Tag: Prince

Categories
Music Music Features

MonoNeon Vision

Dywane Thomas, Jr., has written out his artistic philosophy. This is convenient for writers needing to sum up the enigmatic bass virtuoso using only tidy rows of type. It’s an absurd format to describe an artist that lights out for the sonic territories, tagged with threads and a name of radiant color that cuts through the night: MonoNeon. The best we can do is make every line of his creed our starting point.  Get ready for the MonoNeon Art Manifesto:

Write your own vision and read it daily. “That came from Dada, the manifesto stuff,” says Thomas. But ever since he got his first guitar at four and played it like a bass, Thomas has followed his own vision. From the start, this lefty has avoided left-handed guitars and basses, instead playing conventional right-handed instruments upside down. “When I was younger,” he remembers in typical low-key fashion, “people used to tell me, you know, flip it the other way. You’re playing it wrong. You would sound better playing it right handed or whatever. I just kept on doing it.” Nowadays his upside-down bass of choice is a five-string, or he’ll play his quarter tone bass, which allows him to play pitches between the notes of the conventional scale. His choice of material is visionary too, ranging from quirky, beat driven funk excursions to mimicking in bass tones the voices of people from random videos found online.

MonoNeon: WHERE'S THE CHOCOLATE MILK AT…? from Dywane MonoNeon Thomas Jr. on Vimeo.

MonoNeon Vision (3)

Have the Southern soul/blues & and funk at the bottom and the experimental/avant-garde at the top … (YOUR SOUND!). “My home base is always gonna be Johnny Taylor, Bobby Womack, Denise LaSalle, you know – funk, Bar Kays,” says Thomas. And you can hear this in most of his work: a payload of funk, heavy as a semi, taking wide left turns. “I want to sound like Mavis Staples and Stockhausen together, or something. Or at least the idea just helps me progress and create stuff.” He recalls teaching himself bass: “I practiced in my grandmother’s living room, to records, WDIA, all the old blues stuff. Eventually I started playing in church. That’s where I really got most of my skill from. Olivet Fellowship Baptist Church on Knight Arnold Road. I played with different types of gospel choirs, like Kevin Davidson and the Voices. Then after that I went to Berklee College of Music.”

Make your life audible daily with the mistakes … the flaws … er’thang. Thomas expresses his life story every time he picks up a bass. His father, Dywane Thomas, Sr., is a heavy bass player in his own right. “He still plays. He used to play with the Bar Kays, Rufus Thomas, Pops Staples. He was really like a studio ace in Memphis in the 90s.” But it wasn’t a simple case of the father teaching the son. “He moved to Europe when I was pretty young, ‘cos he was doing a lot of work over there. So I really taught myself how to play. I’d just listen to him on recordings.”

Understand and accept that some people are going to like what you do and some are going to dislike it. … When you understand and accept that dichotomy … Move on!  Not long ago, Thomas began posting his videos online, with little regard for audience or convention. They found a niche audience, and one fan was especially notable. In December, 2014, his presence was requested at Paisley Park. He jammed with Judith Hill’s band, who Prince was producing, but didn’t even meet His Purpleness at the time. Eventually, on return visits, Prince joined the sessions. “He could jam all night. His rhythm guitar playing is just otherworldly,” Thomas recalls. Prince ultimately recruited Thomas for his own band. “I’m thankful for recording with him, and he released a song under my name and stuff, ‘Ruff Enuff’ on NPG Records. I guess he really liked me to do that.”

MonoNeon Vision (2)

Recalling the time before Prince’s passing in April of 2016, Thomas is understandably wistful. “Paisley was just a different world to be in. The smell just crosses my nose sometimes. Lavender.”

MonoNeon with PRINCE (clips from PRINCESTAGRAM) from Dywane MonoNeon Thomas Jr. on Vimeo.

MonoNeon Vision

Embrace bizarre justapositions (sound, imagery, etc). And: Conceptual art. Minimalism. “I got into microtonal stuff when I got to Berklee. I met a guy named David Fiuczynski. Guitar player. He plays with Jack DeJohnette. Very heavy. I also started getting into John Cage when I got to Berklee. And other avant garde stuff like Iannis Xenakis, Easley Blackwood, Jr., Julián Carillo. Morton Feldman. Milton Babbit. Stockhausen. All that stuff, that I don’t understand, but I love it.”

Polychromatic color schemes. High-visibility clothing. “It was PolyNeon at first, then I changed it. I got bored. It all happened at my grandma’s house. I was reading something about solid color neon stuff. I really like neon light installations. All the avant garde stuff.”

DIY!  “I released two EP’s this year. I’m always just releasing stuff. I don’t necessarily consider it an official thing. It’s just therapeutic to me to just put stuff out. You know. I just try to hype it up as much as I can and then I try to just move on.” Thomas creates his music and videos on his laptop, though occasionally he’ll work with other locals. “There’s a cat named IMAKEMADBEATS. He’s the one that got me into making my own music videos. I bought a camera and everything. And a rapper from his label, A Weirdo from Memphis, he calls himself. He’s on my album too. He doesn’t know it though.” Thomas has been incredibly prolific – he’s self-releasing a new album, A Place Called Fantasy, this Thursday.

Then there are the artists who seek him out. “I’m with a band called Ghost Note. That’s like a side project of Snarky Puppy. With Nate Werth and Robert Searight. We just recorded an album, I think it’s supposed to be released this year in October.”

Childlike. And: Reject the worldly idea of becoming a great musician … JUST LIVE MUSIC! “I don’t even have goals, to be honest. I just like the journey. I don’t have a set plan. That’s really because of the support from my mom and my grandma. I’m thankful for that. I hope that doesn’t change. I’m just a kid. I’m 26 years old, but I’m still a kid.”

Categories
Music Music Features

Vinyl Heaven: It’s Record Store Day

CREDIT: Jesse Davis

April 22nd may be the busiest Saturday this spring for Memphis music lovers and vinyl hounds. Shangri-La Records and Goner Records are both opening early to participate in the 10th anniversary celebration of Record Store Day [RSD]; Burke’s Book Store is hosting a reading and concert for Jim Dickinson’s I’m Just Dead, I’m Not Gone in the Cooper-Young gazebo; and Lucero’s annual Block Party closes out the festivities in the Minglewood parking lot.

I’ve done the math, and it seems like, with determination and careful planning, it’s possible to see Tall David, Some Sons of Mudboy (twice), and end the day on a blanket in front of Minglewood, counting a stack of rare 7-inchers to the sounds of Son Volt.

The official list of RSD exclusives is nine pages long and includes rarities from Link Wray, Emmylou Harris, Prince, Ramones, Spoon, and the Kinks, not to mention a previously unreleased Diamond Dogs-era David Bowie concert. As if that isn’t enough to get any music junkie out of bed early, Waxploitation Records is releasing a “literary mixtape” of stories written by Nick Cave, Jim James, and others. And I haven’t even mentioned the children’s record by Johnny Cash or the third and final installment in Big Star’s three-part release for Complete Third.

“We’re participating in a huge way,” says Shangri-La owner Jared McStay. “We ordered more stuff than we ever have.” McStay says he’s not allowed to let slip which of the RSD exclusives he ordered for the store, but he’s excited about what’s coming in. The store cleared out some space with their Fool Fest sale, and McStay says they have been stockpiling some special rarities as well as local records to put out on Saturday alongside the RSD exclusives. “We’re open early,” McStay says. “And we’ve got a band playing at 2 p.m.”

Last year, while waiting for a show to begin at the Mercy Lounge in Nashville, I watched as David Johnson, the leader of Tall David, led the crowd — or at least the Memphis contingent of it — in an enthusiastic sing-a-long rendition of Harry Nilsson’s “Without You.” (I don’t want to add fuel to the feud, but no one from Nashville joined in the sing-a-long.) This year, fresh from an opening slot at Dead Soldiers’ album-release show, Tall David will lead the festivities at Shangri-La with an afternoon performance in the store’s parking lot.

Jesse Davis

“Come expecting to see the world’s tallest rock-and-roll crooner. Come early,” Johnson says of the free show. However, most Memphis music junkies will split time between the Madison record shop and its Cooper-Young counterpart, the holy grail of garage rock, Goner Records.

“One year we had a memorable guitar shred-off with some people playing their best licks back and forth,” Goner guru Eric Friedl says, but this year, Goner is letting Burke’s Book Store take over the performance duties with a reading from Jim Dickinson’s memoir by Mary Lindsay Dickinson and a performance by Some Sons of Mudboy.

“That seemed like enough [live music],” Friedl says, but guest DJs will spin soul and punk records in the store throughout the day. And the store will have coffee and donuts for the early birds.

“We’ve got the usual batch of exclusive RSD releases that everybody’s scrambling to get,” Friedl says. The store is also releasing Golden Pelicans’ Disciples of Blood LP on red vinyl. “We do have a secret release from NOTS that’s only going to be available in the store and from the band,” Friedl continues. “We were trying to figure out the best way to leak the word, but the NOTS Live at Goner [LP is being released for RSD]. We wanted to find a good way to release it, and tying it into RSD from the record store where it was recorded seemed pretty good.”
That’s right; Goner’s dropping a new, used-to-be-secret NOTS record this Saturday. And it’s not the only new Memphis LP coming just in time for RSD. A smorgasbord of spring releases by groups with Memphis roots is bolstering the RSD exclusives.

Valerie June’s The Order of Time led the blitz of spring releases, but hot on her heels were Dead Soldiers with The Great Emptiness, Chris Milam with Kids These Days, and Cory Branan’s Adios. At the time of this writing, Milam and Branan’s LPs are barely a week old, but Memphis-based psychedelic rockers Spaceface are dropping their debut LP Sun Kids on colored vinyl the day before RSD.
Though the band strived to record something that felt organic and could be replicated live, there were a few guest appearances — the band invited Flyer favorite Julien Baker to give a guest vocal performance. “[It] has our friend Julien Baker on there. We knew she would kill it,” Daniel Quinlan says.

With live music and new and exclusive releases from every genre, Memphis is primed to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Record Store Day. Whether it’s the new NOTS or the new Spaceface, the pop perfection of Tall David, or the country-punk attack of Lucero, there’s something to satisfy every listener.
For a list of all Record Store Day releases, visit www.recordstoreday.com. Tall David at Shangri-La Records, Saturday, April 22nd at 2 p.m. Free.

Categories
Music Music Features

All Hail the Purple One

This Friday, the two most prominent music venues in town will hold tribute concerts honoring the late, great Purple One. The New Daisy will host an evening of “Catalog Sessions” documenting the music of Prince with a performance of three different sets of his music, while Minglewood Hall will be hosting a “Memphis Does Prince” benefit with all the money going to St. Jude. Much like the Minglewood show, “Memphis Does Bowie,” curated by Graham Winchester, the “Memphis Does Prince” benefit this Friday features a ton of local musicians covering Prince’s music. On the other side of town, the New Daisy will have Larry Springfield along with Chris McNeil and friends on hand to perform Prince covers all night long. I caught up with Winchester to learn more about his tribute concert at Minglewood Hall this Friday. — Chris Shaw

The Memphis Flyer: How will this be different than the “Memphis Does Bowie” benefit?

Graham Winchester: The band lineup is very different, which I’m excited about. Through these “Memphis Does…” benefits, I want to incorporate as many local artists as possible. The music itself is also very different stylistically. Bowie definitely had some party tunes in his catalog, but not to the extent of Prince. I think this show will be one for the dancers.

Prince, much like Bowie, had a pretty unique, instantly recognizable style of music. Did that factor into how you picked the bands?

I definitely tried to pick bands that have an upbeat, funky vibe. There is also a strong need for great vocals and guitar work with this benefit. I didn’t get every band I wanted, but I got the main ones, and I’m happy with the results.

How appreciative was St. Jude about the Bowie benefit?

They were extremely appreciative and have been so helpful the second time around. I’ve had several meetings with employees at the hospital about not only this benefit, but how they can help with future shows as well. Everybody at St. Jude has been incredibly enthusiastic, appreciative, and even surprised at what is going on.

The Bowie benefit was a huge success. Do you expect a similar turnout?

I feel like the turnout may even be slightly larger than last time. I think there’s a lot of momentum and expectation going into this second benefit. My goal is to raise $25,000 this time.

Talk about the after party that’s 21 and up. What’s that going to be like?

My good friend Graham Burks is going to play the after party with his band mars HALL. It’s in 1884 Lounge, connected to the main room of Minglewood Hall, so it’ll be a great way to continue the Prince party without having to drive anywhere. There may be some impromptu collaboration involving all the musicians after mars HALL is done.

How will the show be formatted? How many songs does each band get to play? Will there be deep Prince cuts or solid hits all night?

Most bands will be playing three or four songs each. Toward the end of the night, my band is going to play seven or eight songs, and we’ve incorporated several special guests into our set.

After that Hope Clayburn plays for about 45 minutes, then Steve Selvidge plays the final 45 minutes. This time around I wanted to get a few headliners to play some solid, full sets so the night ends with a good flow. Overall, there are over 60 songs being played, so there is a good mix of hits and deep cuts.

“Memphis Does Prince,” featuring Steve Selvidge, Hope Clayburn, Winchester and the Ammunition, the Incredible Hook, Southern Avenue, Clay Otis and the Addults, Chinese Connection Dub Embassy, Lightajo, the Erotic Thrillers, Marcella Simien, Another Green World, Kitty Dearing, Jesse Davis, and more Friday, June 10th at Minglewood Hall. 8 p.m. $15-$17. All ages.

“Catalog Sessions” with Larry Springfield and Chris McNeil, Friday, June 10th at the New Daisy Theatre, 8 p.m. $30.00.

Categories
Music Music Blog

“Memphis Does Prince” Tribute Concert Announced

Graham Winchester, the man who brought you the David Bowie benefit earlier this year, is back with another tribute show to a fallen music idol. On Friday, June 10th,  a dozen Memphis musicians will perform Prince classics at the 1884 Lounge in Minglewood Hall, with the proceeds benefitting St. Jude. 

Steve Selvidge, Hope Clayburn, Winchester & The Amunition, The Incredible Hook, Southern Avenue, Clay Otis and the Addults, Chinese Connection Dub Embassy, Lightajo, The Candy Company, Marcella Simien, Another Green World, and Kitty Dearing will all be performing Prince classics, and the list of sponsors and vendors has yet to be announced. The show is all ages, starts at 7 p.m., and tickets range from $15-$17 dollars. Check out a classic prince track below, and make plans to catch some of Memphis’ most known musicians put their spin on one of the greatest artists of all time. 

‘Memphis Does Prince’ Tribute Concert Announced

Categories
News The Fly-By

Fly on the Wall 1418

First Person

Pictures or it didn’t happen. Isn’t that what they say these days? But mobile phones didn’t have cameras in 1997, and the phone I answered that sweaty August morning was attached to the wall. My friend Kelly was calling because she had news she thought I’d want to know.

“PRINCE IS PLAYING A SECRET CONCERT AT THE NEW DAISY TONIGHT! OMG!” she exclaimed. Well, she didn’t say “OMG.” Nobody said “OMG” back then. But that was the gist.

Kelly didn’t have details. She wasn’t 100 percent sure if Prince was really playing a second show following his big concert at the BassPro Shops (formerly known as the Pyramid). But the last time Kelly was 99 percent sure about something, the two of us went to the Peabody Hotel, called the front desk from a pay phone, asked for Tom Waits’ room, and Waits answered.

Words like “magic” are overused, but there was alchemy involved in what happened at the New Daisy that night. Wearing shiny lavender jammies, Prince owned the stage, running through songs like “The Ballad of Dorothy Parker,” “Baby I’m a Star,” and “1999.” He covered James Brown, Parliament, and the Staples Singers. The highlight of the show, however, was when Prince introduced his special guest, 80-year-old Stax royalty Rufus Thomas. Then the unflappable Purple One proceded to nerd the hell out, saying he didn’t ever want his time with Rufus to end.

There was conflict too. And drama! When Prince encouraged Thomas to cut loose and freestyle, he balked: “Oh no.” There was a back and forth between the two musical icons. Something was said about “nursery rhymes,” and then, with increasing confidence, the two men started improvising together. I wish I could tell you what was said and sung, but the details have slipped away. All that remains is the memory of a grin so big it threatened to crack my face and a similar memory of so many other people wearing the same dopey expression.

I’ve got no pictures, but I swear to God (and Wendy and Lisa too), it happened. You’ll just have to trust me and the few hundred other people lucky enough to get a call.

Categories
Film Features Film/TV

Film Retrospective: Batman (1989)

This week, 25 years ago, I was a knot of anticipation. The thing I wanted to see more than any other thing, the Batman film, was at last coming out. I’m not saying I wanted to see Batman more than I wanted to see any other movie at the time; I mean I had never been so eager to partake in anything, ever. In retrospect, I haven’t been so excited for the release of any other piece of pop culture. I think the only things to surpass it are real-life greatnesses: kissing a girl, getting married, the birth of my children. Seriously. (Where are you going? Come back!)

I was so excited in part because I loved and devoured the Batman comics. The character appealed to my maturing sense of identity and growing individualism. He was no less human than I was — he wasn’t bitten by a radioactive spider, exposed to cosmic or gamma rays, or orphaned from an alien planet — infinitely relatable to this here shy little nerd. What made Bruce Wayne into Batman was nothing but a common traumatic childhood; granted, my sheltered, suburban upbringing was far from harrowing. But, if you stabbed Batman with a sword-umbrella, he’d bleed like anyone else, and he became successful by dint of willpower alone. Plus, what kid doesn’t want to hear that it’s the monsters who should be afraid of the dark?

Michael Keaton in Batman

The movie Batman hit me square in the face, at age 13, the summer before 8th grade, a seminal moment at a seminal age. It marked my transition from an artless, prepubescent consumer of whatever happened to be in front of me to a relatively thoughtful observer of craft and commercialism. The coming of age was my (forgive me) Bat Mitzvah.

Batman felt like the first movie that was made for me. I pined for news in the build-up to its release — this was, of course, long before the internet, a lonely place of dying that left one starved for information. I watched Entertainment Tonight routinely, hoping for clips or updates; I scoured for showbiz tidbits in the Appeal section of The Commercial Appeal — this was pre-Captain Comics. Entertainment Weekly didn’t exist yet. MTV ran a “Steal the Batmobile” contest; I obsessed over the glimpses of the movie the promos and commercials showed. When the video to Prince’s “Batdance” premiered in advance of the film’s release, I was devastated: It didn’t show any scenes from the movie.

Finally, Batman came out. I saw it at Highland Quartet, the first showing on the first day. It napalmed me. I could not have loved it more. It buried itself in my DNA instantly. I bought the Danny Elfman score on tape and wore it out. To this day, it’s my all-time favorite soundtrack. I waited on tenterhooks for the box office results, finally delivered (at least, in my recollection) in the voice of Chris Connelly on an MTV News segment: Batman had a huge opening weekend. I felt personally vindicated. (As I said, I was a nerd.)

Batman was my first movie review. I wrote it for myself, in a journal kept in a spiral school notebook that has been, sadly, lost to time. After some attic digging, I did unearth the second volume of my journal, running from August 1989 to December 1990. Included within is my first ever movies list, presented here unadulterated:

Top 15 Movies, 6-29-90, 1:41-1:46 a.m.

1. Batman

2. The Hunt for Red October

3. RoboCop 2

4. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

5. Gremlins 2

6. The Jerk

7. RoboCop

8. Die Hard

9. The Terminator

10. Top Gun

11. The Blues Brothers

12. The Running Man

13. Young Guns

14. Blind Date

15. Parenthood

Looking back, there are plenty of things to commend in Tim Burton’s film. His German Expressionistic sensibilities (and Anton Furst production design) perfectly reflect the shadows of the mind cast within by Bruce Wayne’s psychological scars; Michael Keaton is surprisingly good as Batman; Jack Nicholson is terrific as the Joker. Its reputation was only burnished by the disappointments that followed, with the 1990s sequels Batman Returns, Batman Forever, and Batman & Robin.

However, in 2005, with Batman Begins, Christopher Nolan rendered the 1989 Batman irrelevant — astonishingly, but no less substantively. Nolan and Christian Bale made a grown-up adaptation — textually moodier, with characters more realistically beat down by life’s injustices — that thoroughly neutered the Burton/Keaton “original.”

The one thing missing from Nolan’s update was the childhood sense of awe and joy that I see bursting from the 1989 film. It’s not really Batman Begins‘ fault. How could it have possibly contained and inspired all that life-changing ecstasy? After all, I wasn’t there to provide it.