profile - Cold Hands

Henry Gibson has been a tireless presence in local music over the last few years, running the gamut from the Invocation's fiery emo to his own Elliott Smith-esque solo material, but his latest group COLD HANDS, with Jason Bowman and former Chelsea Horror bandmate Zach Land, finds his efforts uniquely focused towards the dancy, airily dark pop music of post-punk revivalists like Interpol. This is admittedly a pervasive trend in popular music, but Cold Hands carries itself with a certain soul where so many bands in the genre opt for jagged detachment, and it pays off. Emotion, not indifference, pushes the music to unexpected places, and Gibson's songwriting is as distinctive as ever, complimented greatly by Bowman and Land's aesthetic contributions. (One only hopes that the ever-humble Henry will soon regain his Chelsea Horror-era confidence behind the microphone.) Cold Hands are currently on a short tour of the south, and will begin work on a debut full length over the coming summer.

RIYL: Echo & The Bunnymen, The Cure, Interpol

MP3: "Life Through A Window" (3:22)

outsources 3.18

A weekly roundup of what's happening in the local music articles people actually read:

MARYVILLE DAILY TIMES
Wil Wright & Skeleton Coast / Tenderhooks / The High Score / RobinElla

METRO PULSE
The High Score / a spotlight on this blog / Stewart Pack & The Royal Treatment

KNOXVILLE NEWS SENTINEL
The High Score / The Westside Daredevils / Fistful Of Crows / RobinElla

WBIR
The Westside Daredevils perform on Live At Five

Thank you to Steve Wildsmith of the Maryville Daily Times for suggesting this feature. Visit their website to browse back articles of the Knoxville area's most extensive music coverage.

If I've left anything out, post it in the comments.

in rememberance - The Shape

Before mallratcore took over as the annoying sound du jour, you couldn't throw a rock in any given music community without hitting a few teenagers in tight t-shirts misappropriating the word "emo" to describe their new wave of cloyingly earnest, post-hardcore influenced pop-punk. On the surface, Sevierville's THE SHAPE seemed to be a casualty of this unfortunate trend, but their indomitable work ethic (they toured the country several times, playing 300+ shows in three years) and surplus of talent quickly set them apart from those who would aspire to be their peers, leaving them one of the area's premiere live and recorded acts. Their listenability also owed much to superior influences, sidestepping the pervasive Vagrant/Drive-Thru sound in favor of the more mannered tones of Polyvinyl's early emo acts, particularly the bands of Bob Nanna, whom vocalist/guitarist Steve Gaskell seems to channel at times. The band moved between Johnson City, Sevierville, and (very briefly) Iowa in search of wider success and signed with Missing Words Records out of California, who released their Breakin' In The Schoolhouse LP in 2003. A self-released 3 song EP followed in 2005 shortly before the band called it quits. (Three of the four members reunited in late 2005 with Mouth Movements, casting the same enthusiasm towards slightly matured musical goals.) The Shape's music has always been a bit of a guilty pleasure for a music fan who feels like he ought to know better, but it's a pleasure nonetheless.

Discography: a self-titled demo; Breakin' In The Schoolhouse LP; 3 EP.

RIYL: Braid, Hey Mercedes, American Football

MP3: "Hang Myself With The Good Towels (Demo)" (4:24)
MP3: "Clever Disguise" (5:22)
MP3: "Brain Busted" (3:13)

review - Fistful Of Crows' Cabezas Fritas

It's at this point in the project that I must admit to being woefully behind the curve pertaining to the two-fifths mysterious, three-fifths just-plain-drunken phenomenon that is WHISK-HUTZEL, a collective/record label presided over by the Honorable Senator Will Fist and a merry band of the area's finest ne'er-do-wells. I'm doing my best to catch up, though, and banner act FISTFUL OF CROWS' newest LP Cabezas Fritas (Whisk-Hutzel's, if the spine number is to be believed, 133rd release) is as ingratiating an introduction to their world as I could imagine. Equal parts stagger and swagger, the Crows stomp with sloppy presence of mind through eleven rollicking tracks, all occupying a curiously boorish middle ground between lo-fi and early American punk rock. Singer/guitarist Dirty Old Crow is the primary force here, shouting, strumming and picking with an endearing imprecision that occasionally turns corners into disarming lucidity; he is backed by the necessarily able rhythm section of The Hussla and Our Man Fist, who keep things tight even through the five-plus minutes of album climax "Song Of Frustration", as DOC meanders purposefully through all the sonic territory visible between his six strings and whatever eight-track they recorded to. Indeed, the fidelity is decidedly Lo, but these circumstances more than serve the band's rowdy, seemingly careless aesthetic, and even draw some surprising pop sensibilities out of some of the songs, particularly on standouts "I Forgot A Good Idea" and "I Need A Stretcher".

RIYL: Fear, Kyuss, and Sebadoh locked in a brewery

MP3: "I Forgot A Good Idea" (2:34)