The Wuvbirds comprises married couples Corey and Kate Crowder (from left) and Lori and Jared McStay. Their set list runs from '60s girl-group sounds to garage-rock.
Though LPs, CDs and tapes of every genre surround him all day, Jared McStay, owner of Shangri-la Records, didn't just want to get his wife, Lori, music for the holidays. He wanted to give the powerhouse singer and drummer the chance to make music.
"She hasn't really played out in a while," McStay says of his wife, a veteran of groups like the Porch Ghouls and, alongside her husband, the Villains, the Glitches and the Ultracats. "It didn't even necessarily have to be me in the band with her. I just wanted her to be playing again."
On Saturday, Lori McStay unwraps her gift before a live audience as the Wuvbirds, the McStays' new band with fellow married couple Kate and Corey Crowder -- late of the band Two Way Radio -- debuts at the Midtown record store's annual Christmas party at the Hi-Tone Café. The show, a benefit for the Memphis Food Bank, also includes Mississippi punk rockers the Neckbones and DJ Buck Wilders.
"I needed a band to open for the Neckbones," says McStay of the doo wop/Brill Building-inspired band's incongruous pairing with the fast and loose Neckbones. "I always like to have different things for the Christmas show. I don't want to have an all-punk show or just a show that anybody could go to any other night of the week."
The Wuvbirds -- think lovey-dovey talk when saying the name -- started this fall on a lark. Thinking it would be fun to jam with another musical couple, McStay, whose band credits include the local cult punk outfit the Simple Ones, arranged a couples date with the Crowders at his and Lori's Midtown home.
"It was just like couples karaoke with real instruments," he says. "But when we all got together that one time, it sounded pretty good."
The casual get-together quickly morphed into weekly practice. To help build a set list, the Wuvbirds set a goal that each member bring one new song to each practice. The group's sound rapidly developed around the tastes and voices of Kate Crowder and Lori McStay. The brassy-voiced, R&B-singing McStay brought in pieces like "Is This the End" by the obscure girl doo-wop group the Baby Dolls and the Ronettes' "Do I Love You." Crowder, with her sweeter, more girlish style, gravitated toward more mainstream pop from the era.
"I pretty much exclusively only listened to stuff like that when I was a kid -- Lesley Gore and Connie Francis and stuff like that," says Crowder.
With an eye toward recording, the group has also been working on originals. For Kate Crowder, who was the voice -- vocally and compositionally -- of the fanciful chamber pop group Two Way Radio before it fell apart late last year, the new group was a welcome way to get out some of her songs in a more adult setting.
"I've got a large cache of songs waiting," says Crowder, who teaches by day at Farmington Elementary in Germantown. "Not all of them are good. I've been writing songs sometimes in different capacities. I've been writing a lot of song at work, educational songs. We make videos in class, and we have a little recording club where I teach the kids how to use GarageBand."
"Her 13 Colonies songs are really cool," says Corey.
Meanwhile, the McStays' original contributions, including "Zombie Clomp," inspired by an exhausting day Lori had shopping, have more of a garage rock edge.
"I think all the songs fit together, but it's not just one genre of music," says Jared. "(The doo wop) thing came about because it seemed like that's what Lori and Kate would be good at. I don't think we want to just be a doo-wop band."
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Shangri-La Records Christmas Party with the Neckbones, Wuvbirds and DJ Buck Wilders
10 p.m. Saturday at the Hi-Tone Café, 1913 Poplar. Admission: $5 plus a can of food for the Memphis Food Bank. For more information, call 278-8663, or visit hitonememphis.com.
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