Memphis Style

A few weeks ago, I came across this article. I can't remember how, but I did.

Craig Brewer, writer and director of Hustle & Flow and Black Snake Moan, is directing $5 Cover, a series of fifteen web based short films in and around Memphis, profiling Memphis hometown heroes and musicians by showcasing them in their element: performance.

These shorts, each approximately eight minutes long, will be built around a particular song by the featured artist of the episode. Some of the musicians featured are:

Ben Nichols of Lucero
Cody Dickinson of the North Mississippi All-Stars
Amy LeVere
rapper Al Kapone
and many more...

Production was slated to start on July 18th, and as one of my Memphis connections told me today, she happened by the film crew set up outside of one of their locations in Midtown. I can't remember where she said they were at, as I am not too familiar with the Memphis scene. But she is on the lookout for more tapings...hopefully she will get in on the action of a couple of them.


Thanks for the heads up, JN.

Bootleggin'...

Keeping with the royalty theme, and better yet, the FREE theme from yesterday with the Kings of Leon, we now have Tom Petty (or Sir Thomas, as we call him in our circle) giving away a free download of his original/re-united/half-Heartbreakers/quasi-new (to you and to me) band Mudcrutch. All you have to do to download a live version of "Bootleg Flyer", the second single off of Mudcrutch's debut album, is go here and use the code word "Gainesville". Check it out...after all, it's free (at least until 9/30/08).

The Mudcrutch album (which came out months ago in April...yes, I'm behind, but I have had it since then...so there!) is good, but I'd obviously take a good ol' TP & the HBs album any day over this. I would have loved to hear Mudcrutch 35 years ago, before the Heartbreakers, before the money, before (excessive) drugs and fame, before over-produced albums (thanks Dave Stewart). It would have been awesome, probably in the same way that you might have heard Sir Thomas for the first time...whether it was "American Girl" in the 70s, "Runnin' Down a Dream" or "Free Fallin' " in the 80s, "Mary Jane's Last Dance" in the 90s...and I guess whatever he's put out in the 2000s... Only with the original trek of Mudcrutch in the 70s, you would know that TP and the 'Breakers are youngsters by appearance, not by their ability by any means.

Mudcrutch is more of a country rock album- heavier on the country side. Think the Byrds meet Tom Petty (imagine that, it's a stretch, I know) meet a country band of all the old guys that hang out in the neighborhood bar...and one og them plays a banjo.

Don't get me wrong- I like the album; it's good. However, it's no Damn the Torpedoes, Full Moon Fever, Wildflowers, or even half of the country, Southern-y Southern Accents album. Hell, it's not even the Traveling Wilburys, which is probably the closest sound to Mudcrutch out of all of these albums and the Petty eras, audio-wise.

Those are what the real Tom Petty is to me.

Free Kings

The Kings of Leon have their new album Only By The Night coming out on September 23rd. To promote their new album (their fourth LP), they have released the single "Crawl". You can download it on the KOL's website or myspace.

In other KOL news, they are also releasing a series of "home" videos leading up to the release of the new album. Look for them on their website as well. They are kinda funny.

"That which doesn't kill you makes you stranger"

If you haven't seen The Dark Knight yet, do yourself a favor and go. Brave the long lines and the crowded theaters. You want to see this before everyone does and tells you about it at the watercooler at work, and ruins the best part: Heath Ledger as the Joker. It's worth the lines, crowd and the wait for the late Heath Ledger's performance alone...not to mention there's the rest of the cast and the movie too. If Heath doesn't win an Oscar for his performance as The Joker, (even if he was alive) it will be an absolute travesty.

His portrayal of The Joker is by far the best, and by the term of "best" I mean he was the worst. I don't know if there has ever been a more evil, maniacal and menacing character that will stop at nothing to destroy everything ever in any film. At least there shure hasn't been one like this in quite some time. His take on the Joker, most notably played by Jack Nicholson in Tim Burton's Batman, is simply unbelievable. You have to see it to even begin to have some sort of a grasp on how good of a job Heath did. And after you see it, you will understand why he alledgedly went crazy at the end of his short life.

However, you will not understand how he took this character that we all laughed at (and with) when Nicholson portrayed Joker, and turned it inside out, twisted it even more, ripped out any sense of compassion and reason, and put it on the screen for us to enjoy. Heath put everything he had into this character for all of us. This was a once in a lifetime role that he put his soul into. And it didn't make it out.

Go see The Dark Knight. And thank Heath for making this movie what it is. And what any future Batman movie (possibly any movie with a villain, or maybe any movie that requires any acting...at all) cannot and simply will never be.



Thanks Heath.

What is this world coming to?

I have nothing to say about this...other than goddammit! And why? Actually, I have a lot to say about this, well, rather Everlast covering the Almighty JC, but I will not share it all here... Is nothing sacred anymore? See for yourself, if you can stomach it.

From Crackle: Everlast: "Folsom Prison Blues"

I have no explanation as to why, other than why not. Ideally, it gives any artist extra street cred if you know, like or play some Johnny. Why wouldn't it? JC is a badass, but that doesn't mean that everyone needs to and has the right to cover any song they want. I am utterly speechless. And the fact that he has Cypress Hill's Insane in the Brain as the backtrack.

Hell, Everlast should have covered Stairway to Heaven while he was at it too. He could have sampled House of Pain's Jump Around as it's backing track.

Who let this happen at the Cash camp? Or was it Columbia? Who has the rights to "Folsom Prison Blues" these days? I think it's either House of Cash, Inc. or Sun Entertainment Corporation. Whoever it is, has chosen poorly by allowing Everlast to cover this.

The video is atrocious. Preposterous. Pompous. Blasphemous. I am appalled. Really. My spirit, and more importantly, Cash's legacy, just died a little bit.

I have no doubt that JC is rollin' over here.

(and yes, I took this picture of the Cashs' grave site in my pilgrimage there two years ago.)

Thank God It's Lemmy!

New album, new tour, same ol' Lemmy. Thank God!


Motorhead are releasing their new album Motorized on August 26th! Go ahead and brace yourself and prepare your ears to bleed! Here is the track list for the upcoming album Motorizer:

(Teach You How To) Sing The Blues
Time Is Right
Heroes
Runaround Man
English Rose
Rock Out
1000 Names
When The Eagle Screams
Don't Die Ashamed
Back On The Chain
Buried Alive


And if that is not enough, Motorhead is touring this summer and fall too. Click here for tickets and see below for dates:

METAL MASTERS TOUR

METAL LEGENDS JUDAS PRIEST, HEAVEN & HELL,

MOTORHEAD AND TESTAMENT UNITE

Aug 6/08
Camden, NJ
Susquehanna Bank Center

Aug 7/08
Bristow, VA
Nissan Pavilion

Aug 9/08
Holmdel, NJ
PNC Bank Arts Center

Aug 10/08
Wantagh, NY
Nikon at Jones Beach

Aug 13/08
Toronto, ON
Molson Amphitheatre

Aug 16/08
Pittsburgh, PA
Post Gazette Pavilion

Aug 18/08
Detroit, MI
DTE Energy Music Theatre

Aug 19/08
Chicago, IL
First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre

Aug 22/08
Dallas, TX
Superpages.com Amphitheatre

Aug 23/08
Houston, TX
Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion

Aug 24/08
San Antonio, TX
Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre

Aug 27/08
Albuquerque, NM
Journal Pavilion

Aug 28/08
Phoenix, AZ
Cricket Wireless Pavilion

Aug 30/08
San Bernardino, CA
Glen Helen Pavilion

Aug 31/08
Mountain View, CA
Shoreline Amphitheatre



MOTORHEAD NORTH AMERICA 2008
w/ The Misfits, Airbourne, Valient Thorr & Year Long Disaster

Sep 3/08
San Diego, CA
House of Blues

Sep 4/08
Las Vegas, NV
House of Blues

Sep 6/08
Denver, CO
The Fillmore Auditorium

Sep 7/08
N. Kansas City, MO
Harrah's Voodoo

Sep 9/08
St. Louis, MO
The Pageant

Sep 10/08
Madison, WI
Orpheum Theatre

Sep 12/08
St. Paul, MN
Myth

Sep 13/08
Grand Rapids, MI
The Orbit Room

Sep 14/08
Columbus, OH
Newport Music Hall

Sep 18/08
Baltimore, MD
Rams Head Live!

Sep 19/08
Philadelphia, PA
The Electric Factory

Catchin' Up

I have been seeing, reading and hearing about Rainn Wilson's upcoming movie The Rocker for quite some time, but actually just saw the trailer for the first time this week. This movie will obviously be extremely silly, but it will be a travesty not to check it out...at least at the matinee price.

Speaking of the Rocker, the word on the street, according to Variety, is that Paramount and Jack Black are gearing up for their next tour, with the School of Rock 2: America Rocks. Black will reprise his role as Dewey Finn, a down and out rocker posing as a school teacher in order to achieve rock god-dom, but this time taking his students, err, band, on a cross country tour.

And while we're on the subject of rock on the big screen, Harmonix and MTV Games have unveiled the setlist for Rock Band 2 this week. Some of the highlights include:

AC/DC - Let There Be Rock
Dinosaur Jr. - Feel The Pain
Guns N' Roses - Shackler's Revenge (from the "upcoming" Chinese Democracy album)
Mastodon - Colony of Birchmen
Motorhead - Ace of Spades
Sonic Youth - Teenage Riot
Talking Heads - Psycho Killer
The Replacements - Alex Chilton

Check out the setlist here.

Tonight's the Night

The Man, The Myth, The Legend. Neil Young will be on The Late Show with David Letterman tonight at 11:35pm EST. Also on the show will be The Hold Steady.

Click here for the next two weeks' lineup, including We Are Scientists, Grizzly Bear and Black Kids.

It's Good To Be King

Friday night I attended the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers show with Steve Winwood at the Verizon Amphitheater in Charlotte. While we missed Steve Winwood, as tailgating beers in the parking lot won out over the $11 tall boys inside, we could still hear the original "purveyor of the High Life" from outside. Since I've never been that big of a fan of Steve's, catching him here and there a few times, but never really making an effort to actually go see him, I wasn't that concerned with missing him...besides, duty called in the parking lot. After downing a couple of cold ones, and squeezing a handful of Red Bulls from the young ladies diving the Red Bull Mini around the lot, we headed on in to catch what was sure to be an awesome show from America's greatest rock band. ...and yes, I just said that. Write it down, take it to the bank.

Sir Thomas and the Breakers, of course, did not disappoint. Do they ever? I've seen Tom a handful of times, and I have certainly never been disappointed...well, at least with the show. Ticket pricing, the crowd, and the length of show are a different story.

I'll start with the ticket pricing. Tom Petty is fairly priced. Actually, I would be inclined to pay a little more than the $29.50 that I paid for my ticket. Hell, I'd go as far as $35, maybe even $40. But, when good ol' Ticketmaster gets involved, and rears it's head, a $30 tickets balloons into the small festival price of $52 and change...for one ticket. Ridiculous if you ask me. The fees amounted to over 75% of the face value of the ticket...I figure I should get 75% more show, or at least a beer or two included in the cost. Not the case. Instead I got:

• a(n) (in)convenience fee for me bending over so easily
• a facility charge for the location of the financial molestation and moral degradation of me (and 30,000 others at the sold out TP show)
• a TicketFast fee, which, luckily, the act and breach of my character and standards of paying an exorbitant amount was all over in just about the relatively short amount of time;(it sure was FAST!)
• a processing fee for my realization of what had just happened, and the guilt and shame that I will forever live with here on out.

I never thought that I would agree with Eddie Vedder so much...

I have always loved crowds. I like the feeling, the atmosphere, the electricity and the feeling of brotherhood and community that they exude. I went to Bonnaroo and loved it for God's sake. However, as I get older, and (un)fortunately more and more sober at shows (as I am learning that I actually like to remember them now), the crowd seems to get in my way at big shows. I love clubs,small venues and theatres. I like Bonnaroo, but that is a different scenario. For some reason, I felt like the old guy at the club that keeps getting ran over and made fun of for being a "square" when he was trying to enjoy himself out in the crowd. So then I would move over and feel like the nerd on the wall at the dance. I guess I was just the most sober person there, and with the drive back to our friend's afterwards, someone had to be. It felt like a big frat party with all the kids falling all over themselves, and more importantly me. It's no fun, unless it's me doing the falling, dammit.

Ok, the length of the show was two hours. That is great. My only complaint is that Sir Thomas isn't still playing nearly four days later. I could listen to the Heartbreakers all day and all night; all week even. They are the tightest band in the land, hands down. Want to argue? Argue. What'd ya got? Respond below.

Setlist:

You Wreck Me
Listen To Her Heart
I Won't Back Down
Even The Losers
Free Fallin'
Mary Jane's Last Dance
Cabin Down Below
End Of The Line (Traveling Wilburys)
Breakdown (with a "Give It To Me" freestyle verse or two)
Saving Grace (jammed out!)
A Face In The Crowd
Honey Bee
You Don't Know How It Feels
Learning To Fly
Don't Come Around Here No More
Refugee

encore:

Runnin' Down A Dream
Mystic Eyes
American Girl

Tom never disappoints, and I hope he never will. I'm just glad he's out there still doing it, and doing it better than ever. Better than anyone today. Yes, I said it, again. What you got?

Thanks to KC for the "Look arrow" graphic.

Goodbye, Big Russ

Again, my M.O. is sometimes being a little late. Which, probably won't help me in this area of my life. A couple of friends sent this link to me a few weeks and I forgot all about it. This is from Tim Russert's Memorial a few weeks ago, with Tom Brokaw and Tim's son Luke Russert introducing the next piece. Apparently Russert was a big Bruce Springsteen fan from way back in the day when Bruce and Tim were unknown faces to the world.

Watch the Boss plays "Thunder Road" for Big Russ, as he called him, via satellite from Europe. My friends all agreed that if this didn't make you tear up just a bit, you have no soul.

Well, do you?