This Friday, April 7 will mark the ascension of yet another venue into the realm of Memphis’ popping live scene. That quiet corner joint on Cooper and Peabody, Bar Keough, jump starts a new era within its walls as it plays host to Brisbane’s Dippers. The band formerly known as Thigh Master is familiar to many Goner Records fans, as the label released their second album, Now For Example, in 2019. Now that back catalog lives on the Dippers Bandcamp page.
It will be a cozy affair, but denizens of spaces like Bar DKDC find that intimacy a positive boon, especially if one’s inclined to tune into the dry Oz-ian wit of singer Matthew Ford’s lyrics, which range effortlessly between Robyn Hitchcock’s surrealism and the Go Betweens’ school of hard knocks lit, all over scrappy guitars.
The latest sounds from Dippers, to be released on Goner this June as the LP Clastic Rock, carry on where Thigh Master left off. Hear their lead single, “Tightening the Tangles,” above. Rolling Stone calls their sound “catchy-as-fuck and perfectly unpretentious guitar pop split by venom-spitting gloom … a face slap of scrappy punk revelry.”
Opening the show, and representing some of the finest in Memphian songwriting, will be Aquarian Blood, also perfect for an intimate listening room, as long as patrons can fit in after the band sets up.