Tag: Merge Records

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Music Music Blog

Reigning Sound Live from the Stream

This Saturday, Memphis garage-rock gurus Reigning Sound will perform live (streamed to your computer or device via Twitch and Facebook Live) from the stage of B-Side, presented by Goner Records, to celebrate the upcoming Merge Records rerelease of the band’s 2005 album Home for Orphans.

The Home for Orphans reissue isn’t Reigning Sound’s first association with Merge. Their excellent 2014 LP Shattered was released on Merge Records, as was last year’s reissue of Abdication … for Your Love. “Featuring,” Merge’s website boasts, “the original Memphis lineup of singer-guitarist [Greg] Cartwright, bassist Jeremy Scott, drummer Greg Roberson, and [Flyer Music Editor] organist Alex Greene, Home for Orphans presents Reigning Sound’s classic sonic blueprint.”

Home for Orphans

That the record is made up of outtakes, demos, and rarities makes it feel like a glimpse of something elusive and wild. The songs are moody and raw, oozing atmosphere and warbling organ chords. “It was a record almost by accident,” says bassist Jeremy Scott. “We had a whole third record pretty much ready to go when Alex left. (He had a youngun’ to raise, and probably didn’t need to hang with us heathens so much anyway.) The more rockin’ material was lifted for what became Too Much Guitar, along with some newer things we developed as a trio; the moodier stuff, which contains some of Greg’s best songs in my opinion, formed the basis of this record.”

Scott adds, “Great to see it available again, in a jacket which features not one but two pictures of us! We were ugly then and we’re uglier now!”

“Love is a funny thing,” Cartwright sings over a bed of acoustic guitars, slide, and burbling bass. “Don’t know it’s real till it’s caused you pain.” The drums are unobtrusive for most of the song — a light tok! on the snare, shimmery cymbals and hi-hat to keep the beat — until the fills come in, big and dramatic as anything drummer Howard Wyeth played on Bob Dylan’s Desire.

Reigning Sound: (left to right) Jeremy Scott, Greg Cartwright, Greg Roberson, and Alex Greene

“If Christmas Can’t Bring You Home” is plaintive. Shakers and whining electric guitars that riff off of the melody of “Joy to the World” are almost too maudlin, but in the end, it works wonderfully, the sound of a lonely, drunken holiday distilled. And of course, the woeful organ chords work wonders as well. “Medication Blues #1” swirls with Byrds-like chiming guitars and an uptempo drum shuffle. The format for many of the songs — acoustic guitars, swirling organs, electric guitars played crisp and clean, bass and drums high in the mix, and harmonies galore — represents a particular sound Memphis seems to do so well in any genre, be it garage, soul, or power-pop.

“The out of town shows we did in March demonstrated that we can still bring it,” Scott says, obviously amped about the upcoming full-band performance. (Scott, like many musicians in the age of coronavirus, has streamed solo performances from his couch.) “I’m looking forward to having another opportunity to play with these guys, who are like brothers two through four to me.”

The folks at Goner have this to say about Goner TV: “We are all bummed out and we can’t get out and see a show. See our friends. Hang out and have some laughs late into the night in a dark dingy bar. Remember those days? So we wanted to do something about it. Goner TV is our attempt to bring the good times to you.”

Goner Presents: Reigning Sound Live From B-Side Saturday, June 20th, at 8 p.m. Catch it on Facebook Live or on the Goner Twitch channel: twitch.tv/gonerrecords.

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Music Music Features

Bitchin Bajas at Murphy’s Tuesday

CREDIT: Jeremiah Chiu

Bitchin Bajas was launched by Chicago musician and engineer/producer Cooper Crain (who has recorded albums by Circuit Des Yeux, Moon Duo, Times New Viking, Running, and Endless Bummer, among others). The rock- and structure-resisting, mostly improvisational Bitchin Bajas (a trio of Crain, Dan Quinlivan, and Rob Frye) have amassed their own sizeable body of work that tastefully and sometimes beautifully reimagines a vast array of past-drone, minimalist, ambient, pastoral psych and electronic touchstones.

At its strongest (see 2014’s double-length, 77-minute self-titled album on Drag City), the trio adds and subtracts layer upon layer of synths, tape machines, assorted loop-generating effects and instruments, flutes, guitars, bass, organs, xylophones, field/found-sound recordings, processed vocals, and many other sources of sound to create rewarding experiences of pulsating and relaxing prettiness for the willingly immersive listener.

Jeremiah Chiu

Bitchin Bajas

The most recent release by the band is a definite curveball and should no doubt increase the trio’s profile exponentially. Released on March 18th, Epic Jammers and Fortunate Little Ditties (Drag City/Palace Music) is a democratic and epic (nine tracks across an LP and 12″ EP) collaboration between Bitchin Bajas and one of America’s most accomplished, unique, and timeless songwriters, Bonnie “Prince” Billy (Will Oldham). After the Bajas served as Bonnie “Prince” Billy’s crack backing band for a Record Store Day one-off in which the trio properly dialed back to allow for the singer’s unmistakable voice to take the wheel, the immensely-prolific Oldham invited the trio over to his house for a recorded jam session.

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Music Music Features

Hear the Golden Message

North Carolina’s Hiss Golden Messenger will be playing the Levitt Shell this weekend as part of Todd Snider’s “What the Folk Festival.” We caught up with band founder M.C. Taylor to find out more about Hiss Golden Messenger, what it’s like to tour all your life, and to get his take on modern folk rock.

Flyer: What is the biggest thing you’ve noticed about your reach as an artist since signing with Merge Records?

M.C. Taylor: There is definitely a lot more interest in what I’m doing because Merge has such a long reach, but the music I make has always been a slow burn, not a drastic uphill climb. We aren’t a super flashy band; I just write songs that I hope will last for a really long time. It isn’t the hippest thing to be doing, but it’s what I can do well.

Is it important to work with a label close to home? You’ve worked with other North Carolina record labels.

The location was something that was attractive about Merge. I can just go down there and shoot the shit for a while. I think it’s helpful, especially with the kind of music I make, which is rooted in traditional music from this part of the world. There is something comfortable about having them in your own backyard, but that’s not the only reason I started working with Merge.

Do you think the label is introducing your music to a much broader audience? What type of audience is coming to check you out that didn’t before?

Yeah, I think so. It’s hard to tell how much of it is Merge’s doing and how much of it is due to the amount of time we spend on the road. Merge has been in the game for so long, and we have a tight crew of people who are all pushing in the same direction. We talk a lot to Merge, but we also have our own game plan, which is something Merge really appreciates. Everyone in the live band has been doing this forever. We aren’t 21-year-olds who just started touring.

In my musical life there have not been any miracles. What I’m doing as a musician is a lot of really hard work. I’m not expecting any handouts or any free rides just because I’ve never gotten any. It’s a last-man-standing type of situation, and all I can do is keep writing songs that are better than the last batch.

How did you link up with Todd Snider? Have you played with him before?

Honestly, this is just a one-off thing. Todd is going to be performing solo, and he called and asked if I’d be willing to play solo, too. Todd isn’t really on my radar, but I am stoked to be able to play.

You’ve been touring with a backing band lately as opposed to going on the road solo. How are those experiences different?

I like the full-band thing just because I played solo for so long that I started to get lonesome. I still love doing the solo thing, because it’s a little like tight-rope walking. You have to recover in your own way. I like that pressure. I love the idea of playing alone and in small ensembles. I’m doing a few solo shows here and there over the summer, and the next one will be this thing with Todd. Solo shows are becoming pretty rare. My booking agent also books the band, but when we start booking solo stuff we have to be very specific, because it’s a pretty different vibe.

As someone who’s been touring for over 20 years, how do you find inspiration to keep creating new music? Are you surprised at what influences your songwriting now as opposed to when you first started writing music?

Yes and no. I mean my core influences have sort of remained the same. My process of working and what appears in my songs have evolved over time as I’ve gotten older and had kids, but the things that I was attracted to as a 19-year-old still speak to me. My skill set has probably evolved. I’m always looking for something deeper, and that can be hard to put your finger on.

Take the Grateful Dead, for example. So often they sounded so bad, their playing was out of tune, their playing was amateurish at times, you never knew what the hell Mickey Hart was there for. But at the same time their music is so deep and so compelling to me. That’s the place I’m trying to get to.

How do you feel about being labeled folk rock? Do you go out of your way to play with like-minded bands?

At this point in my life, I’m kind of up for anything. We say no to most stuff that comes our way, but not because it’s a folk festival specifically. There is a lot of folk music in my music, but I don’t really deal with folk music in a delicate way. Sometimes my issue with that world is that it feels like there is some Civil War reenacting going on. We can be harder on folk music than we are currently, and it will still be pretty durable. People are kind of scared to experiment in the folk-music world, and I have the complete opposite approach.

Todd Snider’s What the Folk Show with Chicago Farmer, Elizabeth Cook, and Hiss Golden Messenger at the Levitt Shell,

Saturday, July 11, 7:30-9 p.m.

Levitt Shell

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Sing All Kinds We Recommend

Lenguas Largas, White Night, TSOT at the Hi-Tone Friday

Lenguas Largas blew me away two years ago at Gonerfest 9. They played the outdoor stage at Murphy’s, and their three (or was it four?) guitar attack came off as a disjointed, jangly Skynryd that had risen up out of the Arizona desert. They’d sold out of all their vinyl, and they impressed me so much that I actually bought a CD, the most archaic and pointless of merch. They’re stopping in at the Hi-Tone on Friday as part of the Recess Records 25th Anniversary Cavalcade of Clowns. Recess put out their most recent LP, Come On In.

You could call Fullerton, California’s White Night punk, but that wouldn’t really cover all the bases. They also fall into the surfy/garage/weirdo stoner genres. Emphasis on stoner, as they include the ubiquitous 420 in their Bandcamp address. A recent Facebook post praised the citizens of Colorado for their legalization of the good stuff. The band is out in support of their album Prophets of Templum CDXX.

When TSOT announced their permanent hiatus last spring, Midtown bar owners and sound guys alike breathed a collective sigh of relief. But like a cockroach rising out of the glowing embers of Chernobyl, Richard Martin’s banjitar refuses to be extinguished or silenced. My first night in Memphis seven years ago was spent at the Hi Tone where TSOT had a regular Monday residency. I believe my reaction was, “What the shit is this?” I didn’t get it. And that’s because I wasn’t in on the joke. Once it dawns on you, a TSOT show is what all rock and roll shows should be: fun and unpredictable. And usually Sambeaux in his underwear.

Lenguas Largas, White Night, TSOT at the Hi-Tone Friday