Photo by John Anderson/Special to The Commercial Appeal, John Anderson/Special to The Commercial Appeal
The snarling guitar-rock sound of Alicja Trout, Terrence Bishop and the rest of the River City Tanlines pulled passersby in to the Memphis Music Foundation showcase at the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas, this week. The trip culminated two years of planning by the foundation to raise Memphis' profile in the music industry with a full-force Memphis invasion of SXSW.
Memphis music was all around Austin, Texas, this week, as the Bluff City invaded the annual South by Southwest music conference.
This year, the world's largest and most significant music industry event brought with it the arrival of the biggest-ever contingent of Memphis acts -- nearly 20 in all -- as well as several high-profile Memphis showcases, including ones connected with local label Goner Records and director Craig Brewer's forthcoming MTV short film series "$5 Cover."
Photo by John Anderson/Special to The Commercial Appeal
The River City Tanlines got the crowd going at the Memphis Music Foundation's showcase at the Dirty Dog.
Photo by John Anderson/Special to The Commercial Appeal
The snarling guitar-rock sound of Alicja Trout, Terrence Bishop and the rest of the River City Tanlines pulled passersby in to the Memphis Music Foundation showcase at the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas, this week. The trip culminated two years of planning by the foundation to raise Memphis' profile in the music industry with a full-force Memphis invasion of SXSW.
Photo by John Anderson/Special to The Commercial Appeal
Alicja Trout of the River City Tanlines rocked the Dirty Dog for the Memphis Music Foundation showcase. Her group was just part of big lineup that displayed the full spectrum of Memphis music now.
The first part of the four-day festival, however, was dominated by the efforts of the Memphis Music Foundation. Led by foundation head Dean Deyo, the organization had been planning for the past two years to bring Memphis music to Austin en masse, as a way to raise the city's visibility and viability among industry players. Loading a bus with nearly 60 people -- including staff, musicians and supporters -- the foundation physically transplanted what seemed like most of the Memphis music scene to Texas.
A well-attended and much buzzed about foundation-sponsored outdoor day party at Brush Square Park, which included sets by the blues collective Hill Country Revue and Americana act John Paul Keith and the One Four Fives, set the stage for the organization's official SXSW showcase at the Dirty Dog bar. Unfortunately, the most anticipated performers of the evening, Orange Mound hip-hop veterans 8Ball and MJG, missed their scheduled flight in Little Rock earlier in the day and were stranded.
Still, the rest of the Music Foundation lineup did its part to make up for their absence, starting with a spirited set from garage rocker Jack Oblivian and the Tearjerkers, who kicked of the evening with a preview of his forthcoming album The Disco Outlaw. Rapper Al Kapone, playing with a live band, was clearly the highlight of the evening, mixing familiar anthems ("Whoop That Trick" from the film "Hustle & Flow") with newer material, all the while selling the city and preaching the Memphis music gospel.
"M-Town is blues, soul, rock and roll and hip-hop," offered Kapone throughout his performance.
The night carried on with performances from guttersnipe outfit River City Tanlines. Led by Alicja Trout -- a longtime staple of the Memphis underground -- the band's set of snarling guitar rock had a tangible effect, as the music, easily heard down 6th Street, seemed to swell the crowd inside the venue.
Later, emerging R&B/hip-hop band Free Sol worked up a sweaty, groove-fueled selection of songs, before ceding the stage to Stax funk legends The Bar-Kays, whose appearance certainly was intended almost as a symbolic nod to the weighty legacy that Memphis music carries. If the eclectic nature of the lineup was at times jarring, it also showed, in very real terms, the spectrum of what comprises Memphis music.
While most of the Memphis bands arrived in Austin as part of the Music Foundation's efforts, several others came on their own steam. Chief among them were No Comply -- an old- school, hard-core punk supergroup of sorts -- and Rich Crook's pop punk outfit Lover!
For No Comply, the SXSW sojourn was more an extension of a mini tour that will hit Arkansas and Texas this week. Led by actor, filmmaker and guitarist Brent Shrewsbury, the group is a tongue-in-cheek exercise for the most part; its members admit to having little career ambition aside from releasing their debut single (a comically packed seven-song "single" due from Goner Records later this year).
Meanwhile, Thursday night's appearance by Crook's band Lover!, which took place at a multitiered Tiki bar called Headhunters, served a different a purpose.
Crook is a veteran of the lamented Memphis no wave band Lost Sounds, a group that also produced the Tanlines' Trout and budding mainstream star Jay Reatard, who skipped this year's SXSW after he cemented his status with a frenzied festival week last year. While his former bandmates have generated more national attention and local love in Memphis clubs, Crook might be the most compelling artist of all three. Though he has quietly put together an impressive discography with Lover! and generated some interest in Europe, stateside Crook has remained the proverbial underdog.
His performance at SXSW was a reflection of that status, as he played to a small but fevered throng of patrons who demanded, and got, a rare SXSW encore. It was Crook's third performance of the day, having earlier played a blitz of day party sets.
Later, outside the club, he seemed buoyed by the performance, and the hope -- shared by so many musicians in Austin this week -- that he'd managed to achieve something with the trip, if only gaining a few more fans.
-- Bob Mehr: 529-2517
- |
Comments » 2
dmac writes:
Hope Memphis Music keeps this going next year. It is great this city and the Memphis Music Foundation is getting behind Memphis based artists to help them spread the Memphis Flavor.
FlossieMae writes:
I thought HILL COUNTRY REVUE was from Memphis- or at least some of them are from Memphis. You would never know though reading the CA.
Share your thoughts
Comments are the sole responsibility of the person posting them. You agree not to post comments that are off topic, defamatory, obscene, abusive, threatening or an invasion of privacy. Violators may be banned. Click here for our full user agreement.