Tag: Local Music

Super Witch — Has Risen
(self-released)

Super Witch had the distinct honor of opening the Black Flag, Black Oak Arkansas show that went down at the Young Avenue Deli last year, a performance that pretty much served as the Midtown metal band’s coming out party. On Has Risen, Super Witch ride the line between stoner rock and modern metal, cranking out 10 songs of heavy-hitting, adrenaline-raising, metal thumpers that they call horror rock. Bands like Super Witch are what the recording studio Rocket Science Audio was made for, and so it makes perfect sense that the group enlisted Kyle Johnson to engineer four of the songs on Has Risen, giving the album a primal, live sound. The rest of the record was engineered by Dik LeDoux at M.A.P. Studios, and while LeDoux’s mixes are noticeably cleaner, the result is still pretty much the same.

The song “Spaceship Cadillac” was almost certainly written by Super Witch guitarist/vocalist Eldorado Del Rey, a Memphis songwriter who’s been known to name-drop Cadillacs in his other band, Eldorado and the Ruckus. Overall, Has Risen is a solid release from a new band on the Memphis metal circuit. The songs are fully realized, with pretty amazing titles like “The House that Dripped Blood” and “Island of Lost Souls” thrown in for maximum effect. I could see them on the next Rob Zombie film soundtrack. I could also see them getting mad at me for saying that.

Favorite Track: “Smash Your Own Face”

Candice Ivory — Love Music
(self-released)

Love Music is the latest album from Candice Ivory, the Memphis singer who now lives in St. Louis, Missouri. Recorded at the Electric Room in Memphis, and R&R Music Labs in St. Louis, Love Music is a collection of 12 “avant soul” recordings that make for a layered album that’s not easily digestible on the first listen. Although the record’s title suggests a positive outlook, there is an inherent sadness throughout Love Music, especially on songs like “Hitchhiking in a Dali Painting,” “Old Friend,” and “Dead Girl Walking.” That doesn’t make this record depressing, and great songwriters have the ability to take their listener on an emotional journey throughout the course of an album, something Ivory does on Love Music with ease.

Candice Ivory

“Love Music is a record in the good old sense of the word — it holds together as a whole thing and takes the listener on a trip from start to finish, from euphoria to heartbreak and finally, a little wiser for the journey, to new hope and understanding,” writes Pat Burke in the liner notes of Love Music. And while he’s certainly right about the heartbreak part, I don’t know that I have new hope and understanding after listening to this album. If anything, I’m left a bit confused, which, in a way, is the most appealing part of Love Music; it’s an album that allows the listener to draw their own conclusions after listening.

Favorite Track: “Hitchhiking in a Dali Painting”

Jack Oblivian ­­— Dream Killer
(Mony Records)

The inaugural release on Jack Oblivian’s Mony Records comes in the form of a demos and outtakes cassette tape called Dream Killer. While it’s unclear whether Jack Yarber will turn Mony into a full-fledged label, his first release is a must-have for any fan of his, or Memphis rock-and-roll in general. With 21 tracks spanning songs written with the Sheiks and as a member of the Loose Diamonds, Dream Killer is a glance into this Memphis musician’s impressive solo career, and proves that the Disco Outlaw is at the top of his game, even when he’s recording demos.

This thing would make for a killer LP (hint, hint), but for now you’ll just have to settle for the cassette, which comes with a full-color booklet featuring comic-esque art from Michael Watson. While garage rock has never been a perfectionist’s genre, it’s truly remarkable that someone like Yarber can crank out this many hits and make it seem as effortless as just hitting play on a four-track. With so many new garage bands cropping up in Memphis, it’s a great sign that one of the forefathers is still at the top of the food chain, even if he’s just releasing demos that didn’t make an album’s final cut. I think I speak for everyone when I say we’re ready to hear any other demos Jack has laying around.

Favorite Track: “Boy in a Bubble” and “Guido goes to Memphis.”

Love — Reel to Real (High Moon Records)

Arthur Lee was born in Memphis, so we’re going to go ahead and claim him, even if he did most of his prolific songwriting with Love in Los Angeles. If you’re unfamiliar, Love was one of the best American rock bands of the 1960s, known for their psychedelic rock and politically charged, socially conscious lyrics. Reel to Real was the seventh studio album by Love and features Lee playing with some of the same musicians on the unreleased album Black Beauty.

While it is the last studio album by Love, Reel to Real has never been released on CD until now, or at least until November 27th when the CD version is available for purchase. The songs on Reel to Real feature equal parts psych-rock and Stax-oriented soul, and the CD reissue comes with a 32-page booklet that includes an essay by Rolling Stone’s David Fricke. Reel to Real isn’t exactly classic Love, but it is an interesting part of Lee’s discography and perhaps gives the listener a hint as to what the re-imagined Love would have sounded like (the one that featured Memphis musicians Jack Oblivian and Alicja Trout) had the band ever recorded. Reel to Real is pretty much a must-have for any fan of Lee and features 13 bonus tracks of alternate mixes and studio rehearsals.

Favorite Song: “Which Witch Is Which”

Elvis Presley with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra — If I Can Dream (Legacy Recordings)

Released late last month on Sony Music’s Legacy Recordings, If I Can Dream is the orchestral Elvis album you’ve been waiting for. The album features classic Elvis vocal performances with brand new orchestral accompaniment, along with appearances by Michael Bublé, Il Volo, and Duane Eddy. Recorded at Abbey Road Studios by producers Don Reedman and Nick Patrick, If I Can Dream features 14 classic Elvis songs like “Love Me Tender,” “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” and “In the Ghetto.” If I Can Dream is part of the ongoing Elvis 80th birthday celebration of 2015, along with other Elvis projects, including the launch of the largest Elvis retrospective ever mounted in Europe: “Direct From Graceland: Elvis at the 02.” If I Can Dream is the perfect album for the holidays, with the vinyl version coming as a double LP.

Favorite song: “And the Grass Won’t Pay No Mind”

Hierophants — Parallax Error (Goner Records)

Last year, Goner Records introduced America to Ausmuteants, an Australian synth-punk band that had been gaining steady momentum in Australia and Europe. After releasing two albums for Ausmuteants, Goner seemingly discovered Hierophants, another synth band featuring Ausmuteants’ de facto leader Jake Robertson. Hierophants claim that their music is the aural equivalent of throwing your calculator into the ocean, but that really doesn’t make any sense, so let’s dissect a little bit further. After digesting Parallax Error, I found that I liked the collection of cleverly written synth-pop songs. Unlike the Ausmuteants tracks that sometimes sound like they are going to fall apart at any moment, everything on Parallax Error is calculated, with no room for leftover noise. Mostly Hierophants remind me of a repackaged, Australian version of hardcore-era Devo, with short, two-minute songs for the easily distracted modern mind.

Favorite Song: “Nothing Neu”

Amy G. Starks — Nightime (Socialscenerecords)

Recorded all over Memphis at studios of old like BR Toad (best name ever?) and Easley-McCain Recording, Nightime is a collection of old and new Amy G. Starks songs, the singer most known as an integral part of the first Memphis punk band, the Klitz. The title track is a Big Star cover, and Nightime also features Starks covering “Brown Sugar” (Rolling Stones), “Call Me” (Tony Hatch), and “Let’s Make Love” (Aaron Hall), with most of the songs coming from a recording session at Easley-McCain that took place in 1982 and 1983. The Klitz’s mighty cover of the Rolling Stones’ “Brown Sugar” is thrown in for good measure. “Nowhere Near,” the only new song on the album, comes in the form of a collaboration with Kip Uhlhorn of Cloudland Canyon. Ross Johnson, Jim Dickinson, Doug Easley, and Jim Spake are also all over this album, making it a pretty interesting release from a group of musicians and producers who have been shaping the Memphis music scene for years. Socialscenerecords is a new label started by Stephen Burns of the Scruffs, and hopefully more archival releases from Memphis artists are in store.

Favorite Song: “Brown Sugar”

Shadow in the Cracks — self-titled (Goner Records)

Shadow in the Cracks is the project of Jim and Mike Blaha of the Blind Shake, the band that released Breakfast of Failures on Goner Records last year. While the Blind Shake’s music seems written exclusively for the live setting, the tracks on the debut album by Shadow in the Cracks sound like they were perfected with the help of some studio magic, although the band did put on a great performance at Gonerfest 12 this past September. There are equal parts lo-fi psych-rock and kraut-rock minimalism running through this self-titled debut from the Minneapolis-based band, and it plays like a cohesive album, making the fact that it was written in two months and recorded in two days that much more impressive. Another win for the Blaha brothers, who show no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

Favorite Song: “Timeless”