Today on Music Video Monday, we bring you some big rock. Line So Thin’s “Here I Am” has a monumental sound which expresses a very personal sentiment.
“Really for me, ‘Here I Am’ is about the journey of struggle that comes with love and commitment,” says Line So Thin’s Dustin Allen. “Saying, ‘We can make this work, just don’t try and change each other.’ We accept each other for all that we are, the good and the bad, and realizing it was all worth it in the end.”
Blake Heimbach directed the music video, which was produced by his Hotkey Studio. It stars the band, plus MVM frequent flyer Alexis Grace and Ben Abney as a quarreling couple, and Memphis Flyer writer Jon W. Sparks lending gravitas.
If you would like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.
Bluff City indie rockers Daykisser have a new EP called “Dunes.” Produced by Calvin Lauber at Memphis Magnetic Recording, the new songs refine the band’s sound into a shimmery sheen of guitars and Jesse Wilcox’s vocals.
Blake Heimbach directed the music video for “Everything” in a spare style. “Stylistically, I knew I wanted a black-and-white color grade and room lighting that would complement the big choruses,” says Wilcox.
In the room full of lights with Daykisser is Brian Andrews, a professor of architecture at the University of Memphis. We see glimpses of Andrews’ visual impressions of the song, until he finally presents a finished sketch to the band. If your Monday is getting you down, Daykisser will help you soar.
If you would like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.
Twelve Spies is a new Memphis power trio that came together during the last year when songwriter Joel Gillihan found drummer James Wright and bassist David Jacobs. The first single “You Lost It All” highlights their big riff philosophy.
The video was directed by MVM frequent flyer Blake Heimbach at Hotkey Studios. Put on those headphones and get ready to rock.
If you would like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.
Parks David and Taylor Wiliams in "Chocolate Galaxy."
The Hometowner Narrative Shorts competition at Indie Memphis 2021 was one of the most competitive categories in the film festival’s 24-year history. One of the most impressive entries was “Chocolate Galaxy,” an Afrofuturist hip hop opera written by Parks David and Ryan Peel, and directed by Blake Heimbach.
David plays “intergalactic man of mystery” Fuzzy Slippers, who drops in to Sector 9, a spaceport built on the ruins of old Memphis, to attend the Galaxy Ball, the cosmos’ flyest party. There he meets his old friend Melanon (Peel) who plays in the band for space funkster Slick James (also David) and, most promisingly of all, a mysterious woman named The Goddess (Taylor Williams). The film is a tour de force of DIY production design and special effects; one of the most visually creative Memphis films in recent memory. It also helps that the songs by David and Peel are absolute bangers.
Now, the Sector 9 team that produced “Chocolate Galaxy” is rolling it out as a four-part serial, beginning today with part one, which introduces you to the setting and characters with sweet neo-soul grooves. They’ll be featuring new installments over the next month at the Chocolate Galaxy website, and it’s well worth your time to keep up with each new installment.
Strap in: We’re blasting off to Sector 9!
If you would like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.
Bryce Christian Thompson stars as Shah in "The Devil Will Run."
For a person who’s never been a film critic in any real capacity (okay, I thoroughly bashed a couple films while on my college newspaper staff a lifetime ago), I was both eager and anxious to take on the task of covering a snippet of what’s on offer in the Indie Memphis Film Festival.
The selection of eight short films in the Hometowner Narrative Shorts Competition — clocking in around an hour and half total —will close out the festival on Monday, October 25th, at Crosstown Theater. They run the gamut from weird and whimsical to thought-provoking and heart-tugging.
Kayla Myers, Indie Memphis Film Festival programmer, says, “One of the first things that struck Brighid [Wheeler] and I in programming is that almost all of the filmmakers in this bloc are filmmakers whose work we’ve seen before, but it showcases an incredible amount of growth and daring choices.
“I think people will be excited to see this work, especially with them being able to screen in person, since so many of our local filmmakers have only really been screening virtually. The pandemic has been such a trying time for all of us, but there are some bright spots in the fact that this work was created, a lot of it, during the pandemic, and we get to showcase it.”
Here’s a rundown of what to expect.
Director Laura Jean Hocking received the first-ever Indie Memphis Women’s Short Film grant for “Hot Singles.” The film opens with Daisy (Shannon Walton) seeking shelter from an apocalyptic event in a flower shop basement. Alone and unable to get cell service, she begins to unravel as days pass. A glimmer of hope arrives as she sees a flickering bar of signal strength — but there’s just one person she’s able to get through to, and unfortunately it’s not her father.
Jean Jackson directs “The Nest,” a Beats by Dre Black Creators short film, and a five-minute glimpse into the cyclical and mundane life of Byrdie (played at various ages by Chelsea Dargba, Autumn Whetstone, and Sallay Fofanah), who’s trapped in a repetitive loop of daily routines, alone in her room — until one day she chooses to venture outside, ready to embrace all that lies beyond the door.
2019’s Best Hometowner Narrative Short winner Kyle Taubken is back with “In a Bad Way.” The film introduces us to Mike (Keith Johnson) after he’s lost big at the casino. The money was meant for his kids’ Christmas presents, and he has a chance to make it right. Will the gambling addict save Christmas?
In “Beale Street Blues,” director Daniel R. Ferrell explores a world of crooked cops on the streets of Memphis. As an FBI investigation is underway, officer Arthur Breedan (Keith Johnson) enlists his cousin Floyd (Edward Fields) to assist in his ongoing scheme of robbing drug dealers. Though Floyd is hesitant, Breedan pushes, and things go a little too far — potentially bringing the rogue cop one step closer to justice. “Beale Street Blues” was funded by the 2020 Indie Grant for Proof of Concept, which means Ferrell intends to expand it into a feature film.
Joshua Woodcock directs “Main Street,” starring JS Tate, who is homeless and living along Main Street after losing his wife. His lonesome days are spent reading through her old journal pages, collecting change from passersby, and having solo lunches in the park. Until he meets an unexpected friend who, for a time, brings much-needed companionship.
“Chocolate Galaxy” is a futuristic musical journey.
Noah Glenn’s “The Devil Will Run” is a standout among this hometowner selection. Bryce Christian Thompson stars as 7-year-old Shah, who is convinced a hole in his backyard is a portal to hell, and whose brother teases him for it. After a precious and pivotal backyard scene with his best friend Nella (Posie Steinmetz), Shah confronts his fears. “The Devil Will Run” was a 2019 Indie Grant recipient and was co-written by Glenn and IMAKEMADBEATS.
“Chocolate Galaxy” (directed by Blake Heimbach, Ryan Peel, and David Parks) is — and I’m pulling this directly from the Indie Memphis site — “an Afrofuturistic Space Opera.” That’s an apt description for the Black Mirror-esque musical journey that takes Fuzzy Slippers (David Parks) to Sector 9 for a night out, where he meets — and falls for — The Goddess (Taylor Williams). Set design, costumes, and interspersed animation transport the viewer — moonrocks or not.
In “Watch,” directed by Mars Lee McKay, Sarah (Adrienne Lamb) finds an old tube TV on the street while she’s taking out the trash. It mysteriously powers on, and through shifting scenes and static, has a message for her.
The Indie Memphis Hometowner Narrative Shorts Competition films are available for online viewing Oct. 20th-25th and will screen at Crosstown Theater Oct. 25th beginning at 9 p.m., $10.
Najee Strickland stars in Black Fist Series: Short Film Pt. II. (Credit: Cardi Walker)
Najee Strickland’s Black Fist Series: Short Film Pt. II will premiere at a red carpet event June 17th at Fourth Bluff Park between Front and Riverside Drive.
“The Black Fist Series started out as a series of paintings I did based on social issues, propaganda, and things that were noticed or not noticed in the media focusing around Blacks and minorities,” says Strickland, 31. “And it expanded from there.
“I still paint, but I do short films out of that. I do podcasts, talks with individuals about their life living in America.”
He believes the devastating June 3rd, 2015 flood in Ghana didn’t get played up by the media. “Media didn’t say much about it. I don’t know if it’s based on minorities or what, but people who are shades darker are looked down on more than anyone else. That’s just with anything. I just wanted to shed a light on that.”
Strickland is also working on a comic book, to be titled either The Chronicles of the Black Fist or The Untold Stories of the Black Fist.
His first Black Fist film, Black Fist Series: Short Film Pt. 1, which was set to his paintings, was released in 2017. “We did that at the Memphis Slim house. It was just about a dad and his child making it through life. Or just going through life.”
Strickland’s latest film, which he made with an ArtsMemphis grant, is “based on a Black male trying to make it in America and express his individuality and creativity. It’s full of zeitgeist based on the Black inferiority complex.”
Najee Strickland
He got “this inferiority complex idea” from Tom Burrell’s book, Brainwashed: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority. “It’s like the mindset that Black and minorities think they are lower in society, but they’re really not.”
Strickland plays the lead in the movie, directed by Blake Heimbach of HotKey Studios. It opens with Strickland sitting in a classroom, waiting to get his test results from his Emergency Medical Service final exam so he can obtain his license to continue working at his job as a firefighter. He will have to retake the test if he doesn’t get a passing grade. “Then the administrator comes in and sets the results on the table.”
Strickland discovers he failed the exam because he cheated. “I get expelled from the course.”
He goes to his car and “transitions from deep thought to an emotional rage. And it leads him to put two of his fingers up to his head and pulling an imaginary trigger.”
The next scene shows Strickland in deep thought sitting in a chair wearing a bathrobe and socks and watching a stack of television sets. “Some have static on them, some have got something on it.”
But, he says, all of the screens show “different versions of myself.”
Filming Najee Strickland in Black Fist Series: Short Film Pt. II
The film, which incorporates dance, music, and one of his paintings, stars Strickland’s daughter Londyn Emille and Jeanellette Jones a.k.a. Tbj, or Toothbrush Jesus.
This isn’t the final movie in his Black Fist Series, Strickland says. “There’s going to be one more. I just don’t know when I’m going to do it.”
We Saw You
The premiere, which will be between 7 and 10 p.m., will include performances by Tia ‘Songbird” Henderson and francis, the Truman, and an expressionistic dance by Toothbrush Jesus. A donation of any amount is required for admission.
Music Video Monday gives and gives and gives to you people!
Lee Taylor’s bouncy blast “Bens” is all about that feeling that you’re giving more than you’re getting. Recorded live at the HiFi Loft in 2019, this song about a draining relationship will refill your energy reserves. The Blake Heimbach-directed video was shot by Jared Cullen and produced on location in Memphis by WAFilms. Big shout out to the 80’s Backlit Sax Guy!
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If you would like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.
Chris Pietrangelo, Patrick Pietrangelo, Alessio Mauro, aka Fingertrick, are not feeling themselves in director Blake Heimbach’s video for “All Dawgs Go To Heaven.” Will experimental psycho-medical intervention from a sexy nurse save these young rockers, stricken with insanity before their time? Watch this slick clip to find out!
Music Video Monday: Fingertrick
If you’d like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com
We’ve got our second world premiere in a row for today’s Music Video Monday!
Memphis band with Bravado recently recorded their EP “Silent Film” with Cody Landers at Young Avenue Sound. Guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Julian Stanz, bassist Kayla Stanz, drummer Tom Hale, and guitarist CJ work a classic alternative/grunge vibe with lead single “We’re All Alone Together”. The video, which features some arresting images, a little bomb throwing, and a sweet Gibson Thunderbird, was directed by Hot Key Studios’ Blake Heimbach. Here it is, a world premiere to help you rock away your post-Super Bowl hangover!
Music Video Monday: with Bravado
If you would like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com
Today’s Music Video Monday is for all you folks out there who are keeping it together.
Porcelan has been performing most of her young life. She recently signed with Memphis music legend David Porter’s Made In Memphis Entertainment, catapulting her to the largest stages of her career. The theme of love and strength overcoming fear is prominent in her first video, “Real Thing Don’t Change”.
The video was produced by Hotkey Studios and Pigeon Roost Collaborative: Directed by Blake Heimbach, shot by John Paul Clark, with assistance from Jordan Danelz, Morgan Jon Fox, Aaron Baggett, and others. The result is one of the best looking videos we’ve had on MVM this year. Take a look:
