Tag: Snowglobe

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Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Music Video Monday: Snowglobe

Today’s Music Video Monday has a story to tell.

Snowglobe‘s orchestral pop rock has long been one of Memphis’ best exports. For the single from their self-titled 2016 album “We Were In Love”, they found the perfect video collaborator in experimental filmmaker Ben Siler. The Memphis auteur has crafted a complex, heartfelt story of lost love and mental illness using subtle gesture and rapid fire editing.

The video stars Natalie Higdon, Savannah Bearden, Danny Bader, Kittie Walsh, Snowglobe’s Jeff Hulett, Erica Qualy, and Inside Memphis Business Editor Jon Sparks, with editing by Laura Jean Hocking.

Music Video Monday: Snowglobe

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

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Music Music Features

Snowglobe Returns

Not too long ago, the Memphis psych-rock band, Snowglobe, was one of the most popular and prolific acts in town. Over the course of an eight-year span from 2002 to 2010, the group produced four excellent full-length albums, an EP, and two B-sides collections, toured regularly, and even dabbled in acting in Craig Brewer’s $5 Cover series for MTV.

But not much has been heard from the group in recent years. 2010’s Little More Lived In was Snowglobe’s last official release, and the band hasn’t played live since 2012. In that time, some members of Snowglobe pursued other projects — Tim Regan in his new Austin, TX-based group Texas Never Whispers, Jeff Hulett in Glorie and a solo act, Luke White with James and the Ultrasounds, and Nashon Benford with too many bands to mention.

Over five years ago, the band started working on what would become a new, self-titled album with producer/engineer Toby Vest at High/Low Recording. That record comes out this week on Regan’s Super Sonic Sounds label, and Snowglobe is re-convening for a release show this Friday at the Levitt Shell. Brad Postlethwaite, the frontman and founding member of Snowglobe, spoke to the Flyer this week about the band’s latest chapter. — JD Reager

The Memphis Flyer: Why did it take so long to make this record?

Postlethwaite: We’ve all had different things going on in our lives over the past five-plus years. There have been periods of intense effort and focus on this record, but we have also had to take a lot of extended breaks due to work, family, and other reasons. We had no deadlines, no interested labels, no one breathing down our neck. No expectations. It was beautiful. If it took 10 years to get things sounding right, so be it. We were making a record for the sake of doing it, not for any other reason.

What was it like working with Toby Vest and Pete Matthews at High/Low?

I had about 20 songs demoed when I brought the project to High/Low. Toby and the rest of the band helped to sort through them, decide what to try and record, etc. Of those 20, we ended up recording about 16 or 17 tracks, and then cut about five songs at the tail end of the project. At that point, we knew that mixing the remaining 10 or 11 songs was going to be a real challenge given the number of instrument and vocal tracks in each session. It also became clear, to me, that mixing would be a lot easier if I removed myself from the process.

Are you a perfectionist in the studio?

I am certainly a perfectionist and a little obsessive when it comes to finishing a record. There are often a handful of tracks that, to me, sound incomplete or just not representative of what I hear in my head.

For me, the final step in completing a record is reaching a state where I’m able to let that go. In this case, I was lucky, as Toby really understood the vision I had for all of these songs. In the end, once the record was ready to be mixed, I was very comfortable leaving things in his and Pete’s capable hands.

Mortality is a topic you address frequently on the new album — where does that come from?

Many of the songs dealing with issues of death and mortality were inspired by events in my life or those close to me. A few were inspired by experiences I had as a medical student or resident. On a daily basis, you are being exposed to these really tragic situations and experiencing them with the patient’s families. It’s an overwhelming amount of emotions that are hard to put into words.

What do you see happening with the band from here?

More albums for sure. Between family and work, touring would certainly be difficult. I’ve always dreamed of getting back on the road again with my boys, but in the words of Michael Bluth, “Family first.”

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Film Features Film/TV

Ben Siler: Collected Short Films

“I would like to give you an Easy Riders, Raging Bulls story, something involving violence or drugs,” filmmaker Ben Siler says, referring to Peter Biskind’s infamous book about the wild times of 1970s Hollywood. “But that hasn’t really happened.” Without million dollar budgets and the attendant debauchery, Siler has been working steadily for the past decade on a series of experimental short films and music videos that have earned him a reputation among the Memphis film community as a unique talent.

Katherine Dohan in Ben Siler’s short film ‘Prom Queen’.

“I’ve really respected and been inspired by his work for a long time,” says Brett Hanover, a fellow Memphis filmmaker who assembled and released the best of Siler’s work on a new DVD. “He’s a really dedicated artist, but he’s been so focused on producing his films that they just haven’t been seen. Even when they did screen at film festivals, they were so odd that they kind of got lost in the shuffle. I think they’re much more along the lines of video art, but they’re getting seen by the film community, not by the arts community.”

Siler and Hanover both got their start as filmmakers at the Memphis Digital Co-Op, a film collective founded in 2001 by Morgan Jon Fox and Brandon Hutchinson. At a time when digital video promised to democratize the art of filmmaking, this group of video rebels taught each other to shoot, act, and edit and create new video languages. “The Media Co-Op was a big deal to me,” Siler says. “It was a place where I could show my work, and people responded to it.”

Hanover remembers the early days of the Co-Op as heady and wildly ambitious: “There was a lot of experimentation going on. People kind of found their niche and went into different directions.”

Siler often uses onscreen text to comment on his images.

But Siler, it seemed, was good at everything. He could write, act, shoot, and especially edit. One of his earliest works was “Prom Queen” starring Katherine Dohan, who would later go on to co-direct the award-winning What I Love About Concrete. “It’s one of my favorite Memphis films,” Hanover says. “It’s one of my favorite films, period. ‘Prom Queen’ is about adolescence, but it’s also [about] gender and sexuality and thinking about his own relationship to masculinity. He writes female characters really well. He puts himself in those characters, and draws from his own experience in a way that is very empathetic and thoughtful.”

Siler recalls that “Katherine Dohan was up for anything. I based a lot of that movie on my own history. I’m very proud that it ran on the Library Channel, and it made an impression on a bunch of people.”

Ben Siler in ‘New Moon In The Morning’.

As a performer, Siler is as fearless and deadpan as Buster Keaton. He begins “Latent” tied to a chair rehearsing a scene with actress Melissa Walker where she repeatedly slaps him in the face. “It’s intense,” says Hanover. “Just as a performer, he is incredible. It’s unbelievable how much he’s willing to make himself vulnerable.”

Siler says the deceptive simplicity of his films are the result of the biggest lesson he learned at the Co-Op. “Everyone is in the mindset of the Hollywood blockbuster, but we should be thinking of what we can do on the level where we’re at now and where we might always be.”

Katherine Dohan in ‘Prom Queen’

His music videos, four of which are collected on the DVD, are like editing master classes. For Snowglobe’s “Nothing I Can Do,” he stitches together scenes showing dozens of actors and non-actors doing ordinary things like pumping gas or drinking a beer, until the rush of images becomes overwhelming. “He’s playing with the medium of video, pushing the limits of what we can understand,” says Hanover. “He uses text and video to make us free-associate. It’s poetic. There’s a moment at the end of ‘Fantasy’ when Ben asks his partner, ‘Could you do something specific and small by which I’ll remember this moment for decades?’ She slowly twirls her hair, which may or may not be a response to the question. This is a central tension in Ben’s work — do we direct our lives or do we just assemble meaning from things that are specific and small?”

Siler says he is grateful that these films are getting a proper release.”There’s a lot of personal history in them. I’m happy for people to see the work,” he says. “It kind of shows that anybody can do it.”

Ben Siler: Collected Short Films (DVD) Available at Black Lodge Video or at BrettHanover.com/ben

Categories
Music Music Features

Labor of Love

Organizers of “Rock for Love 2,” the Church Health Center’s annual benefit show, are anxious to get under way. Despite only going into its second year, the benefit — held Friday and Saturday, August 22nd and 23rd, at the Hi Tone Café — has the energy and potential to become an annual showcase of local music.

And with good reason. The lineup features a cross-section of some of the city’s best hip-hop, garage, and indie-rock acts, including Lord T & Eloise, Al Kapone, and Snowglobe. But the music is only one part of why the benefit’s organizers are so excited.

“It’s all about community,” says J.D. Reager (an occasional Flyer contributor) who, along with Jeff Hulett and Marv Stockwell, founded the benefit and now serve as its coordinators.

All three are local music veterans. Reager plays in Two Way Radio as well as leading his own band, J.D. Reager & the Cold Blooded Three. Hulett is the drummer for Snowglobe as well as the frontman for Jeffrey James & the Haul. Stockwell is a founding member of seminal local hardcore band Pezz.

Sitting down for an interview, the three interrupted each other the way old friends do — laughing and joking and displaying the energy of people who are working hard for something they love.

“I think a lot is coalescing all at once,” says Stockwell, who serves as public relations manager for the Church Health Center. “There’s some alliances forming that maybe haven’t formed until now. I think there’s a new atmosphere of cooperation.”

Reager and Hulett have worked together with Makeshift Music since its inception in the late 1990s, and their dedication to local music has lasted through years of intense work with little compensation along the way.

“We’ve never made a dollar on anything we’ve done, personally or as a company,” Reager says. “Our goal, our mission, is to give a voice to artists who wouldn’t have one otherwise; whatever role we can play, that’s what we try to do.”

Hulett says he and Stockwell were both drawn to the health center’s mission of responding to the need of working Memphians who don’t have health insurance. “I wanted a chance to live out my faith and have a job that inspires me,” Stockwell says.

Recent changes in TennCare are increasing the number of patients at the center. And given the slump in the economy, Stockwell says, “more people are in that unfortunate situation where they’re having to choose between putting food on the table or paying for their health care.”

According to Stockwell, the number of people attending the center’s orientation seminars has doubled and tripled in recent months.

“It’s as common as anything to be uninsured,” Stockwell says.

“The need is great with the Church Health Center,” Hulett says. “We’ve had donors on board since the beginning, but there’s also a need for younger donors and reaching out.”

Snowglobe

“Rock for Love” certainly has made its presence felt within Memphis music circles and the greater community, which Hulett considers one of the benefit’s greatest successes.

“We’ve had several calls from prominent local artists asking, ‘How do I get on the bill?’ We have to tell them sorry. We booked the bill five months ago.”

Sponsorship also is key to this year’s benefit, with SunTrust taking the title position and Ardent Studios, the Memphis Music Commission, and a host of other businesses throughout the community giving as well.

“We’ve raised twice as much money [as last year], and we haven’t even sold ticket one,” Stockwell says.

But perhaps the most noteworthy sign of support is the outpouring of volunteer energy.

“Al Kapone approached us about playing the show,” Reager says. “He heard about the event and called up and said he wanted to play for free.”

“Folks who would love to give money are getting involved in other ways,” Hulett adds.

Each evening will be emceed by local Fox Sports Radio personality (and local music fan) Chris Vernon and WEVL deejay Janet Wilson. Also of note is the artwork donated by Sasha Barr, a Seattle artist long affiliated with Makeshift Music, and a silent auction hosted by the Memphis Roller Derby.

“Seeing the number two on “Rock for Love 2″ is really exciting for me,” Hulett says. “This is going to become an annual event. That’s what we’re planning on.”

Friday night’s lineup features: Lord T & Eloise, Al Kapone, Two Way Radio, J.D. Reager & the Cold Blooded Three, and Vending Machine. Saturday night’s lineup features: Snowglobe, the Coach & Four, Antenna Shoes, Oh No! Oh My!, and Royal Bangs.