depression, and, finally, acceptance.
It was truly one of the most surreal experiences I have had at any festival. As Zac Ives, co-owner of Goner Records, explains, the “song” is an old favorite by the band. “I don’t know how often they do it now, because it was on a record that they did 20 years ago, but it’s always insane. There’s not really much like it. Some listeners are horrified, and others are like, ‘Thank you for playing this amazing song.’ So yeah, it’s very divisive.”
Yet there weren’t many grumblers after it was done. Everyone, the band included, was too raw from the hypnotic onslaught. Finally, Eric Friedl, Goner’s founder, announced, “This concludes Gonerfest 21! After Oneida there is only light…go out into that light! Thanks to everyone who made this happen, the sound crew, the video crew. We made it through the rain, we made it through the not-rain.” And with that simple summation, the four-day roller coaster ride was over.
Looking back, then, one might well ask, “What just happened?” With too many bands to give every one of them a fair shake, one is left with only the most incendiary moments, burned into one’s brain.
The Pull Chains, a new collaboration between Greg Cartwright, Jesse Smith, Joseph Plunkett, and Eliza Hill, marked a refreshing return to harder rock territory for Cartwright, with echoes of the old Reigning Sound, but with all new material. And, as Cartwright notes, nearly every song was “a full four-way co-write from scratch, and they still seem to resonate with a single storyteller perspective. Such a joy to write songs with good people!”
Okmoniks (Photo: Anton Jackson)
Later that day, Okmoniks singer Helene Grotans was on a tear, perhaps trying to outdo the hurricane with which she shared a name, delighting the crowd with her Category 4 vocals and frenzied-yet-precise work on the Farfisa organ. “I usually play an Acetone,” she quipped, but nonetheless praised the beauty of the onstage instrument provided by Goner with an assist from Graham Winchester. Later, she raved about the Pull Chains, saying, “The Reigning Sound is my favorite band! Well, them and the Mummies!”
Revealing her classical training, Helene of Okmoniks demonstrated deft derrière technique on the Farfisa. (Photo: Alex Greene)
Regarding the opening night’s closer, local muso Jeremy Scott posted on social media that Derv Gordon and So What “killed it, just like they did seven years ago.” While the heavier, almost glam sound of So What contrasts with the old records by The Equals, they supplied solid backing for Gordon’s rich vocals, and, despite any audio issues Gordon encountered, had the crowd bouncing for the whole set.
Derv Gordon and So What (Photo: Alex Greene)
It’s Raining, It’s Streaming Friday was marked by near-constant rainfall, but that did not slow down Gonerfest 21. As Ives notes of the move from the outdoor to the indoor stage, “We were able to deal with the rain really well on Friday, because of the team that we have with us, and GM Jeremy over at Railgarten and his staff. It took a whole lot of work from a bunch of people to be able to make all that stuff happen and pull it all off. And the community that we’re able to bring in, everybody just almost wills this thing to work well, you know? I think we’re really lucky that that it works that way.”
Railgarten, with both an outdoor and an indoor stage, offered a uniquely adaptable venue for such contingencies. And fans could also stay at home, given the reliability of the live streamed video, co-directed by Brent Shrewsbury and Alik Mackintire and executed by a crew of camera operators and other techs.
Availing myself of that option, I found the clarity of the videography and the brilliant online mix to be excellent, especially when running it through big speakers. Surprisingly, Ives himself watched some of the livestream on Sunday.
“I couldn’t be there [due to a mild case of Covid], and I was sort of crestfallen that I couldn’t. But the fact that I could sit there and watch from my quarantined house meant everything. I sent an email to Brent and Alik afterwards saying, ‘You completely saved my day.’ And not only that, that stream is an unbelievable way to watch everything. It is just on a different level now. They’re directing and cutting that stuff real time on a multi-camera shoot. The sound is unbelievable. The video is unbelievable. The real time editing is great. And then all of the in-between stuff that they’ve added in production this year, with Chris McCoy and Ryan [Haley] doing these interviews [see them in this exclusive compilation on the Memphis Flyer YouTube channel], and then taking footage that we’ve collected from the archive over the years and putting that all in, it’s amazing. It was the first time I’ve ever sat at home and watched that way. And I was completely blown away by our team.”
In retrospect, the weather for Gonerfest 21 was perfect. There was just enough bad weather to make comrades of us all, thankful we were spared the worst of it. No doubt the storm’s impact on festival-goers’ own kith and kin in the Carolinas, Georgia, and elsewhere was being felt, but Memphians were largely subject to mere rain (and the odd dead limb crashing down here and there).
L’Afrique, C’est Chic Oneida wasn’t the only act to leave heads spinning. One of the festival’s most unpredictable moments was the triumphant return to Memphis of Niger’s finest Afro-beat groove band, Etran de L’Aïr. When Goner brought them here for the first time last summer, their show at Growlers was the talk of the town for weeks. This time around, they exceeded even those rave reviews.
Etran de L’Aïr (Photo: Anton Jackson)
While the two-guitar, bass, and drum lineup was conventional, the sounds that emerged as they layered cascades of electric notes over galloping rhythms were nigh otherworldly. Something about the weaving guitar arpeggios created a whole greater than the sum of the parts. After a while, the various overlapping overtones created a kind of aural illusion of other sounds, something several listeners commented on. “I thought I heard harmonicas,” exclaimed one friend, and I did too. Most importantly, the sweep of sound and rhythm proved irresistible to the crowd, who collectively threw their hands up after each tune and gave perhaps the weekend’s loudest roars of approval.
With Etran de L’Aïr not being your typical Goner band (is there such a thing?), Ives was relieved to see them win over the crowd. “After seeing them completely destroy that Growlers stage, I was super excited to see what would happen,” he says. “And then when everybody just completely embraced it and was completely into it, it rejuvenated my whole sense of why we do this thing and how great the audience is at Gonerfest. And I had a whole funny conversation with with a friend about that, about how he was not a ‘world music’ fan. Now, he’s open to it. This was the first world music band that he likes.”
Ladies’ Night Without any particular agenda in mind, many festival-goers independently singled out the amazing women in the various Gonerfest bands this year. It was a notable, if low-key, contrast to other festivals’ less diverse lineups. Many raved about Py Py‘s co-vocalist and multi-instrumentalist, Annie-Claude Deschênes, whose magnetic presence drew the crowd under her spell, especially when she had fans hold her mic cable aloft as she made her way from the stage to the bar and back.
Tube Alloys (Photo: Sean Davis)
There was also the charismatic charm of Okmoniks’ Helene, noted above. And one friend raved about “that woman playing the Guild SG [guitar]” in Tube Alloys, an L.A. band named after the U.K.’s secret World War II nuclear weapons development program. Given their mastery of fuzz/crunch, the name is appropriate, fueled by their co-ed lineup.
Meanwhile, Angel Face, Japan’s latest purveyors of classic punk sneer-and-shout riffs, were powered by the unrelenting attack of their female drummer, Reiko. With punk/D.I.Y./indie attitudes seemingly more inclusive than ever, strong women players would appear to be par for the course in today’s Gonerfest universe.
Angel Face (Photo: Sean Davis)
All this barely scratches the surface, of course. In answer to the query, “What just happened?” the best answer is likely, “You had to be there…” And, as Ives notes, right there at Railgarten is likely where Gonerfest will be for the foreseeable future. “We were slightly up in terms of ticket sales this year,” he says, “but there’s not really any room to grow. I think we’re basically at capacity for the space. But that feels like a good spot to be in. We were still able to offer day passes for all three nights. So it didn’t feel like we were leaving anybody out, but it also felt like we were maximizing the space and, you know, maximizing the good feelings from everybody there.”
The traditional Gonerfest “alley photo” was moved to Railgarten this year. (Photo: Sean Davis)
Treadwell students Jerry Williams, Jimmy Hart, and Jerry Lawler at what is now Treadwell Middle School. (Photo: Michael Donahue)
Jimmy Hart has worn many hats during his career, but he prefers one type of jacket. Something from Lansky Bros. in Memphis.
Hart wore jackets from the legendary men’s store over the years as a wrestling manager for Jerry Lawler, Hulk Hogan, and others.
But he wore his first Lansky jacket (along with Beatle boots) when his band, The Gentrys, performed on TV’s Ted Mack & The Original Amateur Hour.
Hart will wear a special Lansky Bros. jacket tonight, September 27th, when The Gentrys are inducted into the Memphis Music Hall of Fame at the Cannon Center for the Performing Arts.
Hart talked about the origin of The Gentrys, whose song “Keep on Dancing” sold a million copies worldwide and rose to number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1965.
“It’s hard to kill a memory,” Hart says.
Born in Jackson, Mississippi, Hart grew up around music. His mother, Sadie Hart, who wrote under the name “Sadie Sallas,” penned “Enclosed, One Broken Heart,” for singer Eddy Arnold in the 1950s.
Col. Tom Parker, Elvis’ manager, also managed Arnold. Parker asked Hart’s mother if Arnold could record it.
Hart was a student at Treadwell High School when he got a call from Larry Raspberry, who told him he was putting a band together and was looking for some singers. “I went over and I auditioned and that’s it.”
The group, which was known at first as The Gents, originally included Raspberry on guitar, Bruce Bowles and Hart on vocals, Larry Wall on drums, Pat Neal on bass, and Bobby Fisher and Jimmy Johnson on keyboards and horns.
They played at sock hops and other gigs for “spending money” at local spots. “Bruce Bowles kind of looked like John Lennon. We had that Beatles effect back then.”
Things began taking off after they met TV/radio personality George Klein at the old Berretta’s BBQ Drive In. Klein, who was host of the local TV show Talent Party, told them record producer Chips Moman was opening a brand-new studio, American Recording Studio, in Memphis. “He said, ‘Look. If you guys want to, Chips will, absolutely free, let you go to the studio and cut a little song. And I’ll put you on Talent Party.’”
Hart and his band mates cut a cover of the Rolling Stones song, “Time is On My Side.” “The next thing you know, everything took off. It was crazy.”
They entered and came in first place in the Mid-South Fair Youth Talent Contest. As the winner, the band got to audition for Ted Mack’s national TV show in Miami, Florida. “We get on the show and he introduces us, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, Memphis, Tennessee’s answer to the Beatles.”
Hart and his band performed “Do You Love Me.” Their Lansky Bros. outfit included jackets with a “little bitty” checkered print and velour lapels and pockets. “We had the little Beatle boots and tight black pants and the turtle neck sweaters.”
And, he says, “Mr. Lansky gave us such a great deal since we were a struggling little group from Treadwell.”
They ended up winning round one of the show, which meant they could compete in round two.
The group returned to Miami and performed on the show. “Guess what? We won again.”
That meant they were eligible to perform on the third show. But in the meantime, the group cut “Keep on Dancing,” which became a “smash hit” after getting airplay on radio stations across the country.
That disqualified them from competing on the third Ted Mack show because they were now professionals. But the band still got to appear on the show.
They didn’t write “Keep on Dancing,” Hart says. It was another band’s song. But, Hart says, “They did it real slow. We just took it and speeded it up.”
Life suddenly changed for Hart and his fellow band members. “We’re in high school with a big hit record.”
They put out three albums on the MGM Records label. Their songs included “Spread It on Thick” and “Everyday I Have To Cry.” And, later on, The Gentrys recorded two chart toppers — “Why Should I Cry” and “Cinnamon Girl” — at Sun Records. “Cinnamon Girl” was written by Neil Young, who will also be at the Memphis Music Hall of Fame ceremony.
“We did tours with The Beach Boys, Chicago, and Steppenwolf, The Grass Roots, and Jerry Lee Lewis.”
They toured with Dick Clark’s “Caravan of Stars” and appeared on TV’s American Bandstand, Hullabaloo, Shindig, and Where the Action Is.
The band was in the 1967 beach movie It’s aBikini World, which starred Deborah Walley and Tommy Kirk.
Hart got into wrestling when Lawler called him and asked him to help him with a “wrestling album” with vocals by Lawler. Hart then spent six years as Lawler’s manager.
His big break, he says, was when former WWE CEO Vince McMahon called him. Hart, who says DJ Ron Olson gave him the nickname “Mouth of the South,” began managing WWE wrestlers and, along with Cyndi Lauper and David Wolff, began writing entrance themes for wrestlers.
Former Memphian and photographer Pat Rainer will introduce The Gentrys at the Memphis Music Hall of Fame ceremony. “Pat Rainer was president of our fan club back then.”
Rainer, who put the fan club together, made sure the members came to their shows and voted for them, Hart says. “Pat Rainer was our secret weapon.”
Describing his Lansky’s jacket for the Memphis Music Hall of Fame ceremony, Hart says, “Lansky made that for me special.”
The jacket is “kind of a grayish blackish color, but it’s got little skulls on it. The inside of the jacket has pictures of my past in there. Me and The Gentrys. Me and Hulk Hogan. Me and Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler. All kinds of different pictures.”
Jerry Williams, founder/owner of Trans Maximus Studios and TMI Records, was the business manager and organizer of another teen band, The Guilloteens, during the time Hart’s band was performing. The Gentrys were “doing rock-and-roll at that time in a very unique way,” Williams says. “Their sound and their playability and their approach was just different.”
Also, he says, “They were all good-looking kids. You knew they were a band. They were built to be a band.”
In addition to being talented, The Gentrys also acted like professionals. “When they got on stage, they were dressed like a band. And it was always neat and they put on a fabulous show.”
A lot led up to The Gentrys receiving the Memphis Music Hall of Fame. “We were just in high school having fun going to class. And all of a sudden we’re playing sock hops around Memphis and then on the road with Dick Clark.”
And now Hart will be on stage in his Lansky Bros. jacket as The Gentrys are inducted into the Memphis Music Hall of Fame. “We’ve been so blessed.”
Neil Young in Oslo, Norway, 2009. (Photo: Per Ole Hagen)
The 2024 Memphis Music Hall of Fame (MMHOF) Induction Ceremony this Friday, September 27th, was already going to be lit. With the likes of garage boppers The Gentrys, soul men supreme James Carr and Wilson Pickett, and hip-hop producer/rapper Jazze Pha being saluted, the music was guaranteed to be stellar.
But at a ceremony of such historical importance, it’s not just about the performances. Simply having the honorees together in the Cannon Center for the Performing Arts is significant, especially if they are expressing their mutual admiration. And it’s in that spirit that Friday night will suddenly be a lot more stellar, as Neil Young has announced that he’ll be there to induct a legendary player he’s worked with for decades: Dewey “Spooner” Lindon Oldham Jr.
Singer, keyboardist, and songwriter Oldham performed with Young at this weekend’s Farm Aid, but his association with the Canadian folk rock innovator goes back much further than that. He played on Young’s celebrated 1992 album Harvest Moon, appeared in the concert film Neil Young: Heart of Gold, and joined Crosby Stills Nash & Young on their 2006 Freedom of Speech tour. He’s also played in two of Young’s occasional touring bands, The Stray Gators and the Prairie Wind Band.
Oldham’s track record, of course, goes way beyond that. Known for his command of the organ and the Wurlitzer electric piano, he recorded in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, at FAME Studios as part of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section in his early years, playing on such legendary tracks as Percy Sledge’s “When a Man Loves a Woman”, Wilson Pickett’s “Mustang Sally,” and Aretha Franklin’s “I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You).” Later Oldham followed Dan Penn to Memphis, working at American Sound Studios as well as in Muscle Shoals, and co-writing hits by the Box Tops, James and Bobby Purify, and Percy Sledge with Penn.
In all, The Memphis Music Hall of Fame will be inducting and honoring nine inductees this year, who will thus expand the Hall of Fame roster to over 100 world-changing Memphis music icons. In addition to Oldham, this year’s inductees include Carr, Pickett, Jazze Pha, and The Gentrys, as well as operatic soprano Kallen Esperian, background singers Rhodes/Chalmers/Rhodes, Memphis Tourism CEO Kevin Kane, and Jack Soden, CEO of Graceland for more than 40 years.
The 2024 Memphis Music Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony will be held Friday, September 27th, at the Cannon Center for the Performing Arts at 7 p.m. Tickets are available at Ticketmaster (ticketmaster.com) and the Cannon Center box office.
