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Rocking the Boat: Memphis Musicians Speak Truth to Power

CREDIT: Joseph Higgins

A few weeks ago, after Memphis protesters had already been joining in the national calls for police reform and accountability, standing firm in the plaza outside of City Hall, organizers felt something extra was in order to bolster morale and keep the demonstrators motivated. That’s when Joseph Higgins’ phone rang.

“Man, it was a beautiful experience,” Higgins tells me. “Some friends of ours hit us up and said, ‘We’re doing something at City Hall and we really need some music. We asked all these different bands and we haven’t heard back from ’em.’ This was Sunday night [June 21st]. And some bands told them, ‘Man, I don’t want to mess up my look in the scene or have clubs treat us different because we’re standing up for what’s right.’ I thought, ‘Wow, that’s crazy to hear about Memphis musicians not wanting to go into the trenches.’ We were like, ‘Man, this is right up our alley.’”
David Vaughn Mason

Chinese Connection Dub Embassy protest

That would be an understatement. Joseph is one of three brothers who have wed a passion for music and a passion for justice in equal measure. Indeed, the Higgins family has been pivotal in distilling political outrage and righteousness into song. It’s a rare talent, but when done right, it’s galvanizing.

The band in question was the Chinese Connection Dub Embassy (CCDE), one of the few reggae bands in the region, and one of the most politically outspoken. “We’re all about truth and rights,” says Higgins, “and spreading the word of injustice, and trying to get some kind of solace at the end of the day for all the stuff that’s going on in the world right now — from COVID-19 to police brutality to No. 45 acting crazy.”

And it was clear that the band raised everyone’s spirits at City Hall. “I felt all the energy from the city. They were so supportive. The whole essence of ‘we’re all in this together’ really stood out. We had a little kid that jumped up in the middle of our set, couldn’t have been more than 4 or 5 years old.”

That Sunday on the plaza was the perfect time to unveil the band’s new single, “Dem A Callin (Flodgin),” released July 10th on Bandcamp. “I won’t be bought, I won’t be sold. We will decide how our story’s told … Dem a callin’!” sings guest vocalist Webbstar on the track. The words ring true in this historical moment, when deciding how the story is told is half the battle. As stories develop around any given incident, the different narratives begin to coalesce and compete. There is the story embedded in, say, a police department statement, versus the story in a live video of the incident. Indeed, the simple phrase “Black Lives Matter” itself offers a narrative in three simple words, shaming those who would terrorize Black people. It’s not surprising that the cover image for CCDE’s single is a protester wearing a #BLM face mask.

These are not the kinds of songs typically associated with the Bluff City. The weight and momentum of Memphis’ rich musical history can obscure those less-illuminated niches where, over the decades, songs that examine the social fabric, or rip it wide open, have emerged. But they are there, and with this story, the Memphis Flyer aims to honor them.
Ziggy Mack

Negro Terror

CCDE is only one example. In fact, it’s only one example from within the Higgins family. Out of that same household sprang the hardcore punk band Negro Terror, which was equally unabashed about calling for progressive change through the power of music. But the genesis of both bands has a tragic side: Their guiding light was the oldest Higgins brother, Omar, whose sudden death after a staph infection in April 2019 was mourned throughout the city.

Says brother David of the two bands: “They both were started by Omar out of his love of music and community. He wanted to start a big musical family and bring people together. And your color, race, religion, sexuality didn’t matter. And that’s how we were brought up. My mother and father were into bringing people together. Our whole family is all about truth and rights. Fighting against oppression and injustice. My mother was a member of the Urban League. So it’s in our blood. As far as Negro Terror, it’s still going! We’re actually finishing up a record, Paranoia. Omar titled it that. He’s all over the record.”

Negro Terror also lives on in the 2018 documentary of the same name by director John Rash, which culminates in a music video for their most popular song, “The Voice of Memphis.” It’s a hardcore homage to the indomitable spirit of this city rising up to be heard, but the song has a surprising provenance. “It was originally a white power anthem, and Omar completely flipped it on its head,” says David. “It was by a band called Screwdriver. The singer, Ian Stuart, was a white supremacist Nazi, and he said, ‘That’ll be the day when I hear a n*gger cover one of our songs.’ And not only did Omar cover it, he changed the lyrics around, made it Memphis, and did it better!”


Negro Terror is one inheritor of the city’s punk legacy, which has often been the source of our most politically charged music. The punk label, of course, is no guarantee of political content, but the genre did usher a new social consciousness into rock music when it sprang from the gutters in the mid-1970s. That was true in Memphis as well, though that was when punk was more of an attitude than a formulaic sound. One of the most punk moments of that decade was when roots rockers Mudboy & the Neutrons capped off an outdoor music festival with their take on “Power to the People”: “Hey hey, MHA, someone moved Downtown away,” quipped Mudboy member Jim Dickinson to the Memphis Housing Authority. “I’ve got a new way to spell Memphis, Tennessee: M-I-C, K-E-Y, M-O-U-S-E!”

That era also saw the premiere of Tav Falco, who sang Leadbelly’s “Bourgeois Blues,” then cut his guitar in two with a circular saw. With his Unapproachable Panther Burns, he would continue to dally in political waters, with songs like “Agitator Blues,” “Cuban Rebel Girl,” or even 2018’s “New World Order Blues.”

But others soon took the impulse in different directions. One of the sharpest purveyors of political pith since the 1980s has been one-time Memphian Joe Lapsley, now a college history instructor in the Chicago area.
Don Perry

Neighborhood Texture Jam

“I’m the lead singer of Neighborhood Texture Jam,” says Lapsley. “If anybody knows about having to explain progressive issues to white people in Memphis, it would be me. To be fair, Texture Jam tends to be a magnet for people that are attracted to something more liberal than what they’re accustomed to in this milieu. But there’s also people there that don’t give a shit about that stuff, you know?”

With songs like “Rush Limbaugh, Evil Blimp,” NTJ made no bones about their leftist tendencies, instincts which made some of their best material relevant to this day. “Wanna see the rebel flags, wanna go and see ’em?” Lapsley bellows in “Old South.” “They’re next to the Swastikas in a museum!” At times, Lapsley took the lyrics a step further, ripping up or burning Confederate flags in their early shows. “Listening to Texture Jam back then,” Lapsley says now, “you were getting a taste of Black Lives Matter before it even happened.

“In Oxford on beer bust night, I said, ‘Anybody that doesn’t want to celebrate the entry of James Meredith here on the 30th anniversary of his registration, well they can just get up and leave!’ These big white football player dudes and their dates all stood up from the first four or five tables. I could see the fear go through the band, so I said, ‘If they come, you’ve got guitars and basses. Just start swinging.’”

Pezz was another band from that era that carries on today with sporadic reunion shows. Their 2017 release, More Than You Can Give Us, updates the Reagan-era punk that first inspired them to today’s struggles, as captured by the album cover, which juxtaposes an image from the 1968 sanitation workers’ strike with one of protesters shutting down the I-40 bridge in 2016. Meanwhile, Pezz frontmen Ceylon Mooney and Marvin Stockwell carry on to this day as community organizers and activists.

The punk spirit lives on in countless other Memphis bands, though what punk actually is is debatable. “If you do hear a band that’s truly just punk, it’s probably kind of boring at this point,” says Natalie Hoffman of NOTS. Yet she and NOTS are usually lumped in with the tag. And while NOTS’ lyrics can often be oblique, they naturally venture into gender politics by virtue of NOTS being an all-woman band in the hyper-masculine punk scene. In that context, the alienation of “Woman Alone” is a unique social critique: “Woman alone/in a landscape/is it always the same? What’s it like/to be a subject analyzed?”


The truth is, songs of political or social critique can take many forms, and they need not wear their outrage on their sleeve. Bassist MonoNeon wrote “Breathing While Black” after seeing the first footage of George Floyd’s murder at the hands of Minneapolis police, but gave his outrage the soft-sell in this case. “While the song came from being saddened by George’s murder, the song is for every Black man and woman who has dealt with police brutality,” he says. And the mellow mood of the sparse Prince-like funk and jazzy harmonies does indeed give the track a more generalizable air of contemplation. It’s a universal song of mourning, in a way, with enough bounce to keep listeners motivated.

Some performers make the message even more palatable by taking a more subtle approach. Brandon Lewis, a new artist with David Porter’s Made In Memphis Entertainment (MIME) label, has just released a track produced in January which relates to the current Black Lives Matter movement, titled simply “Black Man.”

As Porter says, “’Black Man’ is not a protest song, it’s an inspirational song about enlightened people, about the pride that these young people feel today. Because I know you’re viewing me as a Black man, let me let you feel the pride that I have in being a Black man. That’s why that hook works.” Proffering a positive message of self-affirmation is a far cry from burning the stars and bars onstage, but may ultimately be just as effective. For at the heart of today’s protests is a demand for dignity and respect.
Matt White

John Paul Keith

Those qualities can be celebrated in unexpected ways. Americana and rock-and-roll singer/songwriter John Paul Keith recently released his song, “Take ‘Em Down,” in sympathy with the TakeEmDown901 movement, but it begins, surprisingly, with a bit of Southern pride. “You can tell I’m from the South when I open up my mouth …” he sings, before turning to the chorus, “Them statues got to go in every state across the USA.” This is no pride in whiteness, but a refashioning of what “Southern” can mean. As the song goes on, you come to understand that Keith is celebrating a new vision of Southerness that embraces our diversity. “Can you hear the Southern feet marching in the street/And someone saying on a megaphone/No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA/And we ain’t gonna rest until they’re gone.”

“The music is very much Southern,” says Keith. “That tune and those chords, you could take that and do it in a gospel way, or the way I did it, which was more country or rockabilly. It would work either way. But I was trying to repurpose that sound, and use it to say something about this thing. And it also came organically out of me like that. That’s what popped in my head ’cause that’s who I am. I liked using something that comes from the rockabilly tradition for this purpose. I liked that, the idea of refashioning this sound to say something about these old statues.” It’s a rare hybrid of blunt political observations and subtle identity politics, and it works.

Protest has been the stock-in-trade of Memphis hip-hop for decades. While it can be argued that there is political dynamite in even the most gangsta trap track out of this city, simply by virtue of its hyperrealism, there have been select lyricists who step back from the euphoric rush of the crime spree and encourage more contemplation, even as they preserve the urgency of rap’s rapid-fire flow.

Though inactive since the untimely death of group member Fathom 9, the Iron Mic Coalition (IMC) are the undisputed kings of this realm, sometimes called conscious or knowledge rap. When producer IMAKEMADBEATS first returned to Memphis, having spent most of the early aughts in New York, the first artists to really capture his attention were the Iron Mic Coalition. One of the pivotal members was Quinn McGowan, a comic book creator, tattoo artist, and visual artist whose son Quinn is now affiliated with the Unapologetic collective. Another was Fathom 9.

As IMAKEMADBEATS recalls, “In my opinion, while IMC had various talents, Fathom 9, to me, was the most left-wing. I think that’s why I gravitated towards him early on. I went to his funeral, and I heard people walk up to the mic and say, ‘Fathom was weird in a way that made us be okay with being weird.’ He had no shame. He was past the point of comfortable and cute. You’d watch him and say, ‘All right, when is he gonna change positions?’ He did it in a way to where it was daringly uncomfortable. And you know you did your job if you inspired hundreds of people.”

Don Lifted

Among those who were so inspired were the Unapologetic team themselves, who often celebrate ‘weirdness,’ and in doing so, are helping to reshape the image of hip-hop and Memphis itself. While not all Unapologetic artists have a political ax to grind, the very process itself has a political impact. Artist and producer Lawrence Matthews, aka Don Lifted, has found the collective’s embrace of the strange to be liberating, both personally and politically, when he works with them on occasion.

“I’m not necessarily making protest songs per se,” says Matthews. “But I’m talking about my Blackness, my queerness, all of these things. My anxieties and fears around religious beliefs, and the juxtapositions of being in the South and being a Black dude that doesn’t fit into those boxes. Being called a white boy over there, but I’m still Black enough to get murdered over here. But don’t get it confused, I’m still what I am.

“I’m not signed to Unapologetic, but I’m affiliated. And you being allowed to show up is a great thing. The fact that I get to sing songs about what I do is political in a city where they do not allow anybody to have a national platform if it is not soul or street music. I have heard every single way you could shoot a person, every single way you could deal drugs, every single way that you could make street music. But I don’t always hear the way that Black men feel. So I appreciate the space where people are allowed to talk about things I talk about in my music, or that PreauXX talks about or that AWFM talks about. I’m very thankful for those spaces. My voice can be as different, as loud, as odd as it wants to be. And I got a lot of that from listening to conscious hip-hop music.”

Marco Pavé

Yet, while political or cultural struggles inform nearly all hip-hop, especially hip-hop that embraces “oddness” and the interior life, not many artists have picked up conscious hip-hop’s overt politics in the way the Iron Mic Coalition once did. One exception is Marco Pavé. His 2017 debut album, Welcome to Grc Lnd, was a shot across the bow, with thought-provoking lyrics like “Bring me a coffin/’Cos they won’t accept that I am so fluorescent /they place us in darkness/I still see ancestors” capturing the same zeitgeist that inspired Pezz. Blocking the I-40 bridge in 2016 was a turning point for both public demonstrations here and the artists who were inspired by them.

Welcome to Grc Lnd might be considered a concept album of sorts, centered on those protests, but Pavé’s next move surprised many: a hip-hop opera revolving around the same concepts and tracks, redubbed Welcome to Grc Lnd 2030, with a premiere at Playhouse on the Square in 2018. It was the kind of multimedia tour de force that is all too rare in Memphis, combining music of the street with music of the salon, and a heavy dose of political critique.

Since then, the critique has moved into the streets, as apathy fades and a sense of empowerment spreads. Combining demonstrations with a band, as the organizers who invited CCDE Downtown last month were doing, may be the newest frontier in politically charged music-making. It’s a powerful combination. Music has a way of reframing old truths in a new light, and of presenting complex realities in concise, poetic form. And that can change minds.

As Joseph Higgins reflects, “It’s been a slow drip. It’s hard to educate people one by one. So with Negro Terror, the name and the concept, Omar was able to not only preach the message of unity, but to teach. And get people to not just understand, but overstand.”

And stand they will, backed by the beats and riffs and rhymes of Memphis musicians who keep one eye on the world and another on the dream.

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Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Indie Memphis Day 5: High Art, Music Videos, and Penny Hardaway

Shannon Walton in Sweet Knives video for ‘I Don’t Wanna Die’

You’re going to be hard pressed to see everything great on Indie Memphis Sunday, so some triage is in order. We’re here to help.

First thing in the morning is the Hometowner Rising Filmmaker Shorts bloc (11:00 a.m., Ballet Memphis), where you can see the latest in new Memphis talent, including “Ritual” by Juliet Mace and Maddie Dean, which features perhaps the most brutal audition process ever.

Indie Memphis Day 5: High Art, Music Videos, and Penny Hardaway

The retrospective of producer/director Sara Driver’s work continues with her new documentary Boom For Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Micheal Basquiat (1:30 p.m., Studio on the Square). Driver was there in the early 80s when Basquiat was a rising star in the New York art scene, and she’s produced this look at the kid on his way to becoming a legend.

Indie Memphis Day 5: High Art, Music Videos, and Penny Hardaway (2)

The companion piece to Driver’s latest is Downtown 81 (4:00 p.m., Hattiloo Theatre). Edo Bertoglio’s documentary gives a real-time look at the art and music scene built from the ashes of 70s New York that would go on to conquer the world. Look for a cameo from Memphis punk legend Tav Falco.

Indie Memphis Day 5: High Art, Music Videos, and Penny Hardaway (4)

You can see another Memphis legend in action in William Friedkin’s 1994 Blue Chips (4:00 p.m., Studio on the Square). Penny Hardaway, then a star recruit for the Memphis Tigers, appears as a star recruit for volatile college basketball coach Pete Bell, played by Nick Nolte. It’s the current University of Memphis Tigers basketball coach’s only big screen appearance to date, until someone makes a documentary about this hometown hero’s eventful life.

Indie Memphis Day 5: High Art, Music Videos, and Penny Hardaway (5)

The Ballet Memphis venue hosts two selections of Memphis filmmakers screening out of the competition at 1:50 and 7:00 p.m., continuing the unprecedentedly awesome run of Hometowner shorts this year. There are a lot of gems to be found here, such as Clint Till’s nursing home comedy “Hangry” and Garrett Atkinson and Dalton Sides’ “Interview With A Dead Man.” To give you a taste of the good stuff, here’s Munirah Safiyah Jones’ instant classic viral hit “Fuckboy Defense 101.”

Indie Memphis Day 5: High Art, Music Videos, and Penny Hardaway (3)

At 9:00 p.m., the festivities move over to Black Lodge in Crosstown for the Music Video Party. 44 music videos from all over the world will be featured on the Lodge’s three screens, including works by Memphis groups KadyRoxz, A Weirdo From Memphis, Al Kapone, Nick Black, Uriah Mitchell, Louise Page, Joe Restivo, Jana Jana, Javi, NOTS, Mark Edgar Stuart, Jeff Hulett, Stephen Chopek, and Impala. Director and editor Laura Jean Hocking has the most videos in the festival this year, with works for John Kilzer, Bruce Newman, and this one for Sweet Knives.

Indie Memphis Day 5: High Art, Music Videos, and Penny Hardaway (6)

If experimental horror and sci fi is more your speed, check out the Hometowner After Dark Shorts (9:30 p.m., Playhouse on the Square), which features Isaac M. Erickson’s paranoid thriller “Home Video 1997.”

Indie Memphis Day 5: High Art, Music Videos, and Penny Hardaway (7)

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Music Music Blog

Gonerfest 16 Recap: Friday

Violet Archaea at Gonerfest Friday night.

It’s Saturday morning of Gonerfest, and I have a headache. And I’m not the only one. Folks from all over the world are cursing the bright, fall sun of Memphis the morning after an overstuffed night of punk, garage, no-wave, and the indescribable.

And too much beer. Did I mention the beer? Memphis Made brewed a special Gonerbrau cream ale, and it only comes in tall boys for your beer-spraying convenience.

After a full afternoon at Memphis Made with Static Static, Lenguas Largas, Fuck, Graham Winchester, Kelley Anderson, and Tyler Keith, Goners reconvened at Crosstown Arts auxiliary gallery at 430 Cleveland. Miss Pussycat, Quintron’s partner and celebrated artist and puppeteer who recently got a fellowship and retrospective at the Ogden Museum in her native New Orleans, performed her puppet show “The History of Egypt” to as packed a house as it is possible to have. After Antony was defeated at the Battle of Actium, and Cleopatra got fatally intimate with an asp, Miss Pussycat added a post script set in the holy Egyptian city of Memphis detailing the founding of Goner Records and the Mummies playing Gonerfest. Later, Goner co-owner Zac Ives confirmed that this was the first time he had ever been portrayed in puppet form.

Miss Pussycat presenting her ‘History of Egypt’ puppet show, featuring Guitar Wolf as it segued into a ‘History of Gonerfest’.

(I was unable to confirm with Eric Friedl if he had ever been represented via puppetry before that evening.)

Miss Pussycat’s art on display at Crosstown Arts 430 Gallery

In years past, the golden passes have consistently sold out, but individual tickets could still be had if you got to the venue early. This year, Friday and Saturday sold out weeks ago.

“It’s like Mecca, almost. Everyone comes together,” says Megs from Louisville, who is here with her friends Yoko and Aaron.

This is Megs’ second Gonerfest, Yoko’s third, and Aaron’s fifth. They say they’re here primarily to see the Oblivians reunite with Quintron to play their watershed 1997 album Oblivians Play 9 songs with Mr. Quintron. The descriptively titled album is the best Memphis rock record since Big Star’s Third/Sister Lovers. Its reputation has grown in the 22 years since the January 1997 afternoon when Quintron rode the bus up from New Orleans and recorded the album with Greg, Eric, and Jack in one eight-hour session. It sits in an unlikely pocket of lo-fi, punk, and gospel, and the songs have been rarely performed by the full band. “It’s my favorite album,” says Megs.

“I’m ready to go to church tonight,” says Yoko.

Sarah Danger of Mallwalker

At 9 p.m. sharp, Mallwalker from Baltimore, Maryland, gave the evening a swift kick in the ass. Singer Sarah Danger, who would act as the MC for the evening, reserved some special vitriol for the anonymous person who accidentally broke her foot during the band’s 4 a.m. after-show last year. Afterwards, I talk to her as she’s rehydrating at the bar about the band’s big stage debut. “It was fucking amazing while I was up there, but it was horrible beforehand because it was so nerve-wracking!.”

This is Danger’s eighth Gonerfest. “One of my favorite ones was when Guitar Wolf played the opening ceremony. I had never seen that kind of energy. It was so sick.”

The second set of the evening was Richard Papiercuts et Les Inspecteurs. The New Yorker crooned like a hyped-up Brian Ferry. It was an ’80s-infused dance party, with the evening’s only saxophone, and an example of how the sounds at Gonerfest have expanded and diversified over the years.

At 10:30 p.m. was the legendary M.O.T.O. Paul Caporino’s low-fi, pop-rock machine mesmerized the crowd. The peak of the set came with “Tastes Just Like A Milkshake,” a Memphis favorite covered by Secret Service.

Innez Tulloch and Matthew Ford of Brisbane, Australia’s Thigh Master with Memphis singer Jesse James Davis. Blurriness courtesy Gonerbrau Vision (TM).

Brisbane, Australia’s Thigh Master had the distinction of throwing their record release party at Gonerfest. Now For Example is out on the label as of yesterday, and they celebrated in style, joined at one point by Memphis’ Jesse James Davis on vocals.
At the stroke of Midnight came NOTS, a Gonerfest staple, sounding as fierce as ever. Now playing as a three piece after the exit of keyboardist Alexandra Eastburn, Natalie Hoffman did double duty on guitar and synth, while Charlotte Watson and Meredith Lones pounded out titanic rhythm behind her.

NOTS

People on the floor jockeyed for position as the back stage curtains parted to reveal Quintron’s massive vintage Leslie speaker. Violet Archaea was wearing a “Kill A Punk For Rock and Roll” shirt, famously featured on the cover of the Oblivians album Popular Favorites. “This is my first one, but I’ve been wanting to come since I was of age,” she says. “It’s everything I want.”

Her band The Archeas would be playing the super-late night after-party, but she was in no hurry. “2 a.m., 3 a.m. It will be an a.m.”

The Oblivians playing nine songs with Quintron

When Greg Oblivian began the circular riff of “Feel All Right,” the packed Hi-Tone surged forward. Seconds later, the first thrown beer of the night nailed him right in the face. It couldn’t have been more accurately aimed if it was actually aimed. This served to piss him off, and for a glorious hour or so, the snarling, rock-hard Oblivians of old were back. The gospel songs played by punks with a lot more miles on ‘em than in 1997 revealed new depth as they rattled down the road like an old truck about to shake apart. “Before this time another year/I may be gone/In some lonesome graveyard/Oh Lord, how long?”

They encored with the New Orleans zydeco stomper “Call the Police” from their Desperation album, and then Greg decided to teach the band a new song right there on stage at the Hi Tone in front of a packed house at 2 a.m., just to make sure the crowd got that vintage Oblivians experience.

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Music Music Features

Nots’ 3

When I sit down with Natalie Hoffmann, singer and songwriter for the band Nots, I begin comparing that band with a more recent group she founded, Optic Sink. “The songs for Optic Sink,” I venture, “are like Nots songs, but recontextualized and sung an octave lower.” She laughs and says, “Yeah! I’m exploring another octave. It’s super fun.” But later, going back to listen to Nots’ latest album, 3, to be released this Friday, I realize that the contrast is not so apt. For while the new Nots album, sporting plenty of guitar feedback squalls and galloping, jagged rhythms, is certainly nothing like the sequenced synthesizer grooves of Optic Sink, it features less frenetic singing than their past efforts.

Ultimately, the record reflects changes the band has undergone since 2016. It’s not just called 3 because it’s their third album; it’s also the first release of the band as a trio. Pared down to Charlotte Watson on drums, Meredith Lones on bass, and Hoffmann on guitar and synth, the singing can afford to have more dynamics because there’s more room for it. As the night wore on, I asked Hoffmann about such transformations and more.

Nots

Memphis Flyer: So Nots are a trio now. How did that come about?

Natalie Hoffmann: So Ally [Alexandra Eastburn, synthesizer player] left after our second album, Cosmetic. She left after we went to Australia, in order to pursue her art, and we thought for a long time about finding another person to play synth, sticking with me on guitar and second synth. But eventually it became clear that we would be better as a three piece. The three of us have been playing music together for so long that we feel like siblings, so bringing someone else into to that dynamic would be a lot to think about. And honestly, sonically, it worked out to become a three piece again. I play two synths now and guitar.

Did you find yourselves doing more overdubs to compensate for Ally’s absence?

It still sounds a lot like the live set up. We did add some textural elements in the studio, but it’s never so far that it wouldn’t sound like the song live. We recorded with Andrew McCalla at Bunker Audio. He’s recorded quite a bit for us, but on this one I feel like he had made all these advances in his recording setup. And we had made a lot of progress in how we were writing. So making these songs was a perfect meeting of where everyone was at.

Now we’re leaning in to what space can provide. I think you can hear what everyone is doing a little better. It’s nice to hear the rhythm section, and sometimes what I’m playing is a texture complementing that. Rather than two instruments that live in the treble world, competing for the space, when Ally was in the band. I thought that sounded really cool, too, but with the new album it just made sense to play to our strengths. But it still sounds like us. There’s a connecting thread.

Even your guitar playing is very synth-like, in that it’s often bringing more sonic textures to the band than chords or riffs per se.

Yeah, I think that’s the most appealing thing to me. I never really properly learned to play the guitar. I do wish I had the range of tools in my array to be able to whip out some great solo, but that’s not really how it worked out for me. So my strengths are more in the textural realm. And then having a simple melody that’s catchy, or a simple hook. Like in a Ramones song.

One of the constants in your songs is a kind of anger or defiance.

I enjoy writing vocals that are in the punk vein; the singing becomes more of this percussive element. But the trope of the angry woman yelling on top of music gets pretty old for me. Of course, to exist in America now, you’re angry all the time, and that is in the songs — this inequality, this gross distortion of anything that can be called a fact. But, I mean, it’s 2019. Everybody’s gonna have a whole array of influcences. If you do hear a band that’s truly just punk, it’s probably kind of boring at this point.

Nots will play a free record release show at Goner Records on Saturday, May 11th, and headline at B-Side on May 25th.

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Music Music Blog

Gonerfest 15: Saturday & Sunday

CREDIT: Michael Donahue

For this time-worn punter, nearly 12 hours of straight rocking out can seem intimidating, but in hindsight my Goner-rific day zipped by without a hitch. The daytime action, of course, is at Murphy’s Bar. Typically, I make straight for the outdoor stage, but the eerie pop sounds of Pscience stopped me in my tracks. Blending what could be classic big beat sixties tunes with odd harmonics and noise, this group, who only just had their first show earlier this month, has certainly hit upon a good psonic compound in their New Orleans-based laboratory.
Alex Greene

Negro Terror

Then Negro Terror appeared outside, and we heard a whole other kind of eerie. Their chords of doom revving up, the trio was perhaps the most cathartic band of the festival, as they directly addressed the ugly elephants in the room: recent stress over the the rise of fascist groups, and violence in the city. Singer Omar Higgins started with a dedication to Phil Trenary, the beloved president of the Greater Memphis Chamber of Commerce who was recently murdered. “Phil came to our shows. He understood the message,” said Higgins, before launching into raging hardcore riffage. He also reflected the general rage over the recent shooting of Martavious Banks by Memphis police officers, with the anthem, “All Cops Are Bastards (ACAB).” Higgins then dedicated their cover of Detain’s “Capital Punishment” to rapists, and quoted General Patton on the importance of killing Nazis. “Nazis!” Higgins called out, his hand raised in salute, until it became a thumbs-down. “Raus!!”

Michael Donahue

Exek

One longtime Gonerfest-goer commented later, “It’s been good to hear so many political songs at this Gonerfest. They usually have such apolitical punk, and the apathy always bugged me.”

But those in search of escape rather than confrontation didn’t have to wait long, for soon Australia’s Exek took the stage with a subtler sound. They betrayed no emotion as they earnestly led the crowd down a hypnotic spiral, sounding like the love child of Stereolab and early Wire. Propelling it all was a powerful bass and drums that at times recalled Sly and Robbie, sans any hint of white reggae. A fascinating blend.

Alex Greene

Exek

Then, even the most sedentary fans piled in to the bar’s smokey interior for one of the festival’s most anticipated shows, A Weirdo From Memphis (AWFM), backed up by the Unapologetic crew. DJ’d platters and a live band meshed seamlessly as AWFM proved his freestyle mettle, laced with satisfying expletives that caught the mood perfectly.

Michael Donahue

AWFM with fellow Unapologetics and Crockett Hall (far left).

Then it was back outside to hear the afternoon’s closer, Robyn Hitchcock. Given that all of his previous Memphis appearances, going back to 1990, were solo, this show, featuring a crack East Nashville band that included Wilco’s Pat Sansone on bass, arrived with heightened expectations. And they delivered, as the combo never missed a beat amid the jangling 6- and 12-string guitars, vocal harmonies, and driving Brit-pop beats. As with his old bands, the Soft Boys and the Egyptians, Hitchcock’s surreal lyrics cruised effortlessly above the delicate, yet pulsing, rock sounds.

Recalling his first Memphis show, 28 years ago, Hitchcock then tried to imagine what the world would be that many years hence. “No doubt they’ll be releasing the iPhone 21 around then. I may be gone, but I’ll live on in an app, so my ego can have the last laugh. You’ll be able to have the app compose songs exactly as I would. Or you’ll be able to mix and match songwriters, so it’ll compose in the style of, say, me, Tom Petty, and Joni Mitchell.”

The fading day echoed with many such flights of verbal fancy, in a wide-ranging set that included the Soft Boys’ “I Wanna Destroy You” and the Egyptians’ “Element of LIght” and “Listening to the Higsons.” They echoed up and down Madison Avenue as darkness fell, and all the little Goners readied themselves for the night.

Alex Greene

Robyn Hitchcock

Goner

NOTS as portrayed on Gonerfest 15 poster.

Not being quite ready for a long night myself, and being a teetotalling tea head, I supped some strong brew and victuals, missing out on Oh Boland and Amyl & the Sniffers, alas. Arriving at the Hi Tone as the NOTS played, I took some considerable hometown pride in the audience’s rave reaction to what the Goner program guide calls the city’s “synth/guitar squiggle punkers.” They did not disappoint, though it was tough to wedge into the packed room.

And then came a blast from the past, the fabulous Neckbones, once rightly hailed as rock’s saviors some 20 years ago. Newly reunited, they were in true form as they pummeled the crowd with what can only be called maximum R&B, old school rock-and-roll grooves amped up to 11, attacked with genuine ferocity by the Oxford, MS, quartet. Tyler Keith channeled a Southern preacher with his between-song rants, and drummer Forrest Hewes yelled out his gratitude for the audience’s frenzy in flurries of swear words.

Alex Greene

Neckbones

After that, Melbourne’s Deaf Wish, in the unenviable position of following the Neckbones, rose to the occasion with their thorny post-rock rock. There was plenty of noise and wiry, dissonant guitar, but the driving rhythms rocked hard, befitting a band just wrapping up a month long tour. They seemed elated to be ending their U.S. venture on such a Goner note. 
Alex Greene

Carbonas

And so the night’s endgame began, as the Carbonas, who gained much love in their prime over a decade ago, took the stage in their one-night-only, Goner-fueled reunion. Time seemed meaningless as they immediately regained all the chemistry that dissipated when they broke up. Though drummer Dave Rahn’s shirt implored us to “Kill the Carbonas For Rock and Roll,” it was the group that killed it on this night. A friend and neighbor confessed between songs that “this group helped me survive grad school,” and even this fan from back in the day was not disappointed. Nor was the still-packed house, all sporting happy faces as they filed out. 

R.L. Boyce

For some, the night raged on, of course. Eric Oblivian, not content to co-manage the festival, play with the Oblivians, and oversee the Murphy’s show with a child on his back, played Saturday night’s/Sunday morning’s after party with his old outfit, the AAAA New Memphis Legs. And then came Sunday at the Cooper-Young gazebo, featuring R.L. Boyce and Lightnin’ Malcom, as festival-goers bid adieu to their comrades until next year (?), or made plans to convene at Bar DKDC that night, to the groovy, basement-dredged sounds of Memphis’ own Hot Tub Eric. Farewell, Gonerfest 15, and many happy returns!

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Music Music Blog

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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Music Music Blog

Reigning Sound Rule Gonerfest Thursday Night

If you want to get cheered up quick, try Gonerfest. 

Memphis punks Nots open Gonerfest 13 in the Cooper Young Gazebo

I had had a pretty crappy Thursday, and was in a pretty foul mood as I headed to the corner of Cooper and Young for the kickoff of Gonerfest 13. The fresh air, idyllic weather, and flurry of faces, both familiar and unfamiliar, loosened me up a bit, and then Nots rocked away the remnants of my darkness. As Goner co-owner Zac Ives said in his brief introduction to the band, it’s been a real privelage watching this band of Memphis women grow and evolve from raw, explosive talent into the finely honed outfit that confidently kicked off the world’s greatest garage punk festival. Even more heartening was the gaggle of little girls who gathered transfixed before Nots frontwoman Natalie Hoffman. The rest of Gonerfest may not be kid-friendly, but for a few minutes yesterday afternoon some Midtown kids got a glimpse of what a powerful, talented, and determined bunch of women can do. 

The show moved to the considerably less kid-friendly environs of the Hi-Tone for the evening’s festivities, led off by Memphis newcomers Hash Redactors. Half the fun of Gonerfest (well, maybe not literally half) is discovering new acts, and between the psychedelic Redactors and Chook Race from Melbourne Australia, I had joined two new fandoms before 10 PM. As the night’s MC, the legendary Black Oak Arkansas frontman Jim Dandy, explained “Chook Race” is Aussie slang for chicken racing, which is apparently a thing in the Outback. But aside from their accents, the three piece didn’t sound like they were from down under. I got a distinct vibe of Athens, Georgia circa 1981 from the jangly sound and twisty songwriting. Some songs sounded like Pylon, while others could have been outtakes from REM’s first EP “Chronic Town”. 

Chook Race from Melbourne, Australia

The crowd shoehorned into the Hi Tone mingled all kinds of accents and looks. I noticed as I entered the show that passports were being offered as IDs as often as American driver’s licenses. Yes, people really come from outside the states to Gonerfest. Lots of them. 

Reigning Sound

The rest of the evening offered various shades of garage rock, from Ohioans Counter Intuits to the Gonerfest veterans now based in San Francisco Useless Eaters. Guitar heroes Fred and Toody—Oregonian legends who fronted Dead Moon and Pierced Arrows—played a noisy set to a reverent room. Then it was time for a return of some Memphis favorite sons, Reigning Sound. Greg Oblivian Cartwright formed the band in the early 2000s with Alex Greene on keys, Greg Roberson on drums, and Memphis import Jeremy Scott on bass and backup vocals. The original lineup stayed stable for two of the best records created in Memphis since the heyday of Stax, and their live shows are legendary. When the original lineup reunited, with the occasional addition of John Whittemore on pedal steel and guitar, they proved the legends true for those who didn’t get the opportunity to see it go down the first time. There wasn’t a bad band on the first night of Gonerfest 13, but the Reigning Sound were head and shoulders above the rest. No one else had the width and depth of Cartwright’s songwriting, or the telepathic group cohesion that can sound both haphazard and incredibly tight at the same time. These guys are, and have alway been, the real deal. 

Now to get rehydrated for today’s shows. 

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Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Strong Local Offerings Lead Indie Memphis Lineup

Indie Memphis announced its full lineup for the 2016 festival at a bustling preview party at the Rec Room last night. 

Bad, Bad Men,

The most striking feature of the 150-film collection is the strongest presence by local filmmakers since the early-2000s heyday of DIY movies. The Hometowner Competition boasts six feature films, including Old School Pictures’ Bad, Bad Men, a wild comedy of kidnapping and petty revenge by directors Brad Ellis and Allen Gardner, who have racked up several past Indie Memphis wins. Bluff City indie film pioneer Mike McCarthy will debut his first feature-length documentary Destroy Memphis, a strikingly heartfelt film about the fight to save Libertyland and the Zippin Pippen rollercoaster. Four first-time entrants round out the Hometowner competition: Lakethen Mason’s contemporary Memphis music documentary Verge, Kathy Lofton’s healthcare documentary I Am A Caregiver, Flo Gibs look at lesbian and trangender identity Mentality: Girls Like Us, and Madsen Minax’s magical realist tale of lunch ladies and gender confusion Kairos Dirt and the Errant Vacuum. 

‘Silver Elves’


Usually, Hometowner short films comprise a single, popular, programming block; This year, there are enough qualified films to fill four blocks. Sharing the opening night of the festival with the previously announced Memphis documentary The Invaders is a collection of short films produced by recipients of the Indie Grant program, including G.B. Shannon’s family dramedy “Broke Dick Dog”, Sara Fleming’s whimsical tour of Memphis “Carbike”, Morgan Jon Fox’s impressionistic dramatization of the 1998 disappearance of Rhodes student Matthew Pendergrast “Silver Elves”; Indie Grant patron Mark Jones’ “Death$ In A Small Town”, actor/director Joseph Carr’s “Returns”, experimental wizard Ben Siler (working under the name JEBA)’ “On The Sufferings Of The World”, and “How To Skin A Cat”, a road trip comedy by Laura Jean Hocking and yours truly. 

Other standouts in the Hometowner Shorts category include three offerings from Melissa Sweazy: the fairy tale gone dark “Teeth”; “A.J”, a documentary about a teenage boy dealing with grief after a tragic accident, co-directed with Laura Jean Hocking; and “Rundown: The Fight Against Blight In Memphis. Edward Valibus’ soulful dark comedy “Calls From The Unknown”, Nathan Ross Murphy’s “Bluff”, and Kevin Brooks’ “Marcus”, all of which recently competed for the Louisiana Film Prize, will be at the festival, as will Memphis Film Prize winner McGehee Montheith’s “He Coulda Gone Pro”. 

The revived Music Video category features videos from Marco Pave, Star & Micey, Preauxx, The Bo-Keys, Vending Machine, Nots, Caleb Sweazy, Faith Evans Ruch, Marcella & Her Lovers, John Kilzer & Kirk Whalum, Alex duPonte, Alexis Grace, and Zigadoo Moneyclips. 

Internationally acclaimed films on offer include legendary director Jim Jarmusch’s Paterson, starring Adam Driver; Manchester By The Sea from Kenneth Lonergan; and Indie Memphis alum Sophia Takal’s Always Shine. Documentary cinematographer Kirsten Johnson’s spectacular, world-spanning Cameraperson, assembled over the course of her 25 year career, promises to be a big highlight.

Michelle Williams and Casey Affleck in Manchester By The Sea

The full schedule, as well as tickets to individual movies and two levels of festival passes, can be found at the Indie Memphis web site. 

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Music Music Features

Late Summer Record Reviews

CREDIT: Alec Hawkins

Hartle Road — Maxx (Jenny Records)

Hartle Road have been gigging around Memphis and Oxford, Mississippi, for a while now but have only just recently picked up traction at dive bars around Midtown. The band hails from Columbus, Mississippi, so it makes sense that they’d make the drive to Memphis to draw a fan base, which now includes a lot of musicians loosely or directly associated with Goner Records. On Maxx, the band’s debut LP, Hartle Road flirt with garage rock, Krautrock, and ’60s psychedelia. Album opener “New!” is most certainly a nod to German band Neu!, and the song is aiming at the same target that bands like Neu! and La Düsseldorf hit back in the ’70s.

The other nine tracks on Maxx stay within the groundwork laid out by “New!,” with a few detours into post-punk thrown in for good measure. While things start to get weird on “To the Maxx,” there aren’t a whole lot of wrong turns on Maxx. The 10-track album is a concise and fully realized piece of work, and it serves as an interesting first look into the outsider world that the members of Hartle Road must find themselves living in given their home base.

It’s a safe bet that this is the most interesting band from Columbus, Mississippi. Hell, they might even be one of the most interesting bands currently on the Murphy’s/Lamplighter/Hi-Tone dirt circuit. Maxx was recorded in Mississippi by Myles Jordan and Max Hartleroad (hence the album name) and is available on vinyl and on cassette through Jenny Records. If you like Krautrock, off-center psych rock, or identify yourself as any kind of weirdo, Maxx is definitely recommended.

Favorite track: tied between “Garbage Wizard” and “Lemmy”

Various Artists — The 123s of Kid Soul (Numero Group)

Much like the record label Light in the Attic, Numero Group is responsible for digging up some of the best “forgotten music” out there, from stoner rock to forgotten soul. The 123s of Kid Soul is a collection of kid/teenage singers and bands who were seeking the same fame that the Jackson 5 found with their kid-centric songs. The album features 19 tracks, and while some might be a little, umm, childish, this isn’t a kids-only affair, especially “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” cover by the Brothers Rap. If you were a fan of the Home Schooled compilation that came out on Numero a decade ago, The 123s of Kid Soul should definitely be in your collection.

Favorite Track: The Dynamics — “I’m Free, No Dope for Me”

NOTS — Cosmetic (Goner Records)NOTS opted to record their follow-up album to We Are NOTS with Keith Cooper instead of Doug Easley, making for a less polished, more “garage” sound.

Album opener “Blank Reflection” starts with a snare-centric beat before the synth rolls in and Natalie Hoffmann’s familiar scream takes command of the song. The following eight songs don’t exactly reinvent the sound that NOTS has been creating for the past four years, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Punk music — or synth punk, if you insist on calling it that — doesn’t need to reinvent itself to remain relevant or interesting, and the members of NOTS know that. So do their fans.

Keeping that in mind, Cosmetic serves as an excellent second helping of NOTS. The songs are mostly short and sweet, and the dissonant synth parts have been brought to the front of the mix, which was probably a product of the Keith Cooper treatment. His studio might be getting a few more phone calls from local musicians once this album drops.

Favorite Track: “Cosmetic.”

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Cover Feature News

NOTS Ready for Prime Time

CREDIT: Brandi Rinks

Some might believe that NOTS appeared out of the Memphis punk ether, that the ghost of Jay Reatard was granted one good deed to bestow upon mankind. The clouds parted, lightning struck the Goner Records sign on Young Avenue, and NOTS was formed.
While that might make for a good opening movie scene (Craig Brewer, let’s talk.), forming a truly original band in Memphis is usually a slow operation, full of ups and downs, starts and stops, and little support except from the core fan base. Which is the story of NOTS, Memphis’ finest post-punk/garage/no-wave export, featuring Natalie Hoffmann on guitar and vocals, Charlotte Watson on drums, Alexandra Eastburn on synth, and Meredith Lones on bass.

At the time Hoffmann moved to Memphis to attend the Memphis College of Art, the True Sons of Thunder, the Barbaras, and Evil Army were the main acts on the dive-bar circuit. The lack of female musicians on that scene in Memphis was more than noticeable. After linking up with Watson, then a Rhodes College student, to form Bake Sale and, later, the earliest incarnation of NOTS, there was a perceptible change in the city’s musical gender-scape.

“Natalie and I were in Bake Sale for about three years. Once we started writing songs, we played a lot of house parties, and we played the old Hi-Tone a couple times,” Watson explains. “When our drummer from Alabama moved, we decided to start writing new material.”

Hoffmann remembers the earliest version of NOTS as becoming a way to change up the microwaved ’60s girl-group vibe that Bake Sale was channeling.

“With Bake Sale, we were really into 1960s music and trying to cover bands like the Shangri-Las, but that kind of got old. Then I realized I couldn’t sing, so we started to try something different. Once I started hollering, it made a natural shift in things,” Hoffmann said.

“When Carly [Greenwell, Bake Sale’s bassist and an original member of NOTS,] moved, that marked a huge change, because she actually understood how to write harmonies. Without having her in the mix, the songs made less sense. It changed with the lineup and started becoming its own more aggressive thing.”

Aggressive is an understatement.

Hoffmann and Watson went from being the most likely girl group out of Memphis to sign with Slumberland to the next punk band in Memphis to carry the torch lit by the likes of Alicja Trout, Alix Brown, and Pistol Whipped. It didn’t take long for Memphis punk guru and Goner Records storefront manager John Hoppe to take notice.

“I don’t remember the first time I saw NOTS, but I remember the first time I was like, wait a minute, there’s something here that’s different than Bake Sale,” Hoppe remembers.

“It was at that old Lucero loft [at 1732 Overton Park] that was hosting shows for a while. That was the early version of NOTS, but still, I was like, ‘This isn’t Bake Sale. There’s a germ that’s different here,’ and it wasn’t like anything that anybody else was doing. You had that dissonant guitar stuff, and it just wasn’t what I was expecting, at all.”

Somewhere around this time, NOTS did what most bands in Memphis do when they have more song ideas than capital: They asked a friend to record them. Enter Alex Gates.

Gates had already cut his teeth in bands like the Boston Chinks, the Barbaras, and the Magic Kids, and being one of the few people in town who knows how to make budget recordings that don’t sound like some Ardent-wannabe product made him the perfect man for the job, even if those early recording sessions were a little, let’s say, eclectic.

“We made a tape with Alex Gates when Carly was still in the band,” Hoffmann said. “Half of it was recorded in a pool house; the other half of it was recorded in my room. It was about a five- or six-song session.”

Watson also remembers the early recording sessions being a little bit wonky.

“I remember recording at [defunct house venue] the Dairy and watching someone play while listening to the music through one headphone because the other one was broken. There was definitely some makeshift shit going on,” Watson said.

With a demo in the can, NOTS quickly became one of the best emerging punk bands in town. The demo did well, and soon it was time to record a single for Goner Records.

Keith Cooper, the easy-going guitarist from East Memphis who’d been jamming for years in bands like Mojo Possum, the Sheiks, and most recently with Jack Oblivian, stepped up. Cooper had been recording songs for his bands at the Burgundy Ballroom (a home studio worthy of its own cover story) and was more than up to the task of wrangling sounds out of a punk band still trying to hit its stride.

Cooper recorded the Dust Red EP that came out on Goner Records in 2013. The band toured, played more shows, went through another lineup change, and was getting ready to record its debut LP. Then a new player entered the game.

Brandi Rinks

Natalie Hoffmann at the Hi-Tone

The X Factor

Memphis artist Alexandra Eastburn is infinitely cooler than you — and most other people you’ll ever meet. Her artwork is one of a kind, she designs her own clothes, and is a general bad-ass about town. She seems made for the stage. Still, Eastburn was surprised when she was asked to join NOTS.

“I bought a used drum set for $100 when I was about 13. I used to bang on it after school, but I finally just stopped. I mean, how long can you play drums by yourself before you just get bored?” Eastburn said.

“I didn’t really understand why they wanted me, because they were already so good. I’d go to all their shows, and I DJ-ed some of them. They heard some of the records I played, and I think that’s what propelled them to ask me. I was playing all this weird synth stuff.

“It was so funny because Charlotte and I had already talked about my going on tour with the band and selling my drawings. It sounded like a really great idea, so I had that in the back of my mind while I was out of town for about a month and a half in Joshua Tree.

“I came home, and Natalie called me and was like ‘Charlotte and I were talking, and I was just kind of wondering …’ and I interrupted her and said, ‘Yes, I’ll do it!’ because I thought she was going to ask me to go on tour. She said, ‘Okay, cool. Well, do you want to jam on Sunday?’ I was like, ‘Wait, what are we talking about?'”

So, Eastburn found herself performing as a synth player in a fully-formed band. Naturally, there were some growing pains.

“When I first started playing with them, I was playing a Casio, and it just sounded really goofy. It wasn’t the sound I was trying to contribute. It sounded kind of like a pan flute at times,” Eastburn said.

After acquiring a better synth from her employer, Winston Eggleston, it was time to hit the studio for the debut NOTS album, We Are NOTS, with legendary Memphis producer, Doug Easley.

“Doug was a quiet enigma. He was handed a group of people who were pretty much flailing and trying to get their shit together. The album was recorded mostly live, but his influence was awesome. He was incredibly patient, but he had really good ideas on how to make the songs fit,” Hoffmann said.

That debut album was soon being called one of the best punk records of the year. NOTS started touring as much as possible, eventually catching the eye of Heavenly Records at a South by Southwest showcase. Based in the U.K., Heavenly opened the European tour door for NOTS, which helped create a buzz abroad.

Olivia Zuk

The Train Starts Rollin’

NOTS would spend much of 2014 and 2015 on the road, hitting Europe for the first time, in addition to touring with Goner alumni, Quintron and Miss Pussycat. The band had become a live wrecking ball, and, after releasing the “Virgin Mary” single on Goner, it was time to start thinking about recording their sophomore LP.

The band opted to go back to their old friend, Keith Cooper, to record Cosmetic. Easley had laid the groundwork for the NOTS recording process, and Hoffmann was confident that Cooper could pick up where he left off.

“I record better to tape. That’s how I record everything at home, and that’s something NOTS had always wanted to do. That’s also how Keith records everything,” Hoffmann said. “He [Cooper] can get serious, but he also keeps things conducive to a creative output. You never feel under the gun, even though the album has a deadline.”

After a month in the studio with Cooper, Cosmetic was finished. The band toured Europe once more, playing Fred Perry showcases and getting increasing attention and critical praise. But “real life” was still waiting for them when they returned to Memphis.

Back to Reality

There’s a saying among musicians in Memphis that you can either be a big local band or a touring band that happens to be based here. But whatever adventure you choose to chase, your bills will still be waiting for you after the gig.

While casual music fans might think that institutions such as the Memphis Music Commission can do something for local bands with a national audience, the reality is that there are very few resources for bands in Memphis trying to make a living off their music.

“Hardly anyone in Memphis lives off the music they make,” Hoffmann said. “I have to remind people we work with in New York City that I still work full-time, and there’s just some stuff I don’t have time to get done. Same with the people from Heavenly. Goner knows where we’re coming from.

“People just assume we can tour forever and not make any money. That’s an interesting misconception. People sometimes treat us like we are very two-dimensional. And one more thing — ‘all female’ is not a music genre.

“I want to give people the benefit of the doubt, because historically girls have not been portrayed as electric guitar players. If you look at ads from the 1960s, you’re not going to see women playing the guitar,” Hoffmann said. “So in that aspect, I think it’s cool. But it makes me angry that we won’t get compared to all-male bands, simply because there are no women in them.

“I’m influenced by plenty of women,” Hoffmann continued, “but I draw influence from everything. It’s kind of stressful when you only get compared to other ‘woman bands.’ I’ve had journalists tell me that I’m not a feminist because I didn’t mention all female bands that influence me.”

The Half-Open Door

NOTS has it better than most of their local contemporaries. The band has a booking agent, a publicist, and record labels in America and abroad. National media outlets have called NOTS one of the best punk bands going right now. Their Facebook page boasts nearly 7,000 fans. They call the birthplace of rock-and-roll home. Shouldn’t that count for something? Not really. As bass player Lones puts it, “Music history doesn’t pay the bills.” But it could, and should in NOTS’ case.

“I do think NOTS is a serious band. I think that reflects how Memphis is right now. Memphis can be kind of crummy, and not everything is a joke or funny,” Goner’s Hoppe said. “It’s okay to be serious.”

“There’s less movement in Memphis; things just sit inside themselves and keep referencing themselves,” Watson said. “When a band comes to town here, it’s because someone inside the community makes it happen. Things happen from the inside out in Memphis, and there’s no one helping out from the outside trying to showcase local music.”

So why stay here? Luckily for their local fans, Memphis has Goner Records, the label that’s supported NOTS since they were recording in pool houses with broken headphones.

“We have progressed so much through our chaos, and having a label that’s so close has been a huge advantage for us,” Hoffmann said. “Everything we’ve asked for from Goner they’ve given us. I think having to talk to someone from across the country would honestly impede our work.

“There was a major label that was asking about working with us, but it just didn’t feel right,” Hoffmann said. “It all comes down to content with me, and I want to be on a label that’s putting out music I like. If there was a major label putting out awesome bands, I might consider it, but they wouldn’t be right down the street.”