The Third Man – Memphis Flyer

Reigning Sound ringleader Greg Cartwright played an impromptu acoustic set at Goner Records Friday, November 30th, in part to celebrate the completion of the band’s most recent album. The former Memphian, now comfortably ensconced in Asheville, North Carolina (asked before his set if he were tempted to move back, he charitably responded that he loves visiting Memphis), played with his band at the Gibson Beale Street Showcase over Thanksgiving weekend, then spent the following week holed up at Ardent‘s Studio C, with Doug Easley engineering.

The newly bearded Cartwright said during his Goner set that the new album would be released via the In the Red label in late spring. After spending time in the past year backing up (and, in Cartwright’s case, producing and writing for) former Shangri-Las singer Mary Weiss and keeping the Reigning Sound section of record-store racks stocked with outtakes (Home for Orphans) and live (Live at Goner, Live at Maxwell’s) discs, this will be the band’s first album of new material since 2004’s Too Much Guitar.

The Reigning Sound isn’t the only high-profile Memphis-connected band that’s been in the studio working on an early-2008 release. The North Mississippi Allstars have announced that their next album, titled Hernando, will be released on January 22nd. The band’s first studio album since 2005’s Electric Blue Watermelon, Hernando will also be the first released on the band’s own label, Sounds of the South. The album was produced by Jim Dickinson in September at his Zebra Ranch studio.

If you missed ambitious local rock band The Third Man‘s record-release party for its new album Among the Wolves at the Hi-Tone Café, you can make up for it this week, when the band plays an early-evening set at Shangri-La Records. The Third Man is set to play at 6 p.m. Friday, December 7th, and it’ll be interesting to see how the band’s epic, guitar-heavy sound translates to a more intimate setting.

The Memphis Roller Derby will take over the Hi-Tone Café Saturday, December 8th, for their second annual “Memphis Roller Derby Ho Ho Ho Burlesque Show.” In addition to skits featuring the Derby gals, there will be plenty of musical entertainment as well. Longtime local-scene drummer/commentator Ross Johnson, fresh off the release of his “career”-spanning Goner compilation Make It Stop: The Most of Ross Johnson, will be backed by an “all-star” band he’s dubbed the Play Pretteez. Johnson also will retreat back behind the drum kit alongside Jeff Golightly, Lamar Sorrento, and Jeremy Scott in a British-invasion style band called Jeffrey & the Pacemakers. Rounding out the music will be electronic dance act Shortwave Dahlia and DJ Steve Anne. Doors open at 9 p.m. Admission is $10.

Australian Idol winner and MemphisFlyer.com celebrity Guy Sebastian has released his Ardent Studios-recorded debut The Memphis Album, crafted with MGs Steve Cropper and Donald “Duck” Dunn headlining a terrific Memphis studio band. Sebastian clearly loves Memphis soul, but his take on the genre is too respectful and too unadventurous for his own good. He sings only the most identifiable hits (“Soul Man,” “In the Midnight Hour,” “Let’s Stay Together,” etc.) and mimics the original recordings too closely. Still, it’s a better Memphis tribute than actor Peter Gallagher’s. Sebastian will be taking the core of his Memphis band — Cropper and Dunn along with drummer Steve Potts and keyboardist Lester Snell — on an Australian tour starting in February.

The Stax Music Academy‘s SNAP! After School Winter Concert will take place at 7 p.m. Saturday, December 8th, at the Michael D. Rose Theatre at the University of Memphis. Stax Music Academy artist-in-residence Kirk Whalum will be performing alongside the kids, as will soul singer Glenn Jones. Tickets to the SNAP! concert are $5 and are available through the Soulsville Foundation development office. Call 946-2535 for details.

Finally, congratulations to the New Daisy Theatre‘s Mike Glenn, who is the only Memphian receiving a Keeping the Blues Alive award from the International Blues Foundation this year. The awards will be presented February 2nd during International Blues Challenge weekend.

Because Memphis music is so consumed by its roots heritage — blues, soul, rockabilly, garage-rock, alt-country — creative success can often be had by fighting against those expectations. In recent years, artists such as Snowglobe, The Coach and Four, Lost Sounds, and Jay Reatard (among others) have made some of the most exciting local music outside the boundaries of what most listeners immediately associate with Memphis music. And so it is with The Third Man.

The Third Man is composed of multi-instrumentalists Jake Vest and elder brother Toby Vest, guitarist/keyboardist Jeff Schmidtke, bassist/keyboardist/trombonist Dirk Kitterlin, and drummer Preston Todd. At this juncture, the band is probably better known to local music fans by its original name: Augustine.

“There is a Hawaiian nü-metal band called Augustine,” says Jake Vest, explaining the name change. “They sound like P.O.D. or Disturbed and sent us a few e-mails that stated they were about to go on tour and if we didn’t change our name, they would take us to court.” Something else also helped the band with their decision: “All of their e-mails were in all-caps, and I don’t like it when people send us e-mails in all-caps,” Vest says.

Along with a name taken from the classic 1949 film that stars Orson Welles, another noticeable change came with the sound of the band’s new album, Among the Wolves.

When they were known as Augustine, these local faves probably deserved a few of the Radiohead comparisons with which they were saddled. But, as the Third Man, the band has dialed down that frame of reference with an incredibly realized, catchy blend of ’70s hard rock, bluesy boogie, and ’60s psychedelia. This bevy of interesting influences does wonders with the band’s lingering indie-rock elements, emerging as a best-case scenario of what might happen if Scandinavian cult favorites Dungen were, well, from the South.

“The Stones’ Exile on Main Street was a big influence on the making of this record, as was the Love, Peace, and Poetry series of compilations, especially the Brazilian one,” explains Jake Vest. Each volume of the Love, Peace, and Poetry compilations, released by Normal Records, showcases a selection of late-’60s/early-’70s garage/psychedelic tracks from a particular country or continent. But a local influence in the same vein also provided inspiration for the Third Man’s current direction: underground Memphis rock band Moloch.

“I love that self-titled album by Moloch from ’69,” says Vest, a longtime friend of Ben Baker, son of the late Moloch guitarist and Memphis music legend Lee Baker.

The Third Man is a team effort (all of the members are in their early-to-mid 20s), though the Vest brothers form the songwriting core. “At this point, my brother and I come up with the basic ideas for the songs, which we then bring to the band for everyone to work out,” Jake says.

Keyboards, a Mellotron, and a 12-string acoustic guitar are among the instruments that take a front seat on Among the Wolves. “We were going with a more organic sound with this record, but it’s a natural progression,” Jake continues. “You can hear those instruments creeping in on the Augustine album.”

Augustine’s 2005 debut Broadcast was released to local critical acclaim on the Makeshift Music imprint and was recorded at Easley/McCain Studios. Among the Wolves will be self-released and was recorded at Young Avenue Sound. Continuing with the band’s DIY approach, the Third Man plans on self-releasing future albums, and they are in the midst of constructing their own practice space and studio.

To support Among the Wolves, the band plans on organizing a tour in early 2008 around a performance at Austin’s South By Southwest Music Festival.