Go Memphis

Since they were small children, Tommie and Brandon Closson listened to classic rock by Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix. They played ukuleles that belonged to their great-grandfather before they graduated to an electric guitar for Tommie and an acoustic guitar for Brandon. Tommie, 15, now is lead guitarist and Brandon, 13, is guitarist/lead singer in Young Guns, which also features Brandon Russell, 13, on drums and Michael "Ace" Caserta, 14, on bass. Full story »

The Memphis Rascals have a new sound. "For a long time we were having people tell us, 'This is what you need to do. This is how you need to sound,'" said guitarist/vocalist Grant Vogelfanger, 16. "People would be, 'Wow, that's great.' But we'd be like, 'We're not really happy with this.'" Full story »

Gavin Orth's brother introduced him to punk and metal, but he was stuck on hip-hop after hearing a Souls of Mischief song, "93 Till Infinity," on one of his skateboarding videos. "Just the beat and the way the vocals flowed over. It was so relaxing, but had such a meaning behind it." Full story »

Brennan Whalen began playing guitar at age 7, but he hated it. "I was just playing notes and reading music and everything was classical and I thought it was the worst," said Whalen, 19. "I hated it up until about fourth grade. I discovered metal." Whalen, who plays solo gigs under the name The Six Horse, describes his music as "sort of indie, folk, alt, country. Full story »

J. D. Dutton formed his first band — Mugwumps — after he got out of high school in Marion, Ohio. “We had cassette decks and reel-to-reels and four tracks, everything bumped together so we could overdub like the way Les Paul did when he was young,” said Dutton, 48. “We’d write songs and as we’d write them, we’d record them.” He followed that group with Barbed Wire Dolls. Full story »

Uncle Jungle, known for its instrumentals, now has a lead singer — Harrison Martin, 17. Guitarist Carl Krausnick, 18, discovered Martin’s singing voice while sitting around a campfire on a duck-hunting trip in Arkansas. “We were singing campfire songs and Harrison stole the show,” Krausnick said. “I didn’t even know he could sing. And he was good.” Full story »

The Westbound espouses the punk philosophy. “Just freedom and rebellion,” said singer/bass player Jared Filsinger, 25. “(Being) against anything that’s not the real you. Just being yourself. We see ourselves as individuals. So, we’ll be ourselves. We don’t have to be part of some genre or subculture to feel self worth.” Added singer/guitarist Austin Russell, 25: “What we’re basically against is any kind of mind control." Full story »

Endorphin Rush is back. The band officially disbanded last March, but lead guitarist/back-up vocalist Chase McKelvy, 22, didn't think that was the finale. "I had suspicions that we would be back eventually," he said. "With Endorphin Rush, so many things fell into place." "We were going strong," said lead singer/rhythm guitarist Rory Laster, 22. "We developed a decent following. We had a record label, Serjical Strike Records, looking at us." Full story »

Bury the Bone — the Southern rock band — will reunite Saturday for the first time since the mid 1990s. Drummer Anthony Barrasso said he kept running into people asking him, “Do y’all ever think about doing that again?” So, he contacted the former members — lead singer Matt McCormack, who lives in Texas; bass player Steve Holley, who is in Colorado; and fellow Memphians lead guitarist Brian Overstreet and rhythm guitarist Lance “Stacks” Oliver. Full story »

Sax player Pat Register performed his first professional gig when he was 14. “It was at a country club with my brother,” said Register, 44. “He was on trombone.” He’s played professionally ever since. A native of Charlotte, N. C., Register got a Hohner electric organ from his grandfather one Christmas. “I attribute that thing to teaching me a lot about music. Full story »

Their band name — Adaje (pronounced A-dah-jay) — is originally was a mispronunciation of “attache,” said bassist/singer Wesley Williams, 19. His floor manager at J. C. Penney pronounced the word with a “d,” Williams said. They originally were “Damsel in Disgust” until they went in to record their first EP, said drummer/singer Sameer Shirazee, 14. We were like, ‘We cannot put out an EP with that name.’ We sat there for about 30 minutes. Full story »

Thanks to a restaurant coupon, J. T. Schlichter began playing guitar with Mike Strickland at the Los Pilares restaurants. “It was buy-one-get-one-half-off on any meal at Los Pilares,” recalled Schlichter, 18. Three years ago, Schlichter and his mom visited the restaurant where Strickland was performing. They then began going every Saturday. Schlichter worked his way into Strickland’s act. Full story »

What did Nick Pagliari want his second full-length album, Please and Thank You, to be? “I just wanted it to be better,” he said. “Not to say there was anything wrong (with the first CD, The Sail), I just think every time you go in the studio it’s a learning process.” Pagliari, a native Memphian now living in Columbia, S. C., began working on the CD in May, 2007. Full story »

If you happened to be at The Cove on Halloween, you might have seen four guys — wearing bonnets, dresses that came down to their jeans or hairy legs, and steel-toed work boots — playing hillbilly music. The only thing missing were corncob pipes, but a few of them dangled cigarettes from their mouths as they performed. Full story »

Crimson Time Bomb had its beginnings at Memphis Music Store at Poplar and White Station. Josh Siegel, 17, saw Chase Bushnell, 16, playing guitar. “He was sitting there playing the ‘Free Bird’ solo note for note,” he said. “My jaw dropped. I was like, ‘I have to talk to this guy.’ ” Bushnell was playing lead and Chris Borgelt, 19, was playing rhythm. Full story »