The Other Side Of Nashville

Chris Feinstein, Unsung Hero

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Keith A. Gordon) — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:20:00 +0000

Bass player Chris Feinstein, an unsung hero of the Nashville rock scene during the 1980s and ‘90s, passed away on Tuesday, December 18, 2009 in New York City at the too-young age of 42 years. The cause of his death is not known.

Feinstein’s supportive bass rhythms provided the foundation for many of the Music City’s earliest rock bands. Chris formed the influential early-80s band Shadow 15 with his brother Scott, playing drums on some of the band’s first recordings. Switching over to bass, Chris would join the Questionnaires, performing on both of the band’s EMI Records album releases in 1989 and ’91.

During the early-90s, Chris would enjoy a lengthy musical collaboration with guitarist Jay Joyce: first in the band Bedlam with former Questionnaires’ bandmate Doug Lancio, which recorded a pair of albums for MCA Records; then in Iodine with future bandmate Brad Pemberton for two albums on different independent labels.

In the early-00s, Feinstein became part of the Nashville supergroup the Cardinals with drummer Pemberton and guitarist Neal Casal, touring behind alt-country artist Ryan Adams. The Cardinals recorded three albums with Adams, including 2007’s Easy Tiger and 2008’s Cardinology, as well as the Follow The Lights EP in 2007.

Feinstein’s talents were much in demand in the studio, as well, and through the years Chris contributed to albums by artists as diverse as rapper Fat Joe, alt-country diva Patty Griffin, and singer/songwriters Tim Finn, Matthew Ryan, and Albert Hammond, Jr. of the Strokes. Chris also contributed his experience and vision as a producer to a number of artists, most notably working with Moby.

A multi-instrumental musician that was often overshadowed by the charismatic frontmen that he played behind, Chris Feinstein was undeniably an integral element in the evolution of rock music in Nashville, a talented and important member of several crucial bands that helped put the Music City on the map as more than the home of country music and gospel. As an ambassador of the local music scene, Chris brought an honest little bit of Nashville to audiences across the world. He will be missed….

Still Alive & Well....

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Keith A. Gordon) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:27:00 +0000

It's been a long while since I've posted an update on The Other Side of Nashville book project, so here we go!

For those of you who don't know what I'm talkin' about, The Other Side of Nashville is the "incomplete history and discography of the Nashville rock underground, circa 1976 to 2006."

The book has been progressing, slowly but surely, and I figure that around 90% of the text has been written...of course, I continue to add text and massage previously-written material as I go along, so that 90% is a constantly-moving number. The book is laid-out in linear fashion, from the letter A to Z, with an annotated discography, historical notes, snarky comments, unvarnished praise, album reviews, and interviews thrown in, roughly, under the letter where they would logically fall.

To date, I have laid out 400 pages of The Other Side of Nashville, which will be a 7.5" x 9.25" sized trade paperback with color covers. Those 400 pages run through the letter 'Q' and include a heck of a lot of B&W photos of bands, gig posters, CD and album covers, and other graphics along with tens of thousands of words of text. I'm estimating that the final book will run close to 600 pages, which is the largest book project that I've ever attempted (of the four books that I have personally published). It will be published through my Excitable Pressworks imprint, distributed through Ingram (the largest book distro in the U.S./U.K.) and available through Amazon.com as well as a website that I'll be creating for the project.

Right now I'm editing the letters 'R' and 'S' and have scanned in photos for those sections. Honestly, with my current obligations to my full-time job, and my part-time writing gig as the About.com Blues Guide, it will take me through the end of the year to finish the final edit of the letters 'T' through 'Z', after which there will be proofreading (courtesy of my overworked wife) and lay-out of the remaining pages. As I usually do, I'll toss in some stuff at the last minute, and tweak and mess with the page layouts until I finally throw up my hands and send the whole damn thing to the printer.

The bottom line: I'm realistically looking at a publication date of March or April 2010. I've been working on the book for better than three years now, and I'd rather it be as great as I can make it rather than just crank something out and publish some crappy version. I know that there have been some rumours that I've abandoned The Other Side of Nashville book project, or that it will never be completed, but nothing could be further from the truth. We're still alive and well up here in WNY, and I'm working on the book with as much time and energy as my other (paying) gigs allow.

For those of you who'd like a peak, click the link for a two-page sample of The Other Side of Nashville in PDF format....

Yeah, We're Still Here....

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Keith A. Gordon) — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 23:59:00 +0000

Yeah, we're still here...I realize that it doesn't look like it, since I haven't posted to this blog in better than six months. I could give you all a bunch of excuses....I've been real busy working as the "Blues Guide" for my About.com Blues website...got involved in a couple of outside book publishing deals so that I could make a quick buck...even been writing a bunch for Blurt Magazine online to help those good folks get the new site launched.

Truth is, I've made very little progress on The Other Side Of Nashville book during the past few months....kind of in a holding pattern, really. The About.com Blues Guide gig that I took to make a few extra shekels has proven to take up more of my time than I thought, but after eight months I think that I've gotten a handle on it all. With the new year, I figure that I can re-focus my energies, shed some of the extra-curricular activities that I've been involved with, and get back to work on the book.

The writing of the book remains about 90% completed, and I've begun running through each section touching some stuff up and adding to others. I'm going to get cranking on the interviews to get them transcribed and done, and I'm hoping to get the book on the street this spring. I even began a tentative lay-out this week, to see exactly how I'd put the enormous amount of information that I've compiled down on paper. It looks good so far, and I hope to really get rolling on it and finish the book.

I know that everybody's heard all of this before, but as some of you know, working two jobs and trying to do anything else, much less write a book, is difficult. It will get done when it's done, and it should look great! What this means is if you have photos, recordings, or whatever that you'd like to submit for the book, please get in touch ASAP!

ONE MORE THING: I've noticed a little negativity creeping into the comments section of the blog. Somebody posted a comment a month or so ago that had some potentially-libelous comments about Gus Palas, and he contacted me about it. After reading it over, I agreed with Gus and deleted the post. I deleted another that had some questionable things to say about a local female rocker.

If you want to comment on the book project or talk about the good old days (or even the good new days) of Nashville music, please feel free to use this forum. Even if you want to call into question my skills as a writer and critic (as one anonymous poster has), I'll leave your post untouched. Of course, I'll probably add a snide and sarcastic response, 'cause if you don't care enough about your opinions to sign your name, why should I give a damn? But I won't have the blog become a weapon for unfounded (and unverifiable) accusations, character assassination, and ad hominem attacks on people...we'll leave that up to Republican bloggers....

The Old Tennessee Homestead

Revenge of the Practical Stylists!

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Keith A. Gordon) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 11:22:00 +0000

Back in the day, Practical Stylists seemed like a sure bet to grab, at the minimum, a mid-indie label deal and thus get their fair share of nationwide fame. A second wave power-pop band, they fit right in with other like-minded '80s arbiters of cool like the dBs, Matthew Sweet and homeboy Bill Lloyd (who would later become a PS member). For one reason or another, the band never took that big next step ... it certainly wasn't for lack of talent, however, or good songs, 'cause Practical Stylists had both in spades, as well as a decent stage presence. They have remained one of Nashville's closely held, dirty little musical secrets for over two decades now.

Thanks to the good folks at Nashville's Spat! Records, the very first Practical Stylists' album has just been released. A compilation of studio material and live tracks, Post_script is a great document of one of Nashville's truly underrated bands. The original band line-up was Scott Sullivant on vocals and bass, David Russell on vocals and guitar, and Jim Hodgkins on drums. Bill Lloyd would later join PS when David Russell went to school, and later they expanded to a foursome with the addition of John Jackson. It's this original trio that many Nashville club-goers will remember, though, and that is represented by the material on the Post_script CD.

Practical Stylists had a rich power-pop sound with great vocal harmonies and whipsmart songwriting. Although they played everywhere in the area, both as headliners and opening for a veritable who's who of local bands, Practical Stylists' achievements were often overshadowed by better-known bands of the era like Jason & the Nashville Scorchers, Walk The West and the White Animals.

Post_script will be available in physical CD form from the Spat! Records website and, at some point in the future, from Amazon.com, and will be available for downloading from both Amazon and iTunes. In the meantime, the band's manager Allen Sullivant – the keeper of the flame at his Nashville 80's Rock Archive website (where you can sample Practical Sylists music) – has provided the Reverend with the skinny on the new album, including the track info and liner notes that we provide below (thanks Allen!). I'd highly recommend that anybody that loves timeless pop-rock music check out Practical Stylists ... after all, it's never too late to discover great music!

Post_script track listing:

In the Studio:
1. Swing Your Arms Around
2. Ralph
3. My Bed
4. General Beat
5. She's Got Lots
6. Terry's Voice
7. In My Dream
8. Rights

Live & Loud:
9. R. A. Wilson
10. All Around Us
11. You Never Call
12. Some Fun
13. Crowded Room
14. Shake Some Action
15. E=Mc2
16. Know What I Know
17. 800 Number

This & That:

(1) and (2) - 8~track recordings from October, 1982 produced and engineered by Andy Byrd. Originally released together in February, 1983 as a cassette single. "Swing Your Arms Around" also appeared on a compilation of progressive music issued by WREK-FM in Atlanta the same year. Piano on "Ralph" by Andy Byrd. Lead Vocals: Scott

(3) and (4) - Recorded to 24 track in June, 1983 at Studio 19, Skip Shimmin, recording engineer. Produced by "Ralph". Originally released together on 7" 45rpm vinyl in September of 1983, "General Beat" became the biggest selling single that month at Nashville branches of Cat's Records. Lead Vocals: Scott

(5) Another 24~track recording from September, 1983, also recorded at Studio 19 and engineered by Skip Shimmin. Produced by Scott Sullivant. Released only on WRVU's Nashville "New Rock" compilation cassette,"Local Heroes". Lead Vocal: Scott

(6), (7) and (8) - Recorded in May, 1989 on an Akai 12-track digital console. Produced and engineered by Andy Byrd. Previously unreleased. Lead Vocals: David

(9) through (17) - All recorded on various dates in 1983 at Cantrell's in Nashville. Jeff Levy, sound engineer. All live tracks are of the "house mix", recorded directly off the sound board to cassette without any additional re-mixing, overdubs, or other embellishments. If you were there, this is what you heard.

Practical Stylists are:

Scott Sullivant - Bass and Vocals
David Russell - Guitar and Vocals
Jim Hodgkins - Drums and such

All songs written by Scott Sullivant, David Russell, and Jim Hodgkins except (13) written by Colin Moulding and (14) written by Cyril Jordan and Chris Wilson.

Original songs and all recordings copyright 1982 - 1989 by White Triangle Music, BMI. This compilation copyright 2008 by White Triangle Music, BMI. Manufactured and distributed by Spat! Records. Thanks, AJ!

All songs were recovered from the original analog (tape) masters and transferred to digital format. Front and back cover concept and design by Alexa Sullivant. Original photography by Bill Kalinowski and Adonia Fuller. Original logo designed by Bill Mullins.

Your Help Needed!

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Keith A. Gordon) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 02:49:00 +0000

The Reverend needs the help of his Nashville friends on a couple of projects – one concerning THE OTHER SIDE OF NASHVILLE book, the other this blog.

1) PHOTOGRAPHER NEEDED! Big Bad Nashville is sponsoring a "Return to Elliston Square" show on Saturday night, June 28th, 2008 featuring Cloverbottom, the Bunnies, Walk The West and Royal Court of China. As my meager finances won't allow me to jet down to the Music City from WNY to witness what promises to be a great show, I'd like to enlist the help of a local photog to document the show. I'd like some photos of each band to post here on the blog and, if they'd fit, to include in the book. I'm guessing that everybody is pretty much shooting digital these days, so a high-rez .jpg format would be preferred. If this sounds like something that you'd like to do, contact me by email at rev.gordon (at) gmail.com.

2) BANDS WANTED FOR MP3 GOODIES DISC! The Reverend has spoken with several people about including some sort of mp3 disc of local bands with the book, and after hashing it over with these folks and other friends, here's what I've come up with. To entice people to buy a copy of THE OTHER SIDE OF NASHVILLE book directly from me (which results in more money for the project), we're going to put together a limited edition "goodies disc" that will include songs in mp3 format by as many bands as we can enlist, along with a photo gallery of Nashville rock, maybe even a copy of the book in PDF format. The "goodies disc" will only be available free with a copy of the book, and only 100 or maybe 200 copies will be created. I need bands to submit mp3s to include on the disc. If you'd like your music included on this disc, contact me by email at rev.gordon (at) gmail.com. Nashville-area bands (Murfreesboro, Bowling Green, etc) only, please. MP3s should be of decent quality (256kpbs or better) and band contact information provided.

Here's the deal on my plans for THE OTHER SIDE OF NASHVILLE book. If I can sell enough copies, both direct and through local retailers, as well as on Amazon.com, I plan on taking the profits and spending a week in Nashville videotaping interviews for a future documentary on the "other side of Nashville." I figure that it will take sales of 600-800 copies (depending on the ratio between direct sales and wholesale sales) to finance this deal, which I think is something that can be achieved. Got to get the book done, first, though, so now it's back to work....

Sum Moor Wordz!!! (Book Project Update)

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Keith A. Gordon) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 02:38:00 +0000

Since the ol' Reverend receives around a dozen or so emails each week asking when THE OTHER SIDE OF NASHVILLE book will be done, I figured that it was about high time that I gave all of you a project update...

...we're almost there, at least in comparison to where we were a year ago (how's that for sounding like a politician?). I'd estimate that the writing of the book is around 80% completed. The final 20% is almost all interviews that I hope to finish transcribing, editing and polishing to a chrome-like sheen by mid-July. There are still a handful of interviews that I want to do, with some people that I want to talk to, and then it's off to laying out the book for printing. To get prepared for lay-out, I've cropped, converted, and cleaned up over 150 band photos, show posters, CD and LP covers, and misc. graphics for use in the book. THE OTHER SIDE OF NASHVILLE will be a very graphic-oriented book with lots of pics in between my (and a few other people's) words.

So, when will the book be done? I'm shooting for the fall ... yes, of 2008 ... late-September, perhaps, maybe October. When you see that I've posted the book's rad cover art on the blog here, you'll know that it's right around the corner. Stay tuned ... this slow-moving snowball is beginning to pick up steam as it rolls downhill and closes in on publication day!

Nashville Rockers Due Dollars From Digital!

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Keith A. Gordon) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 22:29:00 +0000

The technology news site p2pnet had this article recently about Sound Exchange and the millions of dollars of royalties being held by the organization on the behalf of musicians that can’t be found. A number of Nashville-based (non-country) musicians are among those artists that the non-profit claims that they can't find.

Sound Exchange was formed by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the music industry's lobbying arm, as a non-profit organization. Sound Exchange's primary reason for being is to collect royalties from the digital transmissions of sound recordings and then pay these monies back out to artists and record labels. For example, Sound Exchange collects royalties from satellite radio stations like XM Radio and Sirius that play recorded music; from cable and satellite television (Muzak or MusicChoice channels); and from Internet radio stations like Pandora.

There's just one problem – Sound Exchange can't find many of the musicians that they're supposed to pay royalties. On the organization's website they include a list of over 8,000 of these "lost artists," musicians and bands that are due money. Although Sound Exchange claims that they're currently paying royalties to some 31,000 artists, some critics claim that the number of "lost artists" might actually be as high as 40,000 musicians.

Your humble scribe pored through 88 pages of names to dig out the below-listed pearls:

Bare, Jr.

"Big" Mike Griffin

Count Bass D

David Munyon

Farmer Not So John

Fleming & John

Leigh Nash

Mark Selby

The Evinrudes

Tom House

The Yayhoos (Dan Baird & Eric Ambel)

Victor Wooten

As you can see from the list above, I managed to find links to websites for all of these Nashville artists, and it only took me around 10 minutes of Google searching to dredge them up. A number of them are still making music, touring and releasing albums. Why couldn't Sound Exchange just assign an intern or two on the task and have them look up some of these "lost artists" that they're holding money for in their bank account? Hell, a chimp with a six-pack could do this work (and I'm living proof of that, I guess).

There are a number of other bands/artists that I found on the Sound Exchange list that have friends in Nashville, are Southern-based, or hung around town for some length of time. If you know how to get in touch with these guys, let them know that they have money owed to them: Cravin' Melon, Deke Dickerson, Drivin N Cryin, Fetchin Bones, Geraldine Fibbers, Guadalcanal Diary, Gurf Morlix and Rock-A-Teens.

Although I plan on trying to contact all of the Nashville artists listed above to let them know about money they might be owed, it would help if any of you readers that know 'em also let them know about the Sound Exchange list.

Bottom line – if you've EVER recorded an album that might have been distributed beyond the West End/Nolensville Road area (i.e. roughly a circle from the site of the old Tower to the Great Escape over to Phonoluxe and back to Grimey's), contact Sound Exchange as soon as possible and register with the organization. You may be owed some little money from the Internet and, if not, you can at least get on their books for any future cash that might come your way. It's your money...don't let them keep it!

The lost liner notes for Return To Elliston Square!

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Keith A. Gordon) — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 12:00:00 +0000

Anybody who was "there" at the time knows that the Nashville rock music scene – circa 1980s – was an exhilarating, exciting time to be alive. Bands were doing interesting things, making incredible music as they were forming a local scene for the first time.

A.J. Schaefer of local indie Spat! Records agrees, and his label has recently released the ultra-groovy compilation disc Return To Elliston Square, 1979-1989. The CD features 22 songs by a wealth of bands, including rare tracks from folks like Cloverbottom, the Ratz, and, yes, even the Enemy's "Jesus Rides A U.F.O." The compilation is available primarily as a digital download through sites like eMusic and Amazon.com (click on the CD cover at the right to go to Amazon), but physical CDs are also available through local shops and directly from the Spat! Records website (for a mere $8.99 plus shipping!).

At the label's request, the Reverend wrote up some nice liner notes for Return To Elliston Square, outlining each band with a brief history, etc for each. Unfortunately, budget restraints prevented Spat! from using the full notes – they just used the intro section on the CD insert – so I thought that I'd post them here for the world to read. You can see the album's full tracklist on the Spat! Records website, but here are the liner notes that you won't get to read anywhere else!

The Lost Liner Notes for Return To Elliston Square

It’s hard to believe, but at one time there were no local rock bands to speak of in Nashville. That’s right – no Kings Of Leon, no Pink Spiders, no Paramore splashed all over magazine covers nationwide. Back in the mid-70s there was just R. Stevie Moore and his pal Victor Lovera, writing songs and recording music down in the basement.

By the end of the decade, a new creative wind had started blowing across the Music City, inspiring a generation of young musicians. Some say it was the Ramones’ Exit/In show in ‘78, some say it was the release of Stevie Moore’s Phonography, the city’s first entirely homegrown original rock album. Regardless, bands like Cloverbottom, the Smashers, Dave Olney & the X-Rays and the Actuals began to pop up looking for places to play, a situation remedied by Rick Champion at the legendary Phrank ‘n’ Steins. Soon thereafter came the White Animals, Factual, the Ratz and Jason & the Nashville Scorchers, opening the floodgates to a thousand and one bands. Andy Anderson’s Nashville Intelligence Report zine documented the growing scene and Vanderbilt’s WRVU-FM (91 Rock) played the music.

What you have in your hands is a collection of some of the best and brightest of Nashville’s first wave of rock bands, circa the ‘80s, when the local scene was still defining itself. There are a lot of deserving bands that didn’t make this volume, talented folks like Afrikan Dreamland, 69 Tribe, Chapel of Roses, Burning Hearts, Radio One, the Bunnies and too many others to list. The bands that are represented here were not alone in creating a local rock scene that had never existed before in Nashville, but they are among the most interesting. Check ‘em out and hear for yourself where the fertile local rock scene of today began.

– Rev. Keith A. Gordon, curmudgeon and critic

Cloverbottom
In early-to-late-70s Nashville, the name “Cloverbottom” was a pejorative term, used to ridicule the person on the receiving end. Named for the city’s notorious center for the mentally retarded, Nashville’s first punk band was also one of the city’s first original rock bands. Booked by Rick Champion at the legendary Phrank ‘n’ Steins, the band played a few original tunes sprinkled in-between Buzzcocks and Stranglers covers. Cloverbottom’s core line-up of Rock Strata, Johnny Hollywood and Bryan D’Beane recorded only one lone three-song EP, 1980’s Anarchy In The Music City, but those three songs still kick ass almost 30 years later!

Actuals
Too far ahead of its time, Nashville’s Actuals…later evolving into Actuel…stood alone as one of the city’s few electronic bands. The duo of vocalist/guitarist Steve Anderson and bassist Gary Rabasca made up the band’s core, pursuing a vision of high-tech music that was unique for the states at that time, and uniquely alien for the Music City audience. Under the Actuel name, the band released a couple of 12” EPs which, along with a 91 Rock benefit show appearance, won them a loyal local following. Dessau’s John Elliott and Factual’s Robb Earls were both members at one time.

Factual
Keyboard wizard Robb Earl was one of a handful of visionary local musicians in the early-80s, his band Factual combining keyboards/synth-driven new wave pop with strong rhythms to make what the band called “intelligent dance music.” Primarily a live outfit, Factual nevertheless appeared on both the Never In Nashville and London Side Of Nashville compilations as well as releasing a couple of 45s. Earls would go on to form Warm Dark Pocket and later open Sound Vortex studios, while guitarist Skot Nelson would play with Guilt and Dessau; Factual also included bassist Johnny Hollywood and powerful drummer Bones Brown.

Practical Stylists
Nashville’s power-pop kings are still fondly-remembered by early-80s Nashville fans as an entertaining live band with talent, guts and a unique guitar-driven melodic pop sound. When guitarist David Russell left, vocalist/bassist Scott Sullivant and drummer Jim Hodgkins recruited singer/songwriter/guitarist Bill Lloyd, fresh-off-the-bus-from-Bowling Green, to take his place, adding yet another dimension to the band’s already impressively deep sound. Although the Stylists’ recorded legacy is sparse…only a couple of now-collectible 45s…the band’s manager, Allen Sullivant, has managed to keep the flame alive with a seemingly endless vault of live tracks and video clips.

The Movement
One of the Music City’s most criminally-overlooked power-pop outfits, the Movement rocked local clubs like nobody’s business. Frontman Ritchie Owens was a veteran of bands like the Resistors, and original bassist Greg Herston earned his bones with Basic Static; along with guitarist Bob Ocker and drummer Bongo (Lerry Reynolds later replaced Herston), the Movement crafted a lively pop-rock sound that was British to the bone but fell right in line with turn-of-the-decade major label bands like the Shoes or Pezband, who all mostly took their cues from the Raspberries and Cheap Trick, anyways. The Movement, tho’, were really something special.

The White Animals
Depending on who you ask, the White Animals were either the second or third most popular live band in town during the early-to-mid-80s. Although nobody could touch Afrikan Dreamland onstage, the White Animals held their own with an original mix of garage-rock and ‘60s-styled psychedelic-pop with dub overtones. Over the course of half-dozen albums, released on the band’s indie Dread Beat Records label, the White Animals refined their sound and matured into a great rock band both on the stage and on vinyl. Why they never got a major label deal is one of the great mysteries of the decade….

The Young Nashvillians
The Young Nashvillians were, hands down, the most entertaining local band of the ‘80s! While other bands made great music, the Young Nashvillians were never about anything other than F-U-N. Formed in 1982 as a summer project, a four-track basement tape of songs made its way to Kevin Gray of the White Animals, who subsequently released the tape on Dread Beat as Metropolitan Summer in 1983. The band followed with The Young Nashvillians Are Here the next year before the members headed for school and careers. For a couple of glorious summers, tho’, the Young Nashvillians ruled the WRVU airwaves! (www.myspace.com/theyoungnashvillians)

The Ratz
Although they presented as old school punks, from this late day, the Ratz sound like a new wave power-pop band to these ears. Regardless, one 7-incher was all that Nashville would get from the ultra-cool foursome, one of the first of a swelling wave of Nashville rock bands, and one of the restless best. Fronted by “Les Rat” (Les Shields) and “Joey Offbeat” (a/k/a Joey Blanton) with bassist “Randy Rodent” and big-beat skinman “Bone,” the Ratz lit up local clubs for an all-too-brief time. Next stop: Blanton to the Enemy, Shields to Raging Fire by way of Go Jimmy Dub.

The Enemy
Written by the Reverend back in 1985 (in Nashville Intelligence Report): “Formed in October 1984 by guitarists Joey Offbeat and Lee Carr, the Enemy chose to ignore the emerging undercurrent of a country punk/C&W revival by performing a daring mixture of hardcore, powerpop and metal-edged, drop-forged instrumentation. Trendy, unfair pigeonhole labels such as thrash or ‘three-chord rock’ fall before the Enemy’s twin scythes of energy and humour.” Hell, sounds good to me. Best known for the novel “Jesus Rides A UFO,” written by Nashville’s homeless poet laureate Gregory Mauberret, in truth, the Enemy was much better than most remember.

Shadow 15
When people talk about ‘80s-era Nashville rock, the name Shadow 15 inevitably crops up. Adored by just about everybody on the scene, the band’s meager recorded output, combined with the consistent quality of their music, has made them all the more legendary. It helps that the band’s adrenalin-fueled sound was complimented by a strong vocalist in Scott Feinstein, incredible guitarist Shannon Ligon, underrated bassist Barry Nelson and explosive drummer Chris Feinstein. They called their sound “garage rock,” but in reality Shadow 15 distilled the best of punk fervor and “shoegazer” rock with Sky Saxon’s reckless spirit, creating something entirely new and exciting.

Raging Fire
Originally known ‘round town as “Ring Of Fire,” changing their name when it conflicted with another band, as Raging Fire these roots-rockers blazed a trail across the SE circuit like Sherman duck-walking through Atlanta. Fronted by the fiery Melora Zaner and driven by Michael Godsey’s wildneck guitar, which channeled Link Wray’s six-string mojo every night, Raging Fire quickly earned a national rep for their excitable live show. They coulda been big, they woulda been big, they shoulda been big – Raging Fire walked the walk with a sound that mixed Buddy Holly pop with X’s punk fervor and Hank’s lonesome heart.

Young Grey Ruins
Local writer and musician Allen Green (Suburban Baroque), in the pages of Andy Anderson’s Nashville Intelligence Report, described the music of Young Grey Ruins as “Psychedelic Furs gone garage or Ziggy Stardust gone punk…take your pick.” Allen wasn’t far from the mark, as this long-lost band’s sound was fresh, original and unlikely, mixing three-chord overdrive with new wavish pop and blasts of sax in a shot for underground cred. YGR was short-lived, tho’, playing local dives (even opening for the Gun Club), and is mostly remembered for sending guitarist Shannon Ligon and bassist Barry Nelson to our beloved Shadow 15.

Government Cheese
Not strictly a local band per se, Bowling Green’s Government Cheese nevertheless orbited the Nashville club circuit like a red-hot comet. The band’s intelligent pop-punk sound was created by a tight-knit chemistry, talented musicians and the band’s charismatic frontman and primary songwriter, Tommy Womack. A couple of 12” EPs, a vinyl album and a single CD – combined with constant touring and memorable live shows – sealed Government Cheese’s legacy as one of the region’s most popular and creative outfits. Womack’s memoir of the era, The Cheese Chronicles, remains the best book about a touring rock band that’s been written. Ever.

Walk The West
Walking a Morricone soundtrack across a lonesome, tumbleweed-scattered punk rock landscape, Walk The West – vocalist/guitarist/teen heartthrob Paul Kirby, the Goleman Brothers (Will on geetar, John on bass, respectively) and drummer Richard Ice – recorded a lone, lost album for Capitol/EMI before evolving into the Cactus Brothers. With a darker, earthier sound than Jason & the Scorchers, Walk The West rocked their roots hard, with just enough twang to show that they came from Nashville. Definitely one of the great unheralded alt-country bands, Walk The West was a good ten years ahead of its time.

Clockhammer
The odd man out among an ever-evolving late-80s local rock scene dominated by hard rock/metal, Clockhammer made fans and won critical acclaim everywhere but at home. Go figure. Could have been because the band’s sound – an inspired mix of metal, melody and prog-rock elements – didn’t fit anywhere in the Nashville rock landscape. The trio of Byron Bailey, Matt Swanson and Ken Coomer had mad musical chops and were crazy creative, and continue to be mentioned in whispered tones alongside other misunderstood geniuses like King’s X. Swanson still gigs around town, Bailey disappeared, and Coomer, well…he joined a band called Wilco.

The Shakers
Oscar Rice and Robert Logue were members of Royal Court of China, but when that band drifted towards becoming a nerf-metal caricature, the two split for the greener creative pastures of their side project, the Shakers. In Rebecca Stout they found a kindred soul and a unique voice that complimented the duo’s original folk-rock leanings. Truth is, professionally and musically, the Shakers were playing on an entirely different field than most other local bands, and they would have fit just as easily with ‘60s-era British bands like the Strawbs or the Incredible String Band as they did in late-80s Nashville.

Jet Black Factory
If I would have had to pick one late-80s Nashville band to play under the “Big Top,” I would have chosen Jet Black Factory without hesitation. JBF had a sound and vibe that stood apart from most of the region’s bands and, in Dave Willie, they had a charismatic frontman and gifted songwriter. JBF kicked serious ass, and could have easily mopped the floor with any of the Seattle bands that came a couple of years later…yes, Nirvana included. They didn’t make it big, of course, but their dark-hued guitar-drone and intelligent lyrics made for some excellent music to remember.

F.U.C.T.
There may have been local bands that rocked harder than Forever Ungratical Corinaric Technikilation (F.U.C.T.), but none did it with the zeal and unflagging spirit of Nashville’s hardcore heroes. In their day, F.U.C.T. would pull ‘em in from all over the south, and all ages. It helped that the band was mostly as young as its audience – and as rowdy – and singer Clay Brocker’s fierce onstage presence and natural charisma, along with the blistering metallic onslaught of the band’s songs, earned them a significant following that remembers F.U.C.T. fondly, even today. Uncompromising and influential, the band still plays live occasionally.

Dessau
A veteran of music scenes in both Nashville and Chicago by the early-80s, John Elliott had a particular vision and the foresight to predict, early in the game, the rise of industrial dance music. Beneath the crashing metallic rhythms and hard-chromed Sturm und Drang of the Dessau sound, a mechanical heart was steered by a strong creative hand. Often working with underground ghetto superstars like producer Martin Hannett and Ministry’s Al Jourgensen and Paul Barker, Elliott and bandmates like Skot (and Barry) Nelson, Mike Orr and Norm Ray…er, Rau forged a sound that was heard on dancefloors around the globe.

Word Uprising
They only lasted about a year, but had they stuck around, Word Uprising had the talent and songs to go somewhere beyond Elliston Square. Another band o’ veterans, including Faith Like Guillotine drummer Mark Beasley and Jet Black Factory’s David Jones (on guitar), with MTSU students Fred Greene (vox) and Bill McLaurine (bass), Word Uprising quickly built a local buzz with a buzzing mix of screaming NWOBHM fretwork and blasting cap drumbeats that would leave your head ringing (in a good way). They wanted to fuse ‘70s-style hard rock with ‘80s alt-pop and, for a while, they did just that.

Alien In The Land Of Our Birth
Long before Today Is The Day, there was Alien In The Land Of Our Birth, an experimental rock band that fused avant-noise with hardcore punk, taking Pere Ubu’s sonic madness to its illogical extremes and blasting Nashville audiences out of their shoes. Guitarist Steve Austin came late to the party, which started with drummer Brad Elrod, guitarist Billy Loffler III and bassist Leo Granados, perhaps Nashville’s first Hispanic rocker. The band garnered significant radio airplay on 91 Rock and won a Nashville Music Award before splintering off into, most notably, acclaimed noisemakers Today Is The Today with Austin and Elrod.

The Grinning Plowman
For a few short years, the Grinning Plowman – Nashville’s favorite cult band – dominated the scene with a sound that was as avant-unusual as anything the city’s dark corners ever produced. Plodding, like a stoner-rock band, with tribal rhythms and razor-sharp fretwork…kinda like the Doors-meet-Candlemass with a dash of Killing Joke. Guitarist Keith Barton tore off some meaty riffs while Janet Ake and Derek Greene kept the heart beating and vocalist Michael Ake bravely sojourned across the band’s sludge-rock horizon. Another “coulda, woulda, shoulda” Nashville band, the Grinning Plowman’s Carlyle label stuff stands among the best the era has to offer.

(Correction: John Elliott of Dessau got in touch to let me know that he was the drummer on Cloverbottom's Anarchy In The Music City EP. Sorry 'bout that, folks...)

Cashville411; new Wilder, Earle reviews

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Keith A. Gordon) — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 11:28:00 +0000

While I'm working towards a FINAL version of the band list, I thought that you folks might be interested in a couple of side thingies that I've put together. First of all, just one directory over, on my Trademark of Quality blog, you'll find reviews of the newish Webb Wilder live album and the stunning debut from Justin Townes Earle (yeah, Steve's son). You can find those reviews, and many others, through these links:

Webb Wilder - "Born To Be Wilder" CD review

Justin Townes Earle - "The Good Life" CD review

Although it's not exactly Nashville-related, Drivin-N-Cryin (from Atlanta) used to play the Music City quite a bit back in the late-80s/early-90s, and they were signed to Island Records by former Praxis A&R goddess Kim Buie, so some of you might enjoy this review as well:

Drivin-N-Cryin - "Fly Me Courageous" CD review

Although it hasn't been "officially" announced to the local press, there's a new Nashville music-related web portal called Cashville411 that has launched. The site, which covers all facets of Nashville's non-country music scene (including rap, business and recording news) was launched by well-known man-around-town Daryl Sanders, former editor of Bone Music Magazine, and other credentials.

The Reverend is happy to say that I'm affiliated with the site, contributing a bi-weekly review column titled "The Amen Corner." If you'll look at the Cashville411 front page, in the section marked "columns" to the left, you'll find "The Amen Corner" listed. So far I've contributed reviews of the Legendary Shack*Shakers, Will Hoge, Bonepony, Jason Ringenberg and rapper All $tar to the site. Check out some of these reviews through the links below:

Jason Ringenberg - "Best Tracks and Side Tracks" CD review

All $tar - "$tarlito's Way II" CD review

Bonepony - "Celebration Highway" CD review

All of these literary diversions aside, work on the book continues slowly and I've gathered a bunch of new band names to add to the "official" list. I hope to finish up the vinyl and 7" portion of the discography in the next week to ten days, and then start cranking out the interviews that I've got on tape. Believe it or not, The Other Side Of Nashville book will see the light of day this summer (I hope). In the meantime, enjoy all this other fun stuff!

Springsteen In Buffalo & Nashville Memories

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Keith A. Gordon) — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 21:24:00 +0000

"There's just one thing that you need to know about Bruce Springsteen: that after forty years in the trenches, he still plays like it matters. That when he hits the stage with the 'best little bar band in the world,' Bruce and his fellow E Streeters still perform like they have something to lose, like they're auditioning for history, like they're not happy until every fan in attendance is exhausted, drenched in sweat and unable to dance another minute. The Boss would have it no other way…"

That's how I began my Harp magazine website review of the Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band show in Buffalo, New York on Friday night. My wife Tracey and I braved a snowstorm that eventually dumped nearly two feet of snow on West New York from Friday night through Sunday morning, driving an hour-and-a-half into downtown Buffalo with crappy visibility to catch The Boss in concert. It was our first big rock-and-roll show since moving to WNY from Nashville and it got me thinking about some of the memorable Springsteen shows that I witnessed in Nashville through the years.

The first appearance that I can find record of for Springsteen in Nashville was a two-night stand in January 1974, opening for blues guitarist Freddie King at a long-gone club by the name of Muther's Music Emporium. I never went to any shows at the club, but Muther's had a reputation for featuring some hotshot young talent on its stage. Kiss first played Nashville at Muther's a few months after Bruce did. This was one of Bruce's first big national tours and he performed with a number of odd booking choices – opening for Black Oak Arkansas, for instance, in Ohio while headlining in Virginia with the Goose Creek Symphony and the Charlie Daniels Band opening two different shows.

According to legend, Springsteen's manager Mike Appel booked the last-minute Nashville shows when he found out that CBS Records was having a sales convention in the Music City and that most of the label executives were staying at a hotel near the club. Appel had flyers for the shows delivered to every room at the hotel, and supposedly invited close to 200 of the label's sales and marketing people to the 300-seat club to witness Springsteen perform live. Sadly, few if any CBS personnel attended the shows and it seemed, after only two albums, that the future Rock & Roll Hall of Fame member's career would be short-circuited before it began. The label was pretty ambivalent about Springsteen at the time, much like Capital EMI was about Jason & the Scorchers when EMI had its sales convention in Nashville in 1986 or so.

I was a bit too young to have seen the Springsteen show at Muther's, and I didn't really become familiar with Bruce until later in '74 when WKDF-FM began playing a pre-release single of "Born To Run." I ran out and picked up Springsteen's first two albums and quickly became enamored with his music. Oddly enough, that Muther's show from 1974 is available as an Italian bootleg album; more people have probably heard Springsteen's 10-song set from that night on vinyl and CD than were actually there!

The first time that I actually got to see Springsteen in concert was at the Grand Ol' Opry House near the old Opryland theme park, back in 1976. The venue holds around 4,500 I'd guess, and it was around half full the night of April 28, 1976. The Music City had yet to embrace Bruce and I managed to score first row tickets, on the left side of the stage. They were great seats and even though I don't remember exactly how long that Springsteen played, I do remember that my girlfriend at the time, Tammy, wasn't enjoying herself as much as I was, and she wanted to leave during the intermission. Of course, I made her stay until the bloody end (for which she was none to happy)!

When Bruce rolled back around a couple of years later, touring in support of Darkness On The Edge Of Town, I was involved with Thom King's Take One Magazine. Thom was (and is) an old high school friend of mine and he published what could arguably be considered the first alternative newspaper/magazine in Nashville, a important precursor to the Nashville Scene. I don't recall who among my friends attended the July 21, 1978 show at the Municipal Auditorium, but I know that Thom and I were there, and I seem to remember that we had pretty good seats. Elvis Costello was also at that show, watching from the low-level seats to the left of the stage, and we could see him from our groovy floor seats. Costello had a sour look on his face all evening and we wondered why he wasn't enjoying himself more.

The best Springsteen show that I've personally ever seen was on February 26, 1981 at the Municipal Auditorium, the tour for The River album. This show also provided me with my best Springsteen experience. Tickets went on sale one Saturday morning in December, and my brother Billy C (a/k/a "Kid Kasual") and I decided to sit on line all night at Harding Mall. I hit the mall's north entrance near the old Port O' Call store shortly after the mall closed at 9:00 PM and found around a dozen people already there; Bill joined me shortly thereafter. By 10:00 PM or so around 20 of us hardcore faithful were dug in for a long, cold night (temps were in the teens by morning).

One guy pulled his truck up to the entrance and opened the doors so that we could all hear his stereo. We listened to Springsteen albums until sunrise, singing and drinking coffee and beer and eating donuts and Krystal gut-bombs that some of our friends had brought to help us through the night. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, a communal effort that we all enjoyed. Sometime during the night, we each took a number and agreed among ourselves that nobody was going to cut in front of the 20 of us that had braved the elements to be first in line. Sure enough, some assholes showed up between 7:00 AM and 9:00 AM when the tickets went on sale and tried to muscle their way in, but we held 'em off! WKDF-FM showed up around 7:00 AM with coffee and donuts and sausage-biscuits.

The show itself was incredible, one of Bruce's four-hour marathons. We had a great time! Since Bill and I had maxed out on the number of tickets that we could each buy, we had most of an entire row to ourselves; Bill's girlfriend Amy, my brother Greg and the big man himself Willie J all witnessed the show.

The last Springsteen show that I was able to see in Nashville was the Born In The USA tour (program picture above) that was held in Murfreesboro on December 9, 1984 at the Murphy Center, which was larger than the Municipal Auditorium. I don't remember the exact details, but I seem to believe that we had an insider at Ticketmaster or something 'cause we managed to snag an entire row on the floor at the arena and filled it with friends and family. The stage was round and open on all sides so that everybody could see the band, and I remember that we could see some friends on the other side of the stage during the show. It was another incredible Springsteen performance, around 3-1/2 hours long and highly rocking! A very posh bootleg vinyl box set was released of this show! Although I'm not sure who put it out (among my connections in the audio underground), it was a limited edition of 400 copies with posters and the entire show spanned three picture discs.

Sadly, the Nashville area didn't get to see Springsteen on either the Tunnel Of Love or the Human Touch tours during the late-80s and early-90s. In fact, best as I can tell, it was twelve years between Springsteen shows for the Music City, as the solo acoustic The Ghost Of Tom Joad tour hit the Ryman Auditorium on December 12, 1996. I tried to get tickets and had the cash in hand, but in the smaller venue they moved quick, and I had no inside connection to score even a pair of tickets. Four years later, Springsteen and the E Street Band returned for their "reunion" tour on April 12, 2000 but that time around I simply didn't have the cash to attend. Writing for Live! Music Review at the time, I got a nice bootleg of a different show from the 1995/96 acoustic tour, and thanks to some friends in low places, I acquired a good copy of the April 2000 Nashville show burned onto three CD-Rs as well.

Nashville lost out on tours for Springsteen's The Rising (2003) and Devils And Dust (2005) albums, and I don't see a Nashville date scheduled for the current Magic tour, either. It speaks volumes that Nashville's concert promotion is so poor that the city has hosted only two of seven tours from one of the biggest performing bands on the planet over the last 20 years (and let's face it, a Springsteen show is pretty much a stone cold surefire sell-out). Springsteen fans are forced to travel to Memphis or Atlanta to catch a tour. Lucky for me, The Boss seemingly schedules a Buffalo or Rochester (or both) show for every tour!

Through the years, I've also been lucky enough to catch Springsteen shows in Detroit ('78 & 1980), Chicago (1980) and Cincinnati ('80 again); in fact over the course of nine months (1980-81), I managed to see Springsteen and Bob Seger, another favorite, each perform four times in various cities, including Nashville. The Springsteen shows in Nashville are by far my favorites, though, and they stand among the best rock & roll performances that I've ever seen.

Sitting in HSBC Arena on Friday night in Buffalo watching Springsteen and the E Street Band, I couldn't help but relive all those great Nashville shows...

(Thanks to the Killing Floor database of Springsteen tour dates for exact show info)

Some musical goodies for you all:
"Because The Night" (mp3 from Buffalo 03/07/08)
"Rosalita" (mp3 from Nashville 01/29/74)

(Right click on the mp3 link with your mouse and choose "save as" to download to your computer)

More Bands, Some MP3s and more Fun with Wordz

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Keith A. Gordon) — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 19:01:00 +0000

The Reverend has been hard at work, day and night, finishing up the Nashville rock discography and writing material for The Other Side Of Nashville book...

...that's what I'd say if I wasn't such a lazy slug. Truthfully, work on the book has slowed as I trudge my way through the local discography. I've worked my way through five of six shelves filled with CDs of Nashville bands, all of the cassettes that I have in hand, and have begun digging through the stack o' vinyl that I need to document to complete the discography. I didn't really think that this would be as big a chore as it has become, but there has been a hell of a lot of good – and very good – music released by Nashville bands over the last 30 years.

Not that I've been sitting around here in WNY, just sipping on gin-and-juice and laughing at YouTube videos of dogs doing funny tricks. Nosirree! The Reverend has also been digging through the vaults and has found close to 50 record reviews of discs that will be included in the book. I've found more than a few interviews as well from back in the days of The Metro that might be polished off and placed in the book. I plan on getting back to working on the discography in earnest this week and hope to have it entirely done by the end of the month (gee, where have I heard that before?).

So, how about I distract you remaining readers with some shiny, bouncy mp3 files? I promised you all some new tunes some time ago, so here we go with a handful of some of Nashville's best, past and present. I'll get this party started with a song by A.K.A: Rudie, the Music City's resident reggae/ska band. A few of the guys in A.K.A: Rudie came over from Freedom Of Expression, one of the fave local bands of the '80s that pursued a similar reggae-influenced sound, and neither band received any sort of love from the mainstream local media during their tenure (tho' I did write a piece on Freedom Of Expression for The Metro back in the day). Regardless, Nashville's rude boys have been playing around town consistently for over a decade now, and this song – a spry cover of Elvis Costello's "Oliver's Army" – is from the band's 2001 Trouble Clef album.

A.K.A: Rudie - "Oliver's Army"

Another local outfit that has never received its fair share of respect from the Nashville press is Spider Virus. Although the band's sound is definitely metal-oriented, there is more than a little punkish intensity and subversive pop influence at work in their music. Formed by vocalist/guitarist Jerry Cambell and drummer Tracy Coss back in 1992, the band's early singles came to the attention of noted producer/engineer Steve Albini, who subsequently produced the band's self-titled 1997 debut album. Although Spider Virus stirred up a little buzz on the underground metal scene during its time, they never managed to land on any of the larger indie labels or grab a major label deal. This eclectic cover of the Rod Stewart hit "Young Turks" is from the band's 2001 album Radio Invaders.

Spider Virus - "Young Turks"

Finally, to further promote Nashville's great funk-and-soul outfit the Dynamites, here are a couple of tunes from the band's killer 2007 disc Kaboom! I could fill your head with stories about Dynamites' frontman Charlie Walker, an old-school soul shouter with a voice that's smoother than aged whiskey, but this recent article on the band by Andy Tennille, published in the November issue of Harp Magazine [link], tells the band's entire groovy story better than I ever could, so check it out. Meanwhile, if you dig the following songs, get thee hence down to Grimey's and grab yourself a copy of Kaboom! – you'll be glad you did!

The Dynamites - "Killin' It"
The Dynamites - "Way Down South"

(As always, right click on the mp3 link and choose "save as" to download to your computer)

I also promised you all some new bands for the list, so here we go! First of all, Danny Dickerson emailed me and reminded me of his band, the Mercenaries, a very cool local outfit that released a 45rpm single with two songs – "Oh, Sally!" b/w "You Better Surrender" – back in the day. I seem to remember the Mercenaries receiving some airplay for these songs on 91 Rock, and after seeing the 45's picture sleeve, I remember seeing this advertised in some local music zines.

Mark "Smiley" Shenkel, a longtime mainstay of the Murfreesboro music scene, sent me a package with a bunch of cool stuff to copy for the book, like photos and show posters and, since he's a member of the band, the aforementioned A.K.A: Rudie CD. Mark was also a member of Freedom Of Expression and Facsimile with sadly-departed guitarist Don Mooney. A former student at MTSU and a writer for a handful of local publications, the stuff that Mark sent provided invaluable information on bands like Deacon Fields, Blind Farmers From Hell and Hank Flamingo, among others.

I've also spoken with former Bone Music Magazine editor Daryl Sanders a few times lately. Daryl has a pretty exciting new project that's about to launch, about which I've been sworn to secrecy, but I'll let all of you know about it when I get the green light from D.S. Daryl sent me some materials on Rebecca Stout & the Circus Inebrius, an avant-garde art-rock outfit that makes some interesting and intriguing music. Stout, of course, was a member of both the Shakers and Baby Stout, and has been a longtime part of the local music scene. That's Rebecca's alluring photo at the top of this post.

Daryl also recommended adding Tim Carroll to the list, and I concur, especially since Carrol's cool song "Good Rock From Bad" is used as the theme song for Colin Wade Monk's weekly Nashville Scene podcast. Daryl also brought up Adrian Belew, which is a honest addition to the list – Belew got his big break when Frank Zappa "discovered" him playing guitar with the cover band Streetheart at Fanny's back in '74. Belew has traveled around a bit since then, but he landed back in Nashville in 1994 and has performed around town numerous times since, and has recorded several imaginative albums while residing in the Music City.

A bunch of other people have emailed me with other band names that I had forgotten, and I'll include them all here on the "official" project band list. With the addition of these new bands, I think that this takes us up to 495 total on the list. When I get to 500, I'm stopping...

Thanks to everybody for your emails!

ADRIAN BELEW
BLIND FARMERS FROM HELL,
TIM CARROLL, CHUCK ALLEN EXPERIENCE,
DEACON FIELDS, FACSIMILE,
BEN FOLDS, FREON DREAM,
GUILLOTINE, GUNS A GO-GO,
HANK FLAMINGO, LAUGHING STORM DOGS,
THE MERCENARIES, MILLARD POWERS,
THE NATIONALS, NOBODY'S BUSINESS,
OLE MOSSY FACE, THE SEMANTICS,
REBECCA STOUT & THE CIRCUS INEBRIUS,
TIGER RADIO, TIGERS CON QUESO, V.O.C.

As always, if you have any information on any of the bands on the list, new bands that we might have overlooked, or materials like photos, etc that you'd like to loan the project (we send 'em back in one piece - promise), email the Reverend through the email link in the column to the right. Thanx!

The Bunnies' Christmas Celebration

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Keith A. Gordon) — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 01:54:00 +0000

Okay, so it's not really on Christmas, but one of Nashville's favorite '80-era bands – The Bunnies – will be playing at Windows On The Cumberland on the Friday night following the holiday (December 28th). My friend, Bunny Donna Frost, says that the band had so much fun playing their 25th anniversary show back in October, that they decided to perform some more local shows.

You can find out all about the Bunnies on my original post [link], including an easy-do-download mp3 file of one of the band's very cool songs...or you can get thee hence to the Bunnies MySpace page to get more info and listen to some more great songs. In the meantime, plan on spending the evening of the 28th at Windows On The Cumberland, 515 Second Avenue North in downtown Nashville!

(Click on the show poster to see a larger image)

Too Cool Grimey's Video Docu

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Keith A. Gordon) — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 01:12:00 +0000

I have to admit that I didn't find this video clip on my own, but saw it recently on the Scene's "Nashville Cream" blog and thought that I'd share it here. This mini-documentary (very mini-mini) features an interview with Mike "Grimey" Grimes and Doyle "D-Funk" Davis, the owners of Nashville's erstwhile indie record store, Grimey's New & Preloved Music. The video was created by hometown boys Tugboat Productions and is hosted on the youth-culture oriented Vimby ("Video In My Back Yard") web site. Tugboat Productions has also made music videos for local bands like the Carter Administration, Hands Down Eugene and Spider Virus.

Aside from some very cool interior shots of the store, the video also includes background music by Charles Walker & the Dynamites, Nashville's reigning kings of funk-n-soul music. If you love energetic soul music, you really should check out the Dynamites' 2007 album Kaboom! which kicks serious ass on many levels. Nashville music lovers should be very proud and elated to be the home of Grimey's. In the year that I've been gone from Nashville, I can honestly say that I miss Grimey's, The Great Escape and Phonoluxe a hell of a lot. As many of my close friends could testify to, it was tradition on most Saturday mornings for the Reverend to make the rounds of all three stores, selling and trading promo discs and digging up CDs and vinyl from my "want list" and picking up something new to hear on the recommendation of Anna, Jon or Josh @ Grimey's.

I've been in a few used CD stores around Buffalo and Rochester during the last year, and have yet to find anything on the level of any of the three Nashville stores that I frequented, and certainly no indie store like Grimey's. Plans are to venture deep into the heart of Rochester on the weekend after Christmas and finally check out the legendary House Of Guitars store, which boasts of stocking over 4,000,000 CDs, albums and tapes on its eight floors, as well as the musical gear that the store has become world-famous for. In the meantime, I miss the Saturdays at Grimey's, for the conversations as well as the music. Other things I miss about Nashville, aside from my friends and extended family? The International Market on Belmont, Los Palmas Mexican Restaurant in Cool Springs, Provenance Bread on 21st Avenue, Borders Books in Brentwood (and on West End) and Woody's Smoke Shop in Cool Springs (strictly for the wide selection of imported beer).

I Promised You New Bands....

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Keith A. Gordon) — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 19:47:00 +0000

Yeah, I know that I promised you all new bands for the "official" list, so here we go. One of the benefits of the book taking longer than planned is that members of several '80s and '90s-era Nashville bands have gotten in touch and provided much-needed and greatly appreciated information on what they were up to during with their bands. While I'm still working on The Other Side Of Nashville, I'm still interested in receiving band histories, discographies, photos and such, so please use the handy email link in the column to the right and get in touch with your info!

As for adding bands to the list, I've got a bunch of new ones. Some were received via email and some are my new MySpace "friends," but I've added the following to the "official list" and will include them in The Other Side Of Nashville book. As we get closer to having the project done – I'm still hoping for the end of the year – I'm getting excited about seeing the finished product. That's one of the benefits of doing it yourself, you get to witness and shape the slow-moving progress of the book and hope that everybody else enjoys the results as much as you've enjoyed creating it!

AMERICAN BANG (formerly BANG BANG BANG),
BUNNY YUM, ELEVENS UP,
THE EXCUSES, FLASHCUT PIN-UPS,
IDAHO BEACH HOUSE, THE MAGIC WANDS,
THE PRESERVATIVES, RED CARPET RATS,
JUDSON SPENCE, SPRING CHICKENS,
STREPANOVA, WILD DOG DAZE,
WORD UPRISING

Next post to come...more local mp3 files for your listening pleasure...I promise!

Don Mooney Remembered

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Keith A. Gordon) — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 20:44:00 +0000

Chip Chilton (Chip & the Chiltons) passed along the news that Don Mooney, guitarist for the Bob Camp Project and the popular reggae/ska band Freedom Of Expression passed away on Monday, October 1st. Don was only 52 years old at the time of his death, and was evidently living in LaVergne. Don's obit in The Tennessean doesn't address the cause of death and I wasn't able to find any other info.

I met Don a couple of times through the years, but didn't really know the guy and don't have a lot more to add. If any of his former bandmates have more information on what Mooney has been up to through the years, please leave a comment or email me (link to right). If you knew Don and would like to share some memories, feel free to leave a comment and share it with our readers.

(I originally misidentified Chip Chilton as Chip Staley, who played with Don in Freedom Of Expression. Sorry about that...guess that either I'm getting old or have too many names on my brain....)

Glossary's Better Nature

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Keith A. Gordon) — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 21:12:00 +0000

Murfreesboro roots-rockers Glossary celebrated the band's tenth anniversary this year. In this day and age, that's quite an accomplishment. When you consider that the indie landscape is littered with the corpses of broken bands and bankrupt labels – and don't even get me started talking about the artistic body count and unmarked graves that you'll find on the major label level – the fact that Glossary has persevered, relatively intact, over the past decade and managed to release four albums entirely on their own (OK, maybe with a little help from their friends), well...color me impressed!

Now the band is jumping headfirst into the digital age with a brave and bold business strategy: they're giving their new album away. Yup, you read that correctly...you can download the new Glossary album, The Better Angels Of Our Nature, FREE from the band's web site [link]. Even better, they've provided high and low-resolution files in both AAC (iPod) and MP3 (everybody else) formats. The album is being published under a Creative Commons license that allows you to download it, play it anywhere that you want, burn a copy for your friends, anything but commercial use.

Of course, the band hopes that you'll like their new CD and maybe come out to see them when they play in your town. The Better Angels Of Our Nature will also be available as a limited edition CD on October 23rd, so if you want to have a physical copy of the disc (with packaging by either Grand Palace Silkscreen or The New Year), check back with the band's web site later in the month or, if you're in the Nashville area, check in with either Grand Palace in Murfreesboro or Grimey's Music in the Music City. Glossary will also be performing a FREE live show at Grimey's on the date of the album's release.

The Reverend has downloaded the new album and tho' I haven't listened to it yet, I haven't been disappointed by Glossary in the past, and I don't expect to be disappointed now. I plan on grabbing a copy of the CD when it comes out in a couple of weeks, and I'm real impressed with this forward-thinking and ballsy move by the band. Anything positive and intelligent like this that a band can do to promote their music is going to pay off in spades down the line, and I think that the new fans that this move will bring to the band will more than offset any ephemeral "losses" they might incur from people downloading rather than buying the CD. Bravo, Glossary!

The Bunnies 25th Anniversary Show

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Keith A. Gordon) — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 23:46:00 +0000

Well-known and beloved '80s-era rockers the Bunnies are reuniting to perform a 25th anniversary show next month. The event will take place at The End, 2219 Elliston Square on the "Rock Block" in Nashville on Friday night, October 5th. Revolution Machine, Dangerous Doll and Shrinking Violet will also be appearing.

The Bunnies were a popular mid-card local band during the early-to-mid-80s, featuring vocalist/songwriter Donna Frost, her brother and the band's drummer Tony (a talented alumni of a number of Nashville rock bands), guitarist Chuck Allen and bassist Todd McAlpin in the band's best-known line-up. The Bunnies had a very cool and timeless pop-rock sound that plays as great today as it did back in the decade. During the band's run, they played with bands like the Practical Stylists, the Times and the Most at clubs like Cantrell's, Spanky's, K.O. Jams and the Cannery.

For the reunion show, Donna and Tony Frost recruited former guitarist Jeff Allen back to play, and enlisted Turina Davis, a former bandmate of Donna's from the Paper Dolls, to play bass. I've included a mp3 of a vintage Bunnies track below (courtesy of Allen Sullivant's Nashville '80s Rock Archive - check it out!).

After you listen to "What's Wrong" and you want to hear more from the band, check out their official "Bunnies 07" MySpace page at www.myspace.com/thebunnies07 for more music, a band bio and other goodies. Then go see the Bunnies play in October!

The Bunnies - "What's Wrong" mp3
(right click and 'save as' to download)

(Photo of the Bunnies, L to R: Jeff Allen, Donna Frost, Turina Davis & Tony Frost)

The New York Times Gets It Wrong!

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Keith A. Gordon) — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 22:36:00 +0000

Last Sunday's New York Times featured an article by Nashville writer Ann Patchett [link] on the growing Nashville music scene. I personally found it to be a glib and not particularly inspired piece by a writer that obviously knows very little about the scene and didn't really care to find out.

After establishing her pop cultural credentials – Patchett likes old country (Patsy, J.C. and Hank) and not the "new country" of folks like Carrie Underwood or Faith Hill (overlooking the fact that Patsy was a commercial artist in her day and not an outsider by any stretch of the imagination) – she states that "the coolest music scene today is in Nashville," name-checking clubs like the Mercy (Lounge?), the Basement, the Station Inn and the Bluebird Cafe (hardly the epitome of "alternative" music). She gets pretty flowery, writing that "Nashville in its spare time is making, dare I say it, art — unexpected and darkly fascinating music whose renegade spirit has been learned from everybody and is beholden to no one."

From that point, Patchett rapidly jumps to the conclusion that East Nashville is the nexus of everything that is good about Nashville's "new" music scene, which is more like the old country than the commercial new country, a music they call "Americana." Patchett trots out old faves like Todd Snider and Gillian Welch alongside Louisiana transplants Jeff and Vida and the Old Crow Medicine Show, all so-called examples of the city's "cutting edge." The Reverend loves Snider as much as the next fool, and I have long felt that he is a bona fide genius. I don't know much about the Old Crow folks except that they formed in New York and relocated to Nashville but, like Snider and Welch, they are well accepted as established Americana artists. Yes, the music of all of these folks is infinitely more interesting than much of what Music Row is cranking out these days, but none of them is particularly ground-breaking or news-making these days.

In fact, Patchett's article seems to throw aside much of what is interesting about Nashville music to focus instead on a handful of alt-country styled artists that live and work on the east side. Where is the mention of Tommy Womack? How about Glossary, which has been banging around Murfreesboro every bit as long as Snider has been sitting on his East Nashville porch and drinking beer? Bonepony has a truly unique sound and has toured recently with Shooter Jennings. Will Kimbrough, the Floating Men, Donna Frost...there are a lot of roots-oriented local artists that could have been included in the article to flesh out the argument that Nashville has a thriving, happening non-mainstream, non-country music scene. Don't even get me started on cool rock bands like How I Became The Bomb, the Hot Pipes, the Clutters or funk kings the Dynamites.

So, the New York Times got it wrong, and like last fall's Nashville Scene article or recent articles in the national press that have focused on Paramore or the Kings of Leon, I guess that a comprehensive, all-encompassing article on Nashville's non-country...even on its Americana scene...by nature is going to fail to mention somebody that should be included. That's why I'm writing THE OTHER SIDE OF NASHVILLE, to try and provide credit to all of the great Nashville musical talents that are all-too-often overlooked. I have no doubt I'll overlook somebody, as well....

It's Been A Long, Long Time...

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Keith A. Gordon) — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 22:08:00 +0000

Damn, has it really been three months since I last posted here? Yeah, I guess so. Plenty o' stuff going on, though. The Reverend has begun writing CD reviews for Harp magazine; my review of the Strawbs' frontman Dave Cousins' new solo album is in the latest issue. I also picked up a freelance writing gig with Future Publishing's new Gloob TV site (www.gloob.tv), penning commentaries on web videos. It ain't much, but it helps pay the bills...

To answer the question that's on everybody's lips, yes, work on the book progresses, albeit slowly. I've been slogging through the Nashville rock discography...still...but hope to have it done soon so that I can jump into the book's articles and reviews. I've been talking to musician's from Nashville's past, catching up with folks with interviews for the book; some of them are still involved in music, some of them aren't, but all have interesting stories to read. I've been looking for old album reviews from archived floppies, zip disks and CD-Rs and digging through reams of photocopies of old issues of NIR and The Metro as well as reading through old copies of House O' Pain and other zines to make sure that all my facts are straight.

The delay in getting the book done has its benefits, however. I've received emails from a number of band members with info about their bands and I promise that I'll respond to everybody that has emailed...it will just take some time. Some folks have sent CDs and photos and such for inclusion in the book and I've managed to dig up a lot of information on bands and artists that I didn't have before. I'll have a number of new bands to add to the "official" list sometime soon. Since I'm still working on the project, if you have information about any Nashville rock bands circa 1976-2006, please email me and we'll get 'em in the book.

Right now, I hope to have everything done and between covers by the end of the year, but I'll make no promises. I'd rather get it done right than get it done fast, and since most of the book's info lies in the past, it ain't going nowhere, so to speak. I've got a great cover picture picked out and have begun etching out a tentative lay-out for the book, so it's all good. As the project picks up steam towards its conclusion, I'll begin posting more mp3 files, photos and reviews and such here, so be sure to come back and visit soon. I promise that it won't take me three months to post again!

Ric Harman & the Wrong Band Remembered

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Keith A. Gordon) — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 19:55:00 +0000

Back in the early years of the exploding Nashville rock scene, one of the greatest things about the ongoing local music revolution was that, unlike Seattle, Austin, or even Athens, the Music City scene was truly diverse. From the blu-reggae of Afrikan Dreamland and the rockin-dub of the White Animals to the punk country of Jason & the Scorchers and pop bands like the Practical Stylists, there were a lot of different sounds for the music lover to check out around town.

One of the most underrated of the bands on the scene during the early-80s was the Wrong Band. Fronted by the photogenic Ric Harman on bass and vocals and including Craig Powers and Mike Rosa on guitars, Dwayne "Dr. X" Rice on keyboards and Andy Martin on drums (later replaced by Jeff Danley), the Wrong Band had a solid seven-year run in the region. The band's edgy new-wavish song "I Live In My Car" was in constant rotation on WRVU-FM and they played shows across the Southeast.

Ric Harman passed away from lymphoma on June 5th at the young age of 52, his short bout with cancer evidently doing nothing to diminish his creative spirit and zest for life. Ric had accomplished a lot after the various members of the Wrong Band went their separate ways, even if much of it was outside my sphere of awareness. A native Nashvillian and the son of noted session drummer Buddy Harman, who had played with Elvis Presley, Patsy Cline and others, Ric moved to New York City after the band broke up.

During the eleven years that he lived in NYC, Ric pursued his passions for performing and the visual arts, becoming a mime and stage magician, and he did some acting both on stage and on TV. Ric toured the country with his own cooking show sponsored by Proctor & Gamble during the early-90s, and he made a name for himself as a professional photographer and graphic artist. He returned to Nashville a year or so ago and worked for Nashville's gay and lesbian newspaper Out & About as a photographer and columnist. Ric, in the guise of his alter-ego "Cosmo Shitay," wrote a regular column for Out & About that may well prove to be his lasting legacy.

The Wrong Band's Andy Martin had told me that he was organizing a band reunion with all of the original members, which would have been great. Listen to "I Live In My Car" or "Wrong Song" (mp3s below, courtesy of Allen Sullivant's Nashville 80s Rock site). I think that you'll agree that although the production may be dated, the songs themselves have a timeless presence and rock just as much today as they did in 1983. Sadly, the band reunion won't take place without Ric Harman, a talented man of many interests that left a lasting impression on the local Nashville rock scene.

(Thanks to Andy Martin for the info on Ric's life and times....)

Wrong Band "I Live In My Car"

Wrong Band "Wrong Song"

Nashville Rocks LaLa & WOXY!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Keith A. Gordon) — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 18:41:00 +0000

I'd read a little about LaLa, this service that allows you to trade in CDs that you don't want for discs that you might want, at a minimal cost of $1.00 or something like that. Since I have a few promo discs laying around that I've reviewed and just don't have room on the shelves for, I figured that I'd check LaLa out and see if I could trade 'em in on the couple of new releases that I want but can't currently afford to buy.

After listing a half-dozen discs on the service, and quickly trading five of them (which gets you points to use against future trades), I decided to look around for a while. I looked up the discs that I wanted to try and score copies of and, sadly, nobody had copies to trade right now. I went ahead and placed them on my "want list," hoping that somebody will come up with a copy of the new Patti Smith covers album, but while digging through the site, which – with the addition of a digital download store – seems to be trying to be all things to all people, I ran across the WOXY sessions page.

Best I can tell, WOXY-FM was a "Modern Rock" radio station launched back in the early-80s in Oxford, Ohio. The station broadcast an alternative format, with an emphasis on indie rock, which earned WOXY all kinds of kudos from the likes of Spin and Rolling Stone. In the late-90s they began simulcasting programming on the Internet. When the station's ownership sold the broadcast license and assets to a Texas company in 2004, the idea was to take the station online full-time, and a group retained the "intellectual" assets (i.e. call letters, web site) and music library with this in mind. Lack of funds caused them to close up shop, but investors cropped up the day after they closed the doors and, in July 2004, WOXY-FM became WOXY.COM, the first terrestrial radio station to reinvent itself online.

Anyway, WOXY is hooked up in some sort of deal with LaLa, providing free mp3 podcast downloads of short-performances by a wealth of indie rock and Americana artists. Each session "in the lounge" runs 20-30 minutes in length and there are some pretty cool people who have dropped by the WOXY.COM studios to perform, including Frank Black, Gomez, Heartless Bastards and French Kicks.

Nashville's current rock scene is strongly represented, perhaps more so than any other city. Of the nearly 100 podcasts available on the site, eight or nine of them are by Nashville bands, some of 'em twice! If you want to get a good idea of what Nashville rock is all about these days, check out LaLa, click on the "discover" tab at the top of the page and scroll down to the bottom right corner where it says "Download free MP3s." Scrolling through the pages, you'll find sessions by the Features, the Hotpipes, De Novo Dahl, Forget Cassettes, the Carter Administration and Apollo Up! All of these are very cool Nashville bands and I've downloaded all of their sessions for frequent future listening. The Rev sez "check it out!"

Rock For Perry!

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Keith A. Gordon) — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 19:07:00 +0000

As many of you folks know, Perry Bags – Jason & the Scorchers' drummer and a mighty talented songwriter in his own right – is very sick. Perry has suffered from diabetes for years and has recently spent a heck of a lot of time in the hospital, undergoing dialysis and other not-so-much-fun stuff. Perry will need a kidney transplant, and that kind of surgical work doesn't come cheap. To this end, the Scorchers played a reunion show benefit last weekend to raise money to offset some of Perry's growing medical expenses.

From all accounts, the show rocked, and guests like former Scorchers Andy York and Ken Fox, Bruce Hilton from the band the Digbees, former Georgia Satellite Dan Baird and Dusters' axeman Ken McMahan all pitched in to help. Stace England, a great singer/songwriter from Illinois, came down to open for the Scorchers on Saturday night. On the previous night, Friday, Stacie Collins and her band, which included Scorchers six-string wizard Warner Hodges, kicked out the jams and rocked for Perry, along with Tommy Womack and the Bottle Rockets.

Unfortunately, I was unable to get back down to Nashville to catch either show, which was disappointing but financially unavoidable. I wanted to do something for Perry since I heard about his condition, but other than send a donation, I couldn't think of any other way to help – until I woke up this morning at 6:00 AM with what might be a brilliant idea!

My ROCK TALK book, which was published in 2004, includes interviews with Jason & Warner of the Scorchers, the band's manager Jack Emerson (shortly after he had launched E Squared Records with Steve Earle) and other musicians that might be of interest to Scorchers' fans, namely Dan Baird of the Georgia Satellites, Webb Wilder, Warren Haynes of the Allman Brothers, the Cactus Brothers and Kevn Kinney of Drivin' N Cryin'. You'll find a full list in the ad to the right. Although it hasn't sold that many copies, I recently paid the fees associated with keeping this book in print, for some reason that was unknown at the time.

So here's the reason: all profits from the sale of copies of ROCK TALK through July 15th will be donated directly to Perry's medical support fund. If you buy the book directly from me for $11.00 (postage included) by using the PayPal link to your right, I'll autograph it for you and it will result in roughly a $5.00 donation to Perry's medical fund. If you'd rather buy a copy of the book through Amazon.com, you can click through on the cover picture above, but only around $2.00 will go to Perry after Amazon, the distributor and the printer take their cut. Either way, buy a copy of ROCK TALK and help Perry out!

Orders for the book must be placed by July 15th, and the next day I'll place the order with the printer; copies will be shipped out to everybody by the end of the month. Copies of ROCK TALK purchased through Amazon.com will be shipped by them on their schedule and will not be autographed.

I'm not going to take a dime off this project, and in the interest of transparency, I will post all of the financial information about the project on this site. I don't have much money to donate to Perry's cause, but I do have time that I can donate, so make me sign some books!

ROCK TALK is an 116-page paperback with black & white photos and 36 interviews.

Reunions Abound 'Round Nashville

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Keith A. Gordon) — Fri, 25 May 2007 22:47:00 +0000

Yeah, it's been another month and I've been AWOL from this blog during that time. Lot's of stuff going on in my parallel blogs, though...launched the TMQ Zine Archive last month with cover scans and info on House O' Pain, Nashville's beloved punkzine, published by Donnie and April Kendall and Troy Pigue back in the early-90s.

Over at my music biz blog, Ryan Adams Sucks, I launched a feud with music biz gadfly and best-selling author Moses Avalon while on the Trademark Of Quality audioblog, I reviewed the Rick Johnson Reader, a collection of album reviews and other writings from esteemed rock critic (and my first editor and mentor), "Ranger Reek" Johnson. Oh yeah, I've also reviewed a heck of a lot of recent prog-rock and heavy metal discs over at TMQ during the past month....

Whew! Wotta month...enough self-promotion, though, let's get on to the meat and potatoes, shall we? Although I'm 800 miles away, I've noticed that reunion shows are beginning to crop up all over the Music City. This week's Nashville Scene has a good article by Jim Ridley on the recent reunion show by blues-rockers the Dusters, old friends of the Reverend's and one of the best live bands that you'll ever see. I'm sorry that I wasn't in Nashville for this show; aside from my personal drinking history with Kenny Mac and David B. (anybody remember the food-fight launched by the three of us and John Elliott of Dessau at the first Metro Magazine Awards Show at Nashville Center Stage?), my first date with my wife was at a Dusters show at the Exit/In in '89.

To celebrate the Dusters' reunion, I've included a scan of a Miller Genuine Draft Band Network postcard that was used by the band to promote upcoming shows. I remember that the Dusters were pretty happy to be hooked up with Miller at the time, and from the journalistic end, I remember that Miller did a lot more to promote their "band network" artists than many of the band's own labels did. Also, since it's time to post a few more mp3 files of Nashville bands, let's throw in a couple for you Dusters' fans. "This Ain't No Jukebox...We're A Rock 'N' Roll Band" was one of the band's signature songs, taken from the Reptile Records CD of the same name. "Red Hot & Ready To Roll" was another live crowd favorite, taken here from the hard-to-find French CD Unlisted Number, released by Dixie Frog Records, the label that also released Ken McMahan's three (excellent) solo albums.

Of course, the big buzz 'round town right now is the Jason & the Scorchers reunion show on June 2nd, which is a benefit for the band's drummer Perry Bags. If you don't know the whole story behind that show, you can check out my article at the Associated Content site, which spills all the details. The show has been sold out for weeks but there are still a few tickets floating around if you know where to look. In honor of the Scorchers' reunion, I dug out an authentic Scorchers' Christmas card from 1985 or '86 and I've included scans of the front and inside of the card to share with all of you Scorchers' fans (pics beneath the mp3 file links below).

As far as Scorchers' mp3 files, I dug deep in the vault and found rare live performances of "Last Time Around" and "Broken Whiskey Glass," both taken from the bootleg CD Absolutely Mannheim. Capturing an October 1985 show in Mannheim, Germany the sound quality on the disc is mediocre, the master probably originating from an audience recording, so you'll just have to turn up the sound on your computer and pretend that you're lost in the crowd...which many of you will be next Saturday. In the meantime, enjoy the songs!

The night before the Scorchers show, Warner Hodges and friends will be holding their own benefit show for Perry at the Exit/In, including the Bottle Rockets and Tommy Womack. I've sung the praises of Mr. Womack before, and will continue to do so as long as he keeps recording albums as brilliant as his recent There, I Said It! [review]. Tommy is an old friend of both the Dusters and the Scorchers, so it's only fitting that I include a couple of Womack songs here as well. "Whatever Happened To Cheetah Chrome?" is a whip-smart song taken from Tommy's first album, Positively Na Na [review] while "Alpha Male & The Canine Mystery Blood" comes from There, I Said It!

As for THE OTHER SIDE OF NASHVILLE book project, things are going well, if slowly. No new bands to add to the "official list" at this time, and the discography is taking me longer than I thought it would to compile, but it's all good. I've scored some great interviews for the book with musicians like Donna Frost, Kenny Wright (Bonepony), Jeff Cease (Rumble Circus) and Scott Feinstein and Barry Nelson (Shadow 15). All those folks, as well as Robert Jetton, Chip Chilton, Mark Shenkel and probably a couple of people that I've forgotten have all contributed photos and memorabilia and/or have written materials to be included in the book.

My original plans, almost a year ago, were to have the book done and on the street in June; with the December move and subsequent second move last March, that's obviously not going to happen. I'll be dedicating more resources to the project come the end of the month, though, so I'm going to shoot for late-September publication. I've moved the deadline back to the end of June for anybody that would like to loan materials to the project (photos, memorabilia, etc) or send recordings for research or review, so if you want to get involved, an email link is to your right. As for everybody else, stay tuned....

The Dusters "This Ain't No Jukebox...We're A Rock 'N' Roll Band"

The Dusters "Red Hot & Ready To Roll"

Jason & The Scorchers "Last Time Around"

Jason & The Scorchers "Broken Whiskey Glass"

Tommy Womack "Whatever Happened To Cheetah Chrome?"

Tommy Womack "Alpha Male & The Canine Mystery Blood"

Right click on any of the song titles and choose "save as" to download the mp3 files.

TMQ Zine Archive Launched!

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Keith A. Gordon) — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 23:33:00 +0000

Never ones to rest on our laurels, your friends over at Trademark Of Quality have launched yet another a sister blog, the TMQ Zine Archive. Our goal is to create a library of zines (culled from our extensive collection), including a cover photo gallery, as a way to document the wild and wacky small press publications of the '80s and '90s, before the worldwide web thingie and blogs and such all but killed off the zine as a tool of self-expression.

For our first section of zines, we chose Nashville's House O' Pain music zine. Drop by the zine archive when you get a chance and check out this little slice of zine history. As usual, your comments are welcome and there's also an email link on every page with which to contact the Reverend. Enjoy!

Peace, Love And Anarchy

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Keith A. Gordon) — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 20:17:00 +0000

Check out my review of Todd Snider's Peace, Love And Anarchy (Rarities, B-Sides And Demos) CD, which was posted this afternoon over at the Trademark Of Quality audioblog. An East Nashville resident, Snider has been a fixture of the local music scene for years and is part of a talented community of friends like Will Kimbrough, Tommy Womack, Mike "Grimey" Grimes and Jason Ringenberg that have worked together to create some of the city's most interesting and critically-acclaimed music.

Snider recently left John Prine's Oh Boy Records for Universal's New Door Records label, which released The Devil You Know last year. As such, Peace, Love And Anarchy is the obligatory "goodbye and farewell" from Oh Boy, collecting song demos and other odds and ends. Head over to Trademark Of Quality and read the review and, for a short time, listen to mp3 files from the album.