Nate Powell, the Eisner Award-winning graphic novelist and original member of the legendary Little Rock punk band, Soophie Nun Squad, is blogging a history of Harlan Records, one of the several DIY labels that helped make a name for Little Rock's 90's music scene. Today's "history lesson" is the Discography CD by Red Forty featuring Ben Nichols (Lucero) on bass and singing, Colin Brooks (The Big Cats, Substance, Dan Zanes & Friends) on guitar, and Steve Kooms on drums.
Red Forty's punk pop/emo owed a lot musically to Jawbreaker and Social Distortion, and the members all went on to bigger and better projects, but this record so perfectly captures what was happening in Little Rock at the time, and it still sounds fun and relevant 14 years later.
The best bit of Powell's walk down memory lane is he is digitizing all the old cassette and 7" releases and making high quality downloads available of each release. All the projects Harlan released on CD are being re-released digitally at Bandcamp with lossless CD quality download options. Red Forty's Discography had two small print runs and has been out of print for seven or eight years. It has become a much sought after collectible, so having a legal, lossless download available will make a lot of people happy. Stream or buy it below.
Image courtesy Greg Spradlin and the Band of Imperials.
I got scooped hard this week by the cover story on Greg
Spradlin in the new Arkansas Times by
David Ramsey. Spradlin is one of the mainstays of Little Rock’s music scene,
long known as a musician’s musician and one of the best guitar players in the
state. He’s played with a ton of bands, including Lucinda Williams and Chuck
Berry, as well as local heroes the Boondogs and Mulehead. In the 1990s he
fronted the alt-country band The Skeeterhawks and in 2003 released …and Twiced as Gone by his own Greg
Spradlin Outfit. He worked for several years with legendary Memphis musician
and producer Jim Dickinson until Dickinson’s death in 2009.
The big news in the Times
cover story is that Spradlin has a new band called Greg Spradlin and the Band
of Imperials featuring Los Lobos guitarist David Hidalgo and Pete Thomas,
long-time drummer for Elvis Costello, who no less than Tom Waits has praised as
the best rock drummer alive. They have recorded a bunch of songs together and
the plan, according to Spradlin in the Times
article, is to release them one or two at a time over the coming months. “Hell
or Hi-Watter” and “I Drew Six”, released through the group’s Bandcamp page
(linked below), are the first two songs the group has made public, and they are
monsters. Or, as Ramsey puts it in his article:
The Imperials sound like a bar band, in the very best way.
The 10 songs they've finished so far are loose, swampy, anthemic, psychedelic.
They sound like Arkansas, and they sound like something from another planet.
Spradlin growls and wails like a drunken preacher. It's both more playful and
more expansive than anything he has recorded before, dirty enough for a dive
bar but with the sprawling ambition of arena rock.
Spradlin will be playing these songs and more tonight at
White Water Tavern opening for legendary blues guitarist Kenny Brown. Thomas
and Hidalgo, sadly, will not be joining him for this performance, but Spradlin
says he’s working on the logistics to get them in to town for a gig.
Full disclosure: Spradlin and I worked together at Heifer
International Foundation for a few years, and I promoted a few local gigs with
The Skeeterhawks on the bill with another band I was working with back in the
mid-1990’s.
Antivenin Suite, Isaac
Alexander, Max Recordings, 2012.
I was all set to publish the list of my favorite records
from this year when I got word that Isaac Alexander was playing a show tonight
Thursday, December 13, at White Water Tavern to celebrate the release of his
new album, Antivenin Suite. Now that
I’ve gotten a chance to hear the record a few times, it was good decision to
hold of publishing my list, because Antivenin
Suite surely deserves a place on it.
The record goes a long way to refining Alexander's voice as an artist, separate even from his contributions to Big Silver, The Easys, Boondogs, and the other bands he plays in and writes for.
Alexander's songs are laconic, economically crafted, and effortlessly melodic, drawing the listener in to songs that, without the bouyant melodies, might otherwise sound cynical.
Antivenin Suite is available on CD in the store at Max Recordings webstore and digitally at Alexander's Bandcamp page.
After you’ve braved the crowds and the stores, after you’ve
eaten the leftovers and watched all the football you can take, shake off your
Black Friday Blues at Velvet Kente’s Winter Clothes Dance Party. If you’ve been
to any of Velvet Kente’s previous Dance Parties, you already know that this is
a show not to be missed.
The band asks that you bring an item of winter clothing to
donate. All clothing donated will benefit Our House, a shelter in Little Rock
that offers educational programs, daycare, job training, workforce preparedness
training, financial assistance programs, emergency shelter, and more for the
working homeless.
The setlist is all songs from “the African diaspora,” which,
if the previous soul and Afro beat parties are any indication, will be
seriously funky.
The show starts at 10 p.m. (with support from DJ Swet and DJ
Prophet) at the White Water Tavern. The cover is $10 ($7 with an article of
winter clothing).
If you're not convinced, here's a clip from last fall's Afro Soul Dance Party.
Bear Colony pulls off something rather spectacular with its
new release, Soft Eyes, which is out
this week on the Esperanza Plantation label. On its first album, We Came Here to Die, the group didn’t
call itself a band, preferring instead to refer to itself as a “collective.”
The descriptor made a lot of sense as the group played more in the studio than
on the stage and featured a rotating stable of musicians. Listening to that
album, it was obvious that Bear Colony was pulling from a deep pool of talent,
but it could often sound like a different band from track to track.
Soft Eyes, by
contrast, is tightly focused both in sound and concept, and expands in every
way in its predecessor. Most tellingly, the sonic palette has grown from the
acoustic guitar plus electronics “laptop pop” that characterized the debut
release. The new release is awash with warm, hazy soundscapes, reminiscent of
Jesus and Mary Chain or Sigur Rós, punctuated with ear-worming pop hooks. "Flask Retort," the
album’s first single and video (posted below), is a great example of the gorgeous sonic textures constructed throughout this record, with its
swimmy, distorted synthesizers and drum machine track that recalls everything
good about pop music in the 80’s.
I have always thought guitar feedback is one of the most
cathartic noises humans have ever learned to make. Catharsis is a frequent
topic of Soft Eyes. The record was
inspired by the failing health and death of lead singer Vincent Griffin’s mother,
and his grief hovers over the album like an unresolved chord. The album opens
and closes with the question, “After we’re dead and gone, what is left of our
souls?” In between those repeated phrases, Griffin channels his anger, grief,
passion, love, and even happiness into a work about loss that is as profound as
it is ultimately affirming.
Bear Colony is playing two shows in the region to celebrate
the release of Soft Eyes: on Friday,
November 16, at George’s Majestic Lounge in Fayetteville, and on Saturday,
November 17, 2012, at Revolution Music Room in Little Rock. 607, one of Little
Rock’s most popular and prolific hip-hop artists, is also performing and
releasing a new album, titled YIK3LIF3!,
at the Little Rock show.
Full Disclosure: Bear Colony’s drummer and producer, Mattew
Putman, is also in the band SnailhuntR that released an album (the utterly
brilliant Origin of the Spiral)
through my own record company, Bigwig Enterprises, in 2003. Brooks Tipton, who used
to play keyboards for Bear Colony, was my neighbor from 2007 to 2010 or 2011.
Also, I am a Facebook friend with lead singer Vincent Griffin. This review is
completely biased by those relationships, but it does not change the truth that
Soft Eyes is a beautifully rendered
work of art, well-deserving of your patronage.
Stop what you're doing right now. Press play on the video embedded below. Watch the entire clip, and do not attempt to restrain yourself from singing and dancing. That would be futile.
"Binti" is the song that introduced Joshua and Velvet Kente to the world. The demo that accompanied Korto Momolu's models walk on the runway in the 2008 Project Runway season finale, however, bears little resemblance to the epic jam as performed by the band these days, riffing off an irresistible Fela Kuti hook with horns, percussion, and full audience participation.
I owe a bunch of reviews on recent releases by Little Rock's great bands. Suffice it to say, all the records are great and you should seek them all out and pay double for them. But I didn't want to wait to clear out the backlog before mentioning that the release of the 2012 Thick Syrup Records Compilation is upon us.
Thick Syrup Records' occasional compilations are great snapshots of
what's going on Arkansas' music scene, and the latest entry is no different. There's a party at Sticky Fingerz
Friday night ($5 cover) with performances by The SEE, Frontier Circus, and Ginsu Wives -- all featured on the CD -- to celebrate the physical release of the 2012 edition,
but the digital release is already up on BandCamp and features 35(!)
bonus tracks. This, my friends, is good news.
There’s lot’s of entertainment choices around town tonight
for anyone who wants to brave the rain and/or heat.
Conway’s Don’t
Stop Please is releasing a new EP, Crowded
Car,at Stickyz. Fayetteville’s The 1 Oz. Jig opens up
the show, which starts at 9. $6 will get you in the door.
The first single from the EP, the wonderfully Brian Wilson‑esque
“Window Song,” is
streaming below, or you can check it out at the band’s BandCamp page.
Over at White Water Tavern, The Wicked Good headline a show that
will be frontman David Slade’s last with the group. Peckerwolf and Jab Jab Suckerpunch
start off the 10 p.m. show. The Wicked Good’s CD, You’re Welcome, was one of my favorites from last year, and the CD
release show was one of the most relentlessly rocking events I’ve seen in ages.
I’ll be interested to see how the band adapts without Slade.
The second half of The Big Cats' song cycle The Ancient Art of Leaving: Two Parts, will see the light of day on August 21, according to a new post on the band's website. The first half, High and Low, was released at the band's annual holiday show back in December. Rumor has it, both halves be combined for a 3-LP vinyl release as well. I'll post further details, song streams, release party, pre-order info, etc., as I get them.
Once it's out, I'll also post a review of both parts. Reviews are also forthcoming for Kevin Kerby's Apostle's Tongues, Holy Shakes' Feast or Famine, as well as recent releases by The SEE, Year of the Tiger, and other Little Rock bands (old and new) I want to talk about.
A terrific surprise appeared on my Facebook news feed this afternoon in the form of a video of a new song by Velvet Kente and Amasa Hines frontman Joshua. The video also teases its audience with the first public hints about Good News for Sinners, the long-awaited debut album by Velvet Kente.
The song, "Augustus and Juniper" tells the tale of "lovers. husband and wife.
dreamers. parents. slaves. and of their escape from a South Carolina
plantation with their twin daughters." It's also a fantastic showcase for Joshua's soulful singing.
Joshua's Tumblr blog, http://velvetkentemusic.tumblr.com, is a masterclass in jazz and pop music history. He posts pictures and links to recordings by his musical forbears on almost a daily basis, demonstrating the sense of history, and respect for his elders, that flavors the stew of influences that makes Velvet Kente and Amasa Hines so timely and timeless at the same time.
You can't tell the history of Little Rock's prolific music scene or list the city's greatest songwriters without making a lot of space in those documents for Kevin Kerby. He played guitar in Ho Hum back when the group was signed to Universal, then struck out on his own and made four amazing albums leading the alternative country band par excellence Mulehead. The homespun recording The Secret Lives of All-Night Radios was Kerby's first solo release in 2005. He followed it up in 2009 with the more raucous Beautiful and Bright, recorded with his band Battery. Like a character in a Faulkner novel, Kerby writes country songs about rock 'n' roll hedonism, sings gospel songs in a bar at 2 a.m., and praises the bonds that tie him to a place he longs to escape but that also defines who he is.
It was the best news I got all week, then, when Max Recordings put out the news that Kerby's new album Apostle's Tongues is set to release on July 17, and posted a nostalgia tinged video for the album's first single "It's Not Needing What You Want, It's Wanting What You Need," which is embedded at the top of this post. Apostle's Tongues is available as a limited edition (100 copies) CD and booklet, a regular edition CD, and on iTunes.
It's a busy week, not only bands for playing shows, but for bands releasing new music at said shows. Purveyors of fuzz and doom, Iron Tongue, featuring members of such stalwart Arkansas bands as Rwake and Brother Andy and His Big Damn Mouth, among others, are releasing a split 7" with Memphis' The Dirty Streets at a gig Friday night on The Arkansas Queen riverboat. The bill is rounded out by The Holy Shakes (more on them soon) and Nigh End. The boat casts off at 10 p.m. and the cover is $15.
Here's a video of "Shoot the Moon" from Iron Tongue's performance at this year's Riverfest Festival.
Little Rock indie-rock band The Tricks are releasing its self-titled debut CD with a celebratory show at White Water Tavern (2500 West 7th Street). You can download a pair of singles from the album (streaming below) for $1 each at the band's Bandcamp site or stream the whole thing for free at its Soundcloud page. The CD will set you back $10 at the show. The band is also offering a CD+T-shirt deal for $15. The cover charge is $5. Conway's Don't Stop Please opens the show.
Illustration by Mike Reddy. Used courtesy of University of Arkansas Press.
If any of you, my occasional readers, love me at all, a copy
of this better be under the tree for me at Christmas. Multiple copies will not
be looked upon with disappointment.
Twenty years after the publication of Portis’ last novel,
Butler Center Books, an imprint of the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, is
publishing Escape Velocity: A CharlesPortis Miscellany, edited humorist and journalist Jay Jennings, that
collects Portis’ short fiction, travel and journalism (including his coverage
of the Medgar Evers assassination and Elvis Presley’s funeral), a memoir, and
previously unpublished comic three-act play, Delray’s New Moon.
Portis published five novels between 1966 and 1991. He won
over fans and critics with his deadpan humor, attention to detail, and masterful
dialogue. Two of his books, Norwood
and True Grit, were adapted as films.
True Grit was adapted twice, first in
1966 starring John Wayne, and again in 2010 starring Jeff Bridges. Wayne won
his only Academy Award® for his portrayal of Portis’ iconic character Rooster
Cogburn, and Bridges was nominated for his portrayal of the same character.
Portis’ third novel, Dog
of the South, is reportedly being made into a feature film by director Greg
Mottola (Superbad, Adventureland, Paul) and starring Bill Hader (Saturday
Night Live, Men In Black 3, Paul). No production information or
release date was available on IMDB.
Escape Velocity: A
Charles Portis Miscellany goes on sale October 1 at fine booksellers
everywhere.
