Tag: Model Zero

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Music Music Features

Model Zero Obey the Rhythm’s Demands with New Single

Model Zero (Photo: Chloe Littlefield)

Memphis music fans looking for the short, sharp, shocking angles of ’80s post-punk have long known of Model Zero, who began circulating cassettes as early as January 2018. Since then, they’ve been regular players around town — but that’s all in a day’s work for these yeoman troubadours, who’ve played musical chairs through various overlapping bands together for years. Many know Frank McLallen, Keith Cooper, and Jesse James Davis as the Tennessee Screamers, and McLallen and Cooper are with the Sheiks, but their roles are scrambled here, with Cooper playing only bass, McLallen on guitar, and Davis on drums, not to mention Linton Holliday’s guitar thrown in for good measure.

Today, it’s clear that all those nights in hot, sweaty nightclubs tweaked these players’ brains: Their latest slice of wax clearly comes from a land where dancing rules. “Little Crystal” b/w “Leather Trap” arrives this week, courtesy Nashville’s Sweet Time Records (complete with a vivid music video directed by Laura Jean Hocking), and everyone is bound to find their ideal groove on one side or the other. True, “Little Crystal” is the A-side, but the drums and groove on the flip are just as infectious.

That’s no coincidence, as Cooper confesses that the entire band is committed to a life of servitude, not just to the rhythm, but to the Rhythm Master. “It’s funny,” he reflects, “this whole band is obeying the drum machine. It’s a brown box. A Rhythm Master, model RM-10, made in Whippany, New Jersey, in the late ’60s or early ’70s. It’s the most valuable member of the band, for sure.”

Devoted to their vintage overlord, the band works tirelessly to ensure its comfort and safety. “When we play outside in the sun, it heats up,” Cooper says. “If it even thinks about the sun, the tempo starts to really slow down. So with outdoor shows, I have to bump it up a little bit. But come nighttime in the cool, dark club, it’s fine.”

Ah yes, nighttime in the cool, dark club. That environment may be Model Zero’s other overlord, or guiding star. As Cooper says, “The whole concept of Model Zero was this forging of two worlds. We wanted a club dance sound, but also to rock. That’s where the drum machine pulse idea came in.”

McLallen concurs: “Everything’s written with the drum machine in mind. It’s groove-based. That’s been our philosophy from the beginning. It’s our synth groove band — a departure from what we’re doing with the Sheiks, which is more just guitar-driven garage rock.”

To be sure, there’s still plenty of garage in this machine. That dirty, distorted edge, combined with pounding beats reminiscent of Gang of Four and a very Memphis punk energy, heavily colored the band’s eponymously titled 2019 album. But then, Cooper says, as the band opened their minds and hearts more and more to the Rhythm Master, they began to mutate and change. “The old stuff was much edgier and a little bit darker,” he says. “We got that out of our system, and then it was time to party!”

As his zeal becomes more fervent, Cooper edges closer to the Rhythm Master, a gleam in his eye. “We’ve been discovering more beats on the drum machine, you know. Like ‘Little Crystal’ is mambo and Rock 2 combined. You can’t not dance to it.” Then he nudges the pulsing brown box closer to the air conditioning.

Yet it must be stressed that the Rhythm Master’s power is amplified by the considerable talents of minion Jesse James Davis, whose feel for New Wave tribal grooves organically augments his analog overlord to perfection. And he in turn serves other task masters, such as an Arturia MicroBrute synthesizer. “Jesse is able to sync up with the drum machine on his synth,” says Cooper. “You hear it in the background on ‘Leather Trap.’ He’s tapping the tempo and it’s this constant flourish of ethereal ambient noise. Nightclub-type stuff.”

For Cooper, the synth flourishes, the drum machine, and the grooves are all means to reach the end of a nightclub state of mind. “I’m just trying to summon this Happy Mondays vibe in this band,” he says. “That’s always been my mental approach to bass in Model Zero. It’s more like a mindset than an actual, direct reference. It’s just trying to tap into that world of the late nightclub.”

Model Zero performs this Friday, July 1st, at the Nashville East Room, and Sunday, July 3rd, at B-Side Memphis.

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Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Music Video Monday: “Little Crystal” by Model Zero

Model Zero in "Little Crystal"

“Hot stuff! I can’t get enough!” Even in the current heat wave, some Memphians survive the summer by simply owning it. And now, as we bake under the blazing sun, we’ll all be singing that deliciously catchy line from the new single by Model Zero. I choose this heat! Yet the hot stuff that the band sings of may also reside on the dance floor, in a disco ball, or even in a little crystal.

Just what that little crystal is doing to us is unclear, but there’s some kind of transcendence happening — as seen in the video, when the Model Zero lads-about-town find their night of pool displaced to a land of wizardry. Perhaps they were transported there by some esoteric piece of quartz in their vintage drum machine?

Singer/guitarist/sythesist Frank McLallen offers this bit of insight into the sheer grooviness of the new single and video: “‘Little Crystal’ is a break in the surrounding gloom,” he writes. “It’s a sense of hope and travel, love and magic. We’ve already spent the first album recording our anger, fear, pain and distrust. It’s time for Little Crystal take our hands again so we can dip in that hot, hot stuff.”

For her part, video director Laura Jean Hocking was delighted to have the Little Crystal take her hand. “Model Zero is one of my favorite Memphis bands,” she notes in a statement. “I had wanted to do a video for them for some time, and the plan finally came together. The concept I brought to ‘Little Crystal’ meshed perfectly with a visual theme they had in mind, based on art director Sara Moseley’s ‘Candy Cult’ motif.  

“In the ‘magic band’ section, the inspiration for director of photography Chad Barton’s camera moves and lens choices came from the original promo clip for The Rolling Stones’ ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash’ and Parquet Courts’ ‘Homo Sapien’ video.  I wanted the magic band to be pure escapism, wild and colorful, a portal into a world where you can dance the darkness of the world away.” 

Watch for more Model Zero coverage in this week’s Memphis Flyer music feature, out on June 29th.

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Music Music Blog

Gonerfest 18: Friday

Sara Nelson and Poni Silver of Kings of the Fucking Sea on stage at Gonerfest 18.

“I feel like tonight, we’re all Henry Rollins,” said MC Joel Parsons from the stage on Friday night of Gonerfest 18. 

Rollins, the legendary Black Flag frontman, was scheduled to travel to Memphis to be the MC for the show, but canceled because of Covid’s Delta wave. So Parsons, his replacement, simply claimed to be the punk icon all night. The pandemic hovered over the event, which was 100 percent virtual last year, but moved to Railgarten for a vax-only, hybrid event this year.

Joel Parsons

Masking compliance was generally very good in the crowd, which swelled steadily as afternoon aged into evening, except when they were drinking Gonerbrau, the Memphis Made craft beer brewed specially for the fest. (“Chuggable!” brags the official program.) 

Total Hell

The festival’s move to the open-air Railgarten has definitely changed the vibe. Gonerfest is usually something that happens late at night, hidden in cramped clubs, defiantly underground. But these are times that call for change. Goner Records’ Zac Ives said he and co-owner Eric Friedl were skeptical at first, “… but we got in, started looking around, and thinking about our crowd here, and thought, ‘This can work.’” 

Thursday night had started off tentatively, but it ended up being a rousing success. I spent most of Thursday with a camera in my hand as a part of the newly minted Goner Stream Team. The live-stream, under the direction of Geoffrey Brent Shrewsbury, is bringing  the music to the far-flung masses with an ingenious kluge of 20-year-old Sony Handycams, analog hand switchers, and a cluster of mixing boards and dangerously overheating laptops. Gonerfest was actually a pioneer of online streaming, but this year, with the international bands from Australia, Japan, and Europe kept at bay by the pandemic, it’s more important than ever. 

Miss Pussycat and Model Zero’s Frank McLallen.

By the time Model Zero took the stage on Friday afternoon, it was clear Ives was right. The crowd had adapted to the space, which Parsons joked was a “beach volleyball and trash-themed bar.” Model Zero locked into their dance punk groove instantly, and got the afternoon crowd moving with their cover of Buffalo Springfield’s “Mister Soul” and their banging original “Modern Life.” 

Total Hell ably represented the New Orleans trash-metal contingent that has been a Gonerfest staple for years. Nashville’s Kings of the Fucking Sea started their set off by providing noise accompaniment to Memphis’ Sheree Renée Thomas, poet laureate of the New Weird South, before heading off into a set of Can-infused psych jams. 

Nick Allison

Usually there’s several hours after the afternoon sets to change venues, but noise ordinances have forced this outdoor Gonerfest to start and end earlier, so afternoon spilled into evening as Austinite singer/songwriter Nick Allison took the stage with a set that was, dare I say it, kinda Springsteen-y. 

Optic Sink

Another sign that Gonerfest’s audience’s taste has broadened from the old days of all caveman beats, all the time, is Optic Sink. NOTS Natalie Hoffman and Magic Kids’ Ben Bauermeister’s electronic project never sounded better, with the big sound system bringing out their nuances. They, too, debuted a new song that embraced their inner Kraftwerk. 

Sick Thoughts

Gonerfest frequent flyer Drew Owens returned with his long-running project Sick Thoughts. Their set was loud, offensive, and confrontational, and sent beer cans flying across the venue. As Ben Rednour, who was working the Stream Team camera at the edge of the stage, said afterward “When they started sword fighting with mic stands, I knew it was anything goes.” 

Violet Archaea

The Archeas’ album  has been a big pandemic discovery for me, and the Louisville band’s Gonerfest debut was hotly anticipated. Violent Archaea was the charismatic center of attention as the band ripped through a ragged set that reminded us all of why we like this music in the first place. 

Sweeping Promises

The greenest band on the bill was Sweeping Promises. Arkansans Lira Mondal and Caufield Schung have gone from Boston to Austin recording their debut album Hunger for a Way Out, but they haven’t played out much. “I think this is like their fourth show,” said Ives in the streaming control room (which was a tiki bar in the Before Time) as they set up. They’re going to get spoiled by all the attention their Gang of Four-esque, bass-driven New Wave brought from the rapt crowd. 

Reigning Sound’s Greg Cartwright duets with Marcella Simien as John Whittemore and Alex Greene rock along.

The climax of Friday night was Greg Cartwright’s Reigning Sound. After a successful return to the stage with the original Memphis lineup of Greg Roberson, Jeremy Scott, and Memphis Flyer music editor Alex Greene at Crosstown Theater earlier this summer, the “original lineup” has expanded into a Bluff City A-Team with the addition of Graham Winchester, string sisters Krista and Ellen Wroten, and multi-instrumentalist (and dentist) John Whittmore. The Crosstown show had been a careful reading of the new songs from the new album A Little More Time With Reigning Sound. This set transformed the big band into a raucous rave-up machine. (With Cartwright as band leader, set lists are more suggestions of possible futures than concrete plans for how the show will go.) Cartwright invited Marcella Simien onstage for washboard and vocals, duetting with the singer on two songs from A Little More Time, transforming the evening into something between a family reunion and a reaffirmation of Memphis music after a long, scary era. 

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Film Features Film/TV

Music Video Monday: “Secret Lover” by Yesse Yavis

Yesse Yavis

Music Video Monday is just between us.

Jesse James Davis is not the editor of the Memphis Flyer. That’s the other Jesse Davis (hi boss!). Jesse James Davis is a singular singer, guitarist, drummer, and all-around musician who has played with the likes of Jack Oblivian, The Sheiks, The Tennessee Screamers, Model Zero, and my own band, 1000 Lights. Yesse Yavis (Bandcamp link) is the name he uses for his solo act, where he dispenses songs that veer from four-on-the-floor garage punk to poppy love songs.

The instrumental tracks that would become the song “Secret Lover” was recorded in 2017, and finished later with the addition of The New Mood Basement Singers. “The whole idea for these Yesse Yavis songs was inspired by Sam Cooke’s Live at Harlem Square Club record,” he said. “The atmosphere on that album is just complete joy, and has the energy of the greatest house party of all time. I wanted to make music that evoked that same energy and took from that well of doo-wop, ’60s ‘girl groups’ like The Shirelles, The Ronettes, or The Shangri-Las, and pure party music of the late ’50s/early ’60s. The lyrics aren’t really important, the sound and the vibe are what’s on display here. It’s just a simple love song about someone sick of being just a secret side piece and wanting to be a full time lover, not a Secret Lover.”

Last year, the pandemic gave Davis a chance to learn video production and create the 40-minute Yesse Yavis Extravaganza Spectacular Record Release Show, a mix of comedy and live performances taped at B-Side in Midtown. I promise you will not be disappointed with either element. Davis also directed and edited “Secret Lover,” so prepare for liftoff — you don’t have to be the side piece no more.

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

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Music Music Features

Review: Fresh Releases from Memphis Artists

Model Zero

Model Zero (Slovenly Recordings)

There’s something different going on in Model Zero, the self-titled debut album from members of the Sheiks, Yesse Yavis, and several other Bluff City bands. Model Zero is Keith Cooper (bass, synth, drum machines), Frank McLallen (vocals, guitar), Linton Holliday (guitar, vocals), Jesse James Davis (drums, synthesizer, background vocals) — a supergroup, of sorts, made up of members of bands who usually specialize in punk, garage rock, and roots rock. So where do the pulsing drum machines and swirling, psychedelic synthesizers fit in?

“We were in the lab for a long time,” Cooper says of working out the dynamics of playing the songs live. Part of the danger was the exploration of new musical motifs and temperamental equipment.

“Anything could go wrong because we’re using a lot of old equipment and analogue equipment,” Davis says. “I think it adds to the energy.” And there is an undeniable energy to the album. The band’s cover of Buffalo Springfield’s “Mr. Soul” pulses insistently; “This Modern Life” is frantic with guitars, percussion, and the refrain repeated like a chant.

“Our first major performance was playing at Quintron and Miss Pussycat’s Lundi Gras at Sailor Jack’s in New Orleans,” McLallen says. “It was the first time the drum machines went through a huge P.A., and there were guys and girls in costumes coming out on the floor and dancing with this sexy verve.” Holliday chimes in: “That’s the secret. We’re a dance band.”

Model Zero’s album release concert at DKDC Friday, June 28th, at 10:30 p.m.

Alyssa Moore

The Farmer’s Revenge (Self-released)

This is what it sounds like when a talented multi-instrumentalist and audio engineer exorcises her demons — and has fun doing it. With her third solo effort, The Farmer’s Revenge, Alyssa Moore confronts new horizons, the joys of independence, and life after trauma.

“It’s a sequel to The Girl Became a Farmer,” says Moore, solo artist, bassist for math-rock outfit Strengths, and owner and operator of indie recording studio Move the Air. “The lyrics and songs were more about getting up and going forward [this time],” she says, explaining a shift on the new record. “The last [album] was put out as a way to release some emotions about the event that happened,” Moore says, referring to a violent public assault by her ex-boyfriend in 2017. With The Farmer’s Revenge, however, Moore explores new territory; most of the work, she says, fit the motifs of freedom and independence.

Alyssa Moore

“I just locked myself up here and recorded it all,” Moore says. “Everything on the album was written, recorded, and played by me. When I hear the term ‘solo artist’ or ‘solo album,’ I think of a single person doing the work.”

Moore makes no bones about sticking to any one style with her new release. On “Here Comes the Thunder” she alternates whispers and screams during the refrain. With “Cat’s Cradle,” cut-time drums and a bed of acoustic guitar share sonic space with swaggering squalls of electric guitar. The result is as dynamic as the person who crafted it, at times joyous, sometimes dark, and overflowing with personality.

Alyssa Moore performs at Midtown Crossing, Thursday, June 27th, 10:30 p.m.

Hash Redactor

Drecksound (Goner)

After a heavy touring schedule in 2018, Hash Redactor released their debut album, Drecksound, in April via Goner Records. The pairing is hardly surprising, as the band is pure Goner. Fronted by guitarist Alec McIntyre of Ex-Cult and with Meredith Lones (bass) and Charlotte Watson (drums) of Nots laying down rhythm, the band is a Goner supergroup. George Williford on guitar rounds out the lineup.

It’s not just Hash Redactor’s c.v. that screams “Goner.” The songs come in fast and hard, propelled by booming bass and tight drums. Watson and Lones share an easy comfort playing together; their confidence oozes from every song. McIntyre sneers the vocals, an antihero decrying humanity’s self-destructive tendencies and looking cool while doing so. The guitars alone are worth the price of admission.

Hash Redactor performs at Bar DKDC, Saturday, July 13th, 10 p.m.