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Ike Turner: RIP

CREDIT: image: Rolling Stone

Ike Turner, whose role as one of rock’s critical architects was overshadowed by his ogrelike image as the man who brutally abused former wife and icon Tina Turner, died Wednesday at his home in suburban San Diego. He was 76.

“He did pass away this morning” at his home in San Marcos, in northern San Diego County, said Scott M. Hanover of Thrill Entertainment Group, which managed Turner’s musical career.

There was no immediate word on the cause of death, which was first reported by celebrity Web site TMZ.com.
T

urner managed to rehabilitate his image somewhat in his later years, touring around the globe with his band the Kings of Rhythm and drawing critical acclaim for his work. He won a Grammy in 2007 in the traditional blues album category for “Risin’ With the Blues.”

But his image is forever identified as the drug-addicted, wife-abusing husband of Tina Turner. He was hauntingly portrayed by Laurence Fishburne in the movie “What’s Love Got To Do With It,” based on Tina Turner’s autobiography.

In a 2001 interview with The Associated Press, Turner denied his ex-wife’s claims of abuse and expressed frustration that he had been demonized in the media, adding that his historic role in rock’s beginnings had been ignored.

“You can go ask Snoop Dogg or Eminem, you can ask the Rolling Stones or (Eric) Clapton, or you can ask anybody — anybody, they all know my contribution to music, but it hasn’t been in print about what I’ve done or what I’ve contributed until now,” he said.

Turner, a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, is credited by many rock historians with making the first rock ‘n’ roll record, “Rocket 88,” in 1951. Produced by the legendary Sam Phillips, it was groundbreaking for its use of distorted electric guitar.

But as would be the case for most of his career, Turner, a prolific session guitarist and piano player, was not the star on the record — it was recorded with Turner’s band but credited to singer Jackie Brenston.

And it would be another singer — a young woman named Anna Mae Bullock — who would bring Turner his greatest fame, and infamy.
Turner met the 18-year-old Bullock, whom he would later marry, in 1959 and quickly made the husky-voiced singer the lead singer of his group, refashioning her into the sexy Tina Turner. Her stage persona was highlighted by short skirts and stiletto heels that made her legs her most visible asset. But despite the glamorous image, she still sang with the grit and fervor of a rock singer with a twist of soul.

The pair would have two sons. They also produced a string of hits. The first, “A Fool In Love,” was a top R&B song in 1959, and others followed, including “I Idolize You” and “It’s Gonna Work Out Fine.”

But over the years they’re genre-defying sound would make them favorites on the rock ‘n’ roll scene, as they opened for acts like the Rolling Stones.

The densely layered hit “River Deep, Mountain High” was one of producer Phil Spector’s proudest creations. A rousing version of “Proud Mary,” a cover of the Creedence Clearwater Revival hit, became their signature song and won them a Grammy for best R&B vocal performance by a group.

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Music Music Features

On the Road Again

For Memphis-based rock band Ingram Hill, the road from recording their new album, Cold in California, to releasing and promoting it late this summer and early this fall, has been a rocky one. For starters, the band found themselves without a bass player on the eve of their first promotional tour for the record.

Ingram Hill began earlier this decade when singer Justin Moore, guitarist Phil Bogard, drummer Matt Chambliss, and bassist Shea Sowell came together as University of Memphis students. Playing a type of catchy, accessible, straightforward rock popular on college campuses, the band built up a strong following locally then regionally through heavy touring on the college circuit. But Ingram Hill broke out in a big way in 2004, when their song “Will I Ever Make It Home” — originally released on their debut EP Until Now, used again on their first full-length album, June’s Picture Show, and featured on the soundtrack of the 2004 romantic comedy 13 Going on 30 — became a commercial radio hit.

But years of touring and the demands of the rock-and-roll lifestyle took their toll on Sowell and the bass player left the band in January, after the recording of Cold in California.

“We had already finished the record,” says Moore, who doesn’t seem to harbor any resentment at his friend’s decision to leave the band. “We were just waiting for it to come out, but [Sowell] didn’t want to do it anymore. Too much stress for him. So we got another guy.”

The other guy didn’t last long. After recruiting a new bass player, the band went out on the road then came home for a seven-week break to wait for the record’s release. Three weeks into that break, the new bass player quit too, for “Lord knows what reason,” says an exasperated Moore.

“He told us he wanted to go to seminary school to be a youth pastor, but you have to have a four-year degree to go to seminary school and he’d never been to college,” Moore says. “And you don’t have to go to seminary school to be a youth pastor. So, I have no idea. We had a month to find a new bass player and teach him three records.”

Two weeks before the band was set to hit the road, Ingram Hill still hadn’t found a bass player, but shortly after a public plea on a local sports-talk radio show, a young local musician, Chris Johnson, emerged.

“He was a guitar player who was doing a little singer-songwriter thing,” Moore says. “He’s one of those talented musicians who can play whatever he picks up. Those guys make me jealous.”

So far, Johnson has stayed, despite the fact that on the third day of his first tour with the band, he found himself in an Indiana ditch.

“We’d been together for seven years and never had an accident. His third day in, we wreck the van,” Moore says.

Moore was behind the wheel of the van en route from Oxford, Ohio, to Chicago when a tire blew out.

“We’d been in a bus for a couple of years and went back to the van to save some money,” Moore remembers. “Three days into the tour, the right rear tire blew on the van, not the trailer — on the interstate, going about 65 miles an hour. We started fishtailing like crazy and eventually spun off the road toward the ditch. The tire had come off the wheel, so there was no rubber to grab the pavement. We just kept fishtailing and the trailer jackknifed into the van and we went into the ditch, completely turned around, facing the other direction. The only thing that kept us from [turning over] was all the weight in the trailer.

“When we started fishtailing, the first thing I did was look in my rearview mirror, and there was a semi right behind us,” Moore continues. “The guy in the semi stopped to see if we were okay and said, ‘I can’t believe I didn’t hit y’all. I was trying everything I could not to run over you.’ Luckily, no one was hurt, but we were pretty freaked out.”

Band, crew, and equipment came through unscathed, but the van was totaled and the band found itself stranded in Indiana for several hours, eventually renting a new ride and making their Chicago gig just in time.

With a new bass player who has seen the worst and decided to stick around and back in a bus Moore doesn’t have to drive, Ingram Hill is focused on promoting Cold in California. The album is the second the band has released for the Los Angeles-based Hollywood Records, but it is the first the band has recorded for the label. (June’s Picture Show was recorded and released independently, then re-released on Hollywood after the band was signed.) The experience of recording an album under the stewardship of a major record label was a new experience for the band.

“It was completely different,” Moore says. “Even the process of getting to record the record was different this time. We had to write songs, demo them, and send them in to our A&R person only to have them say, ‘Eh, no. Keep writing.’ I think we wrote like 50 songs just to get 10 for the record. And at every step of the process you’re getting judged. And you better send in a good demo. If it sounds like crap, you don’t get a good response, even if it’s a good song.”

But, according to Moore, the hassle was worth it..

“Budget made a big difference. In terms of where you stay. In terms of how you record. Before, in the studio, we’d always strummed up and tuned our own guitars. This time, we didn’t touch anything, except to play it. Techs came in and set everything up for us. It was kind of weird at first, because I wasn’t used to it. But after the first day, I thought this is definitely the way to do it. These guys know what they’re doing.

“Having a larger budget, things get scrutinized even more,” Moore says. “But, on the other hand, you get the sounds you’re looking for, because you have the means to do it. As far as guitars and amps and guitar tones and microphones, you can get whatever you want. And that was something new for us.”

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Music Record Reviews

Atlanta garage-rockers dig deep, even after the gold rush.

Atlanta’s Black Lips arrived fashionably late to the garage-rock trend that peaked in the early 2000s and has petered out in the years since. And yet, they wear their poor timing proudly, as if jumping dead trends were an act of punk rebellion. In addition to a handful of strong studio albums, they’re known for their reckless live shows and joking nature, but below the snotty surface are musicians with a strong sense of history (they sample the Swamp Rats on their new album) and an aptitude for crafting sharp, retro-riffs beholden to no trend. In short, the Black Lips are Reigning Sound and the Dead Milkmen.

Good Bad Not Evil is the band’s fourth and arguably best album, concocting and sustaining an ideal blend of humor, chops, and even a little gravity. “O Katrina!” is about you-know-what, complete with the line “You broke my heart way down in New Orleans.” But this isn’t a sappy ballad or jazzland-inspired number, but a suped-up rocker with a catchy call-and-response and outraged delivery by Cole Alexander. The naivete the band brings to the subject — the belief that a tragedy of this magnitude can be addressed with the same tone they might sing about girls or cars — is refreshing, even touching.

Better still is “How Do You Tell a Child That Someone Has Died,” which has a Ween title and a country-and-western sound. Sure enough, it begins with tongue firmly planted in cheek, but the punchline never comes: The Black Lips are generally concerned about death and innocence. “Keep him in your heart each and every day,” Alexander counsels Little Suzy, whose father has passed away, “and there he will live on and never fade away.”

Of course, not everything on Good Bad Not Evil is so thoughtful or thought-provoking. In fact, most of the album is stupid in the best way possible, grafting retro-riffs onto non-PC songs about squaw princesses (“Navajo”), warlords (“Slime & Oxygen”), and world religion (“Veni Vidi Vici”). Best of all is “Bad Kids,” a rowdy anthem that manages to locate sympathy for the losers and delinquents caught between unloving parents and pill-dispensing doctors.

— Stephen Deusner

Grade: A-

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Music Music Features

Jerry Lee Lewis Honored By Hall of Fame

Jerry Lee Lewis, one of the first inductees into the Rock-and-Roll Hall of Fame, will be the focus of its “American Music Masters” series to be held in early November. Lewis is the first living performer to be recognized in this series.

The 12th Annual American Music Masters series “Whole Lotta Shakin’: The Life and Music of Jerry Lee Lewis” is being held at the Cleveland museum and at Case Western Reserve University. from November 5th through November 10th. Among the events are “Jerry Lee Lewis from Every Angle,” an academic look at Lewis’ piano-playing; a presentation on Lewis’ appearances on film and TV; and a daylong conference featuring Peter Guralnick as the keynote speaker.

The series culminates with a concert on November 10th that willl include performances by Chrissie Hynde, George Thorogood, Shelby Lynne, Kris Kristofferson, and others. Lewis’ cousin, the Rev. Jimmy Swaggart, will also make an appearance at the concert and will play the piano.

For more information, go here.

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Music Record Reviews

Girl group pop and all-boy punk push forward by looking back.

“We are the Pipettes,” sing the Pipettes by way of introduction. “If you haven’t noticed yet, we’re the prettiest girls you’ve ever met.” A prefab girl group not unlike the Shangri-La’s or the Spice Girls, the Pipettes rock matching polka-dot dresses, horn-rimmed glasses, lacquered make-up, and cute nicknames (Gwenno, Rosay, and RiotBecki) as a means of repackaging prepunk sounds for post-punk audiences. More blatantly retro than Lily Allen or Amy Winehouse, but also just as modern, they’re as much a project as a band, one that emphasizes their physical as well as musical attributes.

In one sense, this girl group might seem as suspicious as a boy band, but the Pipettes have a lot of fun with their constructed image. Their debut cleverly updates girl-group sounds to address modern concerns from a distinct — and playful — female perspective. In other words, what Ronnie Spector could only hint at, the Pipettes can sing about openly. On “Sex,” which kicks off with a “Be My Baby” drum intro, they shut up a talkative date with a trip to the bedroom; “Dirty Mind,” about an imaginative lover with OCD, could be a response to the Prince song of the same name. And of course there are (slightly more) innocent songs about boys (“I Love You”), romantic confusion (“Why Did You Stay?”), and dancing (“It Hurts to See You Dance So Well,” which could get by on title alone).

Ultimately, it’s the Pipettes’ musical attributes that truly sell these dramas. Each has a strong and expressive voice individually, but together, they sound even better, mixing their vocals up in harmonies that are compelling and surprisingly complex. It helps that the Pipettes have a resourceful backing band, the Cassette, who effortlessly re-create the swing and shake of the ’60s while pulling a few tricks from ’80s English synthpop — all without intruding on the Pipettes’ vocals. Everything comes together on the album’s two best tracks, “Your Kisses Are Wasted on Me” and “Pull Shapes.” The former features their most ecstatic vocals and catchiest kiss-offs, and in a just world, the latter would inspire a global dance craze. — Stephen Deusner.

(Sire)

Grade: A-

On their recent single “White People for Peace” (its self-deprecating title crucially revealing), four-piece Florida punk band Against Me! rails against a bad war with a “protest song in response to military aggression.”

(Cherrytree/Interscope)

But, like so many great punk bands before them, they’re most articulate when keeping politics local — trying to change the larger culture by changing their own scene first.

The title/lead track on this endlessly rocking major-label debut — produced by Butch Vig, who sweetens and strengthens Against Me!’s sound as he once did with Nirvana — refers not to a genre of music but to a metaphor for greater change that starts with bandleader Tom Gabel himself and extends to his fans, friends, and scene cohorts. Gabel actually opens the album by singing these lyrics: “We can control the medium/We can control the context of presentation/Well, is there anybody on the receiving end?/Reaching out for some kind of connection?”

Those lyrics don’t exactly scan, but they do sing when backed up by a rush of anthemic guitar rock and gang vocals, and when they’re underscored (but not undercut) by Gabel’s self-conscious wit, by a personal touch, as on “Thrash Unreal,” the raggedy, empathetic portrait of a young woman who might be an Against Me! fan, and by a willingness to implicate themselves in their own cultural critiques, as on “Americans Abroad,” where the band relives a European tour by wondering how different they are from the “arrogant, ignorant American” stereotype.

“We can be the bands we want to hear/We can define our own generation,” Gabel sings — no, promises — on “New Wave.” This is not the kind of thing you hear from young, white guitar bands anymore. The spirit of hopeful punk defiance evokes Hüsker Dü, while the band’s combination of direct, somewhat academic-sounding political language with an otherwise working-class perspective recalls the Minutemen. Those ’80s indie bands were both smarter and less collegiate than the generations that followed them. In this regard, Against Me! is a throwback, and, with indie/alt rock in a particularly mumbly, navel-gazing state, a welcome one. — Chris Herrington

Grade: A-

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Music Music Features

Return of the Klitz

Los Angeles had the Go-Go’s and the Runaways. New York had the Angels and the Shangri-Las. In Memphis, during a certain era, the most talked about girl group was The Klitz. The band — with Lesa Aldridge, Gail Clifton, Marcia Clifton, and Amy Gassner (billed as Kerry, Darla, Candy, and Envy Klitz, respectively) — sprang onto the Midtown scene in 1978 and quickly worked its way into local rock-and-roll lore. Alex Chilton, Aldridge’s boyfriend and creative partner, served as their impresario and helped the band land early gigs at clubs such as Trader Dick’s, the Hot Air Balloon, and Lafayette’s Music Hall.

Although the Klitz (the name, Aldridge insists, is German slang for “pistol”) are often remembered as Memphis’ first punk group, that honor actually belongs to The Malverns, an earlier band that Gail Clifton formed with Ross Johnson, Matt Diana, and Eric Hill. Aldridge, however, holds the key to the city’s punk legacy. The daughter of a Presbyterian minister, she was reared in Mississippi, on the East Coast, and in Europe. At 18, she was immortalized in a William Eggleston photograph (they’re cousins), shot the night before she left for her freshman year at Sarah Lawrence. In her early 20s, Aldridge returned to Memphis and rented an apartment across the street from Ardent Studios. (The Cramps crashed there while they recorded Songs the Lord Taught Us.) She was also, along with sister Holliday, an inspiration for Big Star‘s Third album, also called Sister Lovers.

“It was a racy time [in Memphis], but I think the Klitz fit right in,” Aldridge says today. “I don’t think we thought about it in those days, outside of the sheer joy of expressing ourselves. I’d played piano since I was 8 and guitar since I was 13. I’d also traveled a lot, and although I think I knew Memphis was provincial, I felt like we were the hub, because all these bands like the Cramps were coming here to be with us.”

“I’d broken up with my boyfriend and was crying on Lesa’s and Alex’s shoulders,” Gail Clifton says of the Klitz’ beginnings. “We started practicing at a boathouse, and our first gig was at the Midtown Saloon in 1978. We were hanging out with the in crowd. The Scruffs influenced me a whole lot, and I think we knew that Alex was something special.”

By ’79, the Klitz had traveled to New York for gigs at Irving Plaza and CBGBs, garnered a write-up in Rolling Stone, and entered Sam Phillips Recording Studio to cut an album with Chilton and Jim Dickinson at the helm. An extremely limited-release single on Jim Blake‘s Barbarian label surfaced, but by the start of the next decade, the Klitz were history.

Aldridge moved to New Jersey and formed a band called Missy & the Men before relocating to Nashville, having three kids, and ultimately teaching English in the public school system. Gail Clifton majored in art history and print-making at the University of Memphis, raised two children of her own, and embarked on a career as a sales consultant.

In 2005, the two staged a mini-reunion of the Klitz with Marcia Clifton. Now, they’ve reformed the group with bassist Stephanie Swindle (Chess Club) and drummer Angela Horton (The Satyrs, Dan Montgomery).

“Before now, I’d come to town and we’d record things. Now we try to get together on weekends and school breaks. I will say that I have not considered moving back here, but [Memphis] is a wonderful town to visit,” Aldridge says.

Local musician Greg Roberson (formerly of The Reigning Sound) has plans to escort the group into Rocket Science Audio later this summer, where they’ll record a new album with studio engineer Kyle Johnson.

After a show in Oxford, Mississippi, last weekend, the Klitz are ready to take the stage at the Hi-Tone Café Friday, July 27th, with Jack Oblivian and Kid Twist. Showtime is 9 p.m. Admission is $7.

“We’ve got some happening songs,” Aldridge says, “and we’re tight and fun to look at.”

When asked if they’d like to see any familiar faces in the audience, Gail Clifton says, “Alex, of course, but I know it’s different for Lesa.”

Aldridge rolls her eyes and says, “Don’t do a ‘we’ on that one!”

For more on the Klitz’ back-story, pick up a copy of Rob Jovanovic‘s Big Star: The Story of Rock’s Forgotten Band or Robert Gordon‘s seminal It Came From Memphis. Also be sure to tune into WKNO Channel 10 on Wednesday, August 1st, when Respect Yourself: The Stax Records Story, which was co-produced by Gordon, airs on Great Performances.

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Music Music Features

A World of Sound

Combining the best of Memphis music past and present with some of the most legendary performers in rock and soul history and a sampling of today’s biggest bands, Memphis In May’s Beale Street Music Festival has become one of the largest music festivals in the country, routinely drawing over 150,000 fans to the banks of the Big Muddy. This year’s lineup should only help continue the festival’s popularity, bringing more than 60 acts from a variety of musical genres and generations for a three-day celebration of the city’s mighty music heritage.

The Beale Street Music Fest will divide acts among four stages in Tom Lee Park, a 33-acre site that sits at the base of historic Beale Street and stretches along the majestic Mississippi River. This year’s festival is headlined by a couple of the most interesting bands from 1970s, each of which has made high-profile comebacks.

Detroit bad boys Iggy & the Stooges, who were arguably the first punk band, will close out the Cellular South Stage Friday night, and fellow ’70s artists Steely Dan, who became unlikely radio stars with a blend of rock, jazz, and soul, will headline the Cellular South Stage Saturday night.

But the festival’s real calling card may be jam-bands, particularly ones with a distinctly Southern flavor. The Budweiser Stage on Friday is the place for fans of venerable road warriors the Allman Brothers Band, with spin-off faves the Derek Trucks Band and Gov’t Mule among the bands warming up for them.

Those who like to groove to a ’70s sound will want to stake out a good place at the AutoZone Stage Saturday night, where funk masters the Ohio Players give way to boogie-rock headliner George Thorogood. Younger listeners already nostalgic for the ’90s will want to seek out the Cellular South Stage Sunday night for a closing double-bill of the Barenaked Ladies and the Counting Crows.

There’s also plenty of exciting contemporary music to be had at this year’s festival. Soul fans can catch a back-to-back showcase of two of contemporary soul’s emerging stars on the Budweiser Stage Sunday night: British chanteuse Corinne Bailey Rae (of the smash single “Put Your Records On”) followed by Grammy favorite John Legend.

Some of the most interesting new acts at this year’s festival are ones that bring a fresh approach to roots genres, including bluegrass. Nashville’s Old Crow Medicine Show play the Cellular South Stage Saturday afternoon, and the Duhks play the AutoZone Stage earlier in the day. On Sunday, in the TN Lottery Blues Tent, the Lee Boys will try to blow the roof off with their soaring, sanctified steel-guitar sound.

Headbangers will also have plenty of modern rock to choose from this year. Australia’s Wolfmother bring their breakout freak-out rock to the Budweiser Stage Saturday night. Youngsters can swoon and thrash to the emo-style rock of Hawthorne Heights and Taking Back Sunday on the Budweiser Stage Saturday. And those with a taste for more muscular rock can take in American Idol star Daughtry and emerging radio-rock heavyweights Hinder. They close the AutoZone Stage Sunday night.

Of course, it wouldn’t be the Beale Street Music Fest without a heaping helping of blues, and this year is no exception. Former Howlin’ Wolf sideman Hubert Sumlin and Chicago blues queen Koko Taylor highlight the TN Lottery Blues Tent Friday. Eclectic blues master Taj Mahal brings the genre to the AutoZone Stage Saturday night. Sunday, blue-eyed blues will be on display at the TN Lottery Blues Tent in the form of Watermelon Slim.

The Beale Street Music Festival also remains a must-see for the musical legends of Memphis and the Mid-South. Rock-and-Roll Hall of Famer Jerry Lee Lewis will play the Budweiser Stage Friday night. On Saturday, you can celebrate the 50th anniversary of Stax records with Eddie Floyd and the Bar-Kays on the Cellular South Stage, then head over to see Beale Street’s own Bobby “Blue” Bland close out the TN Lottery Blues Tent. On Sunday, Sun rockabilly bad boy Billy Lee Riley will get things red hot on the Cellular South Stage, while Hi Records songstress Ann Peebles performs on the Budweiser Stage later that afternoon.

And you can also get a sense of what Memphis sounds like today, sampling hip-hop (Three 6 Mafia; Project Pat), blues (Richard Johnston; Daddy Mack Blues Band; and Alvin Youngblood Hart), and rock (North Mississippi Allstars; Egypt Central).

All in all, the options are daunting, but with a solid plan and some comfortable shoes, you should be able to pack your weekend with great music.

Friday May 4th Music Fest Band Lineup

Saturday May 5th Music Fest Band Lineup

Sunday May 6th Music Fest Band Lineup

Categories
Music Record Reviews

Living With the Living–Ted Leo + The Pharmacists

Ted Leo doesn’t have a voice naturally suited to the brand of politicized pop-punk he’s been playing for more than a decade now. It’s thin and untextured, too studied in its enunciation and too weak in its falsetto to sound threatening or powerful. And yet, like many angry singers before him, Leo has turned what might be perceived as a shortcoming into an asset, writing lyrics that emphasize the cerebral over the physical and expanding his musical vocabulary to include tatters of reggae, new wave, and folk — whatever gets his point made. As a result, he comes across as an intelligent everyman who has reluctantly accepted a calling and steeled himself to succeed despite his limitations. As he remarks on “The Sons of Cain,” the galvanizing opener on his new album, Living with the Living, “I’ve got to sing just to exist… and to resist.”

“The Sons of Cain” showcases everything Leo does well: It rings out loud and fast, an adrenaline rush of pop-punk guitars whose double-time tempo and impassioned, imperfect delivery alone make it catchy. However, his political frustrations over the Iraq war and the brutal, militarized culture it has created seem to be getting the better of him on Living with the Living, with very few tracks living up to the promise of “The Sons of Cain.” “Army Bound” stalls continuously, even when it nabs the Kinks’ “Victoria” melody for its bridge, and “Colleen” never gets moving, thanks largely to its overly simplistic structure that tries to rhyme every single line with its title. Curiously, many of the album’s passages, like the half-rapped delivery on “Bomb. Repeat. Bomb” or the lengthy coda of “The Lost Brigade,” sound telegraphed and flat — like ideas that never panned out.

The album’s most damning flaw isn’t the uninspired and uninspiring music but Leo’s tone. Where he once sounded outraged but relentlessly hopeful, now he sounds outraged and bitter, his usually incisive lyrics turned blunt and accusatory. He sounds like he’s no longer trying to change the world and instead is just complaining. War is hell indeed. — Stephen Deusner

Grade: C+