miscellany

I wanted to take a moment to thank the wonderful Mike Allred from the wonderful CITY OF TRAITORS for gifting me the webspace to post music here. They'll be playing at the Pilot Light this saturday night (3.04) with Maxi & The Pads and The Spores, so go support them if you care to.

I also want to officially extend an invitation to others in our music community to contribute to the content of this blog. I've lived in Knoxville a relatively short time, and as such am sadly unable to share in the collective memories of shows and bands by now long gone...not to mention the fact that I don't get out to shows half as often as I'd like to, and may be totally unaware of some particularly killer musical goings-on. So if you think you've got something to contribute, please please please drop me a line.

And finally, if you're in a local band and would like to see your stuff up here...email me. We'll see about it.

the City Of Thousands comps

The IT TAKES A CITY OF THOUSANDS TO HOLD US BACK project started as a series of two DIY compilations to which a total of 42 Knoxville bands contributed. The idea was that they would be made available to download, art and all, so that anyone who wanted to do so could make copies and distribute them on CD-Rs, at a cost of no more than one dollar. The first one was mildly successful, the second one less so, as my enthusiasm for the project regrettably waned. As far as the music goes, anyone who wanted a spot had one for the taking, so some of the tracks here are brilliant, some dreadful; some of these bands will be revisited on this site in the near future, and some are better left unremembered. But all of the songs were made by people who believe in the independence of music, and love it enough to spend a lot of their time at it.

Volume One (released in January of 2004) features Atropos, Redwinterdying, Mr. Self-Reliant, PastMistakes, Cadre, Kamuy, Rise From Ruin, the Royal Bangs, the Bloodiest Night of my Life, Beware: The Gentlemen, Arrison Kirby And The Bubble Orchestra, the Vanity Complex, the Shape, Blackgrass, Tenderhooks, the Sense, Tear Myself Down, Vestle, Perfect Orange, the High Score, and Twinkiebots. DOWNLOAD (split between three zip files) 1 / 2 / 3

Volume Two (released the following October) features Capulet, Cats With Cute Faces, the Chelsea Horror, fortysevenronin, Joey's Loss, Attaboy, Bigger Than Dallas, Obadiah, Destruction Overdrive, Ibrahim, the comedy of Jazz-E, the American Plauge, Straight Line Stitch, Pawn To King, Senryu, Your Favorite Hero, Westside Daredevils, Huffstetler, Oh Muse!, Henry Gibson, and a hidden track by PIANO RECITAL. DOWNLOAD 1 / 2 / 3

Sorry for the self promotion. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

live - The Royal Bangs

Hail, hail the ROYAL BANGS, who made a well-received return at the Pilot Light last night after the loss of two members and months of inactivity. What didn't kill them made them stronger, apparently, as the tangible loss of Joseph Gillenwater as a foil to lead singer/guitarist Ryan Schaefer has obviously had little effect on the formidable creative momentum with which the indie rock band has made a name for itself. The Bangs charged ecstatically through an extended set, debuting several new songs and putting on a characteristically wild, unpredictable show as the entire band migrated from instrument to instrument and gracefully sidestepped a mid-set technical snafu leaving their MIDI triggers and laptop accompaniment out of commission. It's a testament to the songwriting that frustration and the disruption of the band's deceptively careful arrangements did nothing to hinder the songs or performance; but, then, Schaefer's songwriting has always been the cake under the icing of the band's gleeful aesthetic experimentation and infectious performance ethic. The band continues to work on a follow-up to 2005's stellar Julius Vampire Breath (their first record as the Royal Bangs after two as the Suburban Urchins), and Knoxville holds its breath for the ensuing boom. The Royal Bangs were the first band to really get me excited about Knoxville's music, and they just keep getting better and better. It's almost unfair.

RIYL: Broken Social Scene, Pavement, Radiohead vs fifteen bottles of Southern Comfort

MP3: "Lucas Newman Vacation Log" (3:59)

no excuse - 10 Years

New York, NY- Republic/ Universal Records recording artists, 10 YEARS, scored another major coup this week with their first single, “Wasteland”, becoming the number #1 song at Alternative Radio according to Mediabase and BDS. Later this week “Wasteland” will be the #1 song on Billboard’s Alternative chart as well. The song is from 10 Years debut album, The Autumn Effect, released last August which has sold over 175,000 copies.

Jesus, how embarrassing.

Getting signed to Universal Records only ever meant someone felt they could easily sell 10 Years' music to angsty teenagers, and hitting #1 on the Modern Rock charts will only ever mean that they were right. 10 Years are a decently talented band making awful, awful music.

At least now that they're touring all over the country we don't have to put up with them anymore.

RIYL: the sickeningly protracted death rattle of Nü-Metal

RealVideo (because you have to see this to believe it): "Wasteland" (4:13)

profile - Matgo Primo

It's not unfair to say that most of the more prominent bands in Knoxville lack self-conscious theatricality, but it's not unkind, either. The determinedly inimitable MATGO PRIMO fill the hole pretty nicely, what with their makeup paint & wacky outfits, but it's a dubious distinction, considering the affectations mostly come off as just that. The music, though, is strong, and for what it's worth the visual and musical aesthetics do work together, so long as you're interpreting their images as New Wave carnies playing circa-1980s indie pop. Frontman Tim Eisinger has a knack for catchy, oddly endearing tunes, but seems to lack confidence as a vocalist, hiding behind mumbles, yelps, and vocal tics; the rest of the band is solid, and they serve the music well as it jumps from Bungle-y circus organs to the jittery, delicate stomp of the Talking Heads. All of this obviously works well for Matgo Primo, as their refreshing openmindedness in gigging has gained them a surprisingly diverse audience, and their offering of something different yet distinctly striking and palatable has earned them the top spot in two "Battle Of The Bands" competitions over the past year. For all their significant strengths, though, Matgo Primo is a good band held down by the gimmickry of a pretentiousness only half as rooted in innocent silliness as they think it is.

RIYL: Talking Heads, Oingo Boingo, Pink Floyd

MP3: "Big Stepper" (2:35)

in rememberance - The V-Roys

While Superdrag flirted with mainstream success in the late 1990s and became erstwhile ambassadors of Knoxville guitar pop, THE V-ROYS less flashily established a more-deserved following around the southeast and beyond, and transcended twangy barroom rock to become our city personified in song. Scott Miller's indelible melodies and smooth Southern croon put the V-Roys at the creative forefront of the "alt country" scene of the time while the band's unaffected rowdiness of spirit set them apart from most of their generic counterparts. Their first LP Just Add Ice (highlighted by the plaintive "Lie I Believe" and the bawdy, brilliant ode "Cold Beer, Hello") is a fine piece of work, particularly in its second half, but introduces a relative weakness in the tracks penned and sung by guitarist Mic Harrison, which take up a good portion of the album but suffer in competition with Miller's catchier, more memorable tunes. Their second LP, All About Town, is even stronger; Harrison hits big with "Miss Operator", one of his three contributions, but it's very much Miller's show by this time, as literally any of the nine songs he wrote/co-wrote (a few are collaborations with country firebrand Steve Earle, who released their albums on his E-Squared imprint) are single material, and many of them would be as at home on country music radio as on college rock. Sadly, their career together ended with the millenium, as they disbanded after a final New Year's Eve show at the Tennessee Theatre. (They posthumously released a live album, Are You Through Yet? in 2000.) Miller now spends his time and talents fronting The Commonwealth and leading the Blue Collar TV house band, while Harrison went on to play with Superdrag and now concentrates on his solo efforts. Drummer Jeff Bills runs Lynn Point records, which has released albums by Dixie Dirt, the Westside Daredevils, and The Faults, which reunited Harrison and Bills with V-Roys bassist Paxton Sellers for a short time.

Discography: "Johnny Too Bad" single; Just Add Ice LP; All About Town LP; Are You Through Yet? live LP; contributions to American Songbook, Cowpunks and Jimmie Rogers Tribute comps and the soundtrack to the film You Can Count On Me.

RIYL: Steve Earle, Roger Miller, Uncle Tupelo

MP3: "Cold Beer Hello" (3:32)
MP3: "Mary" (1:59)
MP3: "Fade Away" (5:37)