Microwave guitarist invaded the Hi-Tone with Blis.

Atlanta-based rock act Microwave released a new single Thursday Sept.17 called “Thinking of You,” on Stereogum.com. The track is cut from their upcoming split EP with Head North, a band from Buffalo New York.

Microwave vocalist and guitarist Nathan Hardy was in Memphis Tuesday night with -what actually turned out to be a GIANT surprise to me- another band he plays guitar in. I am so glad that I happened to go to this show.

https://www.facebook.com/events/1470504423269256/

The black, painted floor of the Hi-Tone pleasantly vibrated when Blis. performed on the same bill as locals Forsake Your Nets, Sleeping Seasons, and The Passport. Nathan Hardy shared how he and Blis. spent the day in Memphis.

“We were all driving around like ‘I would love to live here’ it just seems like a very well maintained city of nice people,” Hardy said. “It’s a lot like Atlanta, but Atlanta’s a little bit dirtier I feel like. The fact that there’s a Bass Pro Shop in the pyramid was a really big bonus for me. I’m a big fan of Bass Pro Shops.”

Hardy and the rest of Blis. performed in Chicago’s Riot Fest on Sept. 15 during the same time slot as one of their major influences, Manchester Orchestra, and enjoyed their time off-stage as much as on.    

  “We got to have a free open bar for three days which was a bad idea but also a really fun idea,” Hardy said. “Tenacious D was there and Drive Like Jehu and Taking Back Sunday. There was tons of really cool people hanging out in the artist area. We mostly just enjoyed having a free open bar and being able to gawk at really awesome people.”

"We're playing a lot of songs we haven't recorded..." 

"...Which maybe wasn't a good idea!"

Nah, they killed it.

Though none of the other acts on the Hi-Tone bill Tuesday night have played to a festival crowd quite like Riot Fest, local band Sleeping Seasons do share Blis.’s major musical influence. Vocalist and guitarplayer of Sleeping Seasons, C.J. Starnes explained his bewilderment meeting Andy Hull of Manchester Orchestra when Manchester played a Halloween show in Memphis last year.  

“We were on the street team for that so we helped to promote it,” Starnes said. “We got to meet Andy after the show and that was a delightful experience. I think that was the first time I’ve ever stuttered talking to somebody. I just got really nervous cause it’s like I met my hero.”  

During Sleeping Seasons’ set Tuesday night Starnes happened to mention that the stringed instrument players to his left and right were, in fact, a married couple. Guitarist Julian Stanz held up his ring finger and smiled as bassist Kayla Stanz nodded in approval.

“He and I are both in a band called with Bravado in town,” Kayla Stanz said. “We’ve played together for years and years so we’re just filling in with Sleeping Seasons. He’s filling in with them regularly i’m just filling in for tonight.”  

Singer Starnes admitted that their full-time bassplayer had an important reason for not attending the performance.

“Tonight he had school at the U of M so he couldn’t be here,” Starnes said.

Nathan Hardy, who, like the Stanz,’ plays in two seperate bands, shared how  being in both touring Atlanta groups Blis. and Microwave can be challenging.

There's Hardy on the right

“Blis. signed first with a label in LA and Microwave signed with Side One,” Hardy said. “We’re both supposed to be recording whole LP full length albums December or January at the end of this year at the same time.”  

Microwave’s last full-length Stovall which was released in August 23 of last year, features an incredibly earnest tune called “Something Right” in which Hardy sings about the ins and outs of a failing relationship. To add to the heartfelt complications of the song, it is revealed on the final verse that the writer’s girlfriend is pregnant with his child. He opened up about the motivation behind the track.

“I don’t have a pregnant girlfriend,” Hardy said. “I’m happy to hear that as much as you are. My girlfriend at the time had told me that she was pregnant, she thought she was, but I was freaking out and I was going through the whole thought process as though I was having a kid. In my head it was super real.”

Now, the only “super real” problem that Nathan Hardy faces is that one of his bands is named after a household kitchen appliance.  

\m/

“Tyler Finlay from Blis. named Microwave when we were drunk at a party,” Hardy said. “We were thinking it sounded along the lines of American Football or something but afterwards it sounded more and more like an appliance at Sears or HH Gregg. It’s whatever.  It’s a terrible name. Let’s be honest. It’s one of the worst names.”

Blis. and Microwave certainly aren’t two of the worst bands however. Blis.’ performance at the Hi Tone Tuesday was a blast, and Microwave’s split with Buffalo Band Head North will be released Oct. 9 by Bad Timing Records/SideOneDummy Records.

Check out the locals: Forsake Your Nets, Sleeping Seasons...Star Killers, er... Forrister dropped the show but they're still amazing.  

...Oh yeah and The Passport kicked ass like always but whatever:

F'reel, check out the new Daily Helmsman website though..

Two-piece folk/punk band "Heels" drop record: Even if It's Nothing, It's Something

“Off With Their Head,” the single for released by Memphis folk/punk duo HEELS abruptly stops at the 2:42 mark and waits an entire four-Mississippi seconds of dead silence before kicking back in to singer Brennan Whalen’s warm acoustic guitar tone and drummer Josh McLane’s punky tom fills.

For the listener, the result might be genuinely confusing at first but the quirky break ultimately wins audiences over.

“We absolutely love screwin’ with people musically,” McLane said. “We did it once where we did that stop, I told a joke, and then we finished the song. Cause why not?”       

McLane, who is as much of a skinsman as he is a local stand-up comedian, is more excited about HEELS than any other local band he has been in. Saturday Sept.12 the duo released their 7-track album at Young Avenue Deli as they open up for local act Dead Soldiers. Even if it’s Nothing, it’s Something was recorded at Ardent studios and McLane promises the 5$ record will continue to sell itself.    

“I’ve never clicked like this in any other band I’ve ever been in,” McLane said. “It’s just the two of us and we both kind of dare each other with stranger concepts of songs or ideas of songs. We have a CD with 7 songs on it and all 7 of them sound drastically different.”

What’s different about Whalen and McLane’s new project is the newfound “freedom” the two have found by stripping down the sounds of their previous bands. McLane first saw Whalen performing at The Hi-Tone in “americana” group The River Rats. Later the Rats enlisted McLane as a drummer and then ceased to exist. After that, the two collaborated in a metal band called The Hombres. Heels was born as a result of McLane genuinely missing the acoustic singer-songwriter side of his bandmate that wasn’t being exercised regularly anymore.

“This is the first record I’ve got ever made where both guys in metal bands I’ve been in AND my parents like it,” McLane said.  “Brennan’s the king of having this beautiful soft and passionate voice and then you see his lyrics and it’s like what the fuck are you talking about. It’s great.”

McLane admitted that although he takes more pride in his stand-up work than thinking himself a lyricist, often times Whelan will borrow a phrase or a two from the drummer; creating somewhat of an equal-written effort from both musicians.  

“Brennan and I will be pontificating about stuff at practice and the next day he’ll have a song,” McLane said. “Literally the lyrics will be the conversation we had before. This is easier to do with just two people, but I’ve never been in something that was this split down the middle. If we sued each other over writing rights we’d be in a legal battle for years.”  

Along with writing songs together Heels also enjoys covering “short, stupid songs” as well. After the two learned one such tune, originally performed by comedian Sarah Silverman the band was disheartened to learn that legally they could not release it on their record. The two even reached out to Silverman over Twitter but was told Comedy Central still owned the rights to it. Nonetheless, Heels had a plan.

“If you buy the record, you get a link to where you can buy ‘Poop song’ for free,” Mclane said. “We’re very serious about what we do but in the same breathe nobody wants a pretentious asshole...especially with guys that look like us - post hardcore guys with tattoos and beards.”

McLane admitted his band is influenced from everything from “Zappa to Deftones” and further explained how the juxtaposition of silly songs and serious songs works for the two.

“It’s great because when you have funny stuff too and you don’t take yourself so seriously than some of the originals can beat the audience over the head with how serious they are,” McLane said.

Days before Heels dropped their album at Young Avenue Deli, the drummer/comedian felt confident that the debut record would shake things up.

“We may be acoustic and drums but we throw down live,” McLane said. “We don’t have some huge, sick sound but we back it up with feeling.  Y’know you just take one thing you don’t have and you replace it with something you do. it all goes back to the title of the record.”

The single for Even if it’s Nothing, it’s Something, “Off With Their Heads” can be found on the band’s bandcamp account, but McLane made it clear that Heels isn’t trying to show off their musicality to the entire city of Memphis.

“I just want Brennan to think I’m cool that’s really all I want,” McLane 

said. “I know Brennan just wants me to think he’s cool. We’ve both admitted 

that to each other, but because of that we’ve written the most honest music of 

our entire lives and it's fucking good.”


Like the band: https://www.facebook.com/HEELS-614673255334131/timeline/

Check out the single: https://heelsmemphis.bandcamp.com/releases

....I had to look up Sarah Silverman's "Poop Song"....

As a side note, yes, covering this story put the F word in the school paper. A couple times.

Bluff City Soul Collective earn UofM residency at La Fayette’s

   

The event: https://www.facebook.com/events/377210189142401/

 

Bassist Christian Underwood and drummer Christopher Underwood seemed to shake the rafters of LaFayette’s Tuesday night as Bluff City Soul Collective entertained the mixed array of an Overton audience.

On the top floor- clusters of UofM Music Industry students mingled, ordered fries, and met the sound engineer. On the ground middle-aged Memphians and tourists gathered in tables and loosened up with hearty responses to female vocalist Kyndle McMahan’s boomy, angelic voice.

Rech Tech Major Keynan Harden (pictured right) records the performance.

Thanks to the band comprised of capable UofM students, The University of Memphis Music Industry department has earned a regular slot for student artists at Lafayette’s Music Room on the 2nd Tuesday of each month. The first of ongoing shows is set for Oct.6

Though young and old were mostly separated by steel staircases Tuesday night, opinions of Soul Collective’s performance from both demographics were greatly in favor of the group.   

“This is what Memphis needs,” 21-year-old Recording Technology major Ali Abu-khraybeh said. “As far as altogether sound ...incredible.”

58-year-old Project Manager Stan McGroom enjoyed Bluff City Soul as much as the college students a above him.

“It’s great to see young people do good for themselves,” McGroom said, “Couldn’t have been any better. Great stuff.”

UofM Student Cedric Taylor's Keyboard

Gerard and Julie Skibinski, an architect and surgical technologist were visiting Memphis from Indianapolis, Indiana. Though the couple had yet to visit any of the city’s museums the two definitely enjoyed hearing “a lot of good soulful, blues music” at La Fayette’s.

“They were awesome,” Gerard Skibinski, said. “If you wouldn’t have told me that they were in school I would have thought they were professionals.”

Ben Yonas, a Music Business head of the Rudi E. Scheidt school of Music at UofM was in attendance and was happy to explain the origins of Bluff City Soul. According to Yonas, the dean called upon him to organize a musical tribute to James Alexander, bassplayer of the Bar Kays. Yonas called “some of the best musicians at our school” and the result payed off in full.  

“They played and they got a standing ovation,” Yonas said. “Music industry leaders were on their feet. People were bowing down at how awesome of a job they did.”  

Synth/keys player and one of the many vocalists of Bluff City Soul, Jason Rodgers, recalled what it felt like after performing Bar Kays classics with his classmates.

“We were all kind of like ‘This is a lot of fun; all of us coming together. We should try to turn it into something” Rodgers said. “From there we kinda kept adding people and letting it happen organically. We’ve gotten a pretty cool sound out of it.”

Rodgers was actually ecstatic about the age differences in the crowd at Lafayette’s music room on Tuesday night.   

 

“We take some old, soul classics and put our twist on them,” Rodgers said. “I think 

there’s a little bit for everybody in what we do.”

Not only are “The Collective” inclusive about their different sets of audiences, but the band constantly allowed for various members to have a turn on the microphone, often to sing original material. Crowd favorite and also singer of local-band Mason Jar Fireflies performed an original tune, but also explicitly made sure that Bluff City Soul vocalist/Conga player was well represented.

“T.K., This girl can play anything!” Kyndle McMahan said.

Tikyra Khamiir Jackson was as soft and pleasing to hear as a singer as she was groovy and dynamic as a drummer when she sat behind the kit supporting usual skinsman Christopher Underwood during his own original track.

However, no act of “musical chairs” was more inspirational than when suav guitarplayer Ben Callicott approached the mic during a funk-esque rendition of The Beatles’ “Norwegian Wood” and followed it with his jazzy, original tune “I want U.”

As Callicott sung “I want You….here” middle-aged women on the first floor of Lafayette’s music room answered with loud, enthusiastic “Wooo!”s       

Bluff City Soul Collective hopes to earn more of those “Wooo!”s at The Levitt Shell on Oct.11 as they are set to close out the second annual “This is Memphis” festival.

“La Fayette’s is a brand new room,” Ben Yonas said. “I think it’s one of the best rooms to feature original music or any kind of music. It’s ten minutes from campus, but that show - October 11th, is gonna be epic.”