The Weekend! (August 10-12)

Tonight (8/10), there are two noteworthy events happening:

First:

  A couple of weeks ago Ron Snyder of Peppermint Sun contacted me about a different show they were playing at The Poplar Lounge (2586 Poplar Ave.).  After listening to their record Oblivianation, I was quite blown away by them.  As I said a couple of weeks ago, their sound reminded me of Paul Westerburg’s later work (which from me is a complement).  Peppermint Sun will be playing again tonight, and they will be joined by another band I like Gasoline Grace!  By the way, Gasoline Grace also has an album out called Hearts of Fire which I also highly recommend.  Things should kick off tonight at 10:00pm with a $5 cover.  The Poplar Lounge is a 21 and up venue.

El Karaoke Grande Pulls Double Duty This Weekend

Apparently El Karaoke Grande has lost his mind.  He is gracing us with not one, but two karaoke parties this weekend.  The first takes place tonight (8/10) at Murphy’s (1589 Madison Ave.).  As a celebration of the end of the Olympics, tonight’s theme is the Olympiad of Bad Music.  Come out….get tanked…and sing some of the worst songs to ever grace the pop charts.  Then tomorrow (8/11) at Le Chardonnay (2094 Madison Ave.)  this will be happening…

That’s right….Karaoke is For Lovers makes it dramatic return.  Sing your favorite love songs, drink copious amounts of beer…and for God’s sakes…tip El Karaoke Grande.  Both events are free, and both Murphy’s and Le Chardonnay are 21 and up venues.

So in addition to El Karaoke Grande on Saturday night, it seems that pretty much every local band is playing.  We’ll begin with these guys….

After spending the summer on the road, not playing any Memphis shows, it is with great pleasure that I can say…Tiger High is back in action locally Saturday night!  They will taking the stage at The Poplar Lounge (2586 Poplar Ave.) and they will be joined by Sheiks, and Nashville, Tennessee’s Ranch Ghost.

Cover is $5, things will kick off at 10:00pm, and The Poplar Lounge is a 21 and up venue.

Capgun, Special Victims Unit, Our Own Cadence, 3, 2, 1, Blast Off!, and Chump Change

Tomorrow night at The Daily Planet (3439 Park Avenue), pop punk will be taking over.  Locals Capgun, Our Own Cadence, and 3, 2, 1, Blast Off! will be joined by Union City ,Tennessee’s Chump Change.  With five bands, expect to things to actually kick off at the 9:00pm starts time.  Cover is only $3 and The Daily Planet is an 18 and up venue.

Dead Soldiers, The Near Reaches

We all know shows at The Cove (2559 Broad Ave.) can be a blast!  Saturday night head there to catch Dead Soldiers and The Near Reaches!  Word on the streets is The Near Reaches will have their new 7″ available for sale, so don’t blow all of your money on booze so you can get a copy!  Things will kick off at 9:30pm, and cover is $5.  The Cove is a 21 and up venue.

Adios Gringos, Powers That Be

Honestly, I’m not sure what we’re calling them these days.  Are they just Gringos?  Are they still Adios Gringos?  Does it really matter?  The only reason keeping it straight is so difficult is because these guys have been absolutely owning Memphis music since the mid 90s.  They’ll be playing the Hi-tone (1913 Poplar Ave.) Saturday night with Powers That Be and Ritual Decay.  This show has a $5 cover and will kick off at 9:00pm.  The Hi-tone is an 18 and up venue.

Cities Aviv, Ex-Cult

Cities Aviv has been out on the road a lot recently spreading his hip/hop gospel to the masses.  Saturday night, he will be playing locally at The Beauty Shop (966 S. Cooper St.).  He’ll be joined by the trashy garage punk stylings of Ex-Cult.  Things should kick off in the 10:00 hour with a $5 cover.  The Beauty Shop is a 21 and up venue.

So at this point, I am absolutely pooped from listing all of this weekend’s shows.  Perhaps I should also mention that Relient K is playing at The New Daisy Theater (330 Beale St.)?  I dunno, I have a feeling that if you were a Relient K fan, you wouldn’t need me to tell you about this show anyways.  If you really need the full deets on that show, then look it up on the New Daisy’s website!

Coming soon, I will have some pics up of Tanks and Daikaiju from Tuesday night’s show at Murphy’s.  I promise not to be such a slack ass, like I was for most of this summer, and I’ll also have the record reviews promised in previous posts.   

Also…It’s almost time for Rock for Love 6 and the online auction is already up and running with tons of awesome goodies you can bid on.  I highly suggest checking it out!

Want me to list your show on this site?  Contact me at memphisrockcity@gmail.com!

Richard James & The Special Riders 7″ Review

Richard James is one of Memphis’ hardest working musicians.  He plays out live whenever he can (which is often two or three times a week), and he has also been quite prolific when it comes to releasing recordings (his full lengths Haints in My Past and The Hi, The Lo, The Night Life were released only a little more than a year apart).  This Saturday night at The Cove (2559 Broad Ave.), Richard James & The Special Riders will be celebrating the release of a new  3 song 7″ from Wrecked ’em Wreckords.  The record opens with “Never Get Out” which serves as an homage to Hank Williams’ “I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive.”  Despite being a New York native, Richard has shown his skill at the art of Southern story telling with previous songs (“Religion and Pills” from The Hi, The Lo, The Night Life and “Late Night Call” and “Billy” from Haints in My Past).  “Never Get Out” seems to follow in a different direction landing closer to punk or rockabilly than country, while still referencing his more classic Southern influences.  “Never Get Out” has the feel of a modern working class song (imagine what would happen if Lux Interior had decided to twist Bruce Springsteen songs into the style of The Cramps and you get a good idea of what “Never Get Out” sounds like).  The second track on the album, “June the 15th,”  reminds me both lyrically and musically of The Replacements’ later work.  There is a sort of sensitivity to this song that I have never before heard in Richard James & The Special Riders, but it’s a turn a like.  Somehow, he has taken a song about a guy who has blown it with the object of his affections, and turned it into a sort of country/garage rock make-out anthem.  The final track, “Put It On The Cross,”  has a classic gospel feel to it, and also exhibits that Southern story telling that I mentioned earlier in this review.  Take these already strong songs and the production fingerprint from Toby Vest at High/Low Studios, and you can pretty much guarantee that this record is a winner!  Also featuring Patrick Glass (Moving Finger, Noise Choir) on guitar, Ross Johnson on drums, and Jake Vest (Tiger High) on bass and lead guitar for “Put It On The Cross.”  I highly suggest this record.

This 7″ will be available for $5 Saturday night at The Cove.  Gasoline Grace and Fresh Flesh will also be performing.  Cover for the show is $5.  Also head to Le Chardonnay (2094 Madison Ave.) during Crawfish Festival on Saturday at 2pm to see Richard James & The Special Riders play on the patio.  If you are unable to make it to either show on Saturday, the 7″ will be available via Wrecked ’em Wreckords’ website.

The Hive Dwellers, Angel Sluts Record Reviews, Booyah!Dad, and more

Hive Dwellers, Nots, and Micheal Peery Tonight at Otherlands

Sometimes, being a one man operation, I tend to drop the ball and forget to list some very important local shows.  I almost did it again this week.  Tonight at 8:00pm, I highly suggest that you head to Otherlands (641 S. Cooper St.) for Hive Dwellers!

Hive Dwellers is the current project from K Records founder and ex-Beat Happening singer and guitarist Calvin Johnson.  Locals Nots (ex-Bake Sale) and Micheal Peery’s Hail Maria will be opening this show.  Unfortunately, the man (or my job) will prevent me from attending this one, but if you have the evening free,I highly recommend this show!  The cover is only $5 (way cheap for an artists of Calvin Johnson’s caliber) and will start at 8:00.  Also, since this show is at Otherlands, it will be all ages.  I’ll certainly be kicking myself in the ass all night for not being able to see this one, but you don’t have to suffer my fate.  Get thee to Otherlands!

The Angel Sluts Record Reviews

Last Friday, local dive bar favorites The Angel Sluts celebrated two new releases: a 7″ titled Love Sweet Love on Brooklyn based Chickpea Records and a CD/cassette of their previous singles, B-sides, and unreleased tracks titled Singles Staring At The Steady  on Memphis’s own Fat Sandwich Records!

Love Sweet Love consists of three new Angel Sluts tunes.  Even the band’s singer Harry Koniditsiotis admits the record’s lead track “Love” is a bit poppier than than the Angel Sluts typical ware.  Where the Angel Sluts’ sound typical falls somewhere closer to 1970’s punk, this song almost seems to be leaning in a more 1980’s New wave direction.  That being said, this song still has a lot of the broken bottle swagger that The Angel Sluts are known for (if you’re looking for a song that sounds more akin to Koniditsiotis’ shoe gaze project Twin Pilot, this ain’t the one, though it’s dance remix available on the Singles collection isn’t far off).  “Love” might fill in that gap needed by punk rockers who can’t stomach soul music, but need a punk rock equivalent to “Let’s Get It On” to woo their ladies with.  Fear not, you won’t feel out of place if you are shaking your beer around during a live performance of “Love.”  Don’t worry: The Angel Sluts haven’t gone soft.  If you are more into The Angel Slut’s fuzzed out punk sound, well the B-sides for this record will certainly meet that craving.  “So Dull” and “Don’t Have Time” both clock in under two minutes, and have that loud intensity that Angel Sluts listeners have come to expect.  Love Sweet Love is available for $6 on Chickpea Records website or you can digitally download it for $4 directly from the Angel Sluts Bandcamp page.

  Singles Staring At The Steady is a collection of all the songs featured on The Angel Sluts’ previous 7″s (Hot Teen Action, the split with The Six String Jets, Susie Was A Nihilist, and Love Sweet Love) along with other B-sides and outtakes including the above mentioned dance remix of “Love”.  The only thing not represented on this collection is the band’s 2009 full length Designer Heat.  Since many of these songs were part of 7″s that are now out of print, this is a great way for newer fans of The Angel Sluts to catch up on the band’s discography.  Older fans of the Angel Sluts will find this a worthy purchase due to its inclusion of “Time To Go,” “Final Days,” “Gina,” and “Elevator Love.”  Not sure, The Angel Sluts would have ever thought that they might be releasing  what is, in some ways, a greatest hits album when they started this project back in 2003, but I think that hearing all of these songs collected together onto one album, shows listeners just how ambitious this band really is.  Besides, it’s long overdue for you to add a new cassette to that Case Logic you’ve had hidden under your the seat in your car since 1997.  This release is available on both CD and cassette.  CD Baby has a downloadable version of this record available for $9.99, though I’m sure hard copies will available online soon through Fat Sandwich’s website.

Booyah!Dad

Every time that Booyah!Dad comes to town, I get excited.  This is because these guys have yet to show me a bad time.  This Friday (March 30th), the band will be playing the Hi-tone (1913 Poplar Ave.) with one of my absolute favorite local bands Tiger High!  This will be a late show starting at 10:30pm, and the cover is only $5.  I highly recommend checking these guys out!

Sock It To Me Burlesque

Also on Friday, Memphis’ newest burlesque troupe Sock It To Me Burlesque will be making their debut at the Brass Door (152 Madison Ave.).  This troupe consists of local burlesque veterans and newbies including Lady Doo Moi, Madonna Putana, Blackjack Kat, Kissame Suga, Chloe Dubois, Aenya Little Fyre.  Expect singing, fire eating, and of course, scantily clad ladies!  Doors open at 9:00pm, and there will be a $10 cover.  Go to Sock It To Me’s Facebook page and like them, and then head out to the Brass Door Friday night to support Memphis’ newest burlesque troupe!  This event is 21 and up!

Other happenings:

I’ll update some more shows later this week, but whether you check out Hive Dwellers at Otherlands or Eisley at the Hi-tone tonight, you may want to find your way to Mollie Fontaine Lounge (679 Adams Ave.) where Richard James of Richard James and the Special Riders and Travis Cantrell of Youniverse will be playing solo sets.  Richard also has a new 7″ coming soon that I will be reviewing on this site in the next couple of days.  This will lead up to a 7″ release party at The Cove (2559 Broad Ave.) with Gasoline Grace and Fresh Flesh on April 7th!

Also, Blake from Warm Girls sent me an e-mail letting me know that they will be playing The Lamplighter Lounge (1702 Madison Ave.) this Sunday April 1!  It’s and April Fool’s Day show and they will be joined by Sun Hotel from New Orleans, Zigtebra from Chicago, and El Cantador from Mobile.  Cover is $3 and things will kick off at 10:00.  21 and up.

If you would like me to list your show on this site, contact me at memphisrockcity@gmail.com.