File it under, “It sounded like a good idea at the time.” When Tim Prudhomme, known for music he’s made with a series of one-word bands like Fuck, Staff, and Boink!, applied for a Crosstown Arts music residency two years ago, he had a novel concept. “My original idea was to find people who had never played together and give them one of my songs,” he explains. “I would play it for them and have them work up a version. I would be more in the producer chair, they would come up with whatever they would come up with, and I’d record it. And then I’d bring in another group of people, same song. I was thinking I’d do it seven to nine times at least, maybe more.”
Forcing players to grapple with unfamiliar bandmates and material is the kind of aesthetic experiment that’s perfectly suited to Crosstown Arts’ residency program, which gives artists in various media an opportunity to stretch out beyond their usual creative practices. But after Prudhomme was accepted into the program, things went awry. “I came up with that idea two years ago, before there was such a thing as Covid,” he explains. “I was supposed to do it last fall, but they canceled that. This spring, it looked like things were getting better, and they decided to resume the residencies this fall. Then the Delta variant came up, and I realized, ‘This is ridiculous.’ Because cramming people into a 12-by-14 room for a few hours — it’s just not the time in history to do that. I don’t want anyone to die for my art, or even get sick. I don’t want anyone to get so much as a head cold from playing music with me.”
In the end, he did end up assembling a band of players who’d never worked together, through sheer happenstance. Dustin Reynolds, who’s drummed with the likes of Jack Oblivian and Marcella Simien, reached out to Prudhomme, wanting to collaborate, and guitarist Keith Cooper (The Sheiks, the Tennessee Screamers, Model Zero) did the same soon after. When bass player Andrew Geraci was recruited, Prudhomme found himself with four players approaching the material and each other for the first time.
The songs they’ve been recording at “Grandma’s House,” one of two buildings reserved for Crosstown Arts music residents, complete with soundproofed tracking rooms, have been on the upbeat side. As Prudhomme notes, “When I first talked to Dustin, he said, ‘I’m really sick of playing all this Americana crap.’ So I thought, ‘Hmm, he doesn’t really know my music, does he?’ [laughs] So I picked songs that were more upbeat, and not Americana. Although a lot of them really are. I cannot deny my Americana-isms. I’m a traditionalist.”
Prudhomme had a new band, but as plans coalesced for staging a show at The Green Room on December 15th, he had even more would-be collaborators knocking on his door, including longtime associate and friend Steve Shelley, best known as Sonic Youth’s drummer. Prudhomme and Shelley produce the WYXR radio program The New Untitled Show, and the two can often be heard playing impromptu gigs whenever Shelley visits Memphis.
“I told him about the residency two years ago, and he said, ‘I’d love to come down and help out with it,’” Prudhomme says. “But I didn’t want to tell these guys I’d been working with for the past three months, ‘Sorry, I’ve got Steve Shelley coming — Dustin, you’ll just have to step aside.’ So, since I have played with Steve before, I thought, ‘Well, I’ll have a second band at The Green Room.’ This won’t be the band of strangers, but more of a family band. I also called up Tripp Lamkins, who’s played with Steve and myself.”
The “family band” will emphasize moodier material. “Steve really likes morose tunes. And, because the past year was so depressing, most of the new songs I’ve written have been awfully depressing,” Prudhomme notes. In the end, the performance this Wednesday will resemble nothing so much as a kind of musical showdown. “Yeah, it’s a battle of the bands,” he explains. “And I’m playing in both of them. So it’s all about me! I’m anxious to see who wins: my rock side or my melancholy side.”
Tim Prudhomme’s “False Starts, Fake Ending,” The Green Room at Crosstown Arts, Wednesday, December 15, 7:30 p.m. Visit crosstownarts.org for details.
