Today, Goner Records announced the initial lineup for Gonerfest 21, which will take place at Railgarten this September 26th – 29th. Once again the Goner team have managed to craft a roster that’s both historically rich and cutting edge, drawing on bands, MCs, and DJs from around the world.
The festival has always had an international bent, and this year is no different, with performances by African desert blues collective Etran de L’air, Japanese garage punks Angel Face, and Kiwi psyche rockers Bailter Space on the slate, not to mention a reliable Australian contingent, including Split System, Gee Tee, Michael Beach and RFMC.
But the most stellar international artist would have to be Derv Gordon, front man for Swinging London’s now legendary outfit The Equals, back in the ’60s and ’70s, now performing those songs and more with the Bay Area’s So What. The band promises to offer “stompers, hand clappers, and all the riffs that matter” on their Facebook page, and indeed they do, especially when paired with Gordon.
After the young/old outfit’s incendiary appearance at Gonerfest 14 in 2017, The Memphis Flyer wrote:
“So What did a fine job of staying true to the old Equals arrangements, harmonies and all, but with a bigger, louder sound courtesy of Jason Duncan’s Gibson SG through a Marshall. Derv’s voice was in fine shape, from crooning to belting to singalong mode. Most of your favorite Equals tunes were revived and given a new jumpstart by So What: ‘Diversion,’ ‘Police on my Back,’ ‘Michael and his Slipper Tree.’ Of the latter, Derv confessed that it was originally written as a ‘nutmeg tree,’ until Derv himself made the more enigmatic lyrical change. The crowd was revved up, joining the band in nearly every chorus of every song, not satisfied until the encore brought the house down. Clearly Memphis is Equals territory.”
The Rip Offs, also headlining, attained a legendary status of their own in the ’90s with a unique approach sometimes dubbed “budget rock.” Garage rock legends Jon Spencer and the Cheater Slicks were also announced today. Here’s the complete list so far:
The Rip Offs, Derv Gordon and So What, Etran de L’air, Angel Face, Gee Tee, Jon Spencer, Split System, Cheater Slicks, Schitzophonics, Bailter Space, Michael Beach, Ryan Davis & the Roadhouse Band, Pull Chains, Tube Alloys, Sleeveens, Th’ Losin Streaks, Sex Mex, RMFC, Feeling Figures.
Goner Records, often tagged as the premier punk presence in the Bluff City, is actually all that and more, and their recent show bookings have included music that’s decidedly not punk, yet nevertheless decidedly out there. That is to say, artists that are beyond category, and that’s about all one can say about artists like Tatsuya Nakatani, Jack Wright’s Wrest, Quintron’s Weather Warlock, or even the ostensibly Afrobeat Etran de L’Aïr: All of them defy categorization.
This Friday, February 23rd, Goner presents another artist who fits that description, the irrepressibly inventive drummer Chris Corsano. Gonerfest fans may recall that he performed with no wave/noise guitarist Bill Orcutt last year, but that only scratches the surface of Corsano’s creativity. “Jazz” fans may also know him from a release on our region’s premier free improv-friendly label, Mahakala Music in Hot Springs, who brought Corsano together with two other luminaries from the New York improvisation scene, trombonist Steve Swell and tenor saxophonist Joe McPhee, on the 2022 album Sometimes the Air Is.
He’s also worked with Tennessee’s free jazz luminary Zoh Amba, several “rock” artists (Sir Richard Bishop, Thurston Moore, Jim O’Rourke), not to mention Björk on her Volta album and world tour. And while those are just a few of the artists he’s appeared with on over 180 albums, he’s a renowned solo performer in his own right, with a record due out later this year on the Drag City label.
The Memphis Flyer caught up with Corsano yesterday to hear more about this pioneer’s solo work and what to expect at the Goner show.
Memphis Flyer: How would you describe your approach to music as a solo performer?
Chris Corsano: I’ll do different things as a solo set. I’ve been on tour a bunch since August, doing a lot of solo shows, and I’m trying to keep them different. So I’m improvising, and it’s kind of heavy on the prepared drum aspect of it, maybe more so than a lot of other people. I’m just trying to get the drums to not sound like a drum solo. Or what people tend to think of as a drum solo. Like, I installed a couple of cello strings on the snare drum rack tom, and with bowing techniques that accentuate the harmonics you can get little melodies happening, even though you’re not playing like a violin or a cello. You come up with a third path. It’s not drums and it’s not another instrument. But you know, drums are great resonators. And I’ve got other things that I make myself and then a lot of extended techniques, which are pretty common in the universe of improvised music.
That “third way” makes sense because in free music you’ll often hear horn players or other kind of instrumental players playing percussively, tapping their valves and that sort of thing. So it makes sense to kind of blur the lines in the other direction from the drums into tonal instruments.
Sure, but there’s also a long history of melodic playing. Drums are awesome melodic instruments in the right hands. Ed Blackwell was a huge influence on me; Ornette Coleman was some of the first stuff that I heard on record. And Blackwell’s melodic sense on that stuff was always life-affirming and also really eye opening in terms of how you can play melodies.
I’ve also played with a lot of sax players. In doing so, basically playing as a duo, you can fill up a lot more space and you have a lot more responsibility for bringing the music, whatever that means. Playing solo, it’s all on you. It’s up to me what I’m going to do, what I should do next, and how I’m going to make a piece of music. So yeah, melody and things some people don’t associate with drums, that’s all open to me because nobody else is covering that space.
I’ve read that you also incorporate reeds, circular breathing through reed instruments. Is that happening?
Yeah, I’ve been doing that for about 20 years now. My first solo record was in 2006. You know, it was always a fascinating thing that some sax players would do, so I tried to see what I could do with it. Right now I have an alto sax mouthpiece playing through half of a clarinet, which doesn’t really do all the things a clarinet can do. But I play it alongside the drums so the drums resonate with certain pitches and harmonics, and that fights against the pitches, or works in conjunction with the pitches, coming out of the bell of the half-clarinet.
The way I think about it, what I’m looking for is that chocolate and peanut butter kind of thing. That third thing happening that is different than either of the two things together, and hopefully unexpected. And hopefully somebody enjoys it.
It sounds like what you’re doing involves paying very close attention to overtones, and playing with those almost as a melodic element.
Yeah, definitely. I don’t have a lot of things which are pitched, but I’m a little bit more trying to get those harmonics and have those be the thing that are creating the melodies, instead of just the fundamental.
We’ve recently heard shows by the Tatsuya Nakatani Gong Orchestra. Do you use gongs and bells also?
A bit, but also a lot of thrift store pot lids — there’s a certain kind that sounds a certain way. If you get the right ones, they’re not made to be a specific pitch, but if you get the right pot lids together, you’ve got these microtonal things happening. You might you hit it a certain way and hear the fundamental an, then hit it again, and there are other harmonics in there. So sometimes I used gongs and things, but mostly using things in the “wrong,” quote unquote, way. I’m always trying to repurpose them somehow.
Chris Corsano will appear with Robert Traxler at the Goner Records store on Friday, February 23, 9 p.m. $10. Click here for tickets.
The Mummies work the crowd at Gonerfest 20. (Photo: Live From Memphis/Christopher Reyes)
When Shalita Dietrich, vocalist and bassist for Lewsberg, left the stage after entrancing a full house at Gonerfest 20, I asked her, “Did you have fun?”
“No!” she said, her shoulders slumping. “It’s hot up there! We’re from the Netherlands. We get maybe five days like this a year. I’ve never been so hot!”
“We get about 200,” I said. “Stay hydrated!”
Marrit Meinema and Shalita Dietrich of Lewsberg onstage at Gonerfest 20 (Photo: Chris McCoy)
Lewsberg’s Velvet Underground-inspired grooves went over like a cool drink of water on Saturday afternoon. Traditionally, this has been the outdoor portion of Gonerfest, with bands playing all afternoon in the back parking lot at Murphy’s. But since the pandemic forced the festivities to move to Railgarten, it’s always the outdoor portion. The new venue also has the advantage of a larger capacity, and this year, Gonerfest hit it. On Thursday night, I remarked to Goner co-owner Zac Ives that it was the largest opening night crowd I had ever seen, and he replied that more than 200 people had yet to pick up their passes. By the time the Gories tore the house down on Friday night, the sprawling nightclub compound was bulging at the seams.
The Gories rip it up on Friday night at Gonerfest 20. (Photo: Live From Memphis/Christopher Reyes)
Dietrich was not wrong. It was hot as blazes Saturday afternoon, and the sun was shining mercilessly on the converted shipping containers that make up the Railgarten stage. After Osaka’s The Smog sent people scrambling for their smartphones to figure out which of the many bands with that name they should add to their playlists, Dippers from Melbourne, Australia (where at least they have some experience with heat), doled out the catchy hooks. Then ’90s Memphis punk supergroup Cool Jerks proved they can still get nasty with the lowest of ’em.
Jack Oblivian sings with the Cool Jerks at Gonerfest 20. (Photo: Live From Memphis/Christopher Reyes)
I was doing double duty with the Gonerfest Stream Team and as Flyer correspondent, so I was happy to see Christopher Reyes of the revived Live From Memphis running around with his giant lens, so we could get some good pics for this post. We’ve been livestreaming Gonerfest since before it was either practical or cool to send live music over the intertubes, and this year, under the direction of Geoffrey Brent Shrewsbury, it was better than ever. HD cams! Wireless setups! B-roll! Is Gonerfest finally growing up?
Vital equipment for the Gonerfest 20 Stream Team (Photo: Chris McCoy)
Maybe. Much of the audience was looking a little grayer in this twentieth year of the gathering of the garage punk tribes. But there was a lot of new blood, too. On Thursday, the first night of the fest, I asked randos if they’d ever been to Gonerfest before. Five people in a row said it was their first time in Memphis. The newbies were treated to a lineup that combined stalwarts with new, wider ranging sounds. In the case of Bill Oreuett & Chris Corsano, they were assaulted with sounds. The guitar/drum duo went free jazz with squalls of lashing distortion and thundering rolls. Railgarten’s stage is right in front of the railroad tracks that run through Midtown, and a freight train rumbled through about halfway through their set — a dream come true for an abrasive noise band!
OG Gonerfest was represented by the sundown set. King Louie Memorial Family Band gathered players from the many bands of the late, great Louie Bankston to play his songs one more time. It was a primal scream of grief and love, with each perfect rock song hitting harder than the last.
Bennett Bartley of Missing Monuments sings to Abe White during the King Louie Memorial Family Band set at Gonerfest 20. (Photo: Live From Memphis/Christopher Reyes)
As the day’s heat dissipated, Philadelphia’s Poison Ruin laid down some sludge. Courettes got the swelling crowd dancing by exposing the thick vein of girl group melodies that flow through garage rock. Singer Flavia Couri had everyone in the palm of her hand from the opening beat.
Flavia Couri of The Courettes works the crowd at Gonerfest 20. (Photo: Live From Memphis/Christopher Reyes)
Gonerfest vets Marked Men took some poppy melodies and rolling around in the dirt with them as a warmup to the night’s main event. If you hear there’s band called Mummies, your first question is probably, “What, are they guys who play punk rock dressed as mummies?” The answer is yes, that is what they are, and they are the best at what they do. The cult San Francisco band caused the capacity crowd to erupt in mayhem. High energy doesn’t begin to cover it.
Crowd surfing with the Mummies at Gonerfest 20 (Photo: Live From Memphis/Christopher Reyes)
On Sunday afternoon, I was marveling at the Mummies’ performance with Meredith Lones, who played Friday with Ibex Clone. “How many organs has that guy broken, I wonder?” she said.
Turnt, the Lamplighter house band led by the high priest of Memphis punk, Ross Johnson, gave one of the most memorable performances of this or any other Gonerfest. Johnson was the drummer for the chaos-billy godfathers Panther Burns, and this current ensemble, which meets every two weeks at 2 p.m. at the Lamp, delivers the full, disorienting noise experience. Guitarist Jimi Inc. directed the band through what I can only describe as song-like sonic sculptures. Little Baby Tendencies’ Haley Ivey stole the show going full Yoko, interjected with punishing jazz flute runs, while dressed as Snow White. The band was dressed in T-shirts specifying which of the seven dwarves they were, and burlesque artist Felicity Fox appeared as the Evil Queen to feed Snow White a poisoned apple. Then, Monsieur Jeffrey Evans joined the band to help things make even less sense.
Turnt’s Haley Ivey as Snow White swoons from a bite of Felicity Fox’s poisoned apple at Gonerfest 20. (Photo: Chris McCoy)
Olympia, Washington’s Morgan and the Organ Donors made a rare appearance outside the PacNor, with some garage rock that harkens back to the ’60s origins of the form.
Olivia Ness plays bass with Morgan and the Organ Donors at Gonerfest 20. (Photo: Live From Memphis/Christopher Reyes)
Gonerfest loves to close out Sunday afternoon with a nod to North Mississippi roots music. Sharde Thomas of the Rising Star Fife and Drum is the granddaughter of the late Othar Turner. She carries her handmade bamboo fifes in her boots after losing one of the irreplacable instruments when she checked her luggage on a European trip. The banging “Switzerland” came from a jam that appeared on the first day of the tour, when she was forced to make do with a standard flute. The deeply charismatic Thomas swept up the audience with “Minnie the Moocher” and closed with the oddly appropriate “May The Circle Be Unbroken” before she and drummer Andre Turner Evans descended into the crowd for a final up-close-and-personal drum jam.
Andre Turner Evans and Sharde Thomas of the Rising Star Fife and Drum Band closing out Gonerfest 20 (Photo: Live From Memphis/Christopher Reyes)
As he thanked the crowd for making the biggest Gonerfest ever so great, Eric Friedl said, “Don’t tell anyone else about it. We can’t fit any more people in here!”
Once Gonerfest hits its first full day, as Gonerfest 20 did yesterday, pacing is everything. Is this not what the immortal Keith Richards taught us? (Keith’s other bit of advice? “Always insist on medical grade product…”). And one could not possibly see all the bands present. Yet, all pacing aside, there was a large turnout for the day’s opener, Memphis’ own Optic Sink. We took a deep dive into that group’s new album earlier this week. Now it was time to hear how it would translate to the stage.
Optic Sink (Credit: Alex Greene)
A host of fans were curious, braving the blazing sun to see their 1:30 p.m. set. And while many lingered on the peripheries of Railgarten, clinging to the shade, just as many stood defiantly in the open area before the stage, just to see this one-of-a-kind band up close. And it was clear they were knocked out.
With Keith Cooper added on bass, the group has ramped up their stage energy considerably. Also contributing to this was Natalie Hoffmann’s increasing use of guitar in Optic Sink. And Ben Bauermeister’s increasingly imaginative drum programming ties it all together. As Hoffman alternately strummed or played synth, the rhythms marched on. And the crowd was primed for dancing, doing the Ratchet, the Twitch, and the Energizer Bunny as they baked in the sun.
Other bands kept them moving, and from that point on it was clearly “Aussie Day” at Gonerfest, with Vintage Crop, 1-800-Mikey, Tee Vee Repairmann, C.O.F.F.I.N., and Civic all hailing from Down Under. Many raved about 1-800-Mikey, but for my money Tee Vee Repairmann was the afternoon’s real shot in the arm. Both brought an intoxicating pop sensibility to their punkish underpinnings, but it was the latter band that has “hooks a mile wide,” as the Gonerfest program guide notes.
C.O.F.F.I.N. and Civic, meanwhile, demonstrated the heavier side of Down Under. I sat with friends as the former band played, parsing out their influences. “There’s clearly some AC/DC going on there,” said one. “Yeah, but I hear a bit of Southern Rock in their riffs,” said another. Both were right, as the band, sometimes verging on hardcore, steamrolled all over us. The raw power went to our heads, or was it Memphis Made’s special Golden Pass Gonerfest brew?
The day was not without its hiccups. After a captivating start, local post-punk heroes Ibex Clone were only able to play six songs or so, after which singer Alec McIntire was heard telling the band his voice was shot. Furthermore, the Skull Practitioners were delayed in even getting to town, hailing as they do from that land of sudden flooding, New York City. This left a hole in the afternoon lineup, gamely taken up by the New Memphis Legs, featuring Goner’s own Eric Friedl. Though they were more of a presence a decade ago, it clearly came back to them like riding a bike — a very noisy one.
Sweeping Promises (Credit: Alex Greene)
By the time Sweeping Promises appeared, after much buzz and anticipation, the crowd was pressed up to the stage, and their sparse, dynamic drive with hints of angular melody and otherworldly vocals from singer Lira Mondal drove everyone mad. With one of the most identifiable sounds in in recent memory, echoing the odd niche that Lene Lovich occupied many decades ago, they were also incredibly propulsive after extensive touring recently. Caufield Schnug’s guitar lines were thin and reedy, a perfect complement to Mondal’s overdriven bass. A power trio, yes, but not in the conventional sense.
For a power trio with an emphasis on power, one needed look no further than the delayed set by Skull Practitioners. With current Dream Syndicate guitarist Jason Victor backed by only bass and drums, they managed to conjure up the biggest sound of the night, specializing in heavy rock with some tasty feedback-swathed soloing from Victory. Between songs, Victor was so amiable that you could have introduced him to your mother, expressing gratitude that their delayed flight had not squelched their Gonerfest dreams, but only deferred them to a later, shorter slot before the evening’s headliner.
That, of course, was The Gories. As emcee Dane Perugini said in his introduction, “If you don’t know who they are, what the fuck are you doing here?” As the group took the stage, Mick Collins, Danny Kroha, and Peg O’Neil were not as jittery as they were when they first played the Antenna Club over 30 years ago, with reunion shows making consummate professionals out of these erstwhile garage-dwelling guttersnipes, but the same energy was there once they launched into “Going to the River.” The two guitars over O’Neil’s soulful thumping hit the crowd like a cool breeze. The sonic palette of the group was far more minimalist and blues-based than many of the heavier rock bands of the day, but the interplay between the three was so perfect as to galvanize the audience. The lust-fueled “Queenie,” with its manic, screamed chorus, was a highlight.
“It’s been 13 years since we played Gonerfest,” quipped Kroha, expressing the band’s love of Memphis, instilled when they came down in the spring of 1990 to work with producer Alex Chilton. But they made it clear that they were proud Detroiters, and saluted the Keggs, a much-loved ’60s group “from the wild suburbs of Detroit,” as Kroha put it. “We’ve got a nice little Detroit contingent down here,” he went on. “Toledo is also represented — the Great Lakes states!”
The Gories (Credit: Alex Greene)
Meanwhile, Collins was fiddling with his guitar, which he clawed at through the night like a feral cat. “Man, this thing is still in tune,” he exclaimed. “Incredible! For us it is…”
Decadent bourgeois concepts like tuning mattered little as the band launched into one classic after another, and not only their own classics. They made covers of Bo Diddley, John Lee Hooker, and the Keggs their own, combining the looseness of the blues with the attack of a Motor City V8 engine. Kroha even rocked a mean blues harp for one number. But it was their cover of Suicide’s “Ghostrider” that brought the house down, as Collins screamed “America, America is killing its youth!” to the wildly gyrating crowd. It culminated in one of the greatest feedback-drenched guitar solos ever heard on a Gonerfest stage. The amp and guitar seemed glued to Collins’ hands as if he was being electrocuted, while the gear at his command howled in protest. And then, all too soon, it was over. The midnight hour approached, the day was done, and as The Gories surveyed the battlefield, the audience before them scattered and slain under the harvest moon.
Standing around between bands during last night’s opening salvo of Gonerfest 20, I saw none other than Graham Burks walk by, decked out in headphones and other comm gear, toting a Sony Handycam. As part of a small army of camera operators making the Gonerfest 20 live stream happen, his exhilaration was contagious: he’d just shot an incendiary set by The Kids, who were clearly not phased by having to play borrowed instruments.
The Kids (Credit: Sara Moseley)
“You bastard!” sang front man Ludo Mariman on “Fascist Cops,” a prescient clarion call the Belgian band released in 1978. The band was hitting on all cylinders last night and conjured up that first wave of punk as if it were yesterday. And Burks, having been in the heart of the action as the band played, was glowing like he’d been playing along himself.
Such exhilaration was common among the camera crew. Another of the videographers, Kim Lloyd, had just finished her shift after shooting the French/Swiss band Jack of Heart, who had a similar old-school punk vibe, with echoes of hardcore but still loose enough to pull off a roaring cover of “You’re Out of Time” by the Rolling Stones. Though discharged from her duties for the rest of the night, Lloyd exclaimed “I don’t want to quit! What a rush!” It’s the next best thing to actually playing in a band at Gonerfest.
Live video production headquarters at Gonerfest 20 (Credit: Chris McCoy)
But when I saw Burks, it was obvious that he was not done, nor was the night. “The next band is going to be wild!” he exclaimed with a manic grin moving back to his post onstage. And he wasn’t lying: next up were Osees, aka Orinoka Crash Suite (1997–2003), OCS (2003–2005, 2017), Orange County Sound (2005), The Ohsees (2006), Thee Oh Sees (2006–2017), and Oh Sees (2017–2019). Their reputation as one of the most explosive bands of the last quarter century clearly preceded them, and they did not disappoint.
But they didn’t quite bring the frenzy from the start, opting to start their set with a sonic wash of noise until the beat kicked in with a vengeance. Featuring two drummers, bass, and synth/second guitar backing guitarist and lead singer John Dwyer, the band is a steamroller that blends punk, psychedelic post-punk, and even hints of guttural death metal. There were plenty of pogo-worthy moments, as the mosh pit made clear, but also slower, stop-time beats that allowed plenty of space for the guitar crunch to hang in the air.
Many flipped birds also hung in the air, as Dwyer saluted the crowd with them repeatedly, always receiving them in return with aplomb. “This one’s for you mom!” he shouted with a jeer, before stepping back and saying sincerely, “Seriously, this one goes out to your mother…”
A barefoot John Dwyer (guitar) with drummers Paul Quattrone and Dan Rincon, (right) and keyboardist Tomas Dolas (left) of Osees (Credit: Sara Moseley)
But he also showed Memphis some love. “This one’s for the Oblivians!” he said before unleashing a volley of solo guitar noise. Apparently, the noise was a little off: he stopped mid-riff and announced “I fucked up!” before launching the tune again. Later he quipped, “We’re one and a half months into a tour…and we’re only getting worse!”
Not that he came off as the humble type. Indeed, Dwyer’s mix of bravado and self-disdain perfectly complemented the pounding machine of the band, who also sported some intricate arrangements and varied textures thanks to the telepathic interplay between Dwyer and synth wiz Tomas Dolas, even as the front phalanx of dual drummers (Paul Quattrone and Dan Rincon) and bass (Tim Hellman) propelled them onward. As it turned out, the Gonerfest program guide was not far off in noting what to expect: “Full mania. The biggest act of the fest!”
Laundry Bats (Credit: Alex Greene)
They were the capstone to an evening that began on a more local note with Memphis’ latest supergroup, Laundry Bats, led by erstwhile Manatees member Abe White “in inimitable Abe-Style,” as Goner’s guide notes. Singing his own songs and playing guitar, he was backed by an enviable collection of superfriends: Jack Oblivian on drums, Alicja Trout on guitar, and Greg Cartwright on bass. Together, they unleashed scratchy twin-guitar rock that harked back to the Golden Age of the Antenna Club. Though all are seasoned pros by now, they exuded a youthful enthusiasm, especially as Cartwright and Jack Oblivian locked down the rhythm. “I’ve never played bass in a band before,” noted Cartwright after their set. “It’s fun!”
Alien Nosejob, the solo project of Ausmuteants’ Jake Robertson, then brought a unique mix of pop-punk that chugged along like a locomotive covered in graffiti. By then the audience had filled in and the crowd surfing had begun. As the night progressed, that and the moshing would gain momentum in the zone in front of the stage, even as hundreds pushed in from the peripheries of Railgarten to get that much closer to the intoxicating sounds.
Inez McLain of Exbats (Credit: Sara Moseley)
By the time Exbats took the stage, it appeared to be the most well-attended Gonerfest in history. The love Memphians have developed for this Arizona band since they appeared at Gonerfest 18 was palpable. Their perfectly minimalist ’60s pop songs by drummer Inez McLain, accompanied by her dad Kenny McLain on guitar, with the bassist and second guitarist chiming in “oohs” and “ahhs” in the background, was like a breath of fresh air. And this fresh air had hundreds of fans dancing and pressing ever-closer to the stage. In the slightly steamy evening, that was the whole night in a nutshell: an audience made up of superfans, hanging on every note, shaking, grinding, and slamming to the beat, thrilling to the freaky harmonies. Gonerfest 20 had begun.
Pressing LPs at Memphis Record Pressing (photo courtesy of MRP)
Music fans know all about Record Store Day, that occasional holiday when buyers flock to their favorite local brick-and-mortar shops to load up on playable media. And while the growth of Record Store Day’s popularity has gone hand in hand with a resurgence in vinyl sales over recent years (see last year’s cover story on the subject here), it’s worth remembering that RSD is media-agnostic. There are even those who come home with nothing but a load of CDs after the day’s grand events. Meanwhile, there’s one holiday for vinyl and vinyl only: National Vinyl Record Day, which falls on Saturday, August 12th this year. And, given the importance of Memphis to every step of the vinyl food chain, it comes as no surprise that there will be a unique celebration here.
Vinyl is clearly no joke here. Memphis Record Pressing (MRP) recently underwent a multimillion-dollar expansion, tripling the size of the company and bringing the total number of presses to 52 and the staff to more than 400. With these changes, the company’s on track to produce 20-25 million records this year. When running at full capacity, MRP can press as many as 125,000 records a day or more than 45 million a year, making it the largest vinyl record manufacturer by volume in North America.
A worker prepares to flatten a lump of vinyl into an LP (photo courtesy of MRP)
Having turned this monumental corner, MRP is now marking National Vinyl Record Day with a giveaway for record enthusiasts. In partnership with local record stores Goner Records, Shangri-la Records, and River City Records, MRP is giving away a limited-edition, specially designed National Vinyl Record Day commemorative pin, to be available on a first-come-first-served basis at the participating stores. MRP employees will also be sporting the pins at work in the week leading up to National Vinyl Record Day.
“National Vinyl Record Day, obviously, means a lot to us, and we thought this was a fun way to mark the occasion and thank all the vinyl enthusiasts who have helped our industry thrive in recent years,” noted MRP CEO and co-founder Brandon Seavers in a statement.
California radio host and vinyl enthusiast Gary Freiberg started National Vinyl Record Day in 2002 to promote the “preservation of the cultural influence, the recordings, and the cover art of the vinyl record.” The date was chosen to honor the reported date in 1877 when Thomas Edison invented the phonograph. This year’s celebration comes fast on the heels of the 75th anniversary of the long-playing album, or LP, marked this June.
The event also comes as the vinyl renaissance that began almost two decades ago has reached a new milestone. Vinyl record sales have been increasing steadily for 17 years, and only grew more during the pandemic. Last year, vinyl album sales overtook CD sales for the first time since 1987, with 43.46 million copies sold.
MRPs growth in recent years has been equally impressive. An offshoot of defunct CD manufacturer AudioGraphc Masterworks, MRP has expanded dramatically since opening its doors in 2015.
Meanwhile, what of the city’s veritable temple to vinyl culture and music, Memphis Listening Lab, on this day of tribute to the majesty of wax? “We don’t have anything planned,” says MLL head archivist Jim Cole. “But we’re here if anyone wants to come spin some records.”
To anyone who’s ever complained that Memphis is not cosmopolitan enough, this will be a weekend to remember: For one night only, Memphis will be visited by a celebrated band from one of the world’s oldest, busiest cities to ever spring up around a trade hub.
I’m talking about Agadez, of course. You know, just east of Timbuktu? (That’s not just a figure of speech). Since the 14th Century, the city, in what’s now Niger, has been at the cross section of caravan routes from all across North Africa. Now, this Saturday, July 15th, at Growlers, Memphians can get a taste of the guitar-driven sound that’s been rocking the Sahara for nearly 30 years, courtesy of the region’s most celebrated quartet, Etran de L’Aïr.
Currently touring the U.S. this summer, the band is focusing squarely on the Midwest, with just a smattering of shows on either coast. Perhaps they intuitively gravitate inland? If the inland empire of Memphis is feeling like the Sahara lately, Etran de L’Aïr’s groove should be relatable. Now, the band has releasedLive in Seattle, a two-song live recording of the group performing at Madame Lou’s in Seattle on the last night of their first-ever US tour. This soundboard recording, featuring fan-favorite songs “Toubouk Ine Chihoussay” and “Nak Deranine,” is available on Bandcamp as a Name Your Price recording.
This release is also the latest evidence that Etran de L’Aïr are a consummate live band, having cut their teeth at innumerable wedding parties in the Aïr region of Niger, homeland of the Tuareg people.
Over recent decades, a distinctive approach to the guitar has fomented in Tuareg culture. Agadez’s style is the fastest, with frenetic electric guitar solos, staccato crashes of full drum kits, and flamboyant dancing guitarists. Agadez is the place where artists come to cut their teeth in a lucrative and competitive winner-take-all scene. Guitar bands are an integral part of the social fabric, playing in weddings, baptisms, and political rallies, as well as the occasional concert.
Etran De L’Aïr’s current three-week tour also includes headlining dates at Music Hall of Williamsburg and The Getty Museum, festival appearances at 80/35 Music Festival and Square Roots Music Festival, and intimate appearances at record shops Total Drag and Grapefruit Records. Saturday’s Growlers show is being presented by Goner Records, and includes opener Graham Winchester (click here for tickets).
With a tour itinerary like that, the band is clearly open to fans from all cultures. “We play for the Tuareg, the Toubou, the Zarma, the Hausa,” current band leader Moussa “Abindi” Ibra explains. “When you invite us, we come and play.”
The absence of Shawn Cripps and his band, Limes (aka The Limes), on the local scene is still difficult to process for many. His death in a highway accident at the age of 55 in 2021 was so sudden as to seem surreal, especially because his art — in the form of three celebrated albums and even more unreleased material — lives on so vividly. As reported in 2019, The Limes’ “mesh of crunchy guitar tones, sharp rock rhythms, and Cripps’ acerbic lyrics” occupied a niche all their own in the local scene.
This weekend, as part of the ongoing River Series at the Harbor Town Amphitheater, a group of his friends and fellow musicians will offer some closure as they honor Cripps’ unique, unflinching talent. They’ll be opening for headliners Spider Bags, who were also friends and fans of Cripps.
I spoke with Chris Owen, who helped organize the ad hoc group known simply as “Limes Tribute,” about the challenges of recreating the sound of The Limes, the way Cripps’ songs captured the imaginations of die hard fans, and how those songs inspired them to form groups of their own.
Memphis Flyer:Who will be playing in Limes Tribute? Were they all in The Limes at some point?
Chris Owen: Yeah, the core is me and Jack [Oblivian], who played with Shawn a lot, and Tim Prudhomme, who played with Shawn a few times. And then the Spider Bags guys — we went on tour with them twice. There were a few bands that idolized Shawn for whatever reason. He was kind of an enigma, in the sense that he was just a normal person sitting at the bar, like many of us here in Memphis, and then you go out on tour with them and inevitably at every show some crazy fan would come up who just worshiped him. It was an era when it was really cool to know a band that no one else knew, when I was playing with him, which was around 2008-10. Because Shawn was my friend, he was just another musician. But once we got on that first tour, it was like, ‘Oh, this guy is very well liked!’ So it was always fun to meet people that were just obsessed with his music. Dan [McGee] from Spider Bags was one of those people, and so we ended up going on tour with them.
I guess the bands and artists who dug him so much are real songwriters’ bands. Was it his unique lyrical approach that they dug most about him?
I think the inclinations of a songwriter would certainly guide you to Shawn’s music, but also I think his guitar playing was so strange that people had a hard time figuring it out sometimes. I know for a fact that everybody that’s ever played with him was constantly trying to figure out what the hell he was doing. And I don’t think anybody ever did. Playing with Shawn was very seat of your pants. Sometimes it would be a disaster and other times it would be euphoric. He would use standard tuning but he he stayed in this G chord kind of thing — I think most of his songs are in G, but he could make a G chord sound 10,000 different ways.
Did he lead The Limes through their arrangements?
Well, his picking style was really strange. He didn’t have any training. It was all just him sitting in his apartment with a guitar and singing all the time, and it created this very unique sound. The songs are built off of the nuances that those of us that have played with him could hear, enough of to sort of form an arrangement around them. He had no idea that that was even there. Like he couldn’t say, ‘Oh, yeah, it goes like this.’ It would just be something that came out of the garden of his music, and we all just tried to pick those things out. Make sense? Some of the more unique arrangements are just things that Jack and Harlan [T. Bobo] picked out of Shawn’s craziness and said, ‘Okay, well, you’re doing this here. Let’s make that a part of the song, let’s make that a theme.’ I don’t know what you’d call that but he was like a genius who doesn’t know they’re a genius.
The Limes at Gonerfest 16 in 2019. L-R, Shawn Cripps, Chris Owen, Jack Oblivian, and Seth Moody. (Credit: Alex Greene)
What was your time in The Limes like?
I got to know the most of those guys, Jack and Harlan and everybody, and started hanging around, and at some point Shawn asked me to play drums. I was like, ‘Dude, I’m not a drummer.’ And he was like, ‘I know, that’s why I want you to play drums.’ Finally he convinced me and I went on three tours. So that that line up was me and this girl Stephanie Richards. She was part of the co-op scene and played bass with us. She was very melodic and complex, and she had an innate ability to key in on what Shawn was doing. She passed away about seven or eight years ago, from gastrointestinal cancer. She died super young too; it was really sad.
So we went on three tours with that line up: west coast, east coast, and then a little southern/southwest tour. And we recorded probably three records that no one has ever heard. Shawn probably recorded 20 albums and only three of them have ever been put out. We did some stuff with Doug Easley, and he’s got a reel somewhere in his collection. We actually mixed it and everything and Shawn just never did anything with it. He was was never finished with anything. You know, it was always, ‘Oh, I’ve got a little bit more work to do on that,’ and then years would go by and nothing would ever come of it. He was so prolific, but had a hard time getting it out there, you know?
Will you be playing any of that unreleased material on Saturday?
Yeah, I’m going to play a song called “Hey Killer” that was part of that period of his writing. Eventually there’s potentially going to be a collection of his unreleased stuff. They located all the reels and his notebooks and everything.
He tended to record to tape, didn’t he?
He was recording on reel-to-reel tape machines he had in those later years. He had a fascination with those things. And one of his frustrations was that could never find somebody to work on them. So he just started tearing them apart and putting them back together again, and ended up being able to fix a lot of the old stuff that he was buying. He got them working and so he did a lot of recording on old ’70s-era, reel to reel machines.
It must be difficult, putting together a set without him.
We’re going to try not to be trying, so as to embody Shawn’s ethos, and not be stressed about anything. It was really hard to get Shawn to do anything if he didn’t want to play music. He wasn’t like a regularly disciplined kind of guy. He’d say ‘Hey, I got a show, you know, let’s practice.’ So I guess it’s apropos for The Limes to be slapdash. It’ll be quick and dirty, for sure. We’re anticipating having a couple of acoustic jams. Just people playing songs that they like, and sort of ramping up to a full bands for a few numbers, depending on what Spider Bags want to do. And then of course, the Spider Bags are amazing.
You know, you never really think about how valuable people are to you until they’re gone. And Shawn was a perfect example of that, because we spent so much time together and that was just a normal part of life, to have him around. Now that he’s been gone for a year and a half, I’m realizing he inadvertently had a huge effect on my life. And a lot of other people’s, too. Without even trying! He could just so casually change somebody’s life. He was a magic man, for sure.
The River Series at the Harbor Town Amphitheater, featuring Limes Tribute and Spider Bags, takes place Saturday, May 20, 4-7:30 p.m., behind the Maria Montessori School. $10 for adults, $5 for children. All proceeds support the Maria Montessori School.
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.
Already looking ahead to the fall, Goner Records announced the key bands to be featured at Gonerfest 20 this year. And while the fest will officially be entering its twenties, there’s bound to be plenty of primitive teen spirit afoot with headliners like The Mummies, Osees (aka Thee Oh Sees), and The Gories.
Indeed, the creepy-crawly, goo goo muck vibe is echoed in the Gonerfest 20 artwork, unveiled this week along with the band lineup. Once the festival kicks into action, such is the omnipresence of the annual Gonerfest artwork that its premiere is nearly as newsworthy as the bands themselves. Last year’s imagery by Sara Moseley drew many comments as the festival wore on, and this year she’s back, collaborating with Stacy Kiehl. Together, they’ve created the creature above, with more elaborations sure to come as the festival’s opening approaches.
Osees (Credit: Titouan-Masse)
The three biggest names on the bill are all Gonerfest veterans who, like many punk/art damaged/freakish bands, have retained their edge even as they reel in the years. Case in point: Osees, who last played Gonerfest some 14 years ago as Thee Oh Sees. Known for their prolific output, the shifting personnel around lead Osee John Dwyer have gone through a few stylistic shifts since then, though always with a sound that grabs listeners by the throat.
Just counting their releases since their latest name change in 2019, they’ve put out Protean Threat (2020), Metamorphosed (2020), and A Foul Form (2022). And they recently pulled off an incendiary set on celebrated Seattle station KEXP:
Having first exploded out of Detroit in 1986, The Gories both predate and embody the Goner aesthetic, but they too have not played Gonerfest in over a decade. Their 2011 performance was deemed newsworthy to the Memphis Flyer‘s J.D. Reager at the time, and subsequent footage proved him out as they played an incendiary set:
Clad in tattered “bandages,” the band powers through a dynamite performance. The keyboard player lifts his instrument over his head and onto his back. They’re so obviously in lock-step with each other, the tempo and changes so ingrained, that they play with a ghoulish intensity.
This year, the gonzo independent music festival hosted by the label and iconic Tennessean storefront takes place in Memphis’ Railgarten from Thursday, September 28 through Sunday, October 1.
In addition to the headliners, Gonerfest 20 will showcase many other bands, MCs, and DJs from around the world. Highlights include a number of acts coming from overseas, including performances by UK artists Chubby & the Gang and Vivron Vavron; Australian bands CIVIC, Dippers, 1-800-Mikey, TV Repairmann, Vintage Crop, and C.O.F.F.I.N.; Denmark’s The Courettes; Japan’s The Smog; and Lewsberg from the Netherlands, among others.
Gonerfest 20 tickets go on sale now. Golden Passes, which allow entry to all official GF20 events, are $130. Single-day passes will be available at the door, according to venue capacity. For more information and to purchase tickets, click here.
Fans should also watch for after shows at other venues around town, often as thrilling as the official lineup. This too fits the Goner aesthetic. As Goner Records’ co-founder Eric Friedl told the Memphis Flyer last year, “There’s not a whole lot of separation between fans and bands and everything else in Gonerfest. It gives it a different feel, rather than seeing someone up on stage that isn’t interacting with the people at all.”
With the publication of an annual program guide, Gonerfest also works to support local business while promoting the music, arts, and culture of Memphis to its attendees. “Gonerfest has become a rite of passage,” says Goner Records co-owner Zac Ives. “It allows us to showcase our city and celebrate our little part of the music world in front of an extremely wide audience.” More than 1,000 tourists make the pilgrimage to Memphis for Gonerfest, which culminates in a substantial economic impact for its city. Gonerfest attendees eat at locally-owned restaurants like Payne’s BBQ and Cozy Corner, drink Goner-inspired beer brewed at Memphis Made, and visit the Stax Museum of American Soul Music, Graceland, and the National Civil Rights Museum.
Festival goers can also plan on seeing Marked Men, Chubby & the Gang, Sweeping Promises, Ibex Clone, CIVIC, The Cool Jerks, Bill Orcutt / Chris Corsano, The Courettes, C.O.F.F.I.N, Alien Nosejob, Dippers, Virvon Varvon, Cheater Slicks, Lewsberg, 1-800-Mikey, TV Repairmann, Vintage Crop, The Smog, Laundry Bats, and Turnt.
