Today’s Music Video Monday takes its protein pills and puts its helmet on.
Memphis by way of Alaska duo Deering and Down are Music Video Monday veterans. We’re glad the prolific songwriters are equally prolific music video makers. This clip for Rev. Neil Down’s song “Spaced Out Like An Astronaut” was shot by Lanha Deering, Rev. Down, Memphis super-producer Doug Easley, and Sam Shansky, all on their iPhones. Deering then cut the footage together into a blissed-out trip by a couple of barely earthbound astral travelers.
Music Video Monday: Deering and Down
If you’d like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com
Deering and Down — Know Rhyme Know Reason (BAA Music Group)
The long-standing duo known as Deering and Down have been teasing a new album to their fan base for quite some time. The initial announcement came over a year ago in the form of a music video directed by Matteo Servente for the dreamy song “You’re the One.” After a few months, a second video appeared on YouTube, this time for the song “River City.” Then, in December, a video for “Pick a Knee” was released.
Finally, a year later, Deering and Down’s latest album, Know Rhyme Know Reason, is out. Sort of. Lahna Deering and Neil Down played the Galloway House last weekend and made 100 limited-edition CDs for everyone in attendance. The show marked the end of the “soft-release” schedule planned for the album by BAA Music Group, which gets its official release in August.
Recorded by Doug Easley, Know Rhyme Know Reason is Deering and Down’s boldest statement yet. Dave Shouse (the Grifters, Man Control) is featured as a special guest on the song “We Took a Walk,” adding just the right amount of weird to Deering and Down’s brand of spacey indie rock.
The three songs that got the music video treatment are definitely the highlights of Know Rhyme Know Reason, but the record still has some gems on it, specifically the tracks “Spaced out Like an Astronaut” and “Honey if I Ring You.” If you missed out on the release show at the Galloway House, word is that the band will have a release show at Bar DKDC on Thursday, August 4th.
Recommended Song: “We Took a Walk”
Mister Adams — To Drift Is Human
(self-released)
Adam Holton and company might not have set out to record a summer album of the contemporary-rock persuasion, but that’s what we get from ToDrift Is Human, the first full length from his band Mister Adams. To Drift Is Human features 10 songs of carefree contemporary rock that would make as much sense live on Beale Street as it would in Otherlands.
The vocals on ToDrift Is Human are reminiscent of Dave Matthews, but the Memphis twang in the guitars assure the listener that this record was, in fact, created in the Bluff City. Holton’s main lyrical focus is love, but the song titles “Everyday Love,” “Lovin’ Hand,” and “Let Yourself Love Again” don’t exactly fit with the melancholy, borderline existential title for the band’s debut.
Despite it being their first album, Mister Adams has definitely found a groove that they’re comfortable with, and while To Drift Is Human won’t present the listener with anything they haven’t heard before, it’s the perfect album for front porch beer drinking or a weekend trip out of town. See what Mister Adams is all about when they play a record release show at Wiseacre on Saturday, July 16th.
Recommended Song: “Lovin’ Hand”
Faux Killas — Time in Between (self-released)
Faux Killas are self-described as a punk/R&B/soul band, but they have more in common with Mister Adams then they do, say, the Oblivians. Album opener “Amazing” almost seems like a fake-out track and sounds something like early U2 put through a modern indie-rock filter. Things only get weirder from there. Track two is more of a straight-up rocker than “Amazing,” and features the falsetto vocals of singer Jeremiah Jones.
Track three, “Love Life,” features more falsetto from Jones, and you can bet that he probably had a Darkness CD rolling around his car at some point in his life. Shortly after recovering from the weirdness of the title track, comes the song “Shimmer,” a full-force burner with gravelly vocals and a simple but immediately recognizable Memphis garage-rock riff. Now we’re getting somewhere. The rest of Time in Between flits between the two types of songs introduced at the start of the album. There are equal parts memorable and “what the hell” moments on this 11-track album, but the song “Maurice” seems to reveal the true spirit that Faux Killas and Jeremiah Jones can conjure, and is without a doubt the album highlight.
On Time in Between, Faux Killas show the promise of a new-ish band that’s starting to find their sound. There are still a few kinks to be worked out, but that could be the biggest asset the band has going forward.
For our final Music Video Monday of 2015, I’m counting down the ten best videos of a fantastic year of collaboration between Memphis filmmakers and musicians.
I’m not usually one for lists, but hey, it’s the end of the year, so why not? This Top Ten list has13 entries, which just shows you how bad I am at this whole list thing. So here it is, the best Memphis music videos of 2015, arbitrarily chosen and ranked by me:
As with most things created by the time-travelling aristocrunks, this clip will have you asking where parody ends and actual decadence begins. Then you just won’t care.
For his latest entry in his solo project Vending Machine, Robby Grant enlisted some of the best directors in Memphis to create music videos. The best of the bunch, and the best Memphis music video of 2015, is this clip created by G. B. Shannon, with cinematographic help from Ryan Earl Parker and Edward Valibus, and ace editing by Ben Rednour.
Deering and Down recently released their second single from their upcoming album recorded at Easley McCain studios. Directed by the band, the video for “River City” features tons of downtown and midtown shots of Memphis, in between clips of singer Lahna Deering dancing and singing in the rain. According to the band’s record label, BAA Records, The release date for Deering and Down’s 8th studio album has been pushed back to early next year, so enjoy this video while you wait.
This weekend, September 3-6, marks the ninth installment of the music festival, which benefits the Church Health Center. 29 fine examples of Memphis music will play at Crosstown and Overton Square, including Jack Oblivian, Nots, Mancontrol Stephen Chopek, Mark Edgar Stuart, Hope Clayburn, and the North Mississippi Allstars. You can see the full lineup here.
Folk rockers Deering and Down will play Saturday night at Lafayette’s. The dreamy video for “You’re The One” was directed by Matteo Servente. It makes extensive use of projection mapping, a relatively new technique for manipulating video to conform to—or often distort—the surfaces onto which it is projected. The projection mapping used here, which doubles as lighting for Lanna Deering’s ethereal performance, was created by Christopher Reyes.
Music Video Monday: Deering and Down
If you would like to see your video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com. We’ll see you at Rock For Love!
Mary Owen’s plays Otherlands on Saturday, July 25th
Welcome to the 26th edition of my Weekend Roundup! Beat the heat with one (or all) of these great local shows this weekend. From hardcore punk to folk rock, there’s something for everyone on this list, including a massive benefit show at the Buccaneer on Saturday night.
Friday, July 24th.
Jason Lee McKinney Band, 7:30 p.m. at the Levitt Shell, free.
Weekend Roundup 26: Mary Owens, The Sheiks, Hope Clayburn (3)
Chaos Order, Concrete, Lowered AD, 8 p.m. at the Hi-Tone, $5.
Weekend Roundup 26: Mary Owens, The Sheiks, Hope Clayburn (4)
Ben Callicott, Jack Moran, Will Tucker, 8:30 p.m. at Otherlands , $8.
Zigadoo Moneyclips, The Band of Ooo, Other Stories, The Aquaducks, 9 p.m. at Found Studio, $5.
Maitre D’s, 10 p.m. at Bar DKDC, $5.
American Fiction, 10 p.m. at Lafayette’s Music Room.
Saturday, July 25th.
Light up the Night, 6 p.m. at the Hi-Tone, $5.
Brad Boswell Benefit featuring Dave Cousar, Deering and Down, Detective Bureau, Marcella & Her Lovers, Devil Train, the Sheiks, Jack Oblivian, Richard James, and Midnight Fistfight, 6 p.m. at The Buccaneer, $10.
Weekend Roundup 26: Mary Owens, The Sheiks, Hope Clayburn (2)
Samantha Martin and Delta Sugar, 7:30 p.m. at the Levitt Shell, free.
Air Supply, 8 p.m. at the Horseshoe Casino, prices vary.
Mary Owens, Lauren Moscato, Jeffrey Jordan, Kris Acklen, 8:30 p.m. at Otherlands, $8.
Weekend Roundup 26: Mary Owens, The Sheiks, Hope Clayburn
Magnolia Sons, 10 p.m. at Lafayette’s Music Room.
Hope Clayburn and the Soul Scrimmage, 10 p.m. at The Cove.
Weekend Roundup 26: Mary Owens, The Sheiks, Hope Clayburn (5)
Sunday, July 26th. Charlie and the Foxtrots, 4 p.m. at Lafayette’s Music Room.
Toad The Wet Sprocket, 7 p.m. at Minglewood Hall, prices vary.
Mark Edgar Stuart, 7:30 p.m. at the Levitt Shell, free.
Weekend Roundup 26: Mary Owens, The Sheiks, Hope Clayburn (6)
The Mississippi roots-rock wizard Jimbo Mathus released Blue Healer earlier this spring on Fat Possum Records. Co-produced by Mathus and Bruce Watson, Blue Healer was recorded at Dial Back Sound in Water Valley, Mississippi, an all-analog “recording palace” that the duo found to be the perfect place to explore Mathus’ blend of old-school tones and kinetic energy. The title Blue Healer (not to be confused with a breed of cattle dog with a similar name) refers to a character that Mathus dreams up on the title track, a comforting female presence that provides the album’s protagonist with the “healing” that he needs. Mathus isn’t exactly reinventing his sound with Blue Healer, but with so many good psychedelic roots-rock songs on one album, he really doesn’t need to.
Favorite Track: “Shoot Out the Lights”
For Fans of: Squirrel Nut Zippers, King Louie and the Loose Diamonds
Nights Like These — Old Youth Culture (self-released)
Metal band Nights Like These returned to the studio earlier this year to crank out Old Youth Culture, their first full-length album without the help (and financial backing) of Chicago’s Victory Records. To celebrate the release of Old Youth Culture, the band held a show last weekend at the Hi-Tone, where aging metal fans lived up to the title of the album by slamming into one another for nearly the entire show. Old Youth Culture is the first of the three full-length albums by Nights Like These to fully capture how powerful the band is live, meaning the recording is raw, loud, and unrelenting. Front man Billy Bottom’s howl is still intact, and the evolved songwriting on Old Youth Culture is evidence that the band’s equipment wasn’t just collecting dust while they went on hiatus for five years.
Favorite Track: “None More Hated” For Fans of: Cursed, Converge, Coliseum
Bag Head — Self Titled Demo (self-released)
File under most likely to be criminally underlooked. I can’t imagine that the punk scene in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, is teeming with amazing young talent, but that didn’t stop Bag Head from releasing one of the best punk tapes of the year. The information available on Bag Head is limited, but the small online presence they have claims that the group features four young adults who consider themselves to be “Hattiesburg’s most hated.” If this group of miscreants ever gets tired of kicking up dust in Forrest County, they’d fit in nicely with what’s going on in the more aggressive scenes of Memphis music. With just about every song clocking in at under a minute, Bag Head’s first offering of noise is sure to please even the shortest of attention spans.
Favorite Track: “Pity”
For Fans of: The FU’s, Gang Green,Belching Penguin
Modern Convenience — F*ck with Fire(PVX Hex Records)
Modern Convenience has been the creative project of Mikey Bibbs for quite some time, and the Memphis native played local dive bars constantly before moving to Nashville and re-forming the band. The album’s artwork (designed by Mac Blackout) seems to be an homage to Bibbs’ time spent playing the Midtown dive-bar circuit, as his head is literally exploding out of the Madison Avenue pavement and a corner of the Memphis music venue Murphy’s is visibly present. On F*ck with Fire, Bibbs seems to be trying out the sound he mastered in Memphis on a new rhythm section, and the result is some of the tightest Modern Convenience recordings to date.
Favorite Track: “Gaga”
For Fans of: Antique Curtains, Lost Sounds,The Daily Void
Deering and Down — “You’re the One”(BAA Records)
Deering and Down released “You’re the One,” last month, with the announcement that the track was the lead-off single to their eighth studio album. Opting to record at Easley McCain studios instead of Willie Mitchell’s Royal Studio (where the band recorded their last album, Out There Somewhere), “You’re the One” is an esoteric love song that sits somewhere between dream pop, modern soul, and what Deering and Down call “sexy music.” The new album from Deering and Down is set to be released “later in 2015,” but pay attention for song announcements in the form of music videos coming throughout the summer and fall.
For Fans of: Julee Cruise, Lana Del Ray
SVU — Self-Titled (self-released)
Special Victims Unit is the project of Tyler and Ivy Miller, two prominent members of the street punk scene in Memphis and the driving force behind the Memphis Punk Rock Festival, which recently concluded its third year. SVU belong to a different faction of the “Memphis punk scene,” one where bands like the Gloryholes and Banned Anthem are favored over the garage rock bands that make up the more accessible “Goner scene.” The separation between the two microcosms of Memphis music definitely exists, even if the bands that make up the different scenes aren’t that far removed from one another.
On their Self-Titled album(released in March of this year), SVU display an ability to switch between pop-punk and ska leanings into full-on hardcore, with vocalist Ivy Miller doing something different with her voice on almost every song. The 10-song, Self-Titled debut from SVU is a good introduction to another side of Memphis punk rock, and the band will stay busy this summer playing multiple shows (including an appearance at Creepy Fest in New Orleans) and writing a new EP.
Favorite Track: “Supermarket Fantasy”
For Fans of: Assorted Jellybeans, Screeching Weasel, NOFX
I took a break from my Weekend Roundup series last week because I was knee deep in Beale Street Music Fest coverage, but the Roundup is back this week with a vengeance. There will be over 60 bands playing downtown this weekend, but you already knew that. Here are some other shows to check out east of Tom Lee Park.
Friday, May 1st.
Tyler Keith, 6 p.m. at Goner Records, free.
