CCDE promote "Tennessee Reggae" and northeasterners Charge The Atlantic charge Minglewood for Wakarusa

In preparation for the Wakarusa Music Festival, located in Ozark, Ark., the Waka Winter Classic tour is stopping through Minglewood Hall Feb 7 to host five local acts of the reggae/funk persuasion and award one a slot at the actual festival in June.   

(photos by Phil Clarkin)

    The buzzed-about local groups include Chinese Connection Dub Embassy, Charge the Atlantic, Agori Tribe, Zigadoo Moneyclips, and Funkesky. Joseph “I-Dae Han” Higgins plays keys for Chinese Connection Dub Embassy (CCDE) and explained why his group deserves the prize.

    “Wakarusa and CCDE seem like the perfect marriage,” Higgins said,  “It’s a big festival that really caters to a lot of reggae and jam bands, stuff we’ve always appreciated and been apart of since we started.”

         The group of musicians has loosely been playing together for five years and evolved from other local bands to form Chinese Connection Dub Embassy around 2012. Higgins elaborated on the collective community of “Tennessee Reggae,” citing bands from Nashville, Chattanooga, Knoxville, and Memphis. The keyboardist hopes the upcoming show will bring attention the scene he has grown to love.  

    “The actual essence of reggae in Tennessee has always been overshadowed,” Higgins said, “We think through Wakarusa and opportunities like this we can put the actual brand of music and the idea of reggae music on the map.”

    Higgins further described what separates Tennessee Reggae from other musical scenes and mentioned fellow Memphis bands Ras Empress and Roots of a Rebellion as fellow movers and shakers.   

    “Tn Reggae; we really thrive on a lot of mixing genres while still holding down the truth and the essence of traditional reggae,” Higgins said,  “We mess with rock and reggae, country and reggae, r&b and reggae; the list goes on. I think with ours we bring the whole soul aspect.”

    Despite the diversity of Chinese Connection’s Tennessee-bred sound, the group is not without healthy compettion at Minglewood Hall for the upcoming Wakarusa slot. This comes in the form of Rhode Island-turned Nashvillian rock/funk/reggae group Charge the Atlantic. Drummer Peter Racine explains the group’s intentions for the upcoming performance and Wakarusa.    

    “A couple of us have tickets to go this year already,” Racine said, “I would like to replace those tickets with a plane pass.”

    The skinsman shared that at an early age each member of Charge the Atlantic took musical influence from various rock and reggae-esque bands like Incubus, 311, and The Police. Separately they all pursued music educationally, which is where some of the members met.  

 “Two of the guys went to URI (University of Rhode Island), one kid went to Berklee college of Music, I myself went to university of Massachusetts Dartmouth” Racine said, “We’re all jazz trained and educated musicians who are heavy on promoting music within the music.”

    Charge The Atlantic cites their refreshing sound as a deciding factor for their recent move to Nashville as well as the financial benefits opposed to other musical cities like L.A and New York. Regardless of their whereabouts, Racine shared why the group is ready to hit the road.  

    “We’re all from the Northeast so this will be our first trip to Memphis. We’re super excited about playing in Memphis for the first time and having it be connected to Wakarusa,” Racine said,

“We’ve heard about how much it catapults bands and gives bands an opportunity to play in front of festival fans; which are, in our opinion, the best fans you can attain.”

     Chinese Connection Dub Embassy player Joseph Higgins hinted at what to presume at Minglewood, and what not to presume at Minglewood.  

    “You go to any CCDE show and you’ll probably expect the same thing but you're never going to get the same thing,” Higgins said, “We have surprise guests and we’re gonna have new material.”  

     

He also shared his condolences for the other groups, including Charge the Atlantic.

    “We’re crossing our fingers that this’ll be the one to put TN Reggae out there and just build unity through our music, their music; with everyone in one room” Higgins said, “That’s our end result. We want everyone to have a good time/we want CCDE to win it!”  

The bands playing Feb 7 at Minglewood: 

Chinese Connection Dub Embassy

Charge The Atlantic

Agori Tribe 

Zigadoo Moneyclips 

Funkesky 

The show event: http://www.minglewoodhall.com/event/731243-waka-winter-classic-memphis/

The Wakarusa festival: http://www.wakarusa.com/

Wakarusa 2014 recap: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v48UHrO9TsA


Other notable and appropriate Youtube video that you should definitely watch right now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ke-_nKHpDs

Memphis Metal Unites for Silent Planet

     The Facebook event page: 

https://www.facebook.com/events/1581482162072882/?ref_dashboard_filter=upcoming

     The Hi-Tone is currently on the cusp of hosting touring acts Silent Planet, who are supporting their new album “The Night God Slept”, and Artifex Pereo along with great handful of local metal bands you should know about. The show will start at 6pm January 22nd and admission is $10.

    The local acts playing include What We Do in Secret, Creux (formerly known as Conquer & Divide), Altruria, and Our Dearly Departed. These groups are just a few musicians bound and determined to contribute to Memphis’ seemingly growing music scene.

    “Its a weird cycle of music in Memphis right now,” What We Do in Secret vocalist Josh Adams said, “We’re coming out of it; I feel like and I see that, but its not growing as fast as it could be.” Adams feels that the current attendance at local shows is promising, but not what it was circa 2011 and 2012. He stated the numbers to back up his claim.

    “When I started to play shows in my old band After the Exhale you would have 100 people out to a local show,” said Adams, “and now it’s like you’re lucky to have 100 people out to a medium-level, nationally touring act. Other towns would usually pull at least 200 people to those.”

    Despite Memphis’ “hit or miss” pattern of crowd attendance, newer and younger bands like Altruria remain positive about the show-playing experience and the resurgence of growth in the scene.

    “Especially in metal and especially in Memphis there’s a not a huge scene and so even if we have four big bands that everybody knows here that’s a big deal,” said Altruria drummer Glen Hooper, “If you can get up there where people hear about you, ask about you, and call you to open for Whitechapel and Animals as Leaders that’s huge.”

    Hooper made clear what local acts he was describing that often open up for touring metal groups, such as Silent Planet and Artifex Pereo, as they move their way through Memphis.        

      “There’s kinda like an inner circle in Memphis of the local metal bands and those are the ones you always hear about; What We Do In Secret, Vera, Prophasis, and Conquer & Divide,” Hooper said, “They’re the ones that open all the big shows for the bigger guys; they’ve gotten there because they’ve worked for it. They know what their doing and they’ve been around long enough to prove themselves as effective metal bands.”

   John Patrick; “inner circle” veteran and vocalist of Creux (formerly Conquer & Divide) explained the antics and experiences to expect as the end result of such hard work.  

    “We played our song Lost Cause the last time the other day for the New Years show,” Patrick said,  “I was able to do a little switcharoo with john clark, he plays guitar for us now. He did vocals and I played guitar. It was fun not having a bunch of sweaty people jump on me.”

    Though Patrick describes the average Creux show as “a lot of chaos” he ensured that the 22nd will be exciting and yet safe for those who are not familiar with these types of concerts.

    “Its gonna be a pretty heavy show; its gonna be fun. I don’t expect anybody to be hate moshing,” Patrick said, “I think it’s gonna be a pretty safe environment for people who are usually kinda freaked out about going to shows because they think they might get hit. When somebody targets somebody at a show that kinda takes people away from it. ”  

    Josh Adams of What We Do in Secret also shared this take on dancers “targeting” attendees.

“What I’ve seen at local shows, and national shows, is that people are very vigilant but sometimes theres always theres those one or two guys that aren’t that way,” Adams said,

“That’s a rarity and an exception at shows in Memphis. that someone doesn’t care  and comes in and hurts people.  Usually people look out for one another and don’t want to hurt each other. That’s the good part about what we do and what the Memphis scene does as a whole.”

    Member of Altruria, Austin Miller, also chimed in on the discussion of hardcore dancing and explained it’s engaging purpose, for those that do it right.

    “Metal is one of those genres where if you are into it you literally will lose yourself in music and that’s what moshing is. It completely takes over you as a person,” Miller said, “I personally an am an extreme mosher; I could be bleeding and half dead but if there is a decent drop in something I’m gonna go back to the pit.”

(photo by Creux)

  The vocalist’s passion for music extends beyond the dance floor. Miller detailed the transportation struggles of an out-of-city band member.

“I literally have to  go in to work at four o’clock in the morning Sunday, I  live in Tunica Mississippi, and I don’t get off till five p.m.” Miller said,  “Arturia's playing a show that starts at six in Memphis. I have to drive all the way up here to play a show and then I have to work again Monday afternoon.”

   As a University of Memphis student, Josh Adams also shared a similar mentality about music and sacrifice.

    “It’s really hard to balance going to class. And playing shows. And work. And band practice. And homework,” Adams said, “I think it’s worth it to not get sleep some nights and feel tired in order to be able to do what you love doing and do what you feel like you’re supposed to be doing; both in school and me doing the band.”

    As a professional studies and human services major who plans to get a masters degree in counseling, Adams has a lot on his plate currently but finds time to apply his field of interest to the music world and business.

     “Going to shows and being at shows is a form of learning and a form of studying people. You get to see how people interact and socialize with one another, the things that they do and the things that they copy of one another that people outside of their specific social group wouldn’t understand,” Adams said,  “Metal music in general is kind of one of those things where if you’re outside the social group most people don’t really understand it or get it.”

    Mills of Altruria shared his own personal experiences in regard to not being understood by strangers outside of the close-knit social group of Memphis and it’s metalheads.

    “Tunica is a small town full of people raised in the south- real country people, so when I go outside or I’m in my small town I get stared at a lot because I have 3/4th plugs, I wear skinny jeans and Vans, and everybody down there wears wranglers and boots,” Miller said, “It’s just great to know there’s the opportunity where I can be around other people and do this kinda stuff.”

     Other band members performing at the upcoming show have gone through personal struggles of their own in the past year. John Patrick of Creux shared how his own influenced the lyrics of the material that his band will be playing the 22nd in full.  

    “This last EP I wrote it all about coming off of certain drugs and it’s written in perspective, but there are a lot events that happened in the past year that influenced me to write some of the songs,” Patrick said, “I went a-wall. I ran off and went to Austin so I could get away from certain people. I convinced everybody that I was staying there just so all my fake friends that were always wanting to get fucked up with me would just leave me alone.”

    Other influences have caused certain band members to appreciate their musical outlet as well. Adams of What We Do in Secret also carries an important reason to keep performing with his group on stage.

    “In those moments everything is gone. For those thirty minutes it’s just me and the God that I worship playing a show together and me just screaming my heart out,” Adams said, “At the end of the show I get to share why I scream my heart out, that’s what makes it worth it.”  

    Adams, Patrick, Miller, and Hooper are all excited to be performing in their respective bands but Patrick had some insight about the headliner.

    “Silent Planet is blowing up,” Patrick said, “They kind of have that same speed that August Burns Red has. Somebody might call me an idiot for that, but that’s what I hear!”

    Students, Memphians, and concert goers will be able to hear for themselves January 22nd at the Hi-Tone.

The bands:

Silent Planet: https://www.facebook.com/silentplanetmusic 

Artifex Pereo: https://www.facebook.com/artifexpereo 

What We Do In Secret: https://www.facebook.com/whatwedoinsecret 

Creux: https://www.facebook.com/creux901 

Altruria: https://www.facebook.com/Altruria 

Our Dearly Departed: https://www.facebook.com/ourdearlydepartedband 

The Hi-Tone's FB page: 

https://www.facebook.com/hitonememphis 

\m/

Memphis band “Yet.” drop “Strangely Dim” to a bright reception

   

As published in The Daily Helmsman: http://www.dailyhelmsman.com/news/view.php/857530/Memphis-band-Yet-drop-Strangely-Dim-to-a

  

Post-hardcore band “Yet.” have accumulated years of playing around Memphis to create “Strangely Dim” an 11-track album mixed and mastered by Clay Crenshaw of What We Do In Secret, who also celebrated a musical release earlier in the semester. Yet celebrated their triumph with an album release show Saturday November 29th which also featured local bands The Star Killers and Forsake Your Nets. “Dim” is available on Bandcamp.com for 5$.

    “This really is the culmination of everything we’ve worked on and all the songs we’ve written,” guitarist Nic Griffin said, “We released an EP a little over two years ago it was just a couple songs. This was the first full length we’ve ever released.”

   Intro-song “Victor of Aveyron” sets the experience with it’s clean guitar work and hauntingly inventive gain-assisted basslines. Vocalist and brother to Nic Griffin, Jeremy Griffin also debuts his unrelenting scream on the track in the form of the complete lyrics “Oh God!” as the crisply recorded drums charge forward beside soaring, reverby lead guitar parts.  

  For anyone who has followed Yet. and their shows around venues like The Abbey the past couple years, three tracks including crowd-favorite “Fostered Discontentment,” will seem familiar. Nic Griffin explained the progression of  the two-year-old tunes and their place on “Strangely Dim.”

    “After playing those songs for years we figured out a few things about how we like to play them, Nic Griffin said, “We play some songs a little faster. They better represent the way we play them live.”

    “Fostered Discontentment” also begins to reveal Jeremy Griffin’s lyrical inspiration from bands like Touche’ Amore’ and La Dispute (whom the group has opened up for) as he sarcastically screams ““I’ll grow up smart, I’ll grow up rich; regret my life, forget my kids. One life to live; a life in debt of past regrets and past success.” He refrains to the catchy and yet heavy, “Four years! Four years, I’ve spent in this town! Four years of making you proud!” The vocalist explained the personal truths behind his lyricism.   

   “When I originally wrote it, it embodied a lot of teenage angst and not knowing what to do with my life during high school. I didn’t really see the purpose of going to school,” Jeremy Griffin said, “Now I’m in my second year of college and I can look back on that song and see the growth that comes from it. While the lyrics haven’t changed the way I approach them has.”  

    While that song, as well as extra-feelsy “From Underneath,” and final track “The Wanderer Myself” represent updated, higher quality recordings of the band’s past, Yet. prepared plenty of new surprises on this record. Josh Adams from What We Do in Secret lends his high-pitched shrieks to the beginning of eerie, bass-heavy “Clean Cut” with “We’re all cutting our hair now, cleaning up, and growing old. Getting our acts together.” The Star Killers frontwoman Julien Baker doubles her angelic pipes over Jeremy’s rhetorically pleasing lyrics dueting a haunting crescendo featuring lines like “I see myself in the dust that collects at the bottom of closets where skeletons sit” and “I know it’s not easy, I've got to commit. For lackluster living was making me sick.”  

    “We’ve probably played more shows with The Star Killers than with any other band in Memphis,” Nicolas Griffin said, “From the beginning  they have been some of our best friends; they kinda got started right around the same time we got started playing shows. We knew we had to have some sort of feature from The Star Killers on the album and we thought that part lended itself really well.”    

    Not only did the bands Yet. played with, on the 29th, to promote their new LP hold significance, but the venue space did as well. Guitarist Griffin detailed the importance of East Win Christian Church.

    “We played music in the youth group band since early high school, so technically we’ve been playing together for about seven years,” Nicolas Griffin said, “it amazes us sometimes how well we work together as a band. I think we definitely have a good chemistry that’s just been developed over many years of playing together.”

    It surely must be the chemistry that allows Griffin and Josh Dunning’s clean-toned guitars to seamlessly wind around each other a la’ Being As An Ocean to craft chill, emotion-evoking pallets ripe for Jeremy Griffin’s lyricism on eleven impressive testaments to Memphis music. Add in the rhythm work of witty bassist Shawn Jenkins and solid skinsman/Facebook booking agent Jeffrey Birkholz and you’ve got Yet. “Strangely Dim” mirrors some of hardcore’s most unique offerings of the past (FOUR) years effectively with pristine production, but vocalist Griffin explained how the moniker of the group came from an unlikely source.  

    “Switchfoot was the main band that we all liked to go and see when we were younger,” Jeremy Griffin said, “They have a song called ‘Yet’ and we liked the message ‘if things are going bad there’s hope for you yet.”

    According to brother Nicolas Griffin the band’s message is one that has resonated well so far.

    “My favorite thing to see is people jump up there and scream the words along with Jeremy,” Nicolas Griffin said, “The show was lots of fun probably because of that. Even though the album wasn’t officially released until yesterday, a lot of people already knew a lot of the words on a lot of the songs.”

Yet.'s Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/yetperiod

Buy the album on Itunes:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/strangely-dim/id950843126

Slipknot ".5: The Gray Chapter" Album Review

As published in the Daily Helmsman

http://www.dailyhelmsman.com/news/view.php/856568/Slipknot-crawls-back-into-the-spotlight-

    It’s been 6 years since Nu-Metal innovators Slipknot released their 2008 album “All Hope is Gone”. Since then, the Iowa nine-piece have gone through quite a bit. In 2010 the band lost their bass player Paul Gray to an accidental overdose of morphine and morphine substitutes, and after a period of grief finally returned to the stage during a European tour in 2011. In 2012 they both released a best-of compilation and started the annual Knotfest concert festival, but the following year parted ways with drummer of 18 years Joey Jordison. Writing and production of their fifth album, “.5: The Gray Chapter” had already begun and as of late October 2014 the band streamed it through SoundCloud, Itunes, and physical copies worldwide.

    What Slipknot has compiled on “.5” is a monster of a cd. With 14 tracks, the album clocks in at about an hour and ten minutes of seemingly nonstop throwback riffage to their earlier sound and releases like the famously heavy “Iowa” album. The result is, at first, refreshing and makes sense- what better way to honor your past and appease your core fanbase than to return to your roots (albeit with more pristine production and a more developed sense of song structure)? However, as the gargantuan of a metal record presses on, similarities between guitar parts and that same sense of song structure become a little tiresome by even the end of the first quarter.

    If you’ve been itching for a new collection of heavy-hitting Slipknot tunes, songs like “The Negative One” or “Nomadic” will appease but tracks like “AOV” will actually exceed expectations completely. With it’s sound-effect assisted buildups leading into Lamb of God-esque 16th note double bass drops and Corey Taylor’s unique lyrical flows screaming phrases like “Now the Community doesn’t feel any better than it used to be. I want to be a judge in a criminal case - you covered up. Did you cultivate?” tracks like these change the pace and elevate the feel of the album in spots where it needs it.

    “Custer” also proves that Slipknot can pull off “intense” quite well at this point in their career, on a dime even, and as Taylor whispers in a sultry voice “Half alive and stark-raving free and maligned for encroaching on the purpose of this commercial- free interruption...due to the prolific nature of this statement, listener aggression is advised” over charging, quickly-muted bass notes the listener is both wonderfully perplexed by Taylor’s strange use of diction and eager to hear the percussive crescendo of a verse that flows into the most non-melodic yet most memorable refrain on the record.  

     It’s important to note the misspelling of “grey” in “The Gray Chapter” as a reference to the last name of Slipknot’s deceased bassist, and there are several lyrical nods to his legacy and the emotional impact of his departure throughout the album. “Skeptic” finds Corey Taylor screaming “Hiroshima on a Sunday. You had a gift. You were a gift.” and “The world will never know a man as amazing as you.”   

    What also shines on this album is how, despite the absence of figurehead and amazing musician Joey Jordison, the percussionists tastefully fill the sonic spectrum of songs like “Goodbye” (another tribute to Grey)  with bells; intros and outros to tunes like “XIX” with ambient static-y noises, and various sections of heavier songs with pounding, boomy toms that seem more prevalent in the mix that previous ‘Knot records. “.5: The Gray Chapter” is a Slipknot album for the fans, for their fallen friend, and by the heart of a band accomplishing what they probably set out to do about two decades ago in some Iowan rehearsal space; just jam for a little over an hour.     

The full album on Youtube: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxD2JNRFED8

Childish Gambino - "STN MTN" Mixtape Review

As seen in The Daily Helmsman: http://www.dailyhelmsman.com/news/view.php/852218/Childish-Gambino-reinvents-the-wheel-wit

    Donald Glover; comedian, actor and MC more commonly known as Childish Gambino currently has two full- length major label albums under his belt, 2011’s “Camp” and 2013’s “Because the Internet”, but the rapper also has had a history with releasing free “mixtapes” online. These EPs, such as, “Culdesac” (released in 2010 with 100,000 downloads) and “Royalty”, (2012 with 500,000 downloads) are both available on datpiff, the self-proclaimed internet authority on hip-hop mixtapes. On the 2nd of this month another Gambino mixtape was made available for free fan consumption. “STN MTN / Kauai”  follows the rapper through a conceptual dream-sequence where Atlanta-based producer DJ Drama hosts Childish’s very own “Gangster Grillz” mixtape, a series made popular by Drama which has featured artists such as Lil Wayne, Yo Gotti, and Snoop Dogg in the past.

    During the first track, “Dream / Southern Hospitality / Partna Dem” Gambino’s bassy voice cuts through a haze of background radio beats, Lil Jon sound bites, and 808 drops until both DJ Drama and the voice of Steve Smith from television show “American Dad” announce the mixtape and Bino’s presence in the song. Glover hops on the aggressive beat with proclamations denying any affiliation with Atlanta police (“snitching”) and rounds out his verses with not only clever nods to his experiences in the bedroom (“Head was so good it’s psychology”) but also makes reference to 1881 folklore character “Uncle Remus,” a controversial figure whose stories were compiled in post-Reconstruction Atlanta, Georgia. Bino also proclaims the city to be the “Black Sweden” due to it’s similar climate and degree of income redistribution during “tax season.”

    Most of “MTN” follows this strange juxtaposition off very current bass-heavy trap beats and radio-friendly flows with Childish’s own blend of creative references that, for the most part, would not be found in the lyrical repertoire of the more mainstream artists from which DJ Drama borrows the instrumentals. On third track, “No Small Talk”, originally by Kari Faux, Gambino both references 1970’s sitcom “Sanford and Son” and slightly disses prominent artist 2Chainz in the same stanza. On the next song “Money Baby” by Atlanta rapper K Camp Gambino trades Camp’s lazy lines in the original version “I like smokin’ weed, I like getting fly. I like having sex, I like girls who ride” for the more comedic and memorable “I like smokin’ loud. I like being me. I might drop them bars, that AT & T.”

    That isn’t to say that Gambino in no way flirting with the lines between his unique brand of hip-hop and the southern rap’s cliches. Track 11, “Go DJ”, a Lil Wayne remix, seems to swap out the wit of previous Gambino songs for a slew of seemingly empty boasts, but at the same time Bino’s delivery is infectious and unparalleled.

    The Mixtape reaches a sweet spot starting with “U Don’t Have to Call,” which contains the possibly the most precise Gambino melody to date as well as an interesting spoken word section detailing the nightlife in Atlanta. The track is produced by Ludwig Göransson, the same man responsible for most of the instrumentals on previous Childish Gambino records, and it shows.        

    On “Candler Road” Bino spits in Drake-esque triplets “I did it my timing was perfect, I’m comin’ they know it. Becoming the last great American poet, the flow Lindsay Lohan.” With what he accomplishes on the following track “All Yall” Gambino proves that, yes, he is a far greater poet than Drake or the other radio-friendly influences of this mixtape. Childish Gambino found out exactly what rhymes with “Orange.” It’s “Origin.” Boom. Best in the game.