Where's The Stage?

My early '80s shitabilly band, Kings of the Western Bop, once opened for Eugene Chadbourne's Shockabilly, on an inauspicious Sunday night at the Antenna Club in 1983, or thereabouts. There were approximately 20 people in the audience, comprised mostly of our band and its pathetic group of followers. I had become aware of Chadbourne's brilliant solo guitar work a couple of years earlier, and the idea that he and his collaborators would bother to come to a backwater like Memphis to play to an uncomprehending audience, would have been much easier to process if the hundreds of listeners which the music deserved had materialized at the time. They were only off by ten years, give or take.

Memphis Psychosis

Memphis

Scenes from London life

Clowns on the loose

Memphis' Luv Clowns (Alex Greene [Big Ass Truck, Reigning Sound] - keyboards, Doug Easley [possibly needs no introduction] - drum, Tim Prudhomme - guitar, Harlan T. Bobo - bass) crash a childrens' parade on Beale Street and receive the bum's rush from police outside the FedEx Forum. It's tough being a clown, even a clown trying to spread luv.

It Came From Memphis

Via Linda Heck comes this interesting relic of the time, namely Robert Gordon's February 1995 book-signing/reading at Burke's Books, just down the road from where we both lived at the time. Shot by Memphibian Bob Angst, this peculiar document includes a very entertaining section of the opening chapter of Robert's landmark work, "It Came From Memphis," as well as a cavalcade of familiar faces: the seemingly omnipresent (in those days) Cordell Jackson, accompanied by one of her stable of "artists," Jones Rutledge, the lovely Gina Barker, the lovely Martha Green, the lovely Linda Heck (very briefly), and some other people I recognize but never knew and couldn't name. "If aerial photographs could reveal energy the way infrared photographs reveal heat, Memphis would be surrounded by vectors pointing toward it: 'this is the place.'" Right on, Bob!

The timeless rituals of summer

They seem to get better with each passing year. Highlights from Carter's Steam Fair 2011, Belair Park:

The Wall of Death




Swings of Death




Professor Voltini and Madam Electra

Blue Spark

I was sitting in the corner grumbling the other day while my daughters watched some execrable Disney sitcom starring Selena Gomez, when I saw, much to my horror, the great John Doe appear in a cameo role. Painful as this was, it started me thinking again about X, a band I loved back in the day, particularly this album, and particularly this song. The structure is odd, but infectious, and the filmic lyrics show why this band possessed much more sophistication and substance than many of its contemporaries. And these eerie harmonies remain pretty much unmatched.

Scenes from London life

Everybody Here Wants You

Sixteen years ago this week I arrived in London to begin a life here, which now encompasses one-third of my time on this planet. A little under two years later, Jeff Buckley moved to Memphis on the recommendation of his friends The Grifters, a band I had known and worked with occasionally for years. He lived on the street I had last lived on, knew a lot of people I was friends with, played solo downtown at Barristers (a venue I had booked the first gig in five or six years earlier), and was set to begin a new album at Easley - McCain Studios (a place and people I knew well) the day after he unwisely chose to take a dip in the Wolf River.

So, beyond the obvious power of his creative talent, I guess I have always had an interest in him by virtue of a sense of connection, all of which centers on Memphis. Recently, I posted a great live version of "Lover, You Should Have Come Over" to Facebook, which elicited a response from an American woman who lives nearby, whose kids have gone to school with my own for a number of years. I have never gotten to know her well, but I knew she hailed from New York City, and in the exchange which followed, she revealed that Matt Johnson, drummer with JB (and now with the Wainwright siblings, inter alia) was a close friend and roommate in NYC before he departed for the lengthy Grace world tour. Life is strange and wonderful.

Enjoy this BBC documentary, which features some familiar Memphibian faces.

Scenes from London life

West Memphis Underground

Thanks to friend and master drummer Bob Fordyce for this gem. The late, and indescribably great, Jim Dickinson deconstructs the Memphis sound in under three minutes. And to think Memphians typically laugh about West Memphis...

Machine Gun

Tonight I once again watched, for the first time in 25 years or so, the Joe Boyd film about Jimi Hendrix, and caught sight of this piece of footage of "Band of Gypsys" in their immortal Fillmore East performance of New Year's Eve 1969/70. Back in Memphis, as a boy of 14 or so, I happily spent money earned from my paper route on this extraordinary record, which was part of a run of particularly good luck (I mean taste, obviously) at the record store, which would see me acquire in the space of a couple of months "The Who Live at Leeds," "Houses of the Holy," and the first Van Halen album. All of which I proceeded to listen to obsessively for months, and still listen to regularly today. But the Band of Gypsys record in particular, for me, is full of a unique imagination and energy, and even 41 years on, there is still nothing quite like it. Perhaps that's because it is a tantalizing suggestion of directions Hendrix would have explored had he lived, whereas with the other bands we know where they ended up - mostly in tragedy and disappointment. Hendrix, like this clip, checked out prematurely, with a lot left to say.

April in Memphis

Just back from a great 10-day visit to Memphis, encompassing a lot of good food, family, friends, a bit of final studio work on the Linda Heck album, and a very enjoyable show at Murphy's, across from the once mighty Antenna Club - now occupied by a photography studio.



Chris Davis of the Memphis Flyer gave us some nice coverage, which elicited some interesting geek feedback when I posted it to Twitter. Here are a few of what felt (to me) like highlights of the show, though it's important to note that we had no rehearsal. (Poor Kurt had never even heard half the songs in the first set, some of which dated back to the earliest period of Linda Heck and The Train Wreck. It's a testament to his musicianship that no one in the audience would have been any the wiser if we hadn't said something in his defence - not that he needed defending. He and John are the dream rhythm section.) These four songs are from the new project, hopefully coming to a pair of ears near you sometime soon. Extra special thanks to Doug Easley and Davis McCain for the fine guitars and amp.

Apples and Oranges

No wonder poor Syd decided this life was not for him and withdrew. Seems like a perfectly sane course of action to me, particularly if the alternative is ending up like Dick Clark.

XXXXX

I lived in Japan for 2.5 years, and have visited it many times since for work and pleasure, and have pretty much nothing but fond memories of the country and its people. For all the things that my gaijin friends and I might have found worthy of light-hearted satire and derision over the years, the simple and undeniable truth is that, in most ways, it is a safer, more civilized, more egalitarian, and better organized society than almost any Western country could ever claim to be.

This achievement is not without its costs, and I can't honestly say that I would like to be Japanese if reincarnation were on the table, such are (in my view) the personal costs of membership in a society historically geared towards conformity and utilitarianism. Still, when I think back on the earnestness, affection and generosity shown to me during my time in the country, I can only feel an intense sense of distress and sadness at recent events, which increasingly beggar belief.

The analysis of the roots of this catastrophe is yet to be written: a rotten, complacent political gerontocracy; the serial mendacity of TEPCO; the excessive concentration of economic activity and population in the Kanto region; the failure to diversify energy resources; whatever other horrific revelations may follow. The Western media will arrive at some conclusion in the coming days, and it will probably be something very far from the truth on the ground.

可哀想な日本.

O, How She Dances

"Yes, friends, he eats them alive!" I stumbled across this delight not long ago - a staple of many Panther Burns shows down the years, presumably inspired by Jim Dickinson's treatment on his trailblazing "Dixie Fried" album. In my previous post on Panther Burns, I made a joke about the huge number of eclectic members the band has had in its history, and this video provides an interesting example. On drums, Jack Yarber, a.k.a. Jack O of the Oblivians (and various others, though I first knew him as a member of Rin Tin Horn in 1987 or so), and on bass, Scott Bomar, member of surf-rock group Impala, The Bo-Keys, producer and all-round Memphis music exponent.

A Love Letter to Alex Chilton

This recently came to my attention, once again through the magic of Facebook. The 9th Ward Marching Band delivers a lovingly rendered version of "The Letter."

Brian Eno Interview from KPFA, February, 1980

Captain Memphis meets The Klitz

This gem turned up on Facebook last week, and it was the first time I had seen it, though I knew about its existence. Here we find Jim Dickinson, in the guise of "Captain Memphis," recording The Klitz, "sister band" of Panther Burns and The Scruffs (Dave Branyan is name-checked at one point) at Phillips Recording in Memphis in 1979. I never saw The Klitz play, which may be something of a blessing, and I have never heard any of the recordings from these sessions, which still remain unreleased as far as I know. The scenes at the pre-restoration Orpheum, including J.D. playing "Green Onions" on the organ as a Phantom-esque character, are priceless. Producer/director Charlie Raiteri was a local TV news reporter who had the vision to document what must have been a very threatening and strange local music underground in such a conservative town. In retrospect, it all seems so tame, but in 1979 this was serious bidness.