Tag: punk

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Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Bleeding Audio tells the story of The Matches, Your New Favorite Band, at the Oxford Film Festival

Bleeding Audio won Best Music Documentary at Oxford Film Fest 2021.

For a music fan, there’s nothing more special than the one band they know and love, but that never quite made it big. For many people over the years, that band was Memphis’ Big Star. For many people who came of age in the ’00s, such as director Chelsea Christer, that band is The Matches. 

Christer saw the band play an opening slot at a show in her native Colorado in 2005. “I was blown away by their performance and became an instant fan,” she recalls. “Then, when I moved to San Francisco for film school, I had a documentary project I had to do. They’re a Bay Area band, so I decided to shoot my shot and see if they’d let me do a little mini doc about them for my class project. I’ve been friends with them ever since. So when they let me know that they were going to reunite, I was already a member of the inside circle. So I was just like, ‘Hey, let me, let me help document this for you guys.’ And it just kind of snowballed from there.”

Her documentary Bleeding Audio had its world premiere at Cinequest Film and Creativity Festival in San Jose, California on March 7, 2020. “We had a little secret show afterwards, and it was the last live event that I’ve been to. It was amazing, but they announced they’re shutting down the festival the same day.” 

A little more than a year later, Bleeding Audio will screen at the Oxford Film Festival’s in-person program on Saturday, March 27th, and on the festival’s virtual program throughout the month of April. Christer says the film is about more than The Matches. “I wanted to give fans the story that they didn’t know, and make a film that fans would love and appreciate. But to me, it’s always been very important to focus on a general audience and make sure that the narrative was constructed in a way that you could watch this film and whether you like The Matches, or you had no idea who they were. You could at least walk away feeling like you had enjoyed a really great story.” 

The pop punk band released four albums from 1997 to 2009, and amassed a cult following with their relentless touring before succumbing to burnout. “I wanted to use their story almost like a case study to represent most artists who came up during that time,” says Christer. 

During that period, digital music distribution overtook physical CD and album sales, disrupting the business model for musical acts, and tanking careers that would have been viable in the 1990s. “The Matches’ major career milestones line up, tragically, and beautifully, with how the digital age of music has played out. I found that while yes, they’re unique and they’re wonderful characters, they weren’t the only band that went through this. In our structuring and telling of the story, we wanted to make that abundantly clear that while The Matches coulda, woulda, shoulda, there were so many other bands out there that might not have the same kind of redemption story The Matches do.” 

 The tragedy of coulda, woulda, shouda is balanced by the punk ethos that helped the band thrive when they staged a comeback. “They always have this central focus on the community of their fans. It wasn’t rockstar-to-fan, it was always peer-to-peer. I feel like that that’s like a power that we have now, thanks to this digital leveling of the playing field. You can actually reach out to your fans and have this one-on-one relationship with them. The Matches were able to come back so strongly not just because the music stood the test of time, and they were talented, but also because they truly cared about their fan base in a way that helps emphasize the power of the community of music. You can become disconnected from that the more you grow in your career. The Matches just never had that ego. 

 “If there’s anything my own film taught me, and  this experience taught the matches, it is that being an arena band and a household name is great and fun and a cool goal, but those benchmarks for success are not realistic for everybody. And while it’s fun to dream about that, I think we should all look internally and redefine what success means to us. If you can make a modest, sustainable living off of your art, that’s really exciting and, and should be celebrated. If that expands further, that’s great, but if you just have a group of people who are supporting you, that’s success, you know?” 

Tickets and passes to the Oxford Film Festival are available from the festival website.  

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Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Music Video Monday: 1000 Lights

1000 Lights began in 2018 as a band on a mission: recreate the Stooges’ Fun House for a Halloween party at Black Lodge Video. And they assembled an all-star cast to do, starting with Flyer film editor Chris McCoy (Super Witch, Pisshorse) on bass, and Russ Thompson (The Margins, Static Bombs, Pisshorse) on drums. To this solid rhythm section they added Joey Killingsworth (Joecephus & the George Jonestown Massacre, Super Witch) on guitar, and, in a masterstroke, Jesse James Davis (Yesse Yavis, Model Zero, The Tennessee Screamers) on vocals. Davis was the perfect fit for the manic, yet devious, rock ‘n’ roll energy exuded by Iggy Pop in the classic Detroit band, being no stranger to stripping off his shirt and gyrating with abandon.

And yet, though 1000 Lights channeled Fun House beautifully, their own personalities came more to fore as they pursued original material. Shedding their tribute-band origins, they emerged as something closer to The Damned with echoes of Tin Machine: Both more frenetic and more atmospheric than the Stooges, depending on their mood, but always bringing the reliable riffs.

The capstone of this was their show at the Crosstown Theater in 2019. As McCoy explains, “Last year, 1000 Lights was asked to be a part of Crosstown Arts’ silent film live scoring series. We chose to do Häxan, the 1922 film by director Benjamin Christensen that is both a documentary about the witch hunts of the Middle Ages and a precursor of the modern horror film. We incorporated our existing songs into the score, and wrote a lot of new material to go along with the film. Justin Thompson and Dawn Hopkins recorded the show, and we took the tapes to Dik LeDoux for mixing and mastering. We took the best parts from the 104 minutes of the live score and created an album which we’re releasing on Bandcamp this week. We couldn’t be more pleased with the results. It doesn’t sound like a live album at all, despite the fact that it was recorded in front of a large audience.”

Today, the world gets its first taste of Häxan, the album on Bandcamp, with this, the first video spawned by the project. Davis steers clear of any obvious Iggy-isms, creating his own Southern take on the more panicked sounds of punk. He is hurtling toward the Bluff City from a devilish distance, perhaps about to slam the city from above like a meteor? The frantic apprehension is captured beautifully by McCoy’s wife, director Laura Jean Hocking. “We shot at Black Lodge,” McCoy notes, “using projection art she created and the big screens they have in their theater. Then she incorporated images from Häxan into the final video.”

Says Hocking, “I wanted to portray Jesse as if he was a denizen of Andy Warhol’s Factory. Jesse has a dynamic, androgynously sexy stage presence and I used it to convey the punk urgency of the song. The layered images and projection give it a fever dream meets Exploding Plastic Inevitable sense, like Jesse is fighting the Devil with rock & roll.”

Music Video Monday: 1000 Lights

1000 Lights celebrate the release of Häxan with a live-streamed concert at Black Lodge, Halloween night, October 31, 9 p.m.

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

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Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Music Video Monday: Sweet Knives

Music Video Monday is coming in hot!

Today, we’ve got a world premiere from Sweet Knives. The group grew out of the wreckage of Lost Sounds, the legendary Memphis band that counted the late Jay Reatard as a founding member. Alicja Trout, Rich Crook, and John Garland got back together and added Eli Steele and Lori McStay to write and record new music. “Sweet Knives’ new batch of songs sounds different from the Lost Sounds dark-wave synth punk sound,” says Trout. “With this song in particular Rich [drums] wrote the core of the song and the guitar solo, then I built the melodies and lyrics from there. It’s a new approach for us. We don’t want to sound like Lost Sounds. We are a new band, though our set still includes a few old Lost Sounds songs.”

“I Don’t Wanna Die” has a personal meaning for Trout and the band. “Jay, as we know, died of substance complications. All of us are concerned for our health, and I think I speak for the band that we want long, healthy lives; we don’t want to live recklessly and have our lives end early as Jay’s did,” she says.

The video was directed by Laura Jean Hocking, shot by Sarah Fleming, and stars Shannon Walton as a pilot facing a bad situation. “This was a really enjoyable collaboration,” says Hocking. “The concept was Alicja’s idea, but I was given free rein. I’m very attracted to the image of a woman set adrift alone in the world.”

Music Video Monday: Sweet Knives

Sweet Knives sets out on a two-week tour of the Southwest and West Coast this week. Here’s where you can catch this don’t-miss live show.

-Friday, June 14, Little Rock, AR – White Water with Stifft Beat

-Saturday, June 15, Oklahoma City – Blue Note with Psychotic Reaction

-Sunday, June 16, Albuquerque, NM – Launchpad with The Ordinary Things and nowhiteflag

-Tuesday, June 18, San Diego, CA – Whistle Stop

-Wednesday, June 19, Long Beach, CA – 4th Street Vine with Assquatch

-Thursday, June 20, Los Angeles, CA – Cafe Nela with Guilty Hearts and Tenement Rats

-Friday, June 21, San Pedro, CA – Recess Ops with Lenguas Largas

-Saturday, June 22, San Francisco, CA – Parkside with Control Freaks and Dots

-Monday, June 24, El Centro, CA – Strangers

-Tuesday, June 25, Tempe, AZ – Yucca Tap Room with Lenguas Largas

-Wednesday, June 26, Tuscon, AZ – Club Congress with Lenguas Largas

-Thursday, June 27, El Paso, TX – Monarch Theater with Lenguas Largas

-Friday, June 28, Austin, TX – Barracuda outside with Lenguas Largas, Wiccans, more tba

-Saturday, June 29, New Orleans – Circle Bar with Manatees and Dummy Dumpster, Ponk Dance party DJs

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

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Music Music Blog

Goner and Unapologetic Join Forces For Downtown Meltdown

The true genius of Memphis music has always been our willingness to mix and match. A show tonight in a Downtown alley proves that tendency is alive and well.

“We keep it fresh by following this one idea: If it doesn’t intimidate us, we didn’t think big enough,” says IMAKEMADBEATS, mastermind of the Unapologetic label. “Every show we throw, we try to do something we’ve never seen or done before. We try to scare ourselves with our own ideas, and then we take the necessary steps to make it happen. The adrenaline alone pushes us somewhere new in each show.”

Goner Records co-owner Zach Ives says when he was approached by the Downtown Memphis Commission (DMC) about scheduling a show, he thought it was a great idea.

“I love what [IMAKEMADBEATS] is doing over there,” Ives said. “We’ve met up and talked some over the past year. Nice to share experiences. While our avenues are different, there are plenty of similarities. We are both doing it our own way and figuring it out as we go along.”

Both Goner and Unapologetic follow in the Memphis tradition of independent record labels making and selling the music they want to hear, and then creating the audience for it.

In the case of Goner, Ives and his partner, Eric Friedl (aka Eric Oblivian), that music is the raw, rootsy garage punk that emerged from the Antenna and Barrister’s scene of the 80s and 90s.

For Unapologetic, it’s cutting edge hip hop.

“I really believe people value sincerity and vulnerability in music over everything else,” says IMAKEMADBEATS. “I think things like genre and other divisions come second to those things.

“These kinds of shows are great for us for the obvious reasons of getting in front of new people with open minds, but also because people like the good folks at Goner understand pushing boundaries and creating the kinds of atmospheres that allow people to be unapologetically themselves.

“Beyond the music, shows like these are great for the people, how they feel there, and the kinds of minds they’ll meet there. It’s great for community.”

Ives says after the initial conversation with Unapologetic, “One thing we both agreed on, our different parts of the music community don’t interact enough. This seemed like a good opportunity to try and correct that.”

The show will kick off around quitting time on Thursday, July 12th with Unapologetic rapper PreauXX and wunderkind producer Kid Maestro.

“There are few people as naturally talented as PreauXX,” says IMAKEMADBEATS. “[He] can go anywhere and share the stage with anyone and be a showstopper.”

New Orleans-based retro-synth wizard Benni will echo his spacey vibes  through the Downtown cityscape.

“The Unapologetic guys are super into Benni, so it was a no-brainer!” says Ives. “They demanded it! Also, he has a new record about to come out next month, so it made sense to get him back up and fill Downtown with new space sounds. It also felt like a good transition with the Unapologetic artists.”

Unapologetic R&B sensation Cameron Bethany will lend his smooth, emotive voice to the chorus.

“Cameron found me, actually,” says IMAKEMADBEATS. “We’d met before because someone I was working with in the studio called him in for some background vocals. He told me that he’d kept up with some of the things I was doing with PreauXX years ago.

“One day in 2015, Cameron called me and told me he wanted me to produce a single for him. We met, talked some business and artistic direction, then set a date for him to come and work on the record.

“The music on his Soundcloud page was mostly cover songs and when I’d asked peers about him, a handful mentioned an amazing voice but no one knew what his music sounded like. We started working on his single and after hearing the hook on it, alone, I knew we had something special. Something different. I listened to it on loop after Cam left the studio for almost 3 hours.”

Fresh off a sold-out European tour with Superchunk, Memphis punk legends The Oblivians will be joined by New Orleans vocalist Stephanie McDee.

The Oblivians covered McDee’s “Call The Police” on their last album, Desperation.

“It’s such a party anthem,” says Ives. “And her original version is soooo fast! We’ll see if the guys can keep up. Can’t wait to see what happens.”

The free show, sponsored by the DMC, begins at 5 p.m. in Barbaro Alley Downtown. 

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Music Music Blog

Gonerfest Friday: Woozy, Brutal, Beautiful

Gonerfesters got a running start on Friday with an afternoon superkegger at Memphis Made’s taproom on Cooper. Memphis Made created a pair of custom beers for this year’s festival: A tart saison IPA and Gonerbraü, a smooth creme ale. Both proved popular with the rockers assembled in the sun to watch a four-band bill. New Orlean’s Trampoline Team turned in the most turnt tunes of the afternoon.

Yes, I just wrote that sentence. I probably should have just deleted it, but I’ll leave it to show the effects 48 hours of pounding beats are having on my synapses.

Trampoline Team riles up the crowd at Memphis Made.

The eventful Hi Tone Friday night got rolling with Opposite Sex from Deundin, New Zealand. They led with an impressive one-two punch in bassist/screamer Lucy Hunter and guitar squealer Reg Norris, who is able to get an huge range of sounds from just a wah pedal and a souped up stomp box. (TurboRat represent!)

Opposite Sex

The Hi Tone was filling up quickly as Memphis family affair Aquarian Blood howled to life. The husband and wife duo of Memphis hardcore OG JB Horrell and Laurel Fernden, supported by drummer Bill Curry and Coletrane Duckworth (son of Memphis guitar legend Jim Duckworth), gets better every time I see them. Between Horrell trying his best to strangle his ax into submission and Fernden switching between a clean microphone and one with rubbery echo effects—sometimes within a single lyrical line—they sound like no one else.

Aquarian Blood

When I walked into the Hi Tone Big Room to see Power killing it, I briefly wondered if I had stepped back in time to 1974. Like their countrymen Wolfmother, the Melbourne, Australia trio have embraced butt rock, mullets and all. And the Gonerfest audience went right there with them.

Power and the crowd.

I have to admit I totally missed Buck Biloxi and the Fucks. I was visiting the food truck out front for a much needed gutbomb burger when the party (it may have been a hip hop show, I wasn’t clear on the details) across the street at the erupted into a shirt-ripping brawl. There was at least one shot fired, but no one was hurt, and cop cars quickly swarmed the area. It was a strange, tense scene: on one side of the street, an African American crowd rapidly dispersing as police arrived; on the other side of the street, sweaty, mostly white punks from all over the world watching with a combination of horror and fascination, wondering if we were going to be witnesses to some kind of racially charged incident that has dominated the news in 2016. Fortunately, the first wave of cops to arrive seemed focused on de-escalating the fighting, and the situation cleared up without further violence or—judging by the lack of ambulance—injury.

The Blind Shake demonstrates unorthodox guitar technique.

Flashing blue lights provided the background as The Blind Shake took the stage. The Minnesota brothers Jim and Mike Blaha, who describes themselves as an “extraterrestrial backyard surf party”, are Gonerfest regulars. This year, they topped themselves with the tightest, snarlingest set I’ve seen from them. “Shots fired next door,” Jim said from the stage. “It’s an old marketing ploy.”

Black Lips

When 1 AM rolled around, the wrung out crowd milled around, trying to catch our breath as Black Lips meandered onto stage. The original Gonerfest grew out of a Black Lips show, and the band represents something of a garage rock ideal. The sound they have been chasing for the last decade and a half is something like a drunken 60s girl group backup band practicing in the stairwell where John Bonham recorded “When The Levee Breaks”. This is the strain of punk rock that originated in Memphis with the immoral Panther Burns. With the addition of a new saxophonist, the Black Lips pushed ever closer to the Panther Burns party vibe, gathering steam with each woozy rocker until “Katrina”, their 2007 underground lament of New Orleans devastation sent the crowd into a frenzy from which we didn’t emerge until the lights came up.

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Music Music Blog

Reigning Sound Rule Gonerfest Thursday Night

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

Memphis punks Nots open Gonerfest 13 in the Cooper Young Gazebo

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

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

Chook Race from Melbourne, Australia

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

Reigning Sound

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

Now to get rehydrated for today’s shows. 

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Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Music Video Monday: Faux Killas

This Music Video Monday’s got action figures! 

Midtown punks Faux Killas dropped their new album Time in Between on July 26. Director Moe Nunley kicks off his video for the explosive first single “Give It To Me” with a little stop motion drama between sassy Bratz and hopeless Muppets. But even with the added plot, the whole thing clocks in at a spiffy 3:16, giving you a bite size chunk of punk sugar to kick off your week. 

Music Video Monday: Faux Killas

We’re always looking for new Memphis-connected videos for Music Video Monday, so submit your favorites to cmccoy@memphisflyer.com

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Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Music Video Monday: Angry Angles

This Music Video Monday is moving at a breakneck pace. 

The late king of Memphis garage rock Jay Reatard was notoriously prolific—even his side bands had side bands. He formed the Angry Angles in 2005 with his then-girlfriend, rocker/model/DJ Alix Brown, and Ryan Roussau of Phoenix, Arizona psych rockers Destruction Unit. On May 20, Goner Records will release a compilation album with 17 songs recorded during the band’s 2-year tender. This video for the first single, a previously unreleased version of “Things Are Moving”, is by New Orleans video artist 9ris 9ris. It was created by combining footage shot at a pair of Angry Angles live shows with various gifs and video loops. Check out the crunchy video feedback action! 

Music Video Monday: Angry Angles

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

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Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Music Video Monday: Neighborhood Texture Jam

This Music Video Monday is going old school. 

Neighborhood Texture Jam was the first band I saw at the Antenna, and they blew my 18-year-old mind. The Memphis punks were crass, cerebral, hard, political, and fun. Memphis music has always been a polyglot of styles, and nobody personifies it better than NTJ, who mixed Madison Avenue hardcore punk with southern rock, funk, country, Bowie-esque theatricality, and forays into noise. This video, credited to “Marks/Wilson”, is from 1991, and it only hints at what a tremendously powerful live band they were—and still are, if you catch one of their periodic reunion shows. 

Music Video Monday: Neighborhood Texture Jam

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

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Music Music Blog

RPLD GHSTS at the Hi-Tone

RPLD GHSTS performing live.

November is shaping up to be a great month at the Hi-Tone, with plenty of national acts making tour stops in addition to a whole slew of locals performing as well. If you’re a fan of hip-hop, hardcore punk, or experimental music, then the show at the Hi-Tone tonight might already be on your radar. If not, here’s the rundown.

RPLD GHSTS is the project of Quinton-JeVon Lee, the Memphis musician who frequently collaborates with Cities Aviv. Lee doesn’t perform very often, and normally prefers DIY or unorthodox venues over places with an actual stage, making this Hi-Tone show that much more appealing.

RPLD GHSTS at the Hi-Tone

Joining RPLD GHSTS is B L A C K I E (real name Michael LaCour), the Houston, Texas musician who melds noise, jazz, and hardcore into a frightening cyclone of aggressive output. This is B L A C K I E ‘s first time in Memphis, but his connections to Cities Aviv and RPLD GHSTS run deep.

RPLD GHSTS at the Hi-Tone (2)

Also on the bill is Gimp Teeth, the Memphis hardcore band that recently released their self-titled cassette. Rumors are circulating that Gimp Teeth will have a single out soon, and their tape should be available at Thursday’s show. If you’re into music that can’t be categorized by simple,one-word genres, get to the Hi-Tone tonight (Thursday, November 5th) by 9 p.m., $8 gets you in. 

RPLD GHSTS at the Hi-Tone (3)