Memphis instrumental researchers The City Champs are back with a spacey new single, “Luna 68.” Organist Al Gamble, guitarist Joe Restivo, and drummer George Sluppick reunited after years as hired guns for folks like St. Paul and the Broken Bones and The Bo-Keys to record a new album, and it’s unlike anything they’ve ever done before.
Filmmaker Andrew Trent Fleming created this far-out video for the song. “I’m incredibly humbled to get to direct a video for The City Champs. I love their music. I met them 10+ years ago as a huge fan, have annoyed them ever since, and will continue to do so. I always like to find a way to invest personally in a song and came up with the idea to contemplate and wrestle with my own perspective on the priorities of an artist, told visually through the paradox we all come to at some point as an artist in this city. This is for you, Memphis.”
Music Video Monday: The City Champs
If you would like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.
Has Monday got you feeling stabby? MVM is here for you.
Memphis pop maniac Brenden Villines is having an incredible year. First of all, he signed with Rockasaurus Records. Then, he appeared on the NBC talent show The Four, and made some big waves. Villines has an uncanny knack for picking a perfect cover song, like he did with Ozzy Ozborne’s “Crazy Train”. His rendition of “Wild Horses” at last year’s Gimme Shelter benefit for homeless charities brought the house down. National audiences got a taste of his interpretive talent with this piano rendition of The Proclaimers “500 Miles.”
Music Video Monday: Brennan Villines (2)
Last week, Villines released the first video from his upcoming EP “Make It Work”. The song is called “Better Than We’ve Ever Been,” and here’s what the artist has to say about it: “I wrote the song in 2016 after participating in a very historic Black Lives Matter march in Memphis, Tennessee, where I’m from. People from all walks of life coming together and insisting that enough is enough in regards to police brutality, racism, homophobia, transphobia, the list goes on. The country was also at the height of division in the wake of the upcoming presidential election. At the end of the day, everything is far from perfect, but we are better going through it together as a people.”
The video is directed by Andrew Trent Fleming and it’s a doozy. In a mood that we can all relate to, our hero struggles to get out of bed in the morning, knowing that he will be faced with a firehose of bad news.
Truth
Then, Villines appears as his new news alter ego Lan Jevinson.
Reporting live, baby!
After jovially running down a pedestrian with a car full of M-town’s finest dancers, Villines then brutally stabs a rando on the street, played by Jacob Wingfield, who doesn’t seem to mind the violence.
The best-natured reaction to a stabbing this reporter has ever witnessed.
Will Winfield survive? Will Villines be brought to justice for his crime spree, or will he lead us all in a joyful singalong? Find out in this dramatic installment of Music Video Monday.
Music Video Monday: Brennan Villines
If you feel up to joining Brennan on Music Video Monday with your own music video, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com
