Today on Music Video Monday, turn on the news.
Memphis Flyer Music Editor Alex Greene has a long and distinguished musical career. As a member of Memphis bands like Big Ass Truck and the Reigning Sound, he has taken our music all over the world. These days, when he’s not hipping you to the best performances and recordings in the Bluff City or touring Europe as a supporting member of The Hellcats, the seminal punk outfit founded by his wife Lorette Velvette, he’s the head of the Rolling Head Orchestra.
“We have a history of Columbus Day shows and recording sessions,” says Greene. “It kind of captures what we’re about, questioning these mythic realities we take for granted, just by presenting them in a slightly skewed light. We actually cut the classic jazz standard ‘Christopher Columbus,’ on the holiday, with a lyrical update inspired by Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States. And on the same day, we cut “Rattle the Cage (Turn on the Tube)”, which portrays the dark side of our online addictions. Though it somehow celebrates that compulsion at the same time. It’s a bit of a paradox.”
This video for “Rattle The Cage (Turn On The Tube),” is the first from the Rolling Head Orchestra’s new album American Elegy, which Greene describes as “an 11-song cycle of national devolution,” is directed by Memphis producer and filmmaker Kim Bledsoe Lloyd. Check it out, and remember to vote on November 6th.
Music Video Monday: Alex Greene and the Rolling Head Orchestra
If you would like to see your music video on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com
