Tag: live

Categories
Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Music Video Monday: Julien Baker

This Music Video Monday does it in one take. 

Ever since she graced our cover last fall, Julien Baker’s star has been rising. In one month, the troubador will make her Beale Street Music Festival debut. This video, shot by Memphis filmmaker Breezy Lucia in a Downtown parking garage, really gives you a sense of Baker’s raw talent. It’s all one take, with audio recorded from an on-camera microphone, and Baker nails her song “Something” in one take. Seriously, you have to hear this one. 

Music Video Monday: Julien Baker

If you would like to see your video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com

Categories
Music Music Features

Local Record Roundup

From Frayser-born rapper Kia Shine to world-renowned opera star Kallen Esperian, there are plenty of new Memphis-centric albums in the bins this summer.

Shine’s major-label debut, Due Season, cut with the assistance of Shine’s Rap Hustlaz partner, Jack Frost, was released last week on Universal Records. You’ll hear a reprise of “Stunna Frames” and “Respect My Fresh,” but newer songs such as “Krispy” and “Bluff City Classic” should keep Due Season spinning on your CD player for months to come.

Lover Come Back, Esperian’s most recent pop foray, features a dozen torch songs, ranging from a cover of Edith Piaf‘s “La Vie en Rose” to a riveting take on “Stormy Weather,” backed by cellist Jonathan Kirkscey, pianist Tony Thomas, and bassist Jonathan Wires. The masterful Lover Come Back, cut with a 24-piece orchestra conducted by local arranger Sam Shoup, was actually released on the Goose Hollow label in 2005; last month, Esperian relaunched the critically acclaimed album via online retailers CD Baby, iTunes, and Amazon.

Organist Charlie Wood, one of the many underrated performers around town, released Charlie Wood and the New Memphis Underground, an album that taps into this city’s dual legacy of blues and soul, on local label Daddy-O Records in mid-June. Accompanied by guitarist Joe Restivo, saxman Kirk Smothers, trumpeter Marc Franklin, harp player Billy Gibson, and vocalist Tamara Jones, Wood serves up 10 scorching originals and four well-chosen covers, including a propulsive take on Booker T. & the MGs‘ “Boot-Leg.” Covering a tune made famous by the Memphis-born king of the Hammond B-3, Booker T. Jones, is a ballsy move, but Wood pulls it off with panache.

He’s not technically a local boy, but country-music mainstay Billy Burnette — son of Memphis guitarist Dorsey Burnette, one-third of the legendary Rock ‘n’ Roll Trio — returns to his roots with his latest project, The Bluegrass Elvises Vol. 1, which is slated for release on the American Roots label on August 16th, the 30th anniversary of Elvis Presley’s death. On the CD, a laid-back, yet brilliantly played collaboration with Shawn Camp, Burnette romps through a baker’s dozen of Elvis hits, reinterpreting them in traditional bluegrass style. As a concept album, it works, and since Dorsey Burnette and his brother Johnny schooled Presley in his licks when they were all living in the Lauderdale Courts housing project, Billy Burnette’s family history comes full circle.

With assistance from the Makeshift Music collective, Shabbadoo (the brainchild of Joey Pegram of Two Way Radio and Joint Chiefs fame) released a sixth album, Pajama, earlier this summer. A mix of psychedelic jams, electronica tidal waves, and soul-searching riffs, Pajama — released on Pegram’s Minivan label — is available at Midtown indie stores Shangri-la and Goner, or via Shabbadoo’s MySpace page, MySpace.com/ShabbadooBand.

Former Memphian Greg Cartwright regrouped with The Detroit Cobras for Tied & True, released on Bloodshot Records this spring. While garage fans have developed a love ’em or hate ’em attitude (bred, most likely, by the apathy of lead vocalist Rachel Nagy), the Detroit Cobras rock on Tied & True, their fourth collection of obscure R&B covers. Versions of Irma Thomas’ “The Hurt’s All Gone” and Garnet Mimm’s “As Long As I Have You” will tide you over until the next Reigning Sound album drops, hopefully before the end of the year.

With Party Dudes, released on the Arizona-based New Art School label last month, Jackson, Mississippi, garage rockers Tuff Luvs serve up a helluva fun album. Now the quartet — co-vocalists and guitarists Mike Rushing and Carey Miller, bassist Brad Walker, and drummer Murph Caicedo — is in the midst of its first West Coast tour, which will bring the group back to Memphis in mid-September. And Oxford’s irrepressible Tyler Keith & the Preacher’s Kids finally have a new one out: The Devil’s Hitlist, recorded at Easley-McCain Recording Studio and at Tweed Recording Studio in Oxford. The best unsigned band in this neck of the woods, the Preacher’s Kids opted to release The Devil’s Hitlist, which features crowd pleasers such as the Who-inspired “Ghost Rider,” the punk anthem “I Wanna Be a Lost Cause,” and the fiery “Blow You a Kiss,” on their own. Be sure to pick up a copy when the Preacher’s Kids play Gonerfest next month.

Categories
We Recommend We Recommend

The Real Thing

The Mississippi Delta tends to be still and quiet. But when the Sunflower River Blues and Gospel Festival comes to Clarksdale, no one can keep from tapping their feet.

Mississippi’s largest blues and gospel festival celebrates its 20th anniversary this year with artists including Bobby Rush, Denise LaSalle (pictured), Billy Rivers, and the Angelic Voices of Faith.

“Last year, I think we had 17 countries and 35 states come,” publicist Panny Mayfield says.

This year’s performers include the Norwegian band Spoonful of Blues, which features 2007 Norwegian Grammy Award winner Rita Engedalen.

“They have a kindred feeling with the musicians of the Mississippi Delta blues,” Mayfield says of Spoonful of Blues. “They consider Clarksdale the cradle of the blues. They revere Mississippi and the Delta.”

Mayfield adds that the festival is free to attend and run solely by volunteers: “We spend the whole year writing grants and seeking donations. The reason we don’t charge is that the music started here. There are people who could not afford to come otherwise.”

Sunflower River Blues differs from other blues festivals because it showcases pure blues, according to Mayfield. “It’s the real thing. It’s the purest blues festival in America,” she says. “You’ll hear lots of musicians you’re not going to hear anywhere else. They’re all somehow connected to the state of Mississippi.”

As for the volunteer coordinators, Mayfield says, “We’re a bunch of people who love the blues. We range from lawyers to prison guards to librarians. The blues holds it together.”

Sunflower River Blues and Gospel Festival, Clarksdale, Mississippi, Friday-Sunday, August 10th-12th. Free.

Categories
Music Music Features

Return of the Klitz

Los Angeles had the Go-Go’s and the Runaways. New York had the Angels and the Shangri-Las. In Memphis, during a certain era, the most talked about girl group was The Klitz. The band — with Lesa Aldridge, Gail Clifton, Marcia Clifton, and Amy Gassner (billed as Kerry, Darla, Candy, and Envy Klitz, respectively) — sprang onto the Midtown scene in 1978 and quickly worked its way into local rock-and-roll lore. Alex Chilton, Aldridge’s boyfriend and creative partner, served as their impresario and helped the band land early gigs at clubs such as Trader Dick’s, the Hot Air Balloon, and Lafayette’s Music Hall.

Although the Klitz (the name, Aldridge insists, is German slang for “pistol”) are often remembered as Memphis’ first punk group, that honor actually belongs to The Malverns, an earlier band that Gail Clifton formed with Ross Johnson, Matt Diana, and Eric Hill. Aldridge, however, holds the key to the city’s punk legacy. The daughter of a Presbyterian minister, she was reared in Mississippi, on the East Coast, and in Europe. At 18, she was immortalized in a William Eggleston photograph (they’re cousins), shot the night before she left for her freshman year at Sarah Lawrence. In her early 20s, Aldridge returned to Memphis and rented an apartment across the street from Ardent Studios. (The Cramps crashed there while they recorded Songs the Lord Taught Us.) She was also, along with sister Holliday, an inspiration for Big Star‘s Third album, also called Sister Lovers.

“It was a racy time [in Memphis], but I think the Klitz fit right in,” Aldridge says today. “I don’t think we thought about it in those days, outside of the sheer joy of expressing ourselves. I’d played piano since I was 8 and guitar since I was 13. I’d also traveled a lot, and although I think I knew Memphis was provincial, I felt like we were the hub, because all these bands like the Cramps were coming here to be with us.”

“I’d broken up with my boyfriend and was crying on Lesa’s and Alex’s shoulders,” Gail Clifton says of the Klitz’ beginnings. “We started practicing at a boathouse, and our first gig was at the Midtown Saloon in 1978. We were hanging out with the in crowd. The Scruffs influenced me a whole lot, and I think we knew that Alex was something special.”

By ’79, the Klitz had traveled to New York for gigs at Irving Plaza and CBGBs, garnered a write-up in Rolling Stone, and entered Sam Phillips Recording Studio to cut an album with Chilton and Jim Dickinson at the helm. An extremely limited-release single on Jim Blake‘s Barbarian label surfaced, but by the start of the next decade, the Klitz were history.

Aldridge moved to New Jersey and formed a band called Missy & the Men before relocating to Nashville, having three kids, and ultimately teaching English in the public school system. Gail Clifton majored in art history and print-making at the University of Memphis, raised two children of her own, and embarked on a career as a sales consultant.

In 2005, the two staged a mini-reunion of the Klitz with Marcia Clifton. Now, they’ve reformed the group with bassist Stephanie Swindle (Chess Club) and drummer Angela Horton (The Satyrs, Dan Montgomery).

“Before now, I’d come to town and we’d record things. Now we try to get together on weekends and school breaks. I will say that I have not considered moving back here, but [Memphis] is a wonderful town to visit,” Aldridge says.

Local musician Greg Roberson (formerly of The Reigning Sound) has plans to escort the group into Rocket Science Audio later this summer, where they’ll record a new album with studio engineer Kyle Johnson.

After a show in Oxford, Mississippi, last weekend, the Klitz are ready to take the stage at the Hi-Tone Café Friday, July 27th, with Jack Oblivian and Kid Twist. Showtime is 9 p.m. Admission is $7.

“We’ve got some happening songs,” Aldridge says, “and we’re tight and fun to look at.”

When asked if they’d like to see any familiar faces in the audience, Gail Clifton says, “Alex, of course, but I know it’s different for Lesa.”

Aldridge rolls her eyes and says, “Don’t do a ‘we’ on that one!”

For more on the Klitz’ back-story, pick up a copy of Rob Jovanovic‘s Big Star: The Story of Rock’s Forgotten Band or Robert Gordon‘s seminal It Came From Memphis. Also be sure to tune into WKNO Channel 10 on Wednesday, August 1st, when Respect Yourself: The Stax Records Story, which was co-produced by Gordon, airs on Great Performances.

Categories
Music Music Features

Hooked

As curator of the first Memphis Pops Festival, happening Saturday, July 28th, at the Hi-Tone Café, Shangri-La Projects owner Sherman Willmott has assembled a lineup of past, present, and future talent that showcases a genre sometimes overlooked when Memphis music is discussed. With the legacy of blues, soul, and rock-and-roll looming over the city’s music history, Memphis’ contribution to the pop genre tends to be neglected. And by “pop,” I mean pop rock, power-pop, and the garage or punk variations of pop. I do not mean Survivor.

A cursory survey of Memphis pop would probably begin with the Box Tops, where a teenaged Alex Chilton led his band through such ’60s hits as “The Letter” and “Cry Like a Baby.” That band helped launch a scene in the ’70s that included Chilton’s classic cult band Big Star, the Hot Dogs, Cargoe, the Scruffs, Tommy Hoehn, Van Duren, Chilton’s solo career, and Calculated X. It might also include the late ’80s/early ’90s when nascent incarnations of the Simpletones and the Grifters were putting their own twisted spin on pop. But another key band in the history of Memphis pop was the Crime.

The Crime’s heyday was ’80 through ’84, when they released the “Do the Pop” single and the 12-inch EP Crash City USA. Headlining the Memphis Pops Festival are Crime founders Jeff Golightly and Rick Camp, reunited in the form of the new band Everyday Parade, which recently wowed a small crowd at the Buccaneer and should certainly prove to be a highlight of the evening. A brand-new set of Everyday Parade material will be released on CD later this year.

Another surprise on the comeback trail is the Tim Lee 3, featuring the founding member of ’80s jangle-pop stalwarts the Windbreakers. The advance tracks from the band’s upcoming album sound like outtakes from the Dream Syndicate’s classic ’80s album The Days of Wine and Roses.

Yesterday and today: the Crime and Everyday Parade

Representing a younger generation at the Memphis Pops Festival is a who’s who from the hooky end of the local indie scene.

Though currently based in Brooklyn, Viva L’American Death Ray Music for years used various Memphis bars to craft and tighten an evolving, catchy post-punk sound that puts most of their new neighbors to shame. Death Ray is another band on the bill that will be gracing the world with a new album sometime soon.

Antenna Shoes is the rare case of a “supergroup” equaling the sum of its parts, with Steve Selvidge, Paul Taylor, and members of Snowglobe knocking out widescreen power-pop like it’s a walk to the drugstore. The band is currently shopping around a debut album.

Vending Machine’s King Cobras Do, released back in February, is hands-down this writer’s favorite local record in recent memory. Backing Robby Grant for Saturday’s Vending Machine slot will be brother Grayson, Quinn Powers, and longtime drummer Robert Barnett.

The most ubiquitous version of pop-punk can be found blasting from the speakers at your nearest Hot Topic. A better version can be found on a Carbonas record. Channeling what made the Buzzcocks and late-’70s DIY punk great, the Carbonas may be from Atlanta, but they’re honorary Memphians due to regular live visits and a single on Goner Records. The third Carbonas full-length album will be released on Goner in time for Christmas.

Emcee Zac Ives (co-owner of Goner) and DJ Buck Wilders will be filling the spaces in between the bands. Revelers are encouraged to get the festivities started early with an afternoon pre-show at Shangri-La Records. Starting at 3 p.m. on Saturday and concluding just in time to grab a quick nap before heading over to the Hi-Tone, the lineup is as follows: Nice Digs, Arch Rivals, Wallendas, and the Perfect Fits. A seven-inch compilation featuring Viva L’American Death Ray Music, Vending Machine, Antenna Shoes, and the Carbonas will be given away at the show. The EP is a co-release by Shangri-La Projects, Shangri-La Records, and Goner Records. With burgers and hot dogs served throughout the evening (somehow, the perfect power-pop food!), it will be interesting to see how many copies emerge covered in drunken food smudges. As an added bonus, Ardent Records: 40 Years Story, former Commercial Appeal music writer Larry Nager’s documentary on the studio/label that birthed many of the best ’70s pop records, will kick off the evening.

There’s no such thing as overdosing on great pop, as a successfully catchy song happens to be the hardest piece of music to write. Regardless, it’s a safe wager that the Memphis Pops Festival will succeed in filling the fans’ ravenous need for timeless hooks.

Memphis Pops Festival

With Everyday Parade, Vending Machine, Antenna Shoes, Viva L’American Death Ray Music,

The Tim Lee 3, and The Carbonas

The Hi-Tone Café

Saturday, July 28th

Door opens at 6 p.m.; admission is $10

Categories
Music Music Features

Outlaw Spirit

For Joey Killingsworth, “Quittin’ Time” was just the beginning. The Memphian wrote the song and got radio airplay before forming his namesake band, Joecephus and the George Jonestown Massacre.

“I was doing some stuff with John Pickle for his movie The Importance of Being Russell, and I came up with a wacky song called ‘Quittin’ Time,’ which got played on Rock 103, so I thought I ought to put a band together,” Killingsworth explains of the X-rated update of Johnny Paycheck‘s “Take This Job and Shove It.”

(Country music runs in the family. Joey’s father, Bobby Killingsworth, has played guitar with Eddie Bond for more than four decades.)

“Originally, I had two separate groups in mind,” admits Killingsworth, who launched the stripped-down Joecephus and the White Lightnin’ Band around the same time. “Then Hank III became my inspiration: He combines country music and heavier stuff, so I decided I could combine country and hardcore. I love Black Flag and Waylon [Jennings]-era country, so I tried to blend it. We did some acoustic shows, then our first electric show was with Shooter Jennings, Waylon’s son.”

In a recent snapshot, Killingsworth poses shirtless in the middle of Sun Studio, showing off the tattoos that further testify to his affinity for both country and punk rock. A heavily inked symbol for the experimental noise group Einsturzende Neubauten sits high on one shoulder blade, dwarfed by a brilliant caricature of Jim Marshall‘s iconic Johnny Cash portrait.

The song “Jerk U Off My Mind” has garnered more than 7,000 plays on Joecephus and the George Jonestown Massacre’s MySpace page (MySpace.com/JoeyKillingsworth). That song and tunes such as the speed-metal-inspired cow-punk anthem “Going Back to Memphis” and the country boogie “Honky Tonk Night Time” have brought Joecephus and the George Jonestown Massacre national exposure. In April, the group contributed a cover of “Death Comes Ripping” to a Misfits tribute CD. And next month, they’ll hit the road to open shows for Reckless Kelly and Unknown Hinson.

“[As of] this month, we’ll have been at it two years,” Killingsworth, a veteran of ’90s-era indie band Grendel Crane, notes of Joecephus and the George Jonestown Massacre. “When we started, we’d have gigs every weekend or every other weekend, and we’d make $20 apiece. Somehow we started networking, and we’ve been opening for everybody from Southern Culture on the Skids in New Orleans to David Allan Coe in Knoxville.

“I had to turn down a gig playing with The Bottle Rockets last weekend, because the band couldn’t do it,” Killingsworth says, explaining that he’s resorted to running a classified ad with the hopes of finding a permanent rhythm section.

“Right now, it’s me on guitar, Richard Wagor on bass, and either Don Mayall or Brett Broadway on drums, but I’m trying to find a core group, a permanent lineup that can get on the road and tour,” he says.

Last month, Killingsworth was tapped to perform with the late Waylon Jennings’ band at the prestigious Spirit of the Outlaws monthly concert series, held at Douglas Corner in Nashville. He also found time to put the finishing touches on his band’s second full-length CD, Smothered and Covered.

Joecephus and the George Jonestown Massacre will celebrate the release of Smothered and Covered with local reggae group Soul Enforcers at The Buccaneer this Saturday night.

“We’d go into the studio whenever we had a song ready,” Killingsworth says of the album’s marathon-long recording sessions. “We’d have some drinks, knock it out, and really have fun with it.”

It sounds like ol’ Hank might’ve done it that way too, but even so, Killingsworth is cautious about the group’s potential with stereotypical country-music fans.

“With whatever [the mainstream country-music industry] hypes as the new outlaw thing, they might wear big hats, but they’re not really doing anything different,” he says. “Luckily, there’s an undercurrent with these Spirit of the Outlaws shows and with people like Hank III and Dale Watson, who are just too rowdy for the establishment.”

Joecephus and the George Jonestown Massacre play the Buccaneer on Saturday, July 21st. Showtime is 10 p.m. $5 cover.

Categories
We Recommend We Recommend

Stir It Up

Bill Wharton’s musical performances are smokin’ — from his swampy Florida blues to the gumbo he cooks on stage. For 17 years, Wharton, aka the “Sauce Boss,” has fed his fans the gumbo that he specially prepares during each show.

The Tallahassee musician is now set to jam with his band at Blues City Café from Thursday, July 19th, to Saturday, July 21st, and at the Memphis Union Mission on Sunday, July 22nd.

At his upcoming Memphis performances, Sauce Boss doesn’t plan on letting anyone go hungry, especially when it goes to people in need. “We’re all about the food,” he says.

Four years ago, Wharton founded Planet Gumbo, a nonprofit organization that aims to provide hope and sustenance. Since then, he has performed for and fed residents of homeless shelters nationwide. “We try to give a message of hope — and a big pot of gumbo,” Wharton explains. “Food breaks down all barriers and brings people into the kitchen. We bring the kitchen to people, no matter where they are.”

Playing blues and cooking gumbo are “one and the same,” and only Wharton’s special Liquid Summer Hot Sauce rivals his energetic music in spiciness. But for Sauce Boss, “giving back to the communities where we play” is most important.

“I thought I had it really good before I starting doing this. But now that I have a life with service, it’s opened up so many avenues,” he says. “It’s amazing, totally amazing. You’ve got to give to receive, and you receive an awful lot when you give.”

Sauce Boss, at Blues City Café (138 Beale), July 19, 8 p.m. and July 20-21, 10 p.m., free; at the Memphis Union Mission (383 Poplar), July 22, at dinnertime, free. For more information, go to WWW.sauceboss.com or www.planetgumbo.org.

Categories
We Recommend We Recommend

Get the Blues

On July 14th, people will have the chance to see the regional impact of blues music in photographs. Then, they’ll get to hear the music for themselves.

“Blues in the Park,” a concert series in West Memphis put on by the Crittenden Arts Council, is in its second year. Saturday’s event also includes a special viewing of the Center for Southern Folklore’s archival photo exhibit “Memphis Rhythms” at the Crittenden Arts Council, from 4 to 6 p.m. The blues/gospel concert follows at Worthington Park.

“The concert is a way to honor our blues heritage in West Memphis,” says Janine Earney, executive director of the arts council. “In the ’40s and ’50s, West Memphis was the incubator for electric blues.”

The concert kicks off at 5:30 p.m. and will feature the gospel group Spirit of Memphis, 1983 inductees into the Gospel Hall of Fame. Blues music will take over at 7 p.m. with Blind Mississippi Morris and Brad Webb. Morris has been rated among the top-10 harmonica players worldwide by Bluzharp magazine. Webb has played the blues since age 13 and has been performing with Morris for more than 20 years.

“Blues music brings people together and crosses all barriers,” Earney says. “It’s indigenous to the area and reaches everyone, no matter what race, age, or sex. It’s a wonderful unifying music.”

The culmination of the concert series will take place October 20th with an amateur blues/rhythm competition. But for now, park-goers won’t be competing — just listening and, most likely, moving their bodies.

“Blues in the Park,” Saturday, July 14th, 5:30 p.m., Worthington Park (South Worthington Drive, West Memphis). free.

“Memphis Rhythms,” AT Crittenden Arts Council (1800 N. Missouri Street, West Memphis), 4 to 6 p.m. For more information, call 870-732-6260.

Categories
Music Music Features

Nashville to Saturn

Most Memphians don’t think of Nashville as having a booming soul scene, but as the group Charles Walker & the Dynamites attest, the town’s legacy is more than just twangy country tunes.

“The history of Memphis soul music is a big deal to the band, and we’ve looked at Memphis from the get-go as a second market,” says Doyle Davis, owner of Nashville record store Grimey’s and an ardent supporter of the Dynamites.

This Friday, June 29th, the group will roll into The Hi-Tone Café for a release party for Kaboom!, their debut album, released on Outta Sight Records, which is co-owned by Davis and the Dynamites’ founder/guitarist Bill Elder, aka Leo Black.

“We had to get the CD out for Bonnaroo,” Davis says, noting that the Dynamites played the East Tennessee music festival on June 16th:

“It was awesome. The Dynamites were on one of the small stages, but they packed in over 1,000 people. There were kids up front dancing up a storm and screaming, ‘Who are you?’ Charles kept screaming back, ‘I’m Charles Walker, and these are the Dynamites!’ It was the most enthusiastic crowd we’ve ever had, and the band ended up throwing away their set lists, because Charles took it and ran.”

Kaboom! features 10 show-stopping, James Brown-styled funk numbers, ranging from the propulsive “Body Snatcher” to the deep groove “Killin’ It.” The album has already garnered a distribution deal for Outta Sight with RED, which has placed it in mom-and-pop record stores and at national chains such as Barnes & Noble and Borders and online stores such as Amazon, iTunes, and Miles of Music.

“We pressed 5,000 copies to start with, which is our break-even point,” Davis explains. “We put this record out with the hopes that we can make some money and put it back into the label. Daptone (the Brooklyn-based label that’s home to Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings) has been a huge inspiration for us. We see ourselves as the Southeastern complement to what they’re doing.”

Locally, the explosive Kaboom! is available at several stores, or you can pick up a copy at the Hi-Tone on Friday night. Memphis DJs Buck Wilders and The Hook-Up will open the show, which costs $8 in advance or $10 at the door. For more information, go to www.MySpace.com/TheDynamitesBand.

“You have to use your imagination to tap into what really went on, and that’s what I like about rock-and-roll.”

So says local filmmaker John Michael McCarthy, best known for films such as Teenage Tupelo, E*vis Meets the Beat*les, and The Sore Losers.

This summer marks the 30th anniversary of Elvis’ death, but right now, all McCarthy can talk about is David Bowie.

“I’m looking for anybody who has stories about Bowie in Memphis,” McCarthy says. “His second Ziggy Stardust show in America took place at Ellis Auditorium in September 1972. The next year, he did Aladdin Sane at the Coliseum. And back in ’72, he visited Dolph Smith at the Memphis College of Art and bought some work from him.

McCarthy’s new Bowie-esque band, Fingers Like Saturn, will make its debut at The Madison Flame on Friday, June 29th, with openers The Limes and Sector Zero.

Although most people on the Midtown scene know McCarthy primarily as a filmmaker, the Tupelo native made his local debut 23 years ago as a guitarist in the punk group Distemper.

“I’m just lucky that all of these talented people help me with my crazy ideas,” he says of Fingers Like Saturn, which features Jonathan Wires, Susie Hendrix, Jonathan Kirkscey, Steve Selvidge, Cori Dials, and George Takaeda, McCarthy’s former musical partner in Distemper and its follow-up, The Rockroaches.

“When I saw Cori sing in her group The Splints and talked with George, whom I haven’t played with in 15 years, it was like the planets lined up,” McCarthy says.

Playing the Madison Flame, site of the old Antenna club, also makes sense, he says, citing the 1986 date when Distemper played the club’s first all-ages show and the numerous gigs that the Rockroaches performed there.

“My new songs,” McCarthy says, “are like short stories. They’re tightly structured glam pop songs about the South in a ‘what if Bowie came from Mississippi?’ kind of way.

“I think it’s interesting that with most bands in town, there’s no front person. I don’t want to be the front person myself. I like being behind the scenes or to a little left of the scene. Cori has the charisma to do it: She doesn’t just sing songs. She invades space.”

For more info, visit GuerrillaMonster.com.

Categories
News

Pink Palace Will Rock Thursday Night

The second of four “Rock the Palace: Summer Tour 2007” events will take place Thursday, June 28, at the Pink Palace Museum.

Also presented by 93X radio’s Traveling Twisted Thursdays, each after-hour music party provides live entertainment, an exhibit tour, food, a cash bar, and a live remote appearance by 93X.

This Thursday, featured local bands will include Chemical Zoo, Organ Thief, Roger Mexico, and Arma Secreta.

The museum exhibit throughout the summer is “Access All Areas: Your Backstage Pass to the Music Industry.”

Rock the Palace is for adults, 21 and up. Doors open at 6 p.m. For more information, call 320-6320 or visit the museum’s website.