Shut THIS down: New Daisy strikes back with Cannibal Corpse

 Unintelligible. Beautiful.

The closest thing Memphians got to time traveling on Oct. 21, 2015 was hearing the guttural belches of old-school death metal band Cannibal Corpse at The New Daisy Theater.

Just 6 days after the New Daisy’s grand re-opening and merely hours after being shut down by the state of Tennessee for allegedly not paying state taxes, Cannibal Corpse along with Vera (local), Soreption (Sweden), and (crowd favorite) Cattle Decapitation proved to the occupants of Memphis’ favorite 79-year-old venue that the show must go on.

Nick Douglas, Vera-vocalist, took a moment in between his bands’ breakdowns to address the Daisy’s recent shutdown.

“Let’s give it up for the Tennessee Department of Revenue’s Office,” Douglas said on-stage.

After the show, the Memphis native and the rest of his band were still excited to have shared the stage with “legendary” acts, particularly the one that has sold two million records. Vera Guitarist Christopher Lemons elaborated.

“It’s just kind of a bucket-list moment,” the 21-year-old said.  “I get to cross off Cannibal Corpse. They are the standard as far as heavy music. You’ve seen their shirts in hot topic for decades.”

The Buffalo-bred, current Tampa-residing Cannibal Corpse brought a substantial crowd to the “New, New Daisy,” that night, including Oxford Mississippi’s Dylan Ballard.

“I’ve been listening to them since 7th grade and I’ve never seen them,” the 21-year-old said. “I don’t listen to a lot of Metal anymore, but this is the classic stuff.”

23-year-old Memphian James Arnold hinted that there was a “high possibility” he was excited to see the headlining act.

“I heard Cannibal Corpse is gonna play for an hour,” Arnold said.  “They’re heavy as fuck live, and they’re also Jim Carrey’s favorite band.”

Corpse’s appearance in 1994 film Ace Ventura was somehow still the talk of the New Daisy in the year 2015. However, Cannibal Corpse-tour mates Soreption had more to say about what it was like being on the road with “Cannibal”. Frontman Frederick Söderberg shared how touring with Cannibal Corpse has lifted the spirits of his Swedish bandmates.

“It’s an honor,” Söderberg said. “Everything is just structured and it’s great in every possible way. The venues are nice. The crowds are nice. We’re lucky.”

The bald, bearded Swede moved slowly but ferociously on-stage, focusing his intimidating orc-esque scowl into the audience during select moments of his band’s well-applied technical death metal.

Offstage, the gentle giant was more than approachable, and though he had never traveled to Memphis before, complimented the improved sights of the New Daisy theatre.    

“It’s an impressive venue,” Söderberg said. “It’s big and it looks good.”

   Soreption Bassist Mikael Almgren, although hesitant to be interviewed due to his limited English vocabulary, shared that he was enjoying Beale Street in general.

“It’s awesome,” Almgren said. “All the blues, the music, good food, and nice people are all good stuff.”

"Cattle Decap"

Though Cannibal Corpse’s namesake and Cattle Decapitation’s frantic spit-catching vocalist brought many metalheads out to the New Daisy, the reason for most of the college-aged crowd happened to be none other than local Memphis Metal band Vera.

“Vera’s just heavy,” 22-year-old local show promoter Bobby Harris said. “I don’t really see them outside of of shows but they’re really good guys. Good friends.”

21-year-old University of Memphis Music Industry student Cody Landers who formerly played guitar for Vera, came out to support his ex-bandmates.   

“Jeremy, their drummer, is just so tight all the time,” Landers said. “He’s such a really loose yet syncopated drummer and it just amazes me. I loved playing with that guy when I was in the band and I still love watching ‘em.”

In addition to Landers, more UofM students could be found enjoying the Cannibal Corpse line-up. 18-year-old Recording Technology Freshman Ethan Wahl-Taylor had previously not attended a show in Memphis before, but maintained that the music scene in his hometown of Maryland, Virginia was something to brag about.

...more Cattle Decapitation in Memphis

“DC punk is an amazing scene,” Wahl-Taylor said. “It’s got a lot of venues that are really willing to help out local bands and up and coming artists.”

It was actually there where he first caught wind of Memphis’ own Vera.   

“They have a decent presence in Maryland,” Wahl-Taylor said. “Though they’ve never really toured very far from Tennessee, people still know who they are out there. I’ve heard about them through conversations. There’s a small sort of circle that gets talked about a lot.”

After the show the boys in Vera could be found just down the street celebrating. Still enjoying the thrill of performing alongside well-known Metal bands Cannibal Corpse and Cattle Decapitation, Vera guitarplayer Christopher Lemons explained explicitly what it takes to write heavy music that earns a following outside of your home state.

“Impact- it’s gotta have impact,” Lemons said. “if you write a lot of heavy riffs and you don’t set it up right then it’s all useless. You gotta build it and you have to drop it correctly with the intention of it translating to a live setting. I feel like we’re doing that with the new music and it’s coming through pretty well according to tonight.”

Vocalist Nick Douglas took the moment on Beale to reminisce on his group’s accomplishments so far.  

“Our first tour was definitely one of those life changing moments,” Douglas said. “The whole time it was surreal. That was a real accomplishment.”

In what was clearly a big night for the Vera boys, bassplayer Blake Peel noted what his favorite part was.   

“Sharing the stage with Cattle Decapitation,” Peel said. “Cattle Decapitation is one of my favorite bands so it’s unreal playing with them.”

Though just 24 hours previously locks on the Daisy doors prevented any Memphians from entering the New Daisy theater, Douglas shared that his favorite aspect about the night was the venue itself.

“The whole renovated venue,” Douglas said. “It’s fuckin sick now. It’s the first time we’ve been here since they re-did it and it looks awesome.”

The vocalist added that the new wooden floors served a purpose that was instrumental for some to enjoy local shows.

“So you can get down,” Douglas said.

...

...

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And no one gets down like Jim Carrey......

No one.

LIKE you some Vera:

https://www.facebook.com/VeraBand901

Listen to some Vera:

 

"This Is Memphis" festival entertains generations at the Levitt Shell

Photo by Lisa Mac

A young couple laughed hysterically on the Levitt Shell lawn as their infant clapped to Brandon Russell’s drumming at the Oct.11 “This Is Memphis” festival.   

Battalions of slightly older children ran to and from the front of the stage like animals. Cameramen, with eyes in the back of their heads, monitored the activity carefully and held tightly to their equipment. Surprisingly, nothing went wrong and in fact, according to the student performers, the different generations of Memphians made for a great crowd.

“These people aren’t like my friends and my grandma y’know,” Singer/Songwriter Mary Owens said. “These people are just people in Memphis that love music and wanted to come out and support. That’s what Memphis is to me.”  

Photo by Eli Wilson

Owens’ set followed songwriter Ben Callicott, who, as a guitar player practically stayed on stage all night. Former America’s Got Talent contestant Drew Erwin followed Mary and the incomparable Bluff City Soul Collective closed the event out. Owens shared how fun and fulfilling it was to share a night of singing at the Levitt Shell with her classmates.  

“Memphis to me is like my second home,” Owens said. “I moved here four years ago to go to college and it’s been amazing. Nights like this where I get to just be with people in the city are really cool.”

Other performers who have lived in Memphis much longer enjoyed the night just as much as Mary.

“Memphis is my life,” Bluff City Soul Collective Percussionist/Vocalist Tikyra Khamiir Jackson said. “I was born here. I was raised here. I had the best time. It was so awesome to be up on stage and share with so many talented people.”

Crowds seemed to particularly enjoy “TK”’s improvisational Conga solos, as well as the Bluff City Soul Collective’s entire performance.  

Photo by Eli Wilson

“We don’t get music like this in Canada,” 26-year-old Nicole Perdue said. “I haven’t been here very long but I feel like it did kinda capture the soul of Memphis.”

Perdue’s friend, 23-year-old UofM Education Major Kayla Ratz wanted to make sure she showed her Canadian countrywoman what the bluff city was about.

“I just moved to Memphis for school this year and so we’re both from Canada,” Ratz said. “I wanted to show Nicole a taste of true Memphis.”

The native Canadian commented on the diversely-aged Memphian crowd.

“You’ve got kids up front dancing, you’ve got older couples holding hands, and you’ve got college-age students who are engaged in the community events,” Ratz said. “To get to see some great talent coming from the university demographic is awesome. I’m just new here but I think it’s great because it’s what we aspire to be right? It’s the best of Memphis.”

Photo by Lisa Mac

On-stage Bluff City Soul Collective singer Kyndle McMahan made sure the takeaway of the night was that the audience should spread “the best of Memphis,” with the rest of the city.

“You know we watch the news and we see good but we also see a lot of bad,” McMahan said. “Memphis is really every single one of us here and it’s our responsibility to not live in fear of what is going on in our community. It’s our responsibility to take the good out and to spread love and to spread joy and to spread hope among all things.”  

Photo by Eli Wilson

The mini-motivational speech received a wealth of applause and set the Shell stage for an endearing tune written and sung by student Lauren Moscato simply titled “Memphis Tennessee.” After the set, performer Drew Erwin captured the essence of what “Memphis Tennessee” meant to him.

“This is our city and this is where I’m from,” Erwin said. “There were so many people here. The community and everything about the show was awesome. It exceeded all my expectations.”

Photo by Eli Wilson

Non-student Levitt shell regulars also enjoyed “This Is Memphis”.

“We come here often and I thought that they did a good job sort of addressing the musical culture of Memphis as a whole,” 36-year-old Martin Guise said. “I thought it was representative of what we would expect to hear.”

Photo by Eli Wilson

The Memphian teacher, previously employed by Shelby County Schools, shared that one of his favorite parts was witnessing Ben Callicott open the show.

“I just really liked his voice and his guitar playing was really great,” Guise said.

After the Levitt lights dimmed, attendees Betty Moody and Jimmy Tyson shared a similar opinion.

“Ben Callicott is his grandson so we enjoyed it tremendously,” Moody said.

Clearing his throught, Callicott's grandfather nodded in approval.

“I’m always proud of him,” he said.

Exceptional photo by Eli Wilson

BANDS:
Bluff City Soul Collective

Drew Erwin

Mary Owens

Ben Callicott


The Levitt Shell:
http://www.levittshell.org/

Downtown art gallery hosts Kanye West tribute show

The temperature rose as 200+ Memphians gathered on the top floor of Jack Robinson Art Gallery, but each attendee beared the humidity for the unique opportunity to scream Kanye West lyrics in unison for three hours.

“Urban City Bachelor Presents: The Kanye West Tribute Show” featured a slew of local performers as well as artists and painters. The Sept.27 event was pieced together by local record label Unapologetic and the “Urban City Bachelor” himself, 30-year-old Aaron Harris.

“It took me a while find an actual venue that could bring my show to life,” Harris said. “When I came here it instantly hit me. This was the place I wanted it to be. The lighting basically creates an atmosphere that makes you feel like you are at an art show, but that you are also possibly in a movie at the same time.”

Attendees flocked through the first floor, viewing artist Jordan Marble’s visual display of album-cover-inspired paintings, and communed upstairs to watch ballerinas Angel Clark, Tamara Parrish, and Tabatha Perry recreate Kanye West’s “Runaway” music video move-for-move.

Performers Don Lifted, PreauXX, Melvin Thomas, and Cameron Bethany then covered handfuls of selected Kanye West songs through a P.A. system while the DJ, Kid Maestro, transitioned between their sets with sound bytes of various Kanye interviews. Performing very familiar refrains was a change of pace for the mostly underground rappers.

“It was like being a kid again doing karaoke in my room,” PreauXX said. “The crowd was performing the songs themselves.”

It is likely that PreauXX may eventually break out of the underground Memphis rap scene. The MC traveled to play at the SXSW festival, has received coverage from both the Commercial Appeal and Memphis Flyer, and is slated to play at the Afropunk festival on October 2. PreauXX shared how Kanye West inspired him to start his path in the music industry.    

“Kanye is one of the reasons I began making music,” Preauxx said. “He’s never let me down. College Dropout made me start rapping.”

The New Orleans-born, Memphis artist who literally did drop out University of Memphis to pursue music full-time and who co-founded creative coalition TRDON believes that performing music makes allies out of strangers.   

“It’s what I love to do. It’s union. It’s unity,” Preauxx said. “The crowd is involved. They’re performing. We’re performing. It’s just good to see everybody doing it together. That’s what I love about music.”

Tribute show attendee and Memphis native Rachel Benford shared which collection of Kanye’s music she feels most united to.

“I love all of Kanye West’s albums even 808s and Heartbreaks,” Benford said.

“People hate that album. I absolutely love that album. It has a deep emotional connection to me.”

Artist Jordan Marble’s emotional connection to West transcends platforms from music to the visual arts. The painter’s nine pieces on the first floor held attendees’ attention both before and after the musical performances upstairs. Some stared for long periods of time and even took “Snapchat videos” of his work. Marble explained how Kanye West plays a huge part in his artistic world.   

“Ever since I’ve been listening to his music I’ve felt the energy that comes from him and it makes me feel like I can do what he’s doing,” Marble said. “I can’t write or rap but I’m into music. I have a good ear for music and I love art. I feel like there’s somebody out there that’s doing it. He gives me a platform to do it too.”

The Overton High School graduate explained how the “Urban City Bachelor” enlisted him for the Kanye West tribute event.

“Aaron Harris. I’ve done one of his shows before,” Marble said. “He was like you know I’m doing this Yeezy show do you want to be a part of it?

As soon as he told me I started going to work.”

Aaron Harris had a clear and definite answer to how Kanye has inspired artists of all kinds, and not just musicians.

“He’s just an artistic genius,” Harris said. “So many people, as you saw tonight, are inspired by Kanye West whether musically, artistically, or fashion-wise.

He just brings that out in people and I wanted to show Memphis that we could recreate that atmosphere.”

Best merch ever. 

Interestingly enough, Harris’ favorite artist happens not to be Mr.West.

“Honestly Kanye West isn’t even my favorite rapper,” Harris said. “But, my favorite rapper is Jay-Z so it’s not too far from the tree.”

As Memphians stopped to congratulate him on the success and turnout of the event, Harris shared that more branches from the tree of the Urban City Bachelor will soon grow as a result of the seed that the Kanye West Tribute Show has now planted.

“I normally do two shows a year but as of right now things are going very well so I’ll be doing shows much more frequently,” Harris said. “This is phenomenal. This was more than I could ever ask for. This is great.”  

FTGOTC and Rudy Rhymer light up Crosstown underground rap show

 

FTGOTC. These were the five letters that projected onto a white screen behind comedians and rappers performing at Crosstown Arts on Sept. 25 just down the street from ongoing Gonerfest at The Hi Tone cafe.

As DJS Skip Fearless and Six.Oh.Six manned the macbook, host comedian Tutweezy introduced each MC to a Memphian crowd armed with free vodka and tequila. The underground rap roster included AWFM (A weirdo from Memphis), Rudy Rhymer, Chico Jones, and Matt Lucas.

“Any underground hip-hop show that has a decent turnout is pretty dope,” said 26-year-old attendee Aaron Ivory. Ivory’s brother and local concert promoter Amos Ivory was also arrived at the venue before the show was over.

“I like the whole projection,” Amos Ivory said. “I’ve never really seen a hip-hop show like that.”  

The room was incredibly dimly-lit if not for the projections of Soul Calibur-esque video game fight scenes and of colorful variations of the acronym FTGOTC. Performer and University of Memphis student Rudy Swansey, stage name Rudy Rhymer, explained exactly what FTGOTC stood for.

“For the good of the colony,” Swansey said. “It’s for the good of the people. The everyday people. The colony, like the people who work 9 to 5s.”

Someone who definitely matches this description was host of the event, Darius Tutwiler. Tutweezy, as he’s known on-stage, was met with murmurs of faint recognition after he grabbed the mic. He then delivered a comedy set about working at local gas stations and the crowd’s suspicions were confirmed. After the show Tutwiler expanded on the different hats he wears both as a comedian and a gas station employee.

“I work at Circle K,” Tutwiler said. “It kinda brings you down once you get off the stage and people are like ‘yeaaah’ and you go back to work and people are like ‘gimme my change back.”

Student and rapper Rudy Swansey was also no stranger to spending time off-stage. The MC had not performed anywhere in two years, “since high school” but despite his long hiatus from performing, Rudy Rhymer knew his return would be inevitable.  

“I practiced a zillion times in the mirror,” Swansey said. “When I came out it was because I’ve been there already. I started in my head before I got out there. Everybody else was surprised, but I’ve been waiting on y’all to catch up.”

Rudy followed the set of the very lyrical AWFM, who specifically chose moments to rap a capella and stand on chairs to heighten his performance and control the crowd. Showgoers were still impressed by Rudy’s immediate delivery and the general feeling of the room once Rhymer casually strode onto the floor of Crosstown Arts wearing sunglasses and an Iron Maiden t-shirt.   

Rudy and AWFM backstage

“I like his energy,” Aaron Ivory said. “He had a good flow, good energy, and good stage presence.”

Show host Tutweezy also felt UofM student Rudy Rhymer slayed the performance and particularly enjoyed his final track “90’s Nostalgia” which can be found on Rhymer’s Soundcloud page.  

“I think he performed really well,” Tutwiler said. “I really like that ‘All That’ song. When I heard that I was like ‘Bruh you really dope for putting that together’ That brought back a lot of memories from the 90’s era.”

Tutweezy is also scheduled to host the University of Memphis SAC (Student Activities Council) talent show on Oct. 28. The comedian detailed his plans for the upcoming event.

“I’m gonna smack a couple people and make ‘em follow me on instagram,” Tutwiler said.

University of Memphis History major Rudy Swansey shared how his rapper stage name actually morphed into something he didn’t expect due to social media.

“My stage name is actually just RUDY,” Swansey said. “But when I tried to create a hashtag RUDY there’s a thousand billion Rudys. They’ve got the movie “Rudy.” They’ve got Rudy from The Huxstables, so I was like how can I set myself apart and I just put the ‘Rhymer’ as a last minute thing. Now it’s kinda stuck. It’s stuck as my name.”

The rapper/history major shared that once he gains enough popularity he might drop the “Rhymer” from his name, and that isn’t the only thing Swansey is thinking of changing.  

“I might double major in history and music,” Swansey said. “I was playing it safe the first few years of college. I love history a lot, but I want to do music so what the fuck am I doing in history?”

21-year-old Swansey shared that more and more often he questions “being safe” in academia and plans to immerse himself in the Music Industry program and pursue becoming a successful artist before it’s too late.   

“If I fail I will gladly fail if there’s music playing in the background,” Swansey said.

Rudy shared that pursuing his dreams in music isn’t entirely for his own glory and fame either.   

“People need to start working for the good of the colony and for the good of the human race,” Swansey said. “That’s what music does. Music is for the good of the colony. For the best in the people.”

FTGOTC.

I support this.

A Skylit Drive - ASD album review

Double bass groove. Some singing. Some screaming. Let’s make this chorus catchy. “Over and over. Feels like we’re stuck on repeat,” sings vocalist Michael “Jag” Jagmin.  

These lyrics from “Find A Way,” track 10 off California-metalcore band A Skylit Drive’s new Oct.9 album ASD pretty appropriately describes the modern stereotype so common with the musical genre that these 5 boys hail from. The title of track 6, “Running in Circles,” also seem to summarize what Post-Hardcore bands like A Skylit Drive have been doing in 2015, having crafted records since 2007.  

While the Post-Hardcore formula has been a winning formula for close to a decade, A Skylit Drive’s brand of it grows tiresome by 3 quarters into their new effort. However, the fact that ASD can make ASD and sound just like ASD should be noted as uniquely impressive, considering that they lost their long-time rhythm section in Oct.22 of last year.

Bassist/screamer Brian White and drummer Cory La Quay can be heard on Drive’s 2007 EP She Watched the Sky, as well as all of the group’s previous full-length records. Wires and the Concept of Breathing, Adelphia, and Identity on Fire all charted on the Billboard Top 200 and solidified A Skylit Drive as a Van’s Warped tour mainstay.

After White posted an Instagram statement last year describing how he and La Quay’s “passion for our band that once fueled our success” changed and how neither of them “want to lose our love of writing, playing and performing music because our values and ideas are no longer aligned with others,” the remaining members of Drive decided to keep the hustle strong and shortly released an acoustic album, January’s Rise: Ascension. 2015’s ASD features new guitarist/screamer Michael Labelle and drummer Brandon “Rage” Richter.

If there are any lyrical nods to Drive’s departed members track 8 “Symphony of Broken Bones” would be the most obvious one. “You were the light in the dark, you were the end from the start,” Michael “Jag” Jagmin sings. “Like waves in the ocean you bury me. We in this moment depart, replacing all that we are. A Symphony of broken dreams.”

The “dreams” line, apart from being a tad cheesy, doesn’t seem to help the title make sense (swapping out “Dreams” for “Bones”) and a few other track titles like “Bring Me a War”, “Oblivion,” and “I’ll Sleep when I’m Dead” run the risk of coming off a bit cliche’. It’s track 4, “Shock My Heart” that seems to use it’s cheesy title to it’s advantage.

The song has a captivating intro, the verse pulses with a busy bassline and creatively articulated clean guitar parts, then reaches a poppy refrain that seems to make Jagmin an 80’s hair band frontman. The energy is perfect for a group that nailed covering Journey’s classic hit, “Separate Ways” on the Punk Goes Pop Vol. 4 compilation back in 2011. ASD’s “Falling Apart in a (Crow)ded Room” particularly casts singer “Jag” as an effective melodist as well.

Standout track “Shock My Heart” also surprises the average Skylit Drive listener with just a hint of blistering guitar arpeggios around the 2:00 mark right before the bridge arrives. The mid-section of “Self/Less” features some of the usual winding, snake-like dual-guitar playing generally found on A Skylit Drive’s material but leads like on “Shock My Heart”, the quick bursts around 1:30 of “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead,” tease a more classically Metal-driven influence that should have further explored by the band.

ASD is indeed, ASD. There is no doubt that A Skylit Drive’s new self-titled bag of tunes, even with drastic changes in their rhythm section, echoes a sound the group has helped brand for two years short of a decade. The question is whether or not ASD should keep being ASD. In 2015 there is a giant surplus of Metalcore material that exists to satisfy listeners of the genre, and as Drive ventures out on tour with Escape The Fate, Sworn In, Sirens & Sailors, and Myka Relocate on Oct.19, I only implore them to start brainstorming new and fresher songwriting tactics. The members of A Skylit Drive have changed but their sound surprisingly didn’t and it’s time for change. Change is good.