Tag: Oblivians

Gonerfest 20 Thursday: O Sees Can You Say?

Post author By Alex Greene
Post date September 29, 2023

Standing around between bands during last night’s opening salvo of Gonerfest 20, I saw none other than Graham Burks walk by, decked out in headphones and other comm gear, toting a Sony Handycam. As part of a small army of camera operators making the Gonerfest 20 live stream happen, his exhilaration was contagious: he’d just shot an incendiary set by The Kids, who were clearly not phased by having to play borrowed instruments.

“You bastard!” sang front man Ludo Mariman on “Fascist Cops,” a prescient clarion call the Belgian band released in 1978. The band was hitting on all cylinders last night and conjured up that first wave of punk as if it were yesterday. And Burks, having been in the heart of the action as the band played, was glowing like he’d been playing along himself.

Such exhilaration was common among the camera crew. Another of the videographers, Kim Lloyd, had just finished her shift after shooting the French/Swiss band Jack of Heart, who had a similar old-school punk vibe, with echoes of hardcore but still loose enough to pull off a roaring cover of “You’re Out of Time” by the Rolling Stones. Though discharged from her duties for the rest of the night, Lloyd exclaimed “I don’t want to quit! What a rush!” It’s the next best thing to actually playing in a band at Gonerfest.

Live video production headquarters at Gonerfest 20 (Credit: Chris McCoy)

But when I saw Burks, it was obvious that he was not done, nor was the night. “The next band is going to be wild!” he exclaimed with a manic grin moving back to his post onstage. And he wasn’t lying: next up were Osees, aka Orinoka Crash Suite (1997–2003), OCS (2003–2005, 2017), Orange County Sound (2005), The Ohsees (2006), Thee Oh Sees (2006–2017), and Oh Sees (2017–2019). Their reputation as one of the most explosive bands of the last quarter century clearly preceded them, and they did not disappoint.

But they didn’t quite bring the frenzy from the start, opting to start their set with a sonic wash of noise until the beat kicked in with a vengeance. Featuring two drummers, bass, and synth/second guitar backing guitarist and lead singer John Dwyer, the band is a steamroller that blends punk, psychedelic post-punk, and even hints of guttural death metal. There were plenty of pogo-worthy moments, as the mosh pit made clear, but also slower, stop-time beats that allowed plenty of space for the guitar crunch to hang in the air.

Many flipped birds also hung in the air, as Dwyer saluted the crowd with them repeatedly, always receiving them in return with aplomb. “This one’s for you mom!” he shouted with a jeer, before stepping back and saying sincerely, “Seriously, this one goes out to your mother…”

A barefoot John Dwyer (guitar) with drummers Paul Quattrone and Dan Rincon, (right) and keyboardist Tomas Dolas (left) of Osees (Credit: Sara Moseley)

But he also showed Memphis some love. “This one’s for the Oblivians!” he said before unleashing a volley of solo guitar noise. Apparently, the noise was a little off: he stopped mid-riff and announced “I fucked up!” before launching the tune again. Later he quipped, “We’re one and a half months into a tour…and we’re only getting worse!”

Not that he came off as the humble type. Indeed, Dwyer’s mix of bravado and self-disdain perfectly complemented the pounding machine of the band, who also sported some intricate arrangements and varied textures thanks to the telepathic interplay between Dwyer and synth wiz Tomas Dolas, even as the front phalanx of dual drummers (Paul Quattrone and Dan Rincon) and bass (Tim Hellman) propelled them onward. As it turned out, the Gonerfest program guide was not far off in noting what to expect: “Full mania. The biggest act of the fest!”

They were the capstone to an evening that began on a more local note with Memphis’ latest supergroup, Laundry Bats, led by erstwhile Manatees member Abe White “in inimitable Abe-Style,” as Goner’s guide notes. Singing his own songs and playing guitar, he was backed by an enviable collection of superfriends: Jack Oblivian on drums, Alicja Trout on guitar, and Greg Cartwright on bass. Together, they unleashed scratchy twin-guitar rock that harked back to the Golden Age of the Antenna Club. Though all are seasoned pros by now, they exuded a youthful enthusiasm, especially as Cartwright and Jack Oblivian locked down the rhythm. “I’ve never played bass in a band before,” noted Cartwright after their set. “It’s fun!”

Alien Nosejob, the solo project of Ausmuteants’ Jake Robertson, then brought a unique mix of pop-punk that chugged along like a locomotive covered in graffiti. By then the audience had filled in and the crowd surfing had begun. As the night progressed, that and the moshing would gain momentum in the zone in front of the stage, even as hundreds pushed in from the peripheries of Railgarten to get that much closer to the intoxicating sounds.

Inez McLain of Exbats (Credit: Sara Moseley)

By the time Exbats took the stage, it appeared to be the most well-attended Gonerfest in history. The love Memphians have developed for this Arizona band since they appeared at Gonerfest 18 was palpable. Their perfectly minimalist ’60s pop songs by drummer Inez McLain, accompanied by her dad Kenny McLain on guitar, with the bassist and second guitarist chiming in “oohs” and “ahhs” in the background, was like a breath of fresh air. And this fresh air had hundreds of fans dancing and pressing ever-closer to the stage. In the slightly steamy evening, that was the whole night in a nutshell: an audience made up of superfans, hanging on every note, shaking, grinding, and slamming to the beat, thrilling to the freaky harmonies. Gonerfest 20 had begun.

Tags Alien Nosejob, Goner Records, Gonerfest 20, Jack of Heart, Laundry Bats, Oblivians, Osees, Railgarten, The Kids

News The Fly-By

MEMernet: Oblivians, the Storm, and Potato Beers

Post author By Flyer Staff
Post date April 5, 2023

Memphis on the internet.

Oblivians

A music researcher found that finches don’t like The Oblivians. A fascinating New Yorker story about the research said the birds would hit levers that played bird songs, flutes, and trumpets many times.

They avoided a lever that played a recording of a canary, “a large, threatening species,” and another with a song by The Oblivians, described as a “noisy garage-rock band from Memphis.”

“The first time they heard the band, the finches shrieked and jumped away from the lever,” reads the story. “They never listened to The Oblivians again.”

That storm

Posted to Facebook by The DAMN Weather of Memphis

When the weather was wild last Friday, The DAMN Weather of Memphis was there for the play-by-play “because you need balance with actual weather reporting and shitty, cult-following weather reporting,” he posted.

Reddit user u/Smoke1000Blunts got the convo going on the Memphis subreddit asking, “What are you drinking for the end of the world tonight?” Milo’s Sweet Tea got the most upvotes.

April Fools’

Posted to Facebook by Meddlesome Brewing Company

Meddlesome Brewing Company announced a new Mashed Potato & Gravy Black and Tan and a Loaded Mashed Potato Porter last week in an April Fools’ release that said it was “time to carb up and veg out.”

Tags Meddlesome Brewing Company, MEMernet, Memphis, Oblivians, The DAMN Weather of Memphis

Music Music Blog

Greg Cartwright Opens Up About Songwriting and His Hit Black Keys Co-Writer

Post author By Alex Greene
Post date September 29, 2022

Greg Cartwright appears Thursday at Halloran Centre (Photo courtesy Orpheum Theatre Group)

Fair warning: there’s an undeniable bias in my reportage here, being a frequent band mate and collaborator with the subject of the interview below, native Memphian Greg Cartwright. And yet a certain historical imperative compels me to document the details of this songwriter’s process when his work is deemed so notable by critics and fans alike. That became eminently clear this spring, when a song Cartwright co-wrote with the Black Keys, “Wild Child,” topped Billboard’s adult alternative airplay chart. It was a level of success that’s long eluded an artist who’s typically had more critical acclaim than financial windfall. Yet tomorrow, when the Black Keys appear at the Radians Amphitheater at Memphis Botanic Gardens for Mempho Fest, Cartwright will be able to hear the song echoing through the air from his back yard. Will he raise a toast to the Memphis night?

Moreover, this evening, Thursday, September 29th, Cartwright will join Don Bryant and Alicja Trout in the season opener of Mark Edgar Stuart’s Memphis Songwriters Series at the Halloran Centre, with all three artists performing examples of their craft without a band, in the round. At such a moment, how could I resist calling up my old pal Greg to ask him his thoughts on the songwriter’s craft, in all its intricacies and rewards?

Greg Cartwright (Credit: Graham Winchester)

Memphis Flyer: You’ll be appearing with a national treasure, soul singer Don Bryant, on Thursday. How do you relate to his work?

Greg Cartwright: Don’s got an amazing voice and range, and boy that guy can sell a song. It’s amazing! And I love that he and Scott Bomar have this cool relationship, where Scott is Don’s producer and bandleader, and I think that’s such a cool older guy/younger guy relationship. And it’s win/win both ways. Scott’s got great skills, too. And he’s going to be at the event, I think, playing guitar while Don sings his stuff.

Also, I’m a huge Lowman Pauling and “5” Royales fan, so for me, it’s cool to work with somebody who wrote a song for them. It’s as close as I’m ever gonna get to doing anything with somebody who was there when all that magical era of gospel and R&B was happening. And Don’s an amazing songwriter. I love all his songs, from the 50’s on, including the more recent stuff that Scott’s produced. And the Willie Mitchell stuff — all great. I know he’s going to really bring it. I’m a little bit intimidated, to be honest. I don’t know if I can sell a song quite as well as he can.

There’s a certain spirit in that older school of songwriting that you have really zeroed in on and emulated.

Yeah, I really have. A lot of Don’s generation is what inspired me, in a lot of ways, to write in the way that I write. So I take a lot more inspiration from that era of country and rhythm and blues as a songwriter. I’ve always tried, when I have an opportunity to perform with or alongside artists from that generation, because I know there’s something I can learn in person that I can’t glean from a record.

You can kind of see how they embody what they do.

Yeah. Listening to records is great. You can get a lot from that, like you can get a lot from reading a book. But to be able to have a conversation with Hemingway would be a lot different. I can talk to him and understand more where the person is coming from. I always find it interesting to meet performers from that era, because it’s a little more insight into what makes the magic happen.

That era of songwriting has influenced you going back at least as far as the Compulsive Gamblers, and even through your Oblivians work.

You know, Jack [Yarber/Oblivian] and I had already done rock and roll, folk, country, all kinds of R&B and all kinds of other stuff with the Gamblers. So when Eric [Friedl] joined us and we did the Oblivians, it was a pretty late-blooming punk band. We were already adults. It was kind of a fake punk band, is what it was. The idea was, “What is punk music? It’s discontent.” So there were a lot of songs about what you don’t want to do [laughs]. And we took a lot of inspiration from the Ramones. That was Joey’s thing: I don’t wanna do this, I don’t wanna go there, “I’m Against It.” Him telling you what he’s not going to do. And that was an inspiration for the Oblivians. A template, if you will.

You’ve mentioned before that you Oblivians thought of your band as both fun and funny. There was a sense of humor to it.

Yeah, there totally was. It was an opportunity to laugh at life. There are some things in life where you can either laugh or cry. And there’s some very dark material in the Oblivians’ catalog. We took a lot of inspiration from the Fugs, which is a very tongue in cheek critique of society, as well as the Last Poets, also with a heavy critique of society, particularly the racist society in the United States. And you might laugh, and then find yourself going, “God, I shouldn’t laugh at that. That’s horrible!” But it is part of looking at what’s going on around you and trying to find some way to think about it that’s not just sad. But yeah, there’s a lot of dark stuff in the Oblivians. And I’m glad I had a platform to do that stuff when I was younger, because I don’t think I have it in me to laugh at a lot of that stuff at this point in my life.

You’ve talked about how with the last Reigning Sound studio album, you were trying to write in a more positive way.

Yeah, that was a big goal for me; because the pandemic, for a lot of people and a lot of songwriters, was a reset button, where it’s one thing to gripe in songs, or complain, but when you’re faced with some kind of new reality where you don’t even get to be around people, well, you stop complaining and you want to find something to be appreciative about. And that’s a better way of putting it. I was looking to appreciate. There are many things out there that are obstacles, always, but if you’re curious about what is happening around you, and you’re appreciative of the good things that come your way…

For a lot of my life, I thought that the gift I had was that I was very good at emoting whatever pain I was experiencing, in a way that other people seemed to relate to. There are a lot of songwriters like that. They really know how to put that into words, and emote it in a way that elicits a response from other people, where they totally empathize. So a lot of times, I would just be in this kind of trance onstage, sort of crying in public, in a way, and people responded to that. And I can’t say I grew out of it. It wasn’t a natural thing. I would have stayed that way if I hadn’t done a lot of work. But on the back side of that work, I wondered if I could also be just as good at emoting appreciation.

A sense of curiosity is important to that kind of openness, isn’t it?

It really is.

I’ve talked to Don Bryant about this, and also William Bell. Certain writers have this curiosity and this empathy, listening to and absorbing others’ stories. William Bell described sitting in cafes, just people-watching and getting song ideas.

That’s very true a lot of times; it’s so important to be curious, listening to people’s stories, because that’s how you find new subject matter. If you were confined to your personal autobiography, that’s pretty limited. I remember that someone once asked Jack [Oblivian], “Where do you get ideas for your songs?” He was like, “Small talk in bars.” Local gossip! If you keep your ears open, there’s plenty out there to write about. There’s plenty of new ways to frame an age old story, if you’re curious enough to see all the options, all the twists and turns.

Alicja Trout (Photo courtesy Orpheum Theatre Group)

You’ve known and worked with Alicja Trout for decades now, haven’t you?

A long time! Yeah, so when Lorette Velvette left the Alluring Strange, Randy Reinke took her place. And then I took Randy’s place, and played with them for a couple years. Then I started the Oblivians and started to get busy with that, and Alicja Trout was learning guitar, and it was my job to teach her the Alluring Strange songs, so she could take my place. And that’s how we got to know each other: teaching her songs for Misty White’s band. So there you go, Misty White is the Kevin Bacon of Memphis! [laughs]

Alicja was just learning guitar, and it’s amazing that she’s come so far. It wasn’t that much later, maybe five years or so, that she was doing her own stuff and playing with Jay [Reatard]. But even before she played with Jay, she had a band called Girls on Fire, and that was her and Claudine, who played guitar with Tav [Falco]. They had a band together. And boy, when I saw them for the first time, I called Larry Hardy at In The Red the next day and said, “I found a band I want to record, send me some money!” But before I could make it happen, they broke up. [laughs].

And even at that time, I thought, “Wow, she has really come a long way.” And it really amazed me. She had surpassed me as a guitar player, as far as what she could do as a lead guitarist. Because I’m very limited. For me, I’m always accompanying myself so I can perform a song. I’m not a great lead player. I enjoy the challenge, but I would never say I’m very good at it. But there are just some people that really take to something. They’re really passionate about it, and just want to do it, so I guess she must have wanted it. It didn’t take her very long to become a very good guitar player.

You and Alicja both have one foot in the punk world, the heavier rock world…

Aggression.

Yeah! But you both also step back and write these very delicate songs. Like Alicja’s beautiful “Howlin'” on the album of the same name; it’s mostly just her vocals and quiet electric guitar.

I like a bigger palette, and I think she does, too. As for me, I’m so in love with songwriting. It’s been such a helpful tool for me in my life, in so many ways, to process things, that the bigger palette I have, the better I can express myself. And I’m not very concerned with commercial success. So that gives me even less limitations. I think a lot of artists become very limited stylistically because they’re trying to define themselves as a certain kind of performer, or a certain kind of artist. And there’s no shame in that, but you have to have one eye on the marketplace to do that.

The Black Keys appear at Mempho Fest on Friday, September 30. (Credit: Jim Herrington)

How did your collaboration with the Black Keys come about?

I met them a long time ago, probably about 15 years ago. They were traveling with The Hentchmen from Detroit. So when the Hentchmen played Asheville, they told me Dan Auerbach was a huge fan and wanted to meet me. So Esther and I went to the show and afterwards we had an impromptu jam session, with myself, the Black Keys, and the Hentchmen, and we had a great time and got to be pretty friendly. And I hesitate to say this, but he basically said to me how inspiring he found my work. And that’s a massive compliment. Whether it’s the Hives or the Black Keys or whoever — people who’ve actually had success — for them to say to me, “Wow, you’re a huge inspiration to me, a lot of my art comes from emulating some of the things I hear in your music.”

But it’s an even bigger compliment when someone gets to a successful point in their career, and they say “Hey, would you like to come help me work on these productions and songs?” Dan thought enough of my songwriting that he not only wanted it in the Black Keys, but wanted me to help him with other artists he was working with. I really appreciated that. It helped me in so many ways. It gave me a new income stream, just to have a song credit on a Black Keys record is no small thing, especially if it’s a hit. And “Wild Child” was a hit. The synch license requests are still coming in daily.

But also, I think it opened me up to the idea of collaboration in a way that I had not allowed myself before. So around the beginning of the pandemic, I said I tried to focus more on appreciation, and that was a huge moment of growth. But then doing all these co-writing sessions with Dan also represented a lot of growth for me.

Prior to that, being in so many rock bands … When you’re in a band together, you spend too much time together, and eventually some things end acrimoniously. It was definitely that way for me. Prior to the Reigning Sound, the Oblivians spent too much time together and started to get on each other’s nerves. Then Jack and I went back to the Gamblers for a while, and we thought we could do that, but we quickly found out that we still, underneath it all, needed to get away from each other.

The now-defunct Reigning Sound in 2003 (cover photo by Dan Ball)

So when I started the Reigning Sound, my idea was that I would start a band where I would be the benevolent dictator, and everybody would have to do what I said. And I would be good to everybody, I would pay everybody fairly and be equal, but it would just be my songs and the covers I picked. I had never been the boss before, but at that point in my life, I needed that level of total control. Because I didn’t trust people. I had been burnt, I had had relationships that crumbled. And this kind of happens in romantic relationships, too, where you get to the point where you think, “I just need to be in control. I can’t relinquish any control because I might get hurt”. If you can’t be vulnerable, being in control is kind of the obvious option. And luckily I met you and Greg [Roberson] and Jeremy [Scott], and you guys were cool with that. You’re all great songwriters, so to find a bunch of talented people who understand music and get where you’re coming from, who aren’t going to be angry that you don’t want to consider their songs, that’s tricky. And for that same reason, it can’t last forever.

And I came to a point where, when I wrote this last record [A Little More Time with Reigning Sound], I thought, this is a much more positive side of my songwriting, but it’s also the last great burst, for a while, of me needing to have a band where it’s just me and my vision all the time. Now what I really want is to learn how to be vulnerable with other people, and to open up to other people’s ideas. Right now, I really want to do that. You have to tread lightly, and pick people that you trust. You have to pick people that feel safe, and then you can be vulnerable, and then you can be playful.

Did your collaboration with Dan Auerbach begin during the pandemic?

It did. His engineer Alan called and said, “Dan would really like you to come and write. Are you available these days?” So I went, and I had no idea what we would be doing, or who I’d be writing with or for. I assumed it was Dan; I thought maybe it was a solo record or something.

So I got there, and Dan said, this guy Marcus King is going to be here in a half hour and we’re going to write. And it kind of scared me! But as soon as Marcus got there, he was so friendly and open and funny that we had a great time. We got right to it and had four songs in a day. And a little while later, Dan called me back to work with another guy he’d signed, Early James. And we ended up doing two writing sessions together.

And after that, Dan said, ‘I’ve got another one.’ I asked him who it would be with, and he said, ‘It’s the Black Keys.’ [laughs]. So I went and we talked about some song ideas. He played me some jams that he and Pat [Carney] had recorded, with some hooks and stuff. So I went home, sat with them for a couple ideas, thought about lyric ideas, song ideas, chord changes that might be beneficial to the riffs that they had. And I went back and we sat around that day and wrote the rest of the songs. And I wasn’t sure what was going to happen at that point, but they just walked into the other room immediately and started recording. It was instantaneous. They recorded them just as we had worked it out together, then Dan put down a vocal, and that was it, we were done.

I’ve never experienced anything like that in my life! Usually you write a song and there’s weeks or months in between that moment of inspiration and when it gets laid down on tape. But Dan loves the idea of catching something when it’s fresh. There’s some kind of magic there that you might lose if you continue to play and record it. And I think that’s what makes the Black Keys work, especially when you listen back to their earliest stuff, that’s kind of raw and live, like the early Oblivians stuff. There’s not a lot of production going on, and not a lot of adjusting it after the fact. It is what it is.

It also speaks to how carefully you crafted it right out of the gate.

Right, you did all your thinking already. And I think Dan’s very much like the early Billy Sherrill and Rick Hall and all those people. They’re his heroes. And back in their heyday, pre-production was everything, because you couldn’t do much once it was on the tape. It was so limited, track-wise. So pre-production was everything. Where are the mics gonna go? Are you gonna play loud or soft? How are you going to sing it? Everything had to be figured out before the tape rolled. And then you got what you got. And I think Dan appreciates that way of thinking. He tracks live to one inch 8-track, the same as the last few records I’ve made. I’m enamored with it as well. I love the idea of planning everything out on the front and then just recording it.

With something like “Wild Child,” some people may not associate it with ‘great songwriting,’ because it’s more primitive. It’s not, say, Leonard Cohen-style lyrics or whatever, but a lot of craftsmanship really goes into riff-oriented songs as well, doesn’t it?

Yeah. The song is two chords. It’s about as simple as a song can be. To me, that requires even more work. How do you build all these dynamics and cliffhangers and hooks and everything if it’s just the same two chords over and over? So it’s almost more challenging to make a really fun ride out of those two and half minutes. And I think that’s how people used to work back in the day. Now artists and musicians have the option of, “Well, you can lay down the basic track and continue to tweak it and add things and take things away, ad nauseam.” That is definitely a way to build a song. But it doesn’t really speak to me. And also, it’s exhausting. Because you’re never really sure when you’re done. If you’re doing all this stuff after you record it, editing and stuff, where do you stop? The way people used to do it, when you stopped was when it was recorded, and then you just mixed it.

It must have been very gratifying to go through that process in a day or two, and have one of those songs become a hit.

Yeah, it’s been a real experience, to say the least. I knew the date it was coming out, and I was really anticipating it, almost voyeuristically, like, “Boy, nobody knows I’m part of this, and I get to just watch it all happen.” But then it came out and all this press came out, and there was my name in every interview, talking about the process and my songwriting. So I felt a little bit vulnerable in a way I wasn’t anticipating, which was a little scary. I thought I was just gonna be a name in a credit on a record label. I didn’t think they’d actually talk about me. But I was also really appreciative of that, once I became comfortable with it. They were trying to tell the world I’m a good songwriter. What a nice thing to do.

I always enjoyed the feeling of sitting in the audience at a Big Ass Truck show, say, watching my songs be performed by others.

I know what you mean. There is that feeling of like, “This will stand!” This will stand on its own. I don’t have to be there animating it. It’s not me, it’s the song. And that is a great, great feeling. You’ve built something that will last, and that other people can inhabit. People will empathize so much with the lyric that they want to deliver it themselves.

Tags Alicja Trout, Don Bryant, Greg Cartwright, Halloran Centre, Memphis Music, Memphis Songwriters, Oblivians, Reigning Sound, The Black Keys

Music Music Blog

Weekend Shows Celebrate A Quarter Century of Goner

Post author By Alex Greene
Post date May 30, 2019

CREDIT: MIchael Donahue

MIchael Donahue

Eric Friedl and Zac Ives of Goner Records

Scan over the provenance of bands signed to Goner Records and you’ll see a polyglot of international performers, hailing from Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto, Montreal, Leipzig, London, and Dunedin, New Zealand. There are acts representing both Melbourne, Australia, and Melbourne, Florida. Not to mention other domestic burgs like New Orleans, Minneapolis, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Chicago, and, naturally, Memphis. Goner is very much a hometown player.

This year, the label and store are celebrating their 25th Anniversary with a weekend of hot music. It starts on Friday, appropriately enough, with Jeff Evans, Ross Johnson, and Walter Daniels, all of whom helped foster the scene out of which Goner arose, followed by that national treasure, Jack Oblivian. On Saturday, we have upstart country with the Flamin’ A’s and the strange-o-billy of Bloodshot Bill. Sunday’s first show will feature a screening of Mike McCarthy’s Sore Losers, followed by the Tokyo terrors that started it all with Goner’s first release in 1993, Guitar Wolf. New Orleans’ own Royal Pendletons, beloved by many a Memphian, will have a rare reunion performance after that, and the evening will see more from Tokyo with the Let’s Go, and Big Clown from Memphis.

The span of such bands, both geographically and stylistically, is remarkable, but quite in keeping with the eclectic vision this label has pursued. The store, too, get’s widespread appreciation, including another nod last December from Rolling Stone magazine as one of the country’s ten best record stores.

With all that in mind, I reached out to Goner’s founder and co-owner Eric Friedl to delve into how this all came to be, who makes it tick, and how it came to be a global mini-empire.

Memphis Flyer: I just read in Bob Mehr’s great profile that you moved here with the express purpose of opening Shangri-La Records with Sherman Willmott.

Eric Friedl: Yeah. It was basically like 30 records. It was pretty amazing. And actually our big windfall was the WLYX sale. They closed down Rhodes’ radio station and sold all their vinyl and we got like a thousand records. So that was really the start of the store.

When you met Sherman, you guys must have been into records already. But did you have retail experience or business experience?

No. Sherman had the idea to do the flotation tanks thing [with customers floating in salt water solution]. That was his big moment of “Ah-ha, Memphis needs to relax!” And he was only thirty years ahead of his time. But he realized even if you have an active massage/flotation tank place, nothing’s really happening. It’s dull. So, the record store idea was a side thing to the flotation tanks. And it kind of went from there. I don’t know why he asked me. We had done a little fanzine together, I think? So we had kept in touch and we had kept up with the music and stuff.

Before Goner, Shangri-La set a local precedent of a label connected to a record store. That’s not very common is it? Stax did that of course, and there are other examples, but…

It’s weirdly happening now, the other way. Labels are opening stores. I think it makes sense. You’re in the middle of everything and the bands are hanging out at the store, and you’re like, these guys need a record. But doing it more as a full time thing, I don’t think it’s that common.

Do the two sides of the business enhance each other?

Luckily for us, they’ve complemented each other. When one has been going bad the other one has been going good. I can’t really say one or the other is the moneymaker. It’s varied. It is hard, because we wanna tell people about the label, but we also wanna tell them about the store. People who are into the label stuff don’t care that we’ve got a original Abbey Road record in. So it’s kind of tough to balance sometimes.

But my thing has always been about serving the customers. If they wanna buy Adelle records, that’s fine. We’ve got Adelle records. We’re not probably gonna put out that record on our label. Someone else will do that. That’s not really our spot. But in terms of retail, if someone’s coming looking for it, I wanna have it to sell, or be able to get it for ’em. That’s just basically being a record store.

The Goner label is really well-curated, and incredibly eclectic. It goes way beyond punk. You and [Goner co-owner] Zac [Ives] must have pretty diverse tastes.

Even stuff that we put out, we wouldn’t necessarily say, ‘This is what I’m listening to.’ We don’t have a master plan. Things fall in our lap and we go, ‘This is good, we should put it out.’ We don’t go, ‘Is this gonna alienate our Reatards fans?’ You know, the people that like fast punk rock stuff. We’re like, ‘There’s room for everybody. Just throw it out there.’ Some things are easier to sell than others, for sure. But we’ve been lucky. People that pay attention to the label are generally pretty open minded, and that’s a big part of it.

Is the label just you and Zac making the decisions?

Yeah, for the most part. But some punk rock singles put out in the last year or so have been more Alec [McIntire] and Cole [Wheeler] and John Hoppe’s thing. We put out singles by Crown Court and by Boss. It’s aggressive, straight ahead punk rock kinda stuff. And that was from their angle, which is fun. It’s cool to have other input on it too.

John Hoppe has been with us the longest. He moved down from Kalamazoo, and he has tons of experience selling records, and really took over the behind the scenes stuff, running the register and everything. That really helped us out a whole lot, especially when things get hairy, like during our festival or other busy times. He has a really good knack for that. And we’ve had a few other people coming though that have really helped out. Charlotte Watson from Nots helped out for a while. But basically our crew right now is John, Alec McIntire, who plays with Hash Redactor and Ex-Cult, and Cole Wheeler. And everybody has kind of their angle, doing mail order or retail sales, or keeping the label stuff together. There’s plenty to do. We’re always scrambling, doing twenty jobs at once and trying to keep track of it. It’s always a challenge.

That’s one of the weird things. All the articles make it all about me, and I really haven’t done anywhere near everything. It’s been teamwork. To the point where I will start something, and then realize I’m way over my head and realize that everyone else has already realized that and has picked up the pieces or put it together. But if you work close enough for long enough, that’s sort of how things happen. We all complement eachother real well.

There were rumors that last year’s Gonerfest would be the last, but it’s still rolling…

Yeah, we always think about taking a break. And then we start getting excited about bands coming to town, and people are asking about it and it sort of assembles itself again and you realize, ‘It’s happening! It’s gonna drag you along, like it or not!’ It’s a lot of fun, and every year it’s amazing. The fact that people will come to Memphis, year after year, multiple times, to come to this festival in September is awesome. These people from Australia that keep coming, they could go anywhere in the world, but they’re going halfway around the world just to come to Memphis. I think it’s great.

You guys have quite an international reach and profile.

Yeah, it’s cool. Before the first little Buccaneer show we did, we were driving over and realized there was a guy I’d never met, a guy from Italy, walking down the street. He had a tiny little label in Italy, but it was worth it to him to come all that way to the Buccaneer to see these bands. I realized there’s people from all over the place that get into this stuff. And they really get a kick out of coming to Memphis. They love it.

Guitar Wolf from Nagasaki, Japan

I guess the international reach was there right from the beginning, when you started with that Guitar Wolf release in 1993.

Yeah. We had a bunch of Japanese bands at first. International bands that were touring in the 90s when I started doing that stuff. The 5678’s, Guitar Wolf, Teengenerate, and Jackie and the Cedrics came over here and were in that scene. There was a festival in Bellingham, WA, Garage Shock, that was kind of the headquarters for that stuff at the time. And that’s where I saw Guitar Wolf. Garage Shock pioneered putting these kinds of festivals together. I went to a couple of those and I’m sure that left some kind of mark on what we could do and how to do festivals.

Were you early adopters of the internet?

Yeah, we got lucky on that. I had a bulletin board, and that is really the engine behind Goner and the appeal of everything. We had the Goner bulletin board, which is still up. You could see a direct drop off as soon as Facebook came into the picture, but before that, people that wanted to yack about this stuff would get on our bulletin board and post stuff, see what we were doing, find out about shows, and that kind of thing. So the bulletin board was the main thing. I had a site that I sold records off of, pretty early. Peggy from the Gories had some of their records she wanted to sell, and I helped her do that. So we were in the middle of it when nobody knew what was going on.

Really, the bulletin board had a huge reach. It still kinda does. Like it’ll pop up. Somebody will have some topic on there about aspirin or something, and the Goner board will pop up because people are talking about it. Instead of going to Bayer’s site, no one’s gonna go there, there’s no action there. They might have the information, but it isn’t gonna pop up in the Google algorithm, so the Goner board will pop up in regards to aspirin or something. It recently popped up as the number one Google search result for Michael Jackson jokes. Not something to be really proud of, but when the Michael Jackson movie came out we were back in the spotlight.

When did you start that bulletin board?

You know, it crashed and we lost a bunch of it, but it was probably going by ’95, something like that? There might be stuff from the 90s still. I’ll have to do the internet archive thing and see if anything’s there. Yeah, it was pretty early and pretty interesting, the people that went through there. We’ve had songs written about it, about crashing it and trying to destroy it, all kinds of stuff. It still is pretty interesting. I think the only real thread that kind of maintains itself is ‘defunct Memphis restaurants that we miss.’ People look for some restaurant and the Goner board pops up so they’ll post something.

So well before the brick and mortar store, you were doing a brisk business?

Yeah. I didn’t have a whole lot of records that I was selling, but a couple hundred, you know. I’d do orders from distributors and sell it out of the apartment. So that was there to move into a brick and mortar type of thing. There was a demand for it and it made sense to do it. Greg [Cartwright] had the space [Legba Records] and was moving, and said, ‘You guys should take this over!’

How great that Guitar Wolf is still going strong, and Jack Oblivian is still going strong. You’ve got these threads connecting to the very first days of the whole thing.

It was weird when we realized that all this was coming together, we were like, ‘We have to put together a weekend.’ We don’t need to do more than one festival a year. This was more like a bunch of shows thrown together. But I think it works. All the shows are great and people are excited about it.

Tags Goner Records, Gonerfest 16, Guitar Wolf, Memphis Music, Oblivians

Music Music Blog

Gonerfest 15: Friday

Post author By Jesse Davis
Post date September 29, 2018

CREDIT: Jesse Davis

Day two of Gonerfest 15, the annual celebration of punk, garage, and other off-kilter forms of rock, took place in two locations: at Memphis Made Brewing, during the afternoon hours, and Hi Tone on Cleveland late into the night. The daylong festivities featured a songwriter session from Harlan T. Bobo, psych-blues-punk from Chicken Snake, the dark and deranged disco extravaganza of Cobra Man, and a breakout performance from indie-pop band En Attendant Anna.

Gonerbraü by Memphis Made

Memphis Made produced a limited cream ale, the Gonerbraü, to commemorate this year’s festival. The light, fizzy beer seems like the best bet to help get into the Gonerfest spirit, so, Gonerbraü in hand, I weave my way through the crowd to the small stage on the back patio of the Cooper-Young-area brewery and catch Harlan T. Bobo’s acoustic set.

“I wonder if there are many people who get engaged at Gonerfest,” Bobo muses. “Or get divorced at Gonerfest — or at least because of Gonerfest.” The crowd laughs, and Bobo begins playing “I’m Your Man,” a love song from his 2007 album of the same name. Gone is the demented showman who, backed up by a full band, closed out the festivities sometime after 2 a.m. the night before, and in his place is an indulgent father, a humorist, and a day-drinking, guitar-wielding teller of truths.

Bobo jokingly tries to calm a crying child hiding beneath the wooden stairs, tossing a rolled-up T-shirt down to the kid in an attempt to distract him. Then he brings guitarist Jeff “Bunny” Dutton onstage to add commentary to a song Bobo wrote about Dutton, who so ably backed him up on lead guitar the night before. “He don’t drink water and he don’t eat. He lives off alcohol and nicotine,” Bobo sings as Bunny smiles and nods, unable to contest his bandleader’s claims. The crowd laughs, and the kid beneath the stairs is busying himself dragging a plastic chain around. Later, the same little boy will run haphazardly up and down the loading ramp in front of the venue, narrowly avoiding spilling my Gonerbraü.

Out front, New Orleans-based Chicken Snake take the stage, ripping into a swampy, blues-inspired punk set. The drummer sports a goth-glam mane as she attacks the drums with a frenzy. Sneering, strutting guitar licks call to mind the pioneering work of The Sonics or Roky Erickson. “Baby, don’t you give me them walkin’ blues,” the singer implores.

Jesse Davis

Cobra Man

Later, back at the Hi Tone, L.A. synth duo Cobra Man blends seemingly disparate elements of punk and disco, crafting a spooky dance atmosphere. Their sequined jackets flash in the green lights. During the rising energy of the repeated line, “I want it all,” audience members begin crowd surfing. By the time the singer begins chanting, “I’ve been living in hell with you,” Goner fans are taking turns clambering aboard a large wooden plank and riding it like a surf board across the waves of outstretched hands. The lights change to red, and the rhythm shifts into cut time. The Goner fans dance, revelers in a disco of the damned. Cobra Man’s set is wild and dramatic, and I hope the next band can top it.

French indie-rockers En Attendant Ana follow the depraved rave that is Cobra Man, and far from being overshadowed by the L.A. disco duo, the Parisian quintet make their set look easy. Their Gonerfest performance marks the end of a two-and-half-week U.S. tour in support of the band’s debut album Lost and Found, out on Trouble in Mind. Their tour has taken them through Cleveland, Chicago, Milwaukee, and Boston, landing them on the main stage at the Hi Tone. They begin, and a wave of jangly guitars and trumpet blasts washes over the crowd, prompting an immediate reaction, as the collected bodies begin to move to the beat. The young indie-rockers ride the wave, all clean guitars, synths, and breathy, urgent vocals, before crashing to a halt.

Jesse Davis

Margaux Bouchaudon of En Attendant Ana

A smile tugs at the corners of singer and guitarist Margoux Bouchaudon’s lips as the crowd cheers their support. Grinning, she ducks her head as lead guitarist Romain Meaulard introduces the next tune in a thick French accent. En Attendant Ana’s music sounds like euphoria feels. It’s bright and optimistic, like the ideal soundtrack to kick off a road trip. The clean guitars, trumpet, and dreamy rhythms call to mind Belle & Sebastian or Camera Obscura, but there’s a punk urgency that adds an edge the Scottish indie-pop legends lack. The Parisian quintet’s set seems to pass in an instant of pop nirvana. “This could be the end, oh, this could be the end,” Bouchadon sings on “This Could Be,” backed up by Meaulard and by vocalist/guitarist/trumpet player Camille Fréchou. The song is insistent and anthemic, and I don’t want the lyrics to be true. I hate for the set to end.

I catch three or four songs by New York-based Surfbort, a pure punk explosion, all alcohol-sweat and frantic guitar wrapped in a revealing bodysuit. They’re Gonerfest gold, but I can’t get En Attendant Ana out of my head, so I make tracks toward the merchandise room to find the band and ask them about their tour. I find Fréchou and Bouchadon, who are game for a quick interview.

“We’ve been [in Memphis] for six or seven hours, but tomorrow we stay all day long,” Bouchaudon says. She’s wearing a flowing red coat she bought on tour, and she and Fréchou lean close and speak into my recorder. “This will be the first town in which we can relax and visit. We want to go to Sun Records,” Bouchaudon says. “I would like to go to Graceland,” Camille Fréchou adds, “But I don’t think we are going to.” “Non,” Bouchaudon interjects emphatically. “I will go to Graceland, and you will come with me.” The nearly three-weeks-long tour marks the band’s first time in the U.S. “Every day was like, ‘I’m going to move here,’” says Fréchou, who assures me that Americans have been “really friendly.”

Jesse Davis

En Attendant Ana

En Attendant Ana recorded an EP to tape two years ago, releasing a limited run on cassette, which caught the attention of Canadian label Nominal Records. “[They] asked us if we were okay to release the EP on vinyl, and we said ‘Yes!’” Bouchaudon says, emphasizing the affirmative. The group then recorded their full-length debut, Lost and Found, which they released on Trouble in Mind. After a successful tour with label-mates (and fellow Gonerfest 15 performers) Ethers and a day and a night spent being “the best tourists ever,” Bouchaudon says the band will “go back to France, [and] go back to work.” She says they will spend some time playing in the West of France before getting down to the business of a follow up to Lost and Found. “And then we’ll have some time to make new songs,” she says. “And a new record. And another, and another,” Fréchou chimes in. Personally, I hope Fréchou is right. After only one concert and a brief conversation in the alley behind the Hi Tone, I’m already looking forward to the band’s next release and U.S. tour. Gonerfest 16, maybe? We can only hope.

Jesse Davis

Oblivians

I make it back inside in time to catch The Oblivians, Gonerfest royalty, who deliver their raunchy garage-rock excellence to a packed mass of sweaty music fans. After two days of nearly nonstop music, I settle in to enjoy the show. The rhythm section is tight and powerful. The guitar tones are crunchy and snarling, as befits a late-night set helmed by Jack Oblivian, star of Memphis filmmaker Mike McCarthy’s psychedelic punk odyssey, The Sore Losers, screening Sunday afternoon at Studio on the Square. With two days of Gonerfest memories fresh in my mind, I relax, thankful for the 15-year-old festival that brings so many diverse and distant musical experimenters to the Bluff City.

Tags Chicken Snake, Cobra Man, En Attendant Ana, Gonerfest 15, Harlan T Bobo, Memphis Made Brewing, Oblivians

Cover Feature News

The Bird’s the Word

Post author By Flyer Staff
Post date October 20, 2016

Over the weekend, a man was arrested for stabbing a gas station worker over “bad chicken.” Now we’re not ones to condone violence —no stabbing! — but people around these parts have certain expectations that their chicken is going to be good.

This issue is all about good chicken. Plenty of words have been written about Gus’s and Uncle Lou’s, so we decided to explore Memphis’ other chicken avenues. We guarantee that you’ll be hungry after reading this.

The Smoked Chicken Debris PoBoy
@ The Dirty Crow Inn

If heaven ain’t a lot like The Dirty Crow Inn, I don’t want to go. (I checked, and it’s fine to rip off Bocephus when you’re talking chicken. “He wouldn’t mind,” is what the rule book says.)

I’d heard tell of a chicken Philly sandwich at the Inn. It’s a special sometimes, the bar man told me, but not part of the regular menu. At that low moment, a ray of hope cut those rainy clouds — the word “debris.”

The Inn keepers have called it the “Chicken Debris PoBoy” online, but the Dirty Crow menu said, “smoked chicken debris” sandwich. To me, debris is debris any way you cut it (or don’t, I guess). And I’ve seen it swimming in the serving pan at Mother’s, the famed New Orleans restaurant that invented debris (the term anyway).

My sandwich at the Dirty Crow was every bit a po’boy, beautifully smoked chicken bathed in an earthy brown gravy riding two light (and lightly toasted) pieces of French bread from Gambino’s, that fine and famed New Orleans bakery.

Sometimes “smoked” menu items, even in Memphis, don’t taste that way. The Crow’s chicken debris sandwich does not leave you guessing. Its smoke flavor is present but delicate, the way it ought to be. It blends seamlessly with that gravy and a nice dose of melted cheese that pulls away in a pizza-commercial string as you pull the sandwich from your mouth.

The place is heaven for dive-bar aficionados (like me). The food makes it a before-you-die destination for all Memphians. — Toby Sells

Dirty Crow Inn, 855 Kentucky, 207-5111, facebook.com/thedirtycrowinn

Fried Chicken @ Cash Saver

Sometimes, you just gotta have fried chicken. Last week, I was so desperate I went to the KFC drive-thru and ordered a box. “Thlbetwtyminawtfcxx” came back over the microphone.

“What?”

“Thlbetwtyminawtfcxx”

“What?”

After several attempts, the fellow managed to get the message to me: “There will be a 20-minute wait for chicken.” Right. At a chicken restaurant. So …

I’ve been hearing about Cash Saver’s fried chicken for more than a year now. Midtowners who I know and trust have said to me, “That fried chicken is the real deal. And cheap!” Some said it was the best in town. I don’t know about that, but I’m here to tell you, they were right about it being very good. And very cheap.

Fried Chicken at Cash Saver

I ordered two breasts and two thighs. Total cost? $5.19.

The pieces were very large, crispy on the outside and perfectly moist on the inside. The flavor of the skin was savory, lightly seasoned but with a little bite. In short, great fried chicken — the real deal. Highly recommended. I’ll be back for more. — Bruce VanWyngarden

Cash Saver, 1620 Madison, 272-0171, memphiscashsaver.com

Romaine Salad with Chicken Skins @ Hog & Hominy

Anytime I see someone slip off and discard the skin from an otherwise perfect piece of fried or baked chicken (but especially fried), I inwardly pray for their poor soul and wonder who it was that set you down a path of self-deprivation.

It’s not only that they are missing out on some heart-healthy unsaturated fats, it’s that they might still fall victim to this woefully false myth that this is something you have to do to make your chicken healthy enough to consume (spoiler, it’s not).

Well, someone at Hog & Hominy decided, “Screw that, we’re devoting a dish solely to chicken skins.” And just to round it out, lest the consumer grew up under the anti-skin mythology, that someone decided to build their chicken dermis homage on a bed of Romaine lettuce.

The result is an unexpectedly cohesive salad, misleadingly and simply titled, “Romaine.” The chicken skins used are more akin to a pork rind rather than the double-breaded crunchiness of most fried chicken pieces. These puffy morsels are strewn atop a decent portion of lettuce, which is in turn covered in snowy Parmesan and drizzled with pecorino vinaigrette.

Justin Fox Burks

Romaine Salad with Chicken Skins at Hog & Hominy

The skins are lightly seasoned so the vinaigrette can come in and work its magic by introducing a low level of spice and tang, two flavors that pair surprisingly well with the fried fat essence of the skins. The Romaine lettuce does what Romaine was put on this earth to do, namely, trick us into thinking we’re consuming something mega-healthy when we are not. And, of course, it’s the perfect semi-crunchy vehicle that supports the crispiness of the skins.

Be warned, though, this is not the type of salad loaded down with auxiliary vegetables and croutons. It’s not going to fill you up. But it will deliver piquancy worthy of what I have determined to be the greatest part of the chicken.

— Micaela Watts

Hog & Hominy, 707 W. Brookhaven,
207-7396, hogandhominy.com

Chicken Tamales from Tacqueria La Guadalupana food truck

Tamales were among the earliest food imports from south of the border to make it onto Norde Americano menus, and they remain a staple, whether in supermarket cans or on restaurant tables. Something of a debate rages as to whether the meat base in those wraparound masa cylinders should be beef or pork, but there is a third possibility — chicken — and a good place to sample it is from the Tacqueria La Guadalupana food truck that sets up daily on the north side of the shopping-center lot where Cordova Road intersects with Germantown Parkway — in an area that is more multi-ethnic than you might imagine. (The internationally focused Cordova Farmers Market is the big-box anchor on the lot.)

The La Guadalupana truck offers numerous cooked-while-you-wait specialties, several involving chicken. Order tamales, and what you get, for a mere $7.99, is three YUGE tamales, each with a generous and succulently breaded tortilla coating, within which is packed none of that minced mystery-meat filling you get at so many places, but steamed and tender morsels of freshly carved, fresh-off-the-bone-looking chicken meat. Two sauces are available as condiments, the green one appears to mix guacamole with chili; the red one (maybe laced with habanero) is scalding hot.

— Jackson Baker

Taqueria La Guadalupana at the corner of Cordova Road and Germantown Parkway

Wood Roasted Half Chicken @
The Kitchen Bistro

Served in a round ceramic casserole the color of red clay, the Kitchen’s wood-roasted chicken earns it $29 price tag with looks, smarts, and personality. First, cornbread panzanella sets the dish with a seasonal cacophony of tomatoes, onions, and olives. Next comes the chicken, brined, flattened, and wood-roasted to a deep and rustic char. And what swirls on top with magical brushstrokes of taste and color? The dressing, a pesto of sorts made with garlic, olive oil, lemon, and anchovies. “You don’t want to eat the chicken and think the chicken tastes like fish,” explains head Chef Dennis Phelps. “You want to eat the chicken and think the chicken tastes delicious.” — Pamela Denney

Justin Fox Burks

Wood Roasted Half Chicken at the Kitchen Bistro

The Kitchen Bistro, 415 Great View Drive East, 729-9009, thekitchen.com

General Tso’s Chicken @ Mulan

It’s a conundrum every office has had to face as they order takeout lunch: What’s the deal with General Tso’s Chicken? Who was the eponymous military man? What’s his connection with poultry? How do you even pronounce it?

If these questions have ever prompted debate at your workplace, take heart. The answers are out there, in the form of Ian Cheney and Jennifer Lee’s 2014 documentary The Search for General Tso. It’s a fascinating look into the ways immigrant communities adapt to American life that also tells you everything you need to know about the sweet and spicy Hunan-style dish which, it turns out, is virtually unknown in China.

The first two things I noticed about the General Tso’s Chicken at Mulan is that the garnish contained a glowing LED and a dearth of broccoli on the plate. Many Chinese restaurants include plentiful broccoli with the stir-fried dark meat, and the florets come in handy for sopping up the sauce that gives the dish its deep red color. But once I bit into the succulent chunks of chicken, I realized the vegetable would have been a distraction from the main show. Each morsel was just a little crispy on the outside, tender on the inside. It was outstanding. I got the standard spice level for scientific purposes, so the sweetness and heat were finely balanced. But if you like it spicy, they’ll be more than happy to oblige.

Chris McCoy

Mulan General Tso’s Chicken

For the record, the Chinese character transliterated as “Tso” or “Zho” means “left.” It’s a syllable that English does not contain, but it is roughly pronounced as “jowh.” However, to avoid confusion with your server, you should probably just go with “so.” — Chris McCoy

Mulan, 2149 Young, 347-3965 mulanmidtown.net

Chicken and waffles @
The HM Dessert Lounge

I’m aware of no other restaurant in Memphis where one can dine surrounded by paintings of the late, great Prince hung on purple walls. I discovered the promised land, and it’s named HM Dessert Lounge. The restaurant’s focus is in its name, with one exception: chicken and waffles.

The chicken is dipped in double honey hot sauce, Jamaican jerk sauce, or spicy peach glaze. It’s then paired with a regular, cornbread, honey butter biscuit, blueberry, sweet potato, or a maple bacon waffle. Options, indeed.

Justin Fox Burks

Chicken and waffles at The HM Dessert Lounge

I settled on four chicken breasts bathed in double hot honey sauce and coupled with a maple bacon encrusted waffle — $12 well spent. Sticky as it is, the hot honey sauce slides from the chicken and blends with the maple syrup, creating a sweet and spicy combination that brings magic to a dish which otherwise would have been too obvious. The chicken isn’t flaky but smooth, and each piece shines beneath the sauce. Slice the waffle, cut the chicken, and fork ’em together. Sauce and syrup united, the waffle coats the chicken, and bacon bits provide a necessary crunch.— Joshua Cannon

The HM Dessert Lounge,

1586 Madison, 290-2099,

facebook.com/fashionablysweetlounge

Smoke Chicken @ Picosos

There are fewer words in the English language sadder than, “Sorry, not today.” Especially if those words are spoken with genuine disappointment in a Mexican accent at Picosos, a terrific little south-of-the-border diner on Summer Avenue. The restaurant’s “Smoke Chicken” is an old-Memphis-meets-old-Mexico delicacy that sells fast, is only available on the weekends, and so succulent and good it’s worth heading out early to get your order in before the Saturday lunch crowd arrives. Served with rice and refried beans and topped with a handful of french fries, the meal is exactly what it sounds like — a quarter, half, or whole chicken covered with a heady-not-hot spice rub that’s a little on the salty side and slow-smoked to barbecue-lover’s perfection. It’s tempting to just wolf the whole thing down, but advisable to savor every spicy, smoky, chickeny bite. — Chris Davis

Smoke Chicken at Picosos

Picosos, 3937 Summer, 323-7003

The Family Chicken Dinner @ SuperLo

It was a snobby Midtowner’s dilemma.

Our Target basket was full. The kids were getting pissy. We were all hungry, but the grown-ups didn’t want to make lunch.

“But there’s nothing to eat in East Memphis,” we whined without saying a word.

Wheeling through the parking lot, my wife caught a scent on the wind. “Oh my god, somebody’s fried chicken smells GOOD!” she said. We both whirled, like castaways searching the skies for a rescue plane.

The only thing that made sense was the deli counter of the Target-adjacent SuperLo. We’d been there infrequently, but I thought I remembered a big deli case. I remembered correctly.

The star of the SuperLo show was a fried chicken dinner, perfect for a Sunday lunch. Plenty of dark-brown-fried breasts and thighs lined a warming tray. But we wanted the eight-piece meal and the case offerings would not do for our wonderful deli helper.

“Nuh-uh. Give me two minutes, baby,” the woman said to my wife. “I’m going to make you up some fresh.”

Two minutes later, she filled a white, cardboard service box with two breasts, two thighs, two drummies, and two wings, like a Memphis-style Noah’s Ark. That Ark came with big-ole sides of green beans, mashed potatoes, and four King’s Hawaiian rolls. (They even added two cookies for my son. No charge.)

The chicken was crunchy-crispy on the outside, fork-tender and moist on the inside, warmly spiced, but not too spicy. It was that eye-rolling, soul-feeding, conversation-stopping, back-home-style kind of good. And all of it for about $14.

Who says there’s nothing to eat in East Memphis? — Toby Sells

SuperLo, 4744 Spottswood, 683-6861, superlofoods.com

Fried Buffalo Chicken Slider (add peanut butter) @ The Slider Inn

The first thing you need to know about Slider Inn’s Buffalo Chicken Slider is that you should order it fried. They’ll serve it grilled, but that’s your loss. As is, the sandwich comes with a palm-sized chicken breast drenched in buffalo wing sauce and topped with American cheese, lettuce, tomato, and ranch.

Here’s the second thing you need to know — hidden off the menu, secret but paramount. Ask for peanut butter, and the sandwich will come with a layer of crunchy goodness spread across the bottom bun. The ranch, buffalo sauce, and peanut butter assemble in your mouth upon first bite. It’s manna on the tongue.

For all its glory, there’s no way around it, you’ll smack your way through this mess of a meal. The peanut butter serves as a medium between the milky ranch and hot and tangy buffalo sauce, softening the spice to let the flavors shine.

— Joshua Cannon

The Slider Inn, 2117 Peabody, 725-1155, facebook.com/sliderinn

…

Chefs Speak Out

It’s not easy to eat your way through Memphis, one piece of chicken at a time, especially if you’re trying to go veg (I’m at about a week this go around). That’s why I asked some of my favorite chefs in town to serve as my chicken-chowing proxy and name the chicken dishes they go for when they get a break from the grind.

Chef Kelly English, who can do things with chicken that grant him James Beard Semifinalist awards and spots on television and in Bon Appetit, can’t say enough nice things about the magic that happens in the kitchens of Memphis visionary chef Karen Carrier. “I just had my favorite chicken dish ever at the Beauty Shop — Karen’s smoked chicken dish,” English says. He’s referring to the Hickory Grilled Chicken, which comes in a Thai green curry broth with candied garlic chips, pickled red onion, watermelon, Thai basil, mint, cilantro, and corn fritter. “It was fan-frickin’-tastic. It is my favorite chicken dish I’ve ever had at a restaurant.” He may or may not have posted on Facebook that “Karen Carrier is the coolest kid in school.”

Justin Fox Burks

Gary Williams

Chef Gary Williams, of DeJaVu legendari-ness, has done his share of traveling and sharing his New Orleans recipes with A-listers, and points to several restaurants who serve up chicken goodness in Memphis, including Cozy Corner’s Cornish Hen, Uncle Lou’s honey chicken, and HM Dessert Lounge’s ability to take chicken and waffles to the nth degree. “I’m a chicken connoisseur,” he says. But there’s one spot in particular that has his heart. “There’s this little spot called Pho Binh on Madison, and they do this chicken dish that has pineapple and is a little spicy, served over rice. That is one of my favorite places. It’s a gem,” Williams says. — Lesley Young

…

Being Pirtle

So what’s it like being a Pirtle? It’s good, say Cordell and Tawanda Pirtle. And as they go over the past, present, and future of Pirtle’s Fried Chicken, a couple approaches and asks for a picture. As they move on, the woman exclaims in a whisper, “Oh my goodness!” “Happens all the time,” Tawanda says.

Cordell is the only child of Jack Pirtle, the founder, with his wife Orva, and the force behind Jack Pirtle’s. Cordell describes his father as an outgoing man, a doer and a creator. Jack opened his first restaurant near the Firestone plant in the 1940s and then hooked up with Colonel Harland Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken. Jack sold Kentucky Fried Chicken using Sanders’ special seasoning, alongside Pirtle’s burgers and hotdogs.

Cordell says the first contract with Sanders was a single page, double-spaced. Later, when KFC sought a more formalized agreement, Jack decided to move on, eventually phasing out the KFC part of the business.

Justin Fox Burks

Cordell and Tawanda Pirtle

“He couldn’t use the same cooking equipment because it was part of the process for KFC. He built his own cooking equipment, pressurized cookers, and then my mother had a degree from the University of Tennessee in home economics, so she and he together tried different formulas. They went through a lot of different formulas and came up with this and varied it some for the first year as they saw how it did. That started in 1964,” says Cordell.

Pirtle’s seasoning was originally mixed in a device Jack built that looked like a concrete mixer. The recipe is top secret. “That’s what Pirtle’s is known for, that taste that we have,” Tawanda says. “It’s the same seasoning that the gravy is made out of. It’s a huge deal for us. And the spices have to be mixed up for a period of time for all of them to combine correctly.”

Cordell, who started working at Pirtle’s at 13, took over the business in 1979. “It was doing well. We had six stores at the time. When I took it over, I had been a store manager for 17 years. So I had pretty much been there/done that on almost everything,” Cordell says. “When I took it over it was almost more of an organizational change.”

“Your daddy thought you were going to go broke,” Tawanda interjects.

“Precisely,” Cordell agrees, noting his father’s concern over the purchase of expensive cash registers and a centralized warehouse.

Pirtle’s didn’t go broke. There are now eight stores. They get approached a lot about franchising — about three times a week, says Tawanda.

They’ve resisted franchising, as they want to work out the best deal for them and the franchisee. While none of their kids (he’s got three, she’s got two) have shown any interest in the business, they’re hoping that one of their grandkids or great-grandchildren will sign on and take on franchising.

As for the future, they’re considering more stores. They’ve thought about opening a Jack Pirtle’s Cafe.

Cordell is 72 and retired. Sort of.

“I tell everybody they’ve got the tired part right,” he says, laughing. “But, no, as far as being totally retired, when you’re involved in a business your entire life and you’ve grown up in it and you know all the people, you really can’t just simply say, I’m done. It’s always there. It’s always on your mind.” — Susan Ellis

…

Chicken

Playlist

Oblivians — “Call the Police”

We’ll kick this thing off with an instant classic from the Oblivians. This track was on the band’s last album Desperation. Listen close for the chicken reference.

The Meters — “Chicken Strut”

One of the best Meters songs happens to have some squawking in it, but I would include this in any playlist because the Meters rule, plain and simple.

Those Darlins — “The Whole Damn Thing”

Before Those Darlins went all Fleetwood Mac on us, this was arguably their most popular song. This simple tune about eating a whole chicken was catchy enough to get the band some notoriety and is worth revisiting while raiding the fridge.

Hasil Adkins —
“Chicken Walk”

If you haven’t heard Hasil Adkins before, do yourself a HUGE favor and track down the album Out to Hunch.

Charles Mingus —
“Eat That Chicken”

A classic from jazz legend Charles Mingus.

Project Pat — “Chicken Head”

Hell yeah I included this song in this playlist. Project Pat for life.

Billy Swan — “I Can Help”

By now you’re going to need some help getting out of that chicken coma. Let this classic from Billy Swan get you moving again.

Rufus Thomas —
“Do the Funky Chicken”

A classic from Rufus Thomas. The live footage on YouTube of his performing this song is amazing and should be played on a big screen at every chicken restaurant from now on.

Patrick Hernandez —
“Born to Be Alive”

We’ll close this thing out with a toast to any vegetarians or vegans who picked up the Chicken Issue. If you believe that all animals are born to be alive, dance around with your fake chicken nuggets to this obscure ’70s classic.

— Chris Shaw

Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Music Video Of The Moment: Nots “Decadence”

Post author By Chris McCoy
Post date November 18, 2014

Natalie Hoffman in Nots new music video ‘Decadence’

Memphis director Geoffrey Brent Shrewsbury‘s new music video for the Nots is as chaotic, raw, and beautiful as the band’s music. Combining performance footage, a studio shoot, and some well-chosen manipulated stock, “Decadence” is reminiscent of the golden age of MTV.

Music Video Of The Moment: Nots ‘Decadence’

In Shrewsberry’s career, he has done everything from short narratives to PBS documentaries, but he got his start making stylish music videos for some of the best Midtown rock bands of the last 20 years. Here’s his director himself starring in his first video, a narrative of the ultimate New York street hassle he made for The Obivians’ “You Better Behave”.

Music Video Of The Moment: Nots ‘Decadence’ (2)

A few years later he immortalized Jay Reatard and Alicja Trout’s seminal band Lost Sounds at their peak with the Gothy “Memphis Is Dead”, which saw the filmmaker come into his own as a visual stylist. It’s particularly cool when the video, which has been frantically phantom riding through Downtown, slows to a theatrically languid pace as the music downshifts from punk drive into synth dirge. Shrewsbury is also a musician, and its his deep understanding of and love for Memphis punk that allows him to create such compelling work in a time when music videos are as important as ever.

Music Video Of The Moment: Nots ‘Decadence’ (3)

Tags Alicja Trout, Decadence, Geoffrey Brent Shrewsbury, Goner, Jay Reatard, Lost Sound, Memphis, Memphis Is Dead, NOTS, Oblivians, punk, rock, You Better Behave

Sing All Kinds We Recommend

Oblivians on NPR

Post author By Joe Boone
Post date September 23, 2013

Memphis’ major export, the Oblivians, were on NPR today at KEXP at the University of Washington. On Monday evening, the layout of NPR’s music site placed them below Elton John but on par with ?uestlove and Leonard Berstein. That’ll work. Eric Friedl is cloud-seeding Gonerfest 10 like a master. Nicely done, sir.

Tags flyer, Goner, Memphis, Music, NPR, nprorg-music, Oblivians

Sing All Kinds We Recommend

The Dozens: August Film and Music Calendar

Post author By Chris Herrington
Post date August 1, 2013

Twelve things to look forward to this month:

Pink Flamingos: If you dare.

1. The Big Lebowski at the Orpheum ( Friday, August 2nd): Filmmaker Craig Brewer will introduce and discuss Ethan and Joel Coen’s funniest, warmest, and perhaps most undeniable film. Brewer goes “Beyond the Screen” at 6:30 p.m. The film starts at 7 p.m.

2. The Hi-Tone Relaunches (Saturday, August 3rd): After a soft opening earlier in the summer, the main stage at the new Hi-Tone is christened in a double-bill of two newish, rootsy local bands, Dead Soldiers and Bottom of the Bottle. J.D. Reager has more here.

3. Pink Flamingos at the Brooks (Thursday, August 8th): John Waters’ 1972 midnight-movie outrage goes respectable with a local museum screening. If you want to watch a 300-pound transvestite eat dog shit at a fine-art museum, this is your chance. You can make your own pink flamingo lawn ornament at 6 p.m. and stay for the film at 7 p.m. for this “Art & a Movie” event.

4. The Oblivians at the Hi-Tone (Friday, August 9th): The living-legend Memphis garage-punk trio play their first local show since the late summer release of their 16-years-in-coming reunion album Desperation. Chris Davis profiled the band in this recent Flyer cover story. I reviewed the album here.

Tags Amy Lavere, Big Star, Hi Tone, John Paul Keith, Juicy J, Lucero, Motel Mirrors, Oblivians