Rock Candy: June 2007 Archives

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Thursday, June 28, 2007 - 14:49:03

Weekend To-Do List Podcast

With pictures!

Download: To-Do List Podcast 2

Posted by Lindsey Millar at 02:49 PM | Permalink | Comments [0]

Wednesday, June 27, 2007 - 15:43:23

Weekend and Early Next Week To-Dos: Lismore, Conduit and Cracker

THURSDAY

LISMORE
9 p.m., ArtsScene. $5.

New Jersey’s Lismore makes music that’s alternately been described as twee-electronica and glitch pop. Jersey City neighbors Penelope Trappes and Stephen Hindman, who worked as drum ’n’ bass DJ Kingsize, formed the band on a whim, with Hindman weaving skittering beats and tremoloed vocal effects with Trappes’ ethereal vocals. The group’s acclaimed debut, “We Could Connect or We Could Not,” leaned toward a more traditional band arrangement, with a drummer and bassist augmenting the twosome, but Lismore’s back to stripped-down electronica as a twosome with a new EP, “All That You Are.” “Sunrise Girl Says,” one of the new tracks, sounds like it could be the soundtrack to a Jacques Cousteau documentary. Happy Fuckers Unite!, the booking group behind the Treehouse, who lost their go-to venue after a police crackdown, organized this show. They’ve also lined up Michael McDonald aficionado Browningham and Beeping Slag, the impressive local DJ collective led by Ettiem, one of the guiding forces behind Les Attaques and the Chinese Girls.

KEVIN KERBY
9 p.m., White Water Tavern. $5.

Last January, Kevin Kerby released his first solo album on Max Recordings. A departure from his work with the rowdy rock band Mulehead, “Secret Lives of All Night Radios” shows off his stripped-down songwriting. On “Secret Lives,” the Little Rock native reflects on small-town life with straight-forwardness. Take, for instance, “Paper Mills and Broken Wills,” where he admits: “I broke all my habits except the ones that kill/This town smells like paper mills and broken wills.” Another favorite, “Here Comes the Neighborhood,” sounds a bit like “Yankee Foxtrot Hotel”-era Wilco. On that track (and many others), Kerby lays down heartfelt lyrics over a driving sound that gives conventional alt-country a pop-rock punch in the gut. Since the album’s release, Kerby has been humbly promoting the album with acoustic sets like the one he’s got planned tonight. Label mate John Housley, a powerful singer/songwriter in his own right, and ex-Mulehead guitarist Dave Raymond support.

THE DYNAMITES FEATURING CHARLES WALKER
9:30 p.m., Sticky Fingerz. $8.

Charles Walker’s career has been one of reinvention. In the early ’60s, the Tennessee native led Little Charles and the Sidewinders, a popular club act in New York in its day that’s since become revered by deep-soul fiends. He cut soul sides with the great blues/soul labels of the day — Decca, Champion and Chess — recorded sporadically in the ’70s and ’80s and returned to music in 1999, recast as a bluesman. Now he’s riding the deep funk revival that’s lately been gaining steam behind folks like Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings and Amy Winehouse (thanks to the Dap Kings’ input). Earlier this month, Walker and the Dynamites, the nine-piece band that supports him, released “Kaboom!,” a blistering collection of James Brown-style funky soul. A young white man, Bill Elder, who performs as Leo Black, leads the Nashville-based act as its guitarist, composer, songwriter and producer. He’s a 1990 graduate of Central High.

ALSO: THURSDAY
The Burden Brothers are at Juanita’s with Lochness Monster and Brash, 9 p.m., $10. New Orlean’s Ted Ludwig leads a trio at the Afterthought, 8 p.m., $2. Third Degree and Hardy Windburn perform at Cajun’s, 9 p.m., $5.

The rest of the weekend, plus early next week, after the jump.

Posted by Lindsey Millar at 03:43 PM | Permalink | Comments [0]

New Chris Denny

Here's the cover art for the new Chris Denny album, sure to be one of the biggest Arkansas albums of the year. It's out August 7 on 00:02:59 Records.

Props to the label for latching on the Denny, but 00:02:59 has got to be the most retarded, impractically named record label ever. It's effectively un-googlealbe. I've written it at least ten times, and I still can't remember it. The name alone assures they'll never grow past obscurity.

Still ranting: The one-sheet that Denny's PR firm Sacks & Co. sent out to go with album says:

Denny started the album with his band The Old Soles, guest keyboardist Robbie Crowell and engineer Jason Weinheimer. However, a week into the recording, Denny realized there was a problem. "The producer and I had different visions of how these songs should go down. I knew exactly how I wanted this album to sound." So he left the studio, producer, and his recording fund and walked away. Undeterred, he curried favors with a one-room Little Rock studio for off-hour sessions, quickly rehearsed all the arrangements and set back out to finish his vision by producing himself.

Promo sheets certainly aren't to be confused with journalism, but this is just blatantly misleading. Denny started out working with Barry Poynter and Nick Devlin as producers. That didn't work out, so he went to Weinheimer and his one-room studio and off-hour sessions. Might be minutia to most, but it's this type of shit that lazy music writers everywhere parrot over and over, and it's frustrating.

End rant.

Tracklist for the new album after the jump.

Posted by Lindsey Millar at 02:23 PM | Permalink | Comments [0]

Goines

Our favorite natty-dressing, faux-hawked rapper is soon to drop a mixtape. His partner in Suga City, Arkansas Bo, dropped a ridiculously good one in January, and his clique, Conduit Family, put out a fine, fine comp a few months back. So stakes are high. He's calling it "Lead by Example: A Satirical View of Being the Bad Guy."

If it's anything even half as good as "The Villain," it'll be essential. Head dude in charge at Conduit, Epiphany, tells me mid-next month for a release date.

Posted by Lindsey Millar at 01:41 PM | Permalink | Comments [0]

Tuesday, June 26, 2007 - 17:36:40

Wednesday To-Dos: Merle and Kelly and g-force

Mighty Merle Haggard swings in town tonight with Kelly Willis, who's new fairly raucous (in a folky kind of way) album, "Translated from Love," came out on Tuesday. Hear snippets here.

Or, for the more kickin' it inclined.

Posted by Lindsey Millar at 05:36 PM | Permalink | Comments [0]

Who Do's It?

Tha Rock Underground Hip Hop Show went down last night at the Rev Room in Little Rock. MC’ed by Shea Marie, a member of the headlining act Grim Muzik, the show featured a round-up of some of the A-state’s finest lyricists and performers all track-backed by DJ Smoky, a recognizable regular on the River Market scene.

Highlights:

The Sunny Side Click performed crowd favorites “Ya Sick” and “Catch Me at Da Spot.”

The Caddy Kittys, an in-your-face, all-girl group, who – in between playful “meows” – scratched away at topics that their male counterparts have typically claimed: getting high, getting paid and getting laid. The women (pictured above) held their own on the catchy song “Always Trappin’” (“Have you ever seen a b**** on a grind, steady hustlin’ all the time keepin’ money on her mind now, always trappin’ now, pistol packin’ now”). They’re rowdy and aggressive, street-smart and ambitious. They performed “Nine Lacs Bacc,” on which they requested their Sweets rolled tight, music up high, and top laid back. And, on “Don’t Bump Me,” they advised against stepping on their feet on the dance floor. You get the feeling that they’ll tell you exactly what they want, and, whatever it is, you’ll give it to them.

Tall, skinny Pimp Slap, with help from a big friend, delivered his self-promoting single “Pimp Slap,” on which he claims he’s the “king of the empire known as Little Rock.” On “What’s Up,” he gave a nod to every big name in Rock Town: Big Keys, Playa Mal, Playboy Shane, 607 and Jermain Taylor. His new album “Freshman of tha Year” is out now.

Finally, after several so-so rap duos, it was time for Grim Muzik, a label/music collective supporting several individual Arkansas artists – YK, Doughboy, Virdman, Playa Spade, Platinum Black, among others. At last night’s show, six or seven rappers joined Shea Marie on stage. In call-and-response fashion, they chanted “Who Do’s It?” and the crowd replied: “Grim Muzik.” Everybody put their “As” in the air during their breezy jam “Riding in the A-state.” A short set, they gave us “Boy Looka Here,” “Boss Bytch,” and one or two others before calling it a night.

Posted by Nicole Boddington at 03:03 PM | Permalink | Comments [0]

Monday, June 25, 2007 - 14:59:55

NWA on YouTube

Our man on the street in Fayetteville, Derek Jenkins, points me to the YouTube front page, where Fayetteville native Masie Skiles (daughter of Professor and Folk Historian Robert Cochran) stars in The Hauntening, a short film about scary beans directed by her new husband, filmmaker Duncan Skiles.

Posted by Lindsey Millar at 02:59 PM | Permalink | Comments [0]