Memphis was well-represented at last night’s Grammy Awards. The album of long lost Stax demos, Written In Their Soul, won for Best Liner Notes, an award which was accepted by Stax’s PR person turned champion Deanie Parker and Memphis writer/director Robert Gordon.
Bobby Rush, now entering his ninth decade, won Best Traditional Blues Album for All Of My Love For You.
Supergroup boygenius—Pheobe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus, and former Memphis punk rocker Julien Baker—won three Grammys, including Best Alternative Album for The Record. “Not Strong Enough” won both Best Rock Song and Best Rock Performance. Watch Baker get emotional while accepting the group’s third award of the evening.
The music video for “Not Strong Enough” was shot by the band themselves while hanging out in Southern California, and edited by Jackson Bridgers. The video shows off the group’s low-key appeal, which charmed the nation on the summer’s blockbuster tour which climaxed with a sold-out Halloween show at the Hollywood Bowl. The visuals may be unassuming, but the music is powerful.
You don’t have to win a Grammy to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday. All you have to do is email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.
Two acts with Bluff City roots made big impressions at the Coachella music festival this weekend. The first was Memphis meteor GloRilla whose Sunday afternoon set got buck. We’ll see her in a couple of weeks at the Beale Street Music Festival.
Expat Julien Baker’s arrival was announced in these pages in 2015. Three albums and an ink barrel’s worth of critical acclaim later, Baker is supplying Memphis muscle to the supergroup boygenius. Baker joined bandmates Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus on stage with MUNA to guest on her song “Silk Chffon” before playing an epic set that debuted selections from their new record, which is called The Record. It’s probably not a coincidence that the album just debuted at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The lead music video from The Record is, perhaps predictably, called “The Film.” Unpredictably, it is directed by superstar actor Kristen Stewart, who weaves three boygenius songs, each with a different lead singer, together into three intertwining short stories. It’s beautiful, complex, and generally shoots much higher than your average promo clip. It’s also 15 minutes long, so watch it on your lunch break.
If you would like to see your video on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.
Baker got her start playing pop punk in Midtown before going solo in 2014. This early video gave us a sense of her power. Alone in a cavernous parking garage, she easily fills up the space with just her guitar and voice. Notice that this video is a one-shot. It’s just her and director Breezy Lucia alone and live.
Music Video Week: Julien Baker (3)
In 2015, director Sabyn Mayfield created this clip for “Sprained Ankle”, the title track for her first solo album. Around the same time, Baker was the subject of a Memphis Flyer cover story by Eileen Townsend: “If VH1 ever makes a Behind the Music: Julien Baker, it will play out something like this: A small girl with a big voice grows up in the far suburbs of Memphis. She works a night shift through high school, spends her free time hanging out at the skatepark; she smokes cigarettes, plays hymns at her small church, and figures out an electric guitar in her dad’s living room. She forms a punk band with her friends. They call themselves ‘The Star Killers’ and play all-ages shows in community centers and neighborhood pool houses. She gets a girlfriend, gets into drinking, gets some dumb tattoos. Starts touring when she isn’t in school. Applies herself. Makes it to state college, where she records a lonely record. The record is really good. People hear the record, share the record, and she gets signed. What’s next is history.”
Music Video Week: Julien Baker (4)
Baker’s big break came with this spectacular performance on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts series, which turned a lot of heads.
Music Video Week: Julien Baker (2)
Two years later, Baker recorded her second solo record, Turn Out The Lights, at Ardent Studios. This video by director Sophia Peer was shot in Memphis with a local crew that included Breezy Lucia, who had first introduced her to the world.
Music Video Week: Julien Baker (5)
Baker toured extensively with Turn Out The Lights, playing to festival crowds all over the world. Here she is at last year’s Best Kept Secret festival in Belgium.
Music Video Week: Julien Baker
Baker found time to join her friends Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus in Boygenius, a supergroup of women singer-songwriters. Here they are at plying for Pitchfork in Brooklyn.
Music Video Week: Julien Baker (7)
Baker’s latest song, “Tokyo”, came out on SubPop last October. She’s been doing livestreams on her Instagram account during the pandemic, and you might even catch her trying out a new song.
