Faux Killas’ new video is just the rocket fuel you need to launch you out of the COVID blues. The giddy “Space Force” is a punky blast of chant-along lyrics and anti-grav beats. The video sees our plucky heroes fly to another world on a mission of conquest, only to go native for the promise of cheap astro-beer and cosmic craps. Will our cosmo-rock-nauts survive the first mission of the Space Force? Watch this to find out!
Music Video Monday: Faux Killas
If you would like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.
It was so like a dream. “We were in the old house. You were there, and you, and you…And we saw this door we’d never seen, so we opened it — and found a whole other room, that had been there under our noses all these years!”
Except it wasn’t a dream. It was only yesterday and I was getting a tour from Laurel Cannito, who, along with Chuck ‘Vicious’ Wenzler, took over the Lamplighter Lounge last year after longtime owner Ann Bradley decided to retire. Looking a little mischievous, Cannito motioned me to a door I’d never seen and threw it open. And there it was: the Secret Room.
“It’s like Harry Potter, isn’t it?” she said, looking rather proud of her bar and the team that helps her run the place. “The room’s always been here, but we haven’t always been connected. This used to be a TV repair shop in the 60s. And then it was a bookstore. And then it was a ball point pen repair place. We’ve always said, ‘Oh, wouldn’t that be neat to turn into a venue space?’ So, we recently acquired it. We have great landlords. They worked with us to help get it attached and everything. Then we did a lot of the construction work after we put it onto our lease.”
Justin Fox Burks
Thomas pours a PBR
The Lamplighter Lounge, of course, is the long-adored dive on Madison Avenue that some say is the the oldest bar in Memphis. Despite the smallish space of the original lounge, the new owners removed the pool table last year and began hosting bands with increasing frequency. The vibe was always great, but it could get a bit cramped.
Now, the Secret Room more than doubles the size of the place. Entering from a door on the south end of the bar, you see an unassuming functional space that (gasp!) even includes a green room for the bands. What’s more, the new room marks the return of the beloved pool table. Cannito is happy to have it back. “Miss Anne sold the pool table before we bought the place, so we didn’t choose to get rid of it,” she says, now visibly relieved at its return.
In addition to some few finishing touches like stringing lights, she’ll outfit the new room with more bar-like amenities soon. “The original jukebox is still here by the bar, and we got that working again. But there on left is a new old jukebox that we are gonna get working for the Secret Room. Yep, double jukebox. You just need a jukebox in every room. That door over there is the customer door. And this door behind the bar is gonna be split in half and have a bar top on it so we can sling drinks from there.”
Aside from such touches, the Secret Room will remain fairly sparse. “It’ll be a little bare bones. It’ll be not so much a raw space, but a malleable space. I like performance art. I would love to have more of that, like performance art and puppetry and dancing, or even the aerial stuff that’s been around. Next month, we’re doing a pop-up boutique every Sunday, because me and some friends have a bunch of clothes that we’re trying to get out into the world. Stuff that’s really nice, but it’s just not our style anymore. And then, I have some friends in Asheville who are part of a professional circus. I could get them here at some point. It just expands our ability to help encourage creativity around town, give it a space,” says Cannito.
And of course there will be music. “We already have music of all kinds, like the old time string band, soul bands, rock bands of all kinds, and rap and DJs and 80s nights. It’s so nice. I want this to be the kind of space where every kind of music can find a place. And having the Secret Room is going to be really good for that. I think it’ll bring even more types of music and even more bands. Because not everybody wants to set up in the small room and just play for people who drink. It’ll help a lot with the intentionality of it.”
To that end, the Secret Room will be having its inaugural show this weekend, Saturday, July 13th, featuring some of Midtown’s favorites: Louise Page, Faux Killas and Rosey. Remarked Cannito of the latter band, “They’re so, so good. When they finish a song, there’s just a silence as the audience tries to process what they’ve just heard.”
Discover the Secret Room this Saturday, to see and hear it for yourself.
The Secret Room at the Lamplighter: Grand Opening On Saturday
To create their video for the Faux Killas’ “Do What You Gotta Do” video, Jason Leigh and Reed Mitchell decided to go back to the future and shoot on 16mm film. Compared to digital video, film is a complex and uncertain process, but the results Leigh and Mitchell get with both color, as when they’re shooting dancer Ashley Volner, and black and white, as when they’re shooting Jeremiah Jones, Jason Rice, Sam Shansky, and fresh Faux Killa Seth Moody, are spectacular.
Leigh and Mitchell are members of The Artist Commons, a new grassroots arts organization whose goal it is to help “ignite local creative minds”. Faux Killas’ latest album Chiquita is available on Bandcamp, Spotify, Amazon, and Apple Music.
Music Video Monday: Faux Killas
If you would like to see your music video on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com
This year’s release is quite a detour from this Memphis native’s 2017 effort, with his band the Marvels (his usual rhythm section plus Bill Frisell on guitar and Greg Leisz on pedal steel and dobro) joined by singer/songwriter Lucinda Williams for half the album. The end result is an unpredictable mash-up of Americana and jazz, even when Lloyd and band are recasting Williams’ earlier songs in a new light, by turns skronky and ethereal. Her ragged-but-right delivery is a perfect foil to the more urbane harmonic weave of the combo.
Released June 29th.
The Maguire Twins
Seeking Higher Ground (Three Tree)
Though these gifted siblings grew up in Hong Kong, this album owes a great deal to Memphis. Moving here at 15, the twins first studied jazz at the Stax Music Academy and then at UT-Knoxville under Memphis native Donald Brown. The renowned pianist helped the two blossom into a drum and bass team that is almost telepathic. This debut, produced by Brown, also features him playing Fender Rhodes on one song, and the classic horn-driven sound they create tacks between arranged heads and slightly unhinged workouts that nod to classic ’60s and ’70s jazz, balancing soul and innovation perfectly.
The Klitz
Rocking the Memphis Underground 1978-1980 (Mono-Tone)
These women ricochet from euphoric chants and original shouters, to a druggy “Brown Sugar.” Yes, Jim Dickinson and Alex Chilton appear (the latter singing “Cocaine Blues”), but it’s the band’s courage in stomping out these numbers themselves, professionalism be damned, that makes this album great.
Fuck
The Band (Vampire Blues)
Carrying on the scatological band-name torch, we have this posse, originally from Oakland, now with two members living in Memphis. The onetime Matador darlings redefined a pop-friendly, yet deeply weird sensibility in their ’90s and ‘oughts releases, with loose, intimate singing paired with a flair for unique indie rock textures. Though their performances are few and far between these days, they’ve surprised everyone with what may be their best album. Released June 22nd.
Faux Killas
Chiquita (Self Released)
Mainstays in the local club scene for years, this group only recently morphed from a trio to a quartet, adding Seth Moody on synth. It’s a game-changer, as the band now has twice the hooks. Like some Mid-South cross between early Roxy Music and the Damned, the songs are well-crafted and melodic (as with the soaring pop of “Anxious Love”), yet feature tasteful atonal synth squeals and counterpoints along with more familiar, if electrifying, guitar riffs and leads. While the production is somewhat muted, it does give the album a homespun vibe that befits these straight-up Midtown boho rockers.
Revenge Body/Ihcilon
New Rituals for New Superstitions (Self Released) How to classify this split/collaboration between two sonic explorers of the Memphis scene? The term “ambient” has been oversold as a catch-all for mellow, mid-tempo techno beats, but this album ignores all that. Both artists deal in new textures for a post-industrial world. Hearty analog sounds avoid the cloying familiarity of much retro synth music today, but beware that the results can be unsettling. Revenge Body’s “Panic Dream” is just that, achieved, like many of the best sounds here, with a fine appreciation of noise textures rather than pounding beats.
We’re just here to let you know Music Video Monday loves you.
Let Faux Killas ease the pain of your Monday. Jeremiah, Jason, Sam, and Seth don suits to woo “SLS” in this dreamy video. They’ve got a new album out, called Chiquita, that you can get acquainted with via Bandcamp.
Music Video Monday: Faux Killas
If you would like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.
2016 was a good year for music videos by Memphis artists, musicians and filmmakers alike. I resist making a ranked list of movies in my year-end wrap up, but I know the crowd demands them, so every year I indulge my nerdery by ranking the music videos that have appeared in the Flyer’s Music Video Monday blog series. Since I sometimes go back into the vault for MVM posts, this competition is limited to videos that were uploaded since my Top Ten of 2015 post. (This proved to be a source of disappointment, since Breezy Lucia’s brilliant video for Julien Baker’s “Something” was in the top five until I discovered it had been uploaded in 2014). Last year, I did a top ten. This year, there were so many good videos, I decided to do a top 20.
Eileen Townsend in Caleb Sweazy’s ‘Bluebird Wings’
A good music video creates a synergy between the music and the action on the screen. It doesn’t have to have a story, but arresting images, fascinating motion through the frame, and meticulous editing are musts. I watched all of the videos and assigned them scores on both quality of video and quality of song. This was brought the cream to the top, but my scoring system proved to be inadequately granular when I discovered seven videos tied for first place, five tied for second, and three tied for third, forcing me to apply a series of arbitrary and increasingly silly criteria until I had an order I could live with. So if you’re looking for objectivity, you won’t find it here. As they say, it’s an honor to just be on the list.
20. Light Beam Rider – “A Place To Sleep Among The Creeps” Director: Nathan Ross Murphy
Leah Beth Bolton-Wingfield, Jacob Wingfield have to get past goulish doorman Donald Myers in this Halloween party nightmare. Outstanding production design breaks this video onto the list.
Top 20 Memphis Music Videos of 2016 (Part 1)
19. Richard James – “Children Of The Dust”
Director: George Hancock
The Special Rider got trippy with this sparkling slap of psilocybin shimmer.
Top 20 Memphis Music Videos of 2016 (Part 1) (2)
18. Preauxx “Humble Hustle”
Director: FaceICU
Preauxx is torn between angels and his demons in this banger.
Top 20 Memphis Music Videos of 2016 (Part 1) (4)
17. Faux Killas “Give It To Me”
Director: Moe Nunley
Let’s face it. We’re all suckers for stop motion animation featuring foul mouthed toys. But it’s the high energy thrashy workout of a song that elevates this one.
Top 20 Memphis Music Videos of 2016 (Part 1) (3)
16. Caleb Sweazy “Bluebird Wings”
Director: Melissa Anderson Sweazy
Actress (and former Flyer writer) Eileen Townsend steals the show as a noir femme fatale beset by second thoughts.
Top 20 Memphis Music Videos of 2016 (Part 1) (5)
15. Matt Lucas “East Side Nights/Home” Director: Rahimhotep Ishakarah
The two halves of this video couldn’t be more different, but somehow it all fits together. I liked this video a lot better when I revisited it than when I first posted a few months ago, so this one’s a grower.
Top 20 Memphis Music Videos of 2016 (Part 1) (6)
14. Dead Soldiers ft. Hooten Hollers “16 Tons” Directors: Michael Jasud & Sam Shansky
There’s nothing fancy in this video, just some stark monochrome of the two combined bands belting out the Tennessee Ernie Ford classic. But it’s just what the song needs. This is the perfect example of how simplicity is often a virtue for music videos.
Top 20 Memphis Music Videos of 2016 (Part 1) (7)
13. Angry Angles “Things Are Moving”
Director: 9ris 9ris
New Orleans-based video artist 9ris 9ris created abstract colorscapes with vintage video equipment for this updated Goner re-release of Jay Reatard’s early-century collaboration with rocker/model/DJ Alix Brown and Destruction Unit’s Ryan Rousseau.
Top 20 Memphis Music Videos of 2016 (Part 1) (8)
12. Chris Milam “Tell Me Something I Don’t Know” Director:Chris Milam
Milam and Ben Siler riffed on D.A. Pennebaker and Bob Dylan’s groundbreaking promo clip for “Subterranean Homesick Blues”, and the results are alternately moving and hilarious.
Top 20 Memphis Music Videos of 2016 (Part 1) (9)
11. Deering & Down “Spaced Out Like An Astronaut” Director: Lahna Deering
In a departure for the Memphis by way of Alaska folk rockers, the golden voiced Deering lets guitarist Down take the lead while she put on the Major Tom helmet and created this otherworldly video.
Midtown punks Faux Killas dropped their new album Time in Betweenon July 26. Director Moe Nunley kicks off his video for the explosive first single “Give It To Me” with a little stop motion drama between sassy Bratz and hopeless Muppets. But even with the added plot, the whole thing clocks in at a spiffy 3:16, giving you a bite size chunk of punk sugar to kick off your week.
Music Video Monday: Faux Killas
We’re always looking for new Memphis-connected videos for Music Video Monday, so submit your favorites to 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.
Unknown Hinson plays the Hi-Tone Cafe on Saturday, June 13th.
We have made it to the 20th Weekend Roundup! All of the blood, sweat, and tears that get put into this ongoing blog post have hopefully turned you on to tons of new music, and to celebrate I think I’ll do more damage to my ears by checking out as many of these shows as possible.
Friday, June 12th.
Reverend Horton Heat, Whiskey Shivers, Necromantix, 7 p.m. at The Hi-Tone, $20.
Justin Fox Burks 
