Tag: Goner Records

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Music Music Blog

Gonerfest 16 Recap: Saturday

CREDIT: Kandi Cook

“It’s crazy,” says Johnny, the doorman at Murphy’s on Madison, the afternoon venue for Gonerfest 16’s Saturday performances. “It’s never sold out before.”

The gold passes have sold out in years past, but this year, weeks before Goner Records’ annual festival of punk, alternative, no wave, and all music left of the dial, individual passes to Friday and Saturday night were sold out. The sea of people inside and outside Murphy’s makes it hard to believe the daytime show hasn’t sold out as well. But, up walks a woman without a wristband. She balks at the cover charge and asks Johnny what’s going on.

Gonerfest is going on, and I’ve never seen so many people at Murphy’s before.

Kandi Cook

The Resonars

Out back, New Orleans’ Total Hell rips through a heavy set. They’re all guttural vocals and crunchy guitars as the audience bakes in the Memphis autumn sun. In the crowd, I can spot folks who seem to have come directly from Memphis Pride Festival, with rainbow stickers and other accoutrements.

Jesse Davis

Aquarian Blood played to a packed house at Murphy’s during Gonerfest 16.


Heading back inside in a (failed) attempt to secure a good spot close to the stage for locals Aquarian Blood’s set, I bump into Frank McLallen of Model Zero, the Sheiks, and the Tennessee Screamers. Like so many of the attendees, he’s got that Gonerfest glow — a sheen that could be sweat or sprayed beer and a happily dazed expression. “As a working local, I was able to make it out on Friday,” McLallen says of the festival so far. “It was nice to see the Oblivians and Quintron. It was a heroic set. Later than night, I played a show with Model Zero at DKDC for the late night [show]. It was a wild scene. We opened for Quintron’s Shitty Stones, a shitty Rolling Stones cover band from New Orleans, and it inspired us to get all ’70s glammed out. The scene was just wild and wonderful.”

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I ask McLallen if he’ll be at the festivities later that evening, and, if so, what he’s most looking forward to seeing. “I want to see the Mummies,” he says. “I’m looking forward to seeing them. It seems like a circus.”

Inside, Memphis’ own Aquarian Blood starts up the first song of their set. It’s haunting, with slightly overdriven acoustic guitar, just enough to give the tone some texture. Their second song begins with drum machine and acoustic guitar. It’s got a mellow groove, with tasteful bends on the acoustic. I stand near the bathroom, as close as I can get, and listen. Murphy’s is a sea of people, all transfixed by Aquarian Blood.

Jesse Davis

The Resonars


The Resonars from Tucson, Arizona, play outside. They’re a band of Fender-wielding guitarists with a tight rhythm section and driving, thrumming bass. An ex-Arizonan, I detect a whiff of the desert in their Southern sound with a slight power-pop vibe.

Jesse Davis

Michael Beach & the Artists

Michael Beach & the Artists begin their set with a steady beat on the floor tom and guitar chords left to ring out. It’s not unlike the Velvet Underground’s “Heroin,” at least, that is, before the Melbourne-based band really leans into the performance and dials the energy up to 11.

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That night, as I walk into the Hi Tone, Parsnip has just begun their set. They have a lo-fi sound with peppy garage-rock cheerleader backup vocals and some nice keyboard action. It’s my kind of music, without a doubt, and stuck in the back again, I let myself get lost in the sounds of the Aussie rockers. It’s worth noting that the shows at Gonerfest start on time. The heat, the tinnitus-inducing volume, the Gonerbrau (Memphis Made’s commemorative cream ale) all seem to conspire against the performances going so smoothly, but somehow, in the schedule, if not on stage, a strict sanity prevails. That leaves all the madness, happily, to the performers and the audience.

Jesse Davis

Giorgio Murderer plays to a sold-out audience at the Hi Tone.

Giorgio Murderer from New Orleans brings a set of urgently-strummed guitar. It’s classic punk, classic rock-and-roll, hitting every downbeat, with attitude to spare. It’s stripped down, gnarly, and totally at home at Gonerfest.

Next, Memphis-based Hash Redactor makes their appearance with squealing, squalling guitars. Listening to their first song is like being sucked down the drain, with descending riffs and bending guitar strings. The second song kicks off with a bang and ends with a warble. With their third song, they settle into the dark, spooky side they do so well. With members of NOTS and Ex-Cult in the lineup, Hash Redactor is a Goner Records supergroup of sorts, and they were in full form at Gonerfest 16. As I wrote in a review of their Drecksound album, “The guitars alone are worth the price of admission.”

Courtney Fly

The Mummies

It’s fitting that in Memphis’ alternative rock festival, the Mummies close out the night. As Gonerfest attendees pack themselves into the Hi Tone, it’s readily apparent that Gonerfest 16 sold out. I’m loathe to be a broken record, but these performances were absolutely packed. The Mummies earn every second of the audience’s rapt attention. 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. They change to double-time for the end of a song, all as easy as second nature. And the musicianship is only a fraction of the show. The humor and stage presence are top-notch as well. After some banter about “the sign-up sheet for the human sacrifice,” a Mummy says, “It seems like we’re wasting time, but this is for your benefit.” Another band mate chimes in with lightning-fast reflexes, “We’re waiting for the suppositories to kick in.”

Later, the band gets a laugh by “confusing” Tennessee’s two music towns: “It’s great to be here in Nashville,” a Mummy quips. “Great to be at the Grand Ole Opry.” All in all, the Mummies made an excellent cap to the Goner festivities — a mix of humor, wild energy, and air-tight song craftsmanship. After the Mummies, well, that’s a wrap.

Courtney Fly

The Mummies


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Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Music Video Monday: Thigh Master

Thigh Master

Music Video Monday’s gonna rock you down under!

It’s Gonerfest week here in Memphis! Garage and punk outfits from all over the world are converging on the Bluff City for three days of nonstop rock. This year’s festivities include headlining sets by rarely-seen, budget-rock pioneers The Mummies, Japanese madmen King Brothers, and what promises to be an explosive set from hometown heroes The Oblivians, reunited with New Orleans keyboard genius Mr. Quintron.

Goner Records’ latest release is the new album by Brisbane, Australia’s Thigh Master, Now For Example. You can see them in action on Friday night, September 27 at 11:30 PM—but you’d better hurry, because Gonerfest tickets are almost sold out! This video for “Mould Lines”, directed by Matthew Ford and Dusty Anastassiou, gives you a taste of the Aussie’s ragged glory.

Music Video Monday: Thigh Master

If you’d like to see your music video on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com

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Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Memphis Made Brewing Co. Releases New Brew

CREDIT: Memphis Made Brewing Co.

Memphis Made Brewing Co.

Memphis Made seen from the street

Memphis Made Brewing Co. releases its new American honey wheat ale, 3:30 on a Wednesday, at an event at the Cooper-Young brewery Saturday, August 31st, at 3:30 p.m.

Memphis Made Brewing Co.

For 3:30 on a Wednesday, Memphis Made revisited a previous specialty beer they brewed for a Memphis bicentennial celebration at the request of Music Export Memphis (MEM), a nonprofit that helps Bluff City bands to promote the Memphis brand abroad.

“We do a lot of one-offs, and if people like them, we bring them back,” says Andy Ashby, sales manager and co-owner of Memphis Made.


The new brew, Ashby says, is named after the city’s emergency sirens, which are tested weekly at noon, on Saturdays and, more importantly, on Wednesday afternoons at 3:30 p.m.

“It’s just a little Memphis thing,” Ashby says.

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Memphis Made’s newest creation will come in three flavors — the original 3:30-style brew from the MEM event, as well as two fruit-accented versions in peach and raspberry. “Wheat beers are pretty good receptors for fruit flavors,” Ashby explains.


For their new, drinkable Memphis thing, the brewery has partnered with two stalwarts of the Memphis music scene: Goner Records and Unapologetic. Both the Cooper-Young-based record store/label and the hip-hop art collective have designed labels for the cans. Unapologetic designed the label for the peach can, with Goner taking on duties for the raspberry version. The can designs have yet to be unveiled, but one can’t help but wonder if Unapologetic artist A Weirdo From Memphis’ iconic pink bunny ears and red contact lenses will make an appearance.

Memphis Made Brewing Co.

A whole lot of GonerBrau

Memphis Made has a longstanding relationship with Goner Records. The brewery has been one of the sponsors and venues for the annual Gonerfest. The brewery has also brewed commemorative batches of beer for the festival before, such as last year’s GonerBrau cream ale. “We love Goner,” Ashby says. “We’re again sponsoring Gonerfest this year. We’re the sole beer sponsor.” Ashby added that he was excited to work more with the creative forces at Unapologetic and hopes to collaborate with the collective again in the future.


DJs from Goner and Unapologetic will spin records at the release celebration. For those who want to take a taste of 3:30 on a Wednesday home, the beer will be on draft and available in six-packs, to-go. Though the wheat ale has been canned, Ashby warns, “This is a very limited run.”

3:30 on a Wednesday release at Memphis Made Brewing Co. on Saturday, August 31st, 3:30 p.m.


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Music Music Blog

Weekend Shows Celebrate A Quarter Century of Goner

CREDIT: MIchael Donahue

MIchael Donahue

Eric Friedl and Zac Ives of Goner Records

Scan over the provenance of bands signed to Goner Records and you’ll see a polyglot of international performers, hailing from Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto, Montreal, Leipzig, London, and Dunedin, New Zealand. There are acts representing both Melbourne, Australia, and Melbourne, Florida. Not to mention other domestic burgs like New Orleans, Minneapolis, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Chicago, and, naturally, Memphis. Goner is very much a hometown player.

This year, the label and store are celebrating their 25th Anniversary with a weekend of hot music. It starts on Friday, appropriately enough, with Jeff Evans, Ross Johnson, and Walter Daniels, all of whom helped foster the scene out of which Goner arose, followed by that national treasure, Jack Oblivian. On Saturday, we have upstart country with the Flamin’ A’s and the strange-o-billy of Bloodshot Bill. Sunday’s first show will feature a screening of Mike McCarthy’s Sore Losers, followed by the Tokyo terrors that started it all with Goner’s first release in 1993, Guitar Wolf. New Orleans’ own Royal Pendletons, beloved by many a Memphian, will have a rare reunion performance after that, and the evening will see more from Tokyo with the Let’s Go, and Big Clown from Memphis.

The span of such bands, both geographically and stylistically, is remarkable, but quite in keeping with the eclectic vision this label has pursued. The store, too, get’s widespread appreciation, including another nod last December from Rolling Stone magazine as one of the country’s ten best record stores.

With all that in mind, I reached out to Goner’s founder and co-owner Eric Friedl to delve into how this all came to be, who makes it tick, and how it came to be a global mini-empire.

Memphis Flyer: I just read in Bob Mehr’s great profile that you moved here with the express purpose of opening Shangri-La Records with Sherman Willmott.

Eric Friedl: Yeah. It was basically like 30 records. It was pretty amazing. And actually our big windfall was the WLYX sale. They closed down Rhodes’ radio station and sold all their vinyl and we got like a thousand records. So that was really the start of the store.

When you met Sherman, you guys must have been into records already. But did you have retail experience or business experience?

No. Sherman had the idea to do the flotation tanks thing [with customers floating in salt water solution]. That was his big moment of “Ah-ha, Memphis needs to relax!” And he was only thirty years ahead of his time. But he realized even if you have an active massage/flotation tank place, nothing’s really happening. It’s dull. So, the record store idea was a side thing to the flotation tanks. And it kind of went from there. I don’t know why he asked me. We had done a little fanzine together, I think? So we had kept in touch and we had kept up with the music and stuff.

Before Goner, Shangri-La set a local precedent of a label connected to a record store. That’s not very common is it? Stax did that of course, and there are other examples, but…

It’s weirdly happening now, the other way. Labels are opening stores. I think it makes sense. You’re in the middle of everything and the bands are hanging out at the store, and you’re like, these guys need a record. But doing it more as a full time thing, I don’t think it’s that common.

Do the two sides of the business enhance each other?

Luckily for us, they’ve complemented each other. When one has been going bad the other one has been going good. I can’t really say one or the other is the moneymaker. It’s varied. It is hard, because we wanna tell people about the label, but we also wanna tell them about the store. People who are into the label stuff don’t care that we’ve got a original Abbey Road record in. So it’s kind of tough to balance sometimes.

But my thing has always been about serving the customers. If they wanna buy Adelle records, that’s fine. We’ve got Adelle records. We’re not probably gonna put out that record on our label. Someone else will do that. That’s not really our spot. But in terms of retail, if someone’s coming looking for it, I wanna have it to sell, or be able to get it for ’em. That’s just basically being a record store.

The Goner label is really well-curated, and incredibly eclectic. It goes way beyond punk. You and [Goner co-owner] Zac [Ives] must have pretty diverse tastes.

Even stuff that we put out, we wouldn’t necessarily say, ‘This is what I’m listening to.’ We don’t have a master plan. Things fall in our lap and we go, ‘This is good, we should put it out.’ We don’t go, ‘Is this gonna alienate our Reatards fans?’ You know, the people that like fast punk rock stuff. We’re like, ‘There’s room for everybody. Just throw it out there.’ Some things are easier to sell than others, for sure. But we’ve been lucky. People that pay attention to the label are generally pretty open minded, and that’s a big part of it.

Is the label just you and Zac making the decisions?

Yeah, for the most part. But some punk rock singles put out in the last year or so have been more Alec [McIntire] and Cole [Wheeler] and John Hoppe’s thing. We put out singles by Crown Court and by Boss. It’s aggressive, straight ahead punk rock kinda stuff. And that was from their angle, which is fun. It’s cool to have other input on it too.

John Hoppe has been with us the longest. He moved down from Kalamazoo, and he has tons of experience selling records, and really took over the behind the scenes stuff, running the register and everything. That really helped us out a whole lot, especially when things get hairy, like during our festival or other busy times. He has a really good knack for that. And we’ve had a few other people coming though that have really helped out. Charlotte Watson from Nots helped out for a while. But basically our crew right now is John, Alec McIntire, who plays with Hash Redactor and Ex-Cult, and Cole Wheeler. And everybody has kind of their angle, doing mail order or retail sales, or keeping the label stuff together. There’s plenty to do. We’re always scrambling, doing twenty jobs at once and trying to keep track of it. It’s always a challenge.

That’s one of the weird things. All the articles make it all about me, and I really haven’t done anywhere near everything. It’s been teamwork. To the point where I will start something, and then realize I’m way over my head and realize that everyone else has already realized that and has picked up the pieces or put it together. But if you work close enough for long enough, that’s sort of how things happen. We all complement eachother real well.

There were rumors that last year’s Gonerfest would be the last, but it’s still rolling…

Yeah, we always think about taking a break. And then we start getting excited about bands coming to town, and people are asking about it and it sort of assembles itself again and you realize, ‘It’s happening! It’s gonna drag you along, like it or not!’ It’s a lot of fun, and every year it’s amazing. The fact that people will come to Memphis, year after year, multiple times, to come to this festival in September is awesome. These people from Australia that keep coming, they could go anywhere in the world, but they’re going halfway around the world just to come to Memphis. I think it’s great.

You guys have quite an international reach and profile.

Yeah, it’s cool. Before the first little Buccaneer show we did, we were driving over and realized there was a guy I’d never met, a guy from Italy, walking down the street. He had a tiny little label in Italy, but it was worth it to him to come all that way to the Buccaneer to see these bands. I realized there’s people from all over the place that get into this stuff. And they really get a kick out of coming to Memphis. They love it. 

Guitar Wolf from Nagasaki, Japan

I guess the international reach was there right from the beginning, when you started with that Guitar Wolf release in 1993.

Yeah. We had a bunch of Japanese bands at first. International bands that were touring in the 90s when I started doing that stuff. The 5678’s, Guitar Wolf, Teengenerate, and Jackie and the Cedrics came over here and were in that scene. There was a festival in Bellingham, WA, Garage Shock, that was kind of the headquarters for that stuff at the time. And that’s where I saw Guitar Wolf. Garage Shock pioneered putting these kinds of festivals together. I went to a couple of those and I’m sure that left some kind of mark on what we could do and how to do festivals.

Were you early adopters of the internet?

Yeah, we got lucky on that. I had a bulletin board, and that is really the engine behind Goner and the appeal of everything. We had the Goner bulletin board, which is still up. You could see a direct drop off as soon as Facebook came into the picture, but before that, people that wanted to yack about this stuff would get on our bulletin board and post stuff, see what we were doing, find out about shows, and that kind of thing. So the bulletin board was the main thing. I had a site that I sold records off of, pretty early. Peggy from the Gories had some of their records she wanted to sell, and I helped her do that. So we were in the middle of it when nobody knew what was going on.

Really, the bulletin board had a huge reach. It still kinda does. Like it’ll pop up. Somebody will have some topic on there about aspirin or something, and the Goner board will pop up because people are talking about it. Instead of going to Bayer’s site, no one’s gonna go there, there’s no action there. They might have the information, but it isn’t gonna pop up in the Google algorithm, so the Goner board will pop up in regards to aspirin or something. It recently popped up as the number one Google search result for Michael Jackson jokes. Not something to be really proud of, but when the Michael Jackson movie came out we were back in the spotlight.

When did you start that bulletin board?

You know, it crashed and we lost a bunch of it, but it was probably going by ’95, something like that? There might be stuff from the 90s still. I’ll have to do the internet archive thing and see if anything’s there. Yeah, it was pretty early and pretty interesting, the people that went through there. We’ve had songs written about it, about crashing it and trying to destroy it, all kinds of stuff. It still is pretty interesting. I think the only real thread that kind of maintains itself is ‘defunct Memphis restaurants that we miss.’ People look for some restaurant and the Goner board pops up so they’ll post something.

So well before the brick and mortar store, you were doing a brisk business?

Yeah. I didn’t have a whole lot of records that I was selling, but a couple hundred, you know. I’d do orders from distributors and sell it out of the apartment. So that was there to move into a brick and mortar type of thing. There was a demand for it and it made sense to do it. Greg [Cartwright] had the space [Legba Records] and was moving, and said, ‘You guys should take this over!’

How great that Guitar Wolf is still going strong, and Jack Oblivian is still going strong. You’ve got these threads connecting to the very first days of the whole thing.

It was weird when we realized that all this was coming together, we were like, ‘We have to put together a weekend.’ We don’t need to do more than one festival a year. This was more like a bunch of shows thrown together. But I think it works. All the shows are great and people are excited about it.

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Music Record Reviews

The Old, Weird (North) America of Bloodshot Bill

Here is a record to remind us what rock ‘n’ roll sounds like. In case you forgot, the unholy noise is what matters most. I still remember my sister harking back to her teenage years, when she was lucky enough to hear “Louie Louie” as it climbed the charts, and the wild speculation in her circle about how dirty the lyrics might be. Legible poetry was not part of the equation. Nor was a thesaurus necessary to feel the impact of Little Richard, the Trashmen’s “Surfin’ Bird,” or Charlie Feathers’ “Stutterin’ Cindy.”

The Old, Weird (North) America of Bloodshot Bill

It’s a spirit that Bloodshot Bill nails on his records, as one cut after another jumps out of the speakers as from a grotto of molten vinyl, like a vintage comic book suddenly come to life around you. That even his digital releases sound like this is impressive. While this torch-bearer of American murk hails from Montreal, he’s declared Memphis his favorite city, and it’s fitting that his latest album, Come Get Your Love Right Now, was released on Goner Records.

Bloodshot Bill’s latest is in keeping with his past gems, yet never fails to surprise. It’s not so much a formula as a bouillabaisse recipe upon which he can build any number of dishes. From the major/minor blurring of the opener that gives the album its name, echoing with brooding background mutterings, to perhaps a musical saw (?) in the next, “Take Me for a Ride.” There are Link Wray-like instrumentals, rockabilly doo-wop numbers, and even a honky tonk original, “Just Because.” All are full of the shouts and echoes of rollicking characters living in Bloodshot Bill’s universe. 

Bloodshot Bill

It should be noted that on record, the wildness is anchored down with a solid “band,” with hard rocking drums, electric guitar, and upright bass, all played by Bill, set in a well-crafted slapback landscape that will soon have you forgetting this was just released last month. Party-goers might well ask you, “What thrift store did you find these fuzzy 45’s in, again?”

Yet for all the magic of his production methods, there’s plenty of energy packed just in his delivery. The boldness of his vocal territory never fails to amuse and amaze. Give a listen online, then check out two upcoming one-man-band gigs where this fearless troubadour can be seen recreating his real gone songs in the moment.

The Old, Weird (North) America of Bloodshot Bill (2)


Bloodshot Bill appears Friday, March 29, at DKDC, 8:00 pm; and Saturday, March 30, at the B Side, joined by the Faux Killas and Jack Oblivian and the Sheiks.

Categories
Music Record Reviews

The Sore Losers: A Monstrous Mash-Up Rises From The Grave

One of the highlights of last year’s Gonerfest 15 was the screening of director Mike McCarthy’s The Sore Losers at Studio on the Square. Having received the full remastering treatment, it jumped off the screen as never before, combining the best of modern digital clarity with the richness of its original analog film stock. The film, first released in 1997, is an often hilarious Zippin’ Pippin ride through exploitation, low budget sci-fi, and B-movie tropes. But it also provided a portal into the (then) unheralded underground music scene of the era.

Last November, the soundtrack was released on vinyl via Goner Records and Portugal’s Chaputa! Records. It’s barely left the turntable since. For what this double LP offers is nothing less than a reanimated, full-strength Frankenstein’s monster of ’90s garage rock, retro rock, and lo-fi experimentalism.

If the movie itself is a brilliant hodge-podge of styles, so is the album. The tracks are not just lo-fi, they are different varieties of lo-fi, from the late Jack Taylor’s bashed-out title song, to the terrifying/thrilling onslaught of Guitar Wolf, to the quavering homespun charm of Poli Sci Clone. Satisfyingly snotty vocals and chugging/chopping guitars abound, as in contributions by the Makers, the Drags, Gasoline, and Los Diablos del Sol, but many artists you might think you have pegged defy formula altogether.

People were already nostalgic for the Gories by 1997, but Mick Collins avoids that familiar territory with a kind of minimalist crime jazz built on the prominent sax work of Jim Spake. Nick Diablo’s track is reminiscent of Can’s “Ethnographic Forgery” series, with Diablo channeling a lost field recording of some aged Delta harp player. Tracks from ’68 Comeback and Jack Oblivian are littered with wah-wah guitar, organ, and synth hiccups that are true to the flick’s sci-fi universe. Or, in the case of Jack Oblivian’s back-shed funk “Vice Party,” the flick’s soft porn universe. 

Dan Ball

The Clears

One gem, highlighted at the film’s Gonerfest 15 premiere in the form of a 1997 music video that was never released, is “We Are a Rock & Roll Band” by synth pop trio the Clears. Also known as “Rock & Roll Band” to fans of the Clears’ standalone album, the different title may be appropriate, as either a remix or a remastering has given the soundtrack version considerably more snap and crackle. Jack O and Chris Clarity also mine that back corner of the garage where grandpa stores his synthesizers.

Mingled in with all these sonic adventures, we also hear some first rate songwriting. The closer, of course is the 1953 chestnut, “Look Me Over Closely,” (later popularized by the White Stripes), but we also hear the neo-classic swamp pop of the Royal Pendletons, whose “I’m a Sore Loser” is perhaps even more a definitive track than Taylor’s. 

The Royal Pendletons

And finally, in stark contrast with so much clamor, side three closes with the simple, haunting “Bad Man” by Greg Oblivian/Greg Cartwright, all mellow guitar, toy piano, and disembodied, over-the-phone vocals. The recurrence of that track through the film anchors it in a seemingly incongruous mood of regret and heartache. Though it no doubt surprised many Oblivians fans at the time (for this was well before the Reigning Sound), it’s an especially fitting cornerstone for a film built on, and reveling in, incongruities.

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Music Music Blog

Goner and Unapologetic Join Forces For Downtown Meltdown

The true genius of Memphis music has always been our willingness to mix and match. A show tonight in a Downtown alley proves that tendency is alive and well.

“We keep it fresh by following this one idea: If it doesn’t intimidate us, we didn’t think big enough,” says IMAKEMADBEATS, mastermind of the Unapologetic label. “Every show we throw, we try to do something we’ve never seen or done before. We try to scare ourselves with our own ideas, and then we take the necessary steps to make it happen. The adrenaline alone pushes us somewhere new in each show.”

Goner Records co-owner Zach Ives says when he was approached by the Downtown Memphis Commission (DMC) about scheduling a show, he thought it was a great idea.

“I love what [IMAKEMADBEATS] is doing over there,” Ives said. “We’ve met up and talked some over the past year. Nice to share experiences. While our avenues are different, there are plenty of similarities. We are both doing it our own way and figuring it out as we go along.”

Both Goner and Unapologetic follow in the Memphis tradition of independent record labels making and selling the music they want to hear, and then creating the audience for it.

In the case of Goner, Ives and his partner, Eric Friedl (aka Eric Oblivian), that music is the raw, rootsy garage punk that emerged from the Antenna and Barrister’s scene of the 80s and 90s.

For Unapologetic, it’s cutting edge hip hop.

“I really believe people value sincerity and vulnerability in music over everything else,” says IMAKEMADBEATS. “I think things like genre and other divisions come second to those things.

“These kinds of shows are great for us for the obvious reasons of getting in front of new people with open minds, but also because people like the good folks at Goner understand pushing boundaries and creating the kinds of atmospheres that allow people to be unapologetically themselves.

“Beyond the music, shows like these are great for the people, how they feel there, and the kinds of minds they’ll meet there. It’s great for community.”

Ives says after the initial conversation with Unapologetic, “One thing we both agreed on, our different parts of the music community don’t interact enough. This seemed like a good opportunity to try and correct that.”

The show will kick off around quitting time on Thursday, July 12th with Unapologetic rapper PreauXX and wunderkind producer Kid Maestro.

“There are few people as naturally talented as PreauXX,” says IMAKEMADBEATS. “[He] can go anywhere and share the stage with anyone and be a showstopper.”

New Orleans-based retro-synth wizard Benni will echo his spacey vibes  through the Downtown cityscape.

“The Unapologetic guys are super into Benni, so it was a no-brainer!” says Ives. “They demanded it! Also, he has a new record about to come out next month, so it made sense to get him back up and fill Downtown with new space sounds. It also felt like a good transition with the Unapologetic artists.”

Unapologetic R&B sensation Cameron Bethany will lend his smooth, emotive voice to the chorus.

“Cameron found me, actually,” says IMAKEMADBEATS. “We’d met before because someone I was working with in the studio called him in for some background vocals. He told me that he’d kept up with some of the things I was doing with PreauXX years ago.

“One day in 2015, Cameron called me and told me he wanted me to produce a single for him. We met, talked some business and artistic direction, then set a date for him to come and work on the record.

“The music on his Soundcloud page was mostly cover songs and when I’d asked peers about him, a handful mentioned an amazing voice but no one knew what his music sounded like. We started working on his single and after hearing the hook on it, alone, I knew we had something special. Something different. I listened to it on loop after Cam left the studio for almost 3 hours.”

Fresh off a sold-out European tour with Superchunk, Memphis punk legends The Oblivians will be joined by New Orleans vocalist Stephanie McDee.

The Oblivians covered McDee’s “Call The Police” on their last album, Desperation.

“It’s such a party anthem,” says Ives. “And her original version is soooo fast! We’ll see if the guys can keep up. Can’t wait to see what happens.”

The free show, sponsored by the DMC, begins at 5 p.m. in Barbaro Alley Downtown. 

Categories
Music Music Features

Wreckless Eric Returns to Memphis

It’s been 21 years since Goner Records co-owner Zac Ives happened across a Wreckless Eric cassette tape passed from Greg Cartwright to the late Jay Reatard. Another decade has passed since Wreckless Eric, aka Eric Goulden, made his Memphis debut at the original location of the Hi-Tone, thanks to Ives, who tracked him down while on vacation in England. Ever since, the punk singer/songwriter, best known for his 1977 Stiff Records hit “Whole Wide World,” has made Memphis a stop on his infrequent U.S. tours, performing at a variety of venues including Gonerfest, Burke’s Book Store, and the Galloway House. He’s played solo, with his wife Amy Rigby, and once, with reunited cult faves the Len Bright Combo on their only American tour date — coincidentally their second gig in a quarter-century. This Sunday, he returns to headline the second installment of the spring River Series at the Harbor Town Amphitheater, which begins at 3 p.m.

Eric Goulden

Goulden remembers that first Memphis gig, which occurred in July 2006, with lightning precision. “It was like playing to a lot of braying idiots,” he says. “You Memphians think you know about music because of Elvis Presley and Alex Chilton, but you know fuck all about music because you just talk about yourselves. I had to wonder, is there someone who is listening?”

Of the Burke’s Book Store gig in October 2012, Goulden says, “Things changed; it was the first time I felt people were listening.” The next fall, when Goulden returned to play Gonerfest, he decided that Memphis was “quite fun.”

“There must be a Memphis outside of Goner Records, but I don’t know it,” Goulden says, constantly referencing the Cooper-Young record shop, as he names the landmarks he knows in the city. Burke’s is “the bookstore around the corner from Goner,” and Galloway House, where Goulden and Rigby performed in spring 2016, is “that chapel down the road from Goner.”

Yet Goulden is a fan of more than just garage rock. “I grew up loving Stax Records, Otis Redding, and Booker T. & the MGs,” he says. “I’ve never been to Graceland, but I have been driven past Elvis’ Audubon house. Memphis is fascinating — of course it is, that’s a dumb thing to say. It’s another world. You can walk around and go into the motel where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot.”

He gulps, pauses, then utters a soft expletive. “When I come down there, history comes alive for me. It’s almost overwhelming. Even the Mississippi River is something I can’t quite take in — that it somehow comes from Minneapolis and ends up flowing into the Gulf of Mexico.”

Goulden’s Sunday performance will mark the fifth stop on a three-country tour promoting his inspired new album, Construction Time & Demolition, which was cut at his home studio in Catskill, New York, finished and mixed at the Bomb Shelter, Andrija Tokic’s Nashville studio, and released last week on Southern Domestic Records.

“I was gonna call it Forty Years, because it was supposed to come out exactly 40 years after my first album,” Goulden says, “but all these other people already did that. It’s been 40 years since the Damned, Stiff Little Fingers, and the Sex Pistols, and I thought, I don’t want to be involved in that nostalgia trip!”

Despite the title change, Construction Time & Demolition adroitly documents Goulden’s trajectory from his youth in East Sussex and his stint in art school to his career during and after the Stiff Records years. Moody, brilliant, catchy and frequently hilarious, it also tackles the apathy of the Trumpian world in true punk fashion.

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Gonerfest 14: Friday

Gonerfest Friday went all day and night.

Thunderroads take the Gonerfest leap.

For a second day, the weather gods smiled on the afternoon show. This one, at Memphis Made Brewery, featured a truly international cast, with Magic Factory from New Zealand being the farthest afield.

The Memphis band Model Zero made something of a debut with a groovy, hybrid drum machine and live drummer setup.

Model Zero

The atmosphere was friendly, with some kids running around and old friends reconnecting. Allison Green, a New Orleans photographer, has been covering Gonerfest for four years. “It’s my friend’s bachelorette party, so I’m taking it a little easy. I love shooting candids at the day shows more than anything.”

She says Gonerfest has been one of her favorite events to photograph. “Visually, Ty Segall’s set he did a couple of years ago was brilliant. He knows how to put on a show.” she recalled. “Hank Wood and the Hammerheads blew me away. They had two different drummers, and it was the best I’ve ever seen that done. There were tribal undertones, with traditional drums on top, and it was amazing.”

The highlight of her Gonerfest so far was Thursday night’s Sweet Knives performance. “I love Alicja Trout. I was a huge fan of the Lost Sounds. My buddy Rob and I were working in the darkroom—we went to college together—and he said, ‘You need to come to this show with me!’ That was my introduction to the Memphis scene in Chicago. It was 2004, probably? That’s when I saw the Lost Sounds. Alicja’s just the nicest human being in the world. I adore her. It’s very nostalgic for me.”

Kyle Johnson and Alyssa Moore keep Gonerfest sounding good.

Memphis bassist Jeremy Scott said it’s important to pace yourself during these long day/night show combos. “I love the outdoor shows at Murphy’s. Blood Bags, out of New Zealand, played last night, but they first played last year, and I saw people in the room with their jaws dropped. They were just that freakin’ good. Heavy, no bullshit, straightforward rock.”

He has played Gonerfest four times, but last year’s Reigning Sound reunion was his favorite. I don’t think we knew we were going to do it ever again, so to have that go off as well as it did was a lot of fun.”

I didn’t get pictures of anyone I talked to, so here are a couple of random guys.

Thunderroads, a Japanese band, closed out the after with a spectacularly athletic set that ended with  Masahuru, brother of Seiji from Gonerfest favorites Guitar Wolf, leaping from the landscaping.

Masahuru of Thunderroads

Friday night at the Hi Tone started off with Frantic Stuffs from Osaka, Japan playing a charming, English-challenged set. Outside, Goner Records founder Eric Friedl was happy with the way things were going. “The first band is killing it, and it’s as full as it was last night already.”

Finding bands to fill out the weekend is a year-round job, he says. “There are a range of bands you would like to get. Then some people approach us and say, we’ll build a tour to get there, or we’re going to be on tour, it would be great if we could play. Then other people we ask. It’s kind of a random mix. We don’t have enough money to say, ‘We want you. We’re going to fly you in and put you up.’ So it has to be a collaboration between the bands and us. That’s why it works, I think. People really want to be here. People like Mudhoney, Cosmic Psychos—these bands could make more money other places, but they want to be here.”

In the crowded Hi Tone, San Fransciso’s Peacers delivered noisy power pop seeped in Big Star harmonies and Husker Du noise meltdowns.

Gonerfest 14: Friday (3)

Foster Care from New York City blew the roof off with rude, old school hardcore. When the crowd started to throw beer cans onto the stage (a sign that things are going well at Gonerfest) Foster Care’s bassist upped the ante by emptying out the contents of a trash can onto the audience, then wearing the trash can while he played.

Foster Care, with trash can.

The set ended with a punk puppy pile.

Foster Care gets intimate with the fans.

Lindsey, a Memphian attending her fourth Gonerfest, was there for one band. “Nots are my favorite!”

Gonerfest 14: Friday

Nots had their coming out party at Gonerfest a few years ago, and now they’re a staple of the festival. This year, fresh off the road, they did not disappoint, putting forward some new, synthesizer heavy songs, mixed with guitar-led screamers.

Gonerfest 14: Friday (2)

Tyvek, another veteran Gonerfest band, rose to the challenge the Nots laid down. pushed and swayed.

Tyvek

Sydney, Australia punks feedtime’s drummer was rejected for his visa, so the band played their headlining set with Anthony from San Francisco’s Leather Uppers sitting in. At that point, the Hi Tone main room was so packed I couldn’t make it in the door. I paused for a moment to talk to Elise from Salt Lake City, Utah. “I’ve been to Memphis, but this is my first Gonerfest,” she said. “It’s fucking awesome. I like everything about Memphis—the culture, the people, the music.”

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Gonerfest 14 lineup announced!

Goner Records have announced the final line up for the four day extravaganza known as Gonerfest. Now in its 14th year, Gonerfest has serious momentum and pulls in bands and concertgoers from all over the world. And while many associate it with purely punk sounds, Goner proves once again they’re not just one trick ponies. Indeed, the Goner folks are not ponies at all, but rather untamed, genre-burning dragons of the mind.

Take for example the headliner, Derv Gordon, who, with the Equals, belted out such hits as “Baby Come Back,” “Police On My Back,” “Back Streets,” and many other great songs that don’t include the word “back.” Springing out of the 60s London club scene, the bi-racial Equals were a rare hybrid of bubblegum, soul, and beat boom music – genre-burners in their own right. Writers often remind us that their personnel included the great Eddy Grant, who played guitar and wrote many of their songs, but, though their heyday was over when Grant left the group in 1971, they soldiered on without him into the 80s. At the core of the group was singer Derv Gordon and his brother Lincoln on bass.

Gonerfest 14 lineup announced!

Of course, there will be plenty of bands bringing the noise, such as Orlando’s Golden Pelicans, or Sydney, Australia’s Feedtime. But other textures will abound, including the retro synth moods of BÊNNÍ and the Krautrock of Mississippi’s Hartle Road. And while the festival will have its usual globe-spanning curation of bands, from Japan to New Zealand to the UK, Memphis groups will be there in full force. Ex-Memphian extraordinaire Greg Cartwright will DJ and play a solo show, and Jack Oblivian, the Nots, Sweet Knives, and Hash Redactor, among others, will be hometown favorites. Finally, we’ve just learned that film director and Schlitz-fueled street aesthete Dan Rose from New Orleans, writer and director of Wayne County Ramblin’, will emcee the Saturday show.

Check out the full schedule here; follow the links to view profiles of the bands and buy tickets.