Recap (House Concert): Clear Plastic Masks, Ranch Ghost, Beef Oven, Boo Hags, and Kin Ship

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Phone 0602 027We East Nashvillians begin the process of dragging out the boxes of flip-flops and beach chairs during the first week of June. Living in old houses, it’s very difficult to find storage space. Part of the celebration includes dusting off skeletons of last year’s brown recluse spiders–while discovering a few live ones.

School is over. Produce is arriving. Vacations are here. New albums are dropping. Ah, Summer activities. Ships begin their ocean voyages of summer by busting a bottle of champagne against the bow for luck. Nashville’s version of this traditional public christening includes a lovely crowd with two giant kegs of beer in the back of a beat-up truck. That’s what was happening at this house concert Sunday night. The fact it was also a giant birthday gathering, with kick-ass bands, made it even better.

I found out about this ridiculous concert while digging around last week. I believe that houses are the most unique and fun out of all performance venues in Music City. Don’t get me wrong, I love and appreciate our well-known local venues, but the raw experience of being inside a random house, rubbing elbows with great artists, and the horrible smell of body odor and dried beer stains on a Goodwill shirt add artistic pizzazz unlike anywhere else. It’s intoxicating—in more ways than one. There isn’t anything more real than getting in a small, LOUD room with like-minded people. Yeah, what do I know..I just wrote about the Nashville Symphony and I play classical music….blah blah blah..but check it: 21st century chamber music is what these F**KIN house concerts are, regardless of the genre. Music is the artwork and the venue is what frames it. Sizzling guitar and true grits are SOULFOOD.  You are gonna love all the shitty pictures I took….sound was abundant and light was scarce.
READ MORE ABOUT THIS HOUSE CONCERT OF CHAMPIONS

The East Nashville Music Chapters: The Gypsy Hombres

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This entry will launch a new series of blog entries dedicated to the musical people and places of my home-‘hood, East Nashville.  Stay tuned.  There will be interviews, stories, legends, rumors, and more!  Tia

If you have read my last artist feature about the Blackfoot Gypsies, you KNOW how much I love gypsies.

I think the most fascinating fact about them is that they are both the most romanticized and despised individuals in the world. Classic Literature and Opera provide examples. Sigh, Erik and Heathcliff. Esmerelda and Carmen! Gypsies have been labeled everything ranging from “’dangerous rogues” to “glamorous folk-artists”. Fascination and suspicion makes for some hot-ass music.

A typical Gyspy-music (also called Romani) ensemble includes violin/mandolin, accordion, bass, and most important: the guitar(s). Occasionally you’d get a clarinet in there when a violinist was absent: Hubert Rostaing! The legendary Gypsy-jazzer, Django Reinhardt certainly belongs in the guitar-god category with Page, Hendrix, Richards, and Van Halen. He was born in Belgium and raised among a tribe of Manouches in the town of Paris in 1910. At the age of 18, he was injured in a fire mishap that permanently damaged the ring finger and pinky of his left hand which forced him to create a new technique using his remaining two fingers in a time span of only 18 months. (He played all of his solos and chords with the index and middle finger). In 1934, he met the famous violinist Stéphane Grappelli, and formed the Quintet of the Hot Club of France. Thus, Gypsy-jazz was born. Many cities all over the world have Hot Clubs of their own—San Francisco, Detriot, and New York, etc. East Nashville is no exception.

Click here to read about the Fiddler on Fatherland

Drink it Black: Mercy Lounge Recap of Wall of Death, Hanni El Khatib, and The Black Angels

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From Phone 0506 199

From Phone 0506 216 The Black Angels

Black.

Black____. The Black_____. Black____Sun.

Blackity Black Black.

Black is so HOT right now. Can we thank those two men responsible, The *bleep* Keys? Even when I go to work, this is the only wardrobe color allowed. My instruments happen to be black and I carry them in a case that bears this same color. When the warm light surrounds me on stage, darkness is all I can see when facing the audience. The notes I read and the sky when I drive home…are black.

Secretive and deep, black is the absorption of all color and absence of light. Slinky, sultry, sexy, sable. Turn the damn lights off and let yourself be enveloped by the sound of a spinning vinyl disc of black.

I could talk for days about this color’s significance in music. For now, I’ll take you down this path. I see a red door… and I want to paint it…

Ever since last week when I wrote about the JAG, I’ve been starving for more 60s. While eating psychedelic coleslaw, I cranked up The Black Angels newest album, Indigo Meadow (2012). Instantly, I was sucked into the vortex of Christian Bland, Alex Maas, Stephanie Bailey, and Kyle Hunt.
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Show Preview: Cause a Scene presents Lulu Mae, Local Strangers, and Jesse Lafser

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Tomorrow, fellow bloggers at Cause a Scene are hosting a house show featuring Lulu Mae, The Local Strangers, and Jessee Lafser. If you had the chance to catch Lulu Mae last Saturday at Lightning 100′s Music City Mayhem finals you already know that this will be a show well-worth the $6 price of admission, but in case you didn’t, let me try to convince you:

You can get a pretty good idea of who Lulu Mae are by  poking around their website.  They’re a disarmingly good-natured folk-rock family band with a knack for storytelling. During a quick listen through Lulu Mae’s first full-length record The Mockingbird and the Dogwood Tree (no, it’s not an Iron and Wine album), you might at different points be reminded of Nickel Creek, Ryan Adams, and The Decembrists, and occasionally, maybe even some Gaelic Storm. What you might not catch from their discography, though, is that Lulu Mae are not a bunch of timid folk softies. Seriously, these guys can rock the fuck out. I couldn’t believe that the onslaught of sound coming from the stage on Saturday was from the group responsible for the breezy folk tunes I’d been listening to the week prior. On the live rendition of “Clean Up My Heart,” lead vocalist Joel Finley screams so hard that he almost seems determined to turn it into a Pantera song. And yeah, it’s as awesome as it sounds.

Continue to listen to Lulu Mae and the others!

News and Notes

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It’s time to reboot the Steve Jobs machine, which means I need to clean off my desktop.  Here’s what I am looking at on Halloween morning.

Loutallica

Do you remember last week when I (and the rest of the world) shredded the Lou Reed / Metallica collaboration?  This headline in Spin Magazine “Metallica Already Planning Ways to Make Fans Forget ‘Lulu’” sounds more like something that would be in the pages of The Onion.  Bethany of Best Coast even weighed in with “jaw is on the ground” as in: “i can not believe this is a real thing/this is the worst thing i’ve ever heard.”

Johnny Marr collab

Johnny Marr, the acclaimed English guitarist, best known for his work with The Smiths is working on a collaboration project with Best Coast, Tom Vek, Au Revoir Simone, and Nashville’s Mona.  The project is called Ray-Ban Raw Sounds, and should be pretty interesting.  Of course, we all thought that Loutallica was going to be interesting too.  (See above)  You can read more and have a listen to some cuts here.

Deer Tick

Did you guys make it out to the Deer Tick show last weekend?  It was awesome.  Did you hear that front man John McCauley has moved to Nashville.  I am still loving the new record Divine Providence, and I thought it was awesome the other day when music blogger Louder Than That tweeted about Pitchfork’s rating system being ridiculous.  Luckily Paste Magazine liked it, and wrote up a little diddy about Nashville’s newest rock star resident.

Nashville to New York

Quite a few of the folks that make up Nashville’s independent music scene rolled up to New York last week for the CMJ music festival.  Nashville Cream did a good write up about a lot of the folks.  Another big winner of the CMJ festival was The Alabama Shakes who had to cancel their appearance at that awesome 8 off 8th we talked about last week.  The good news is that they have added a headlining date at Mercy Lounge on December 1st.  Check out what the New York Times had to say about The Alabama Shakes.

Wye Oak covers The Kinks and Danzig

Did you guys make it out to see Wye Oak at The Basement a couple of weeks ago?  AWESOME!  Well, in other news, they’ve taken part in the A.V. Club’s Undercover series where artist come in to do their own take on a predetermined list of songs.  It’s a pretty fun series to waste a bit of time on.  One-Thirty BPM has both of those covers up for you to listen to, and is reporting that those covers are going to be released on a 7-inch soon.

Laughing it up with The Black Keys

The Black Keys put out a funny advertisement for their up-coming El Camino record.  They put out a funny video for their first single from that record.  There is also a funny write up in Spin Magazine about MTV’s “clerical” mistake on their VMA award which was labeled for The Black Eyed Peas.

Atlas Sound

There is a new Atlas Sound record coming out on 4AD soon.  You can grab the single “Flagstaff” off that record over at One-Thirty BPM.  I really hope Atlas Sound throws a Nashville date on his tour.  I’ll key my eyes open and let you know if that happens.

Gibson Guitar Legal Update

Nashville scene put a wordy, but good article asking if Gibson Guitar playing the victim in their legal troubles is really fair.  You can check that out here.

New Music: Mister Heavenly and King Tuff

I recently ran into a couple of new bands Brooklyn’s Mister Heavenly and Vermont’s King Tuff.  Both have a sort of grungy rock sound, and they both peeked my interest.  I’ve attached a track from each below.  Have a listen and let me know what you think.

Mister Heavenly – “Bronx Sniper”
[audio http://nocountryfornewnashville.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/mister-heavenly-bronx-sniper.mp3]

King Tuff – “Dancing On You”
[audio http://nocountryfornewnashville.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/king-tuff-dancing-on-you.mp3]

The Zoltars

Austin, TX band The Zoltars have released a “visual album” which really just means it a long, long, long video.  Not to make it sound bad though.  If you wanna check it out, click here.

That’s enough for now.  Thanks for letting me reboot.  Happy Halloween.

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