L.I.F.E.: Freshmakers

You may have already noticed the splash-page ads in Rolling Stone; Mentos (that's right—the Aussie hard-shell candy chews with those perplexing television commercials) is sponsoring a national competition to find and showcase the country's best unsigned bands. What you may not know is that the sponsors have seen fit to include Knoxville hip-hop/heavy funksters L.I.F.E. among the eight finalists in the contest's southeast region. L.I.F.E. fans and local music boosters can help the band's cause by logging onto the Mentos on-line "voting booth" at www.mentos.com. (You can vote as many times as you like, and you can vote for up to four favorites each time.)

According to L.I.F.E. bassist Adam Bucco, the band was chosen as a regional finalist after sending a copy of their double CD Soul Stuffin'/Living in a Funked-Up Environment, plus a rough mix of another upcoming CD and a press kit to the Mentos folks. The winners from each of the five regions nationwide are competing for slots in the Freshmaker Tour, a series of showcases that will funnel the top bands into a final show in Amsterdam later this year. (The L.I.F.E.-sters are vying for a spot in the May 31 showcase at Atlanta's Cotton Club.) In the meantime, Bucco says the band should have another CD ready for local release in August.

Let's Just Hope They Don't Perform in Soho

SHOHO may not be a household name just yet—the WNCW benefit (see item below) being the band's first show and all. But you may recognize a few of the outfit's component parts. The newly-christened five-piece includes Jeff Heiskell, singer for former Sire Recording artists the Judybats (and more recently, the Doubter's Club), guitarist Reed Pendleton (late of the Doubter's Club and Immortal Chorus), twins Mike and Doug Harrell on BLANK and BLANK respectively (whom you may recognize from Wet Jonah, a popular local heavy alternative quartet from just a few years back), and bassist Rob Bell. The Harrells and Bell, by the way, have their own group apart from SHOHO, a project called Big Red.

According to Pendleton, the new band arose out of his and Heiskell's songwriting collaborations shortly before the Doubter's Club broke up last year. He says the new band "has a rawness we couldn't have got with the Doubter's Club," which trafficked in dense, guitar-centric alternative pop. "It's very British-sounding, but not from any particular decade," Pendleton adds. "It covers everything from Queen to My Bloody Valentine and Radiohead."

Bluegrass Brings in the Green

The recent WDVX fundraiser (previewed in these very pages) was a resounding success, according to A.C. Entertainment promoter and local bluegrass booster Benny Smith. Smith says more than 400 people attended the March 20 event at the Bijou Theatre to hear such national and regional bluegrass luminaries as Tut Taylor, Valerie Smith, Blue Highway, Chris Jones, One-Way Track, and the Knoxville Bluegrass Band. All told, the gathering raised nearly $5,000 for the impoverished little D.I.Y. Americana station, which heretofore had been broadcasting from a mobile home.

"Some amazing things happened onstage that night," says the ever-effusive Smith; the night was capped by a so-called "songwriter's set" in which the acts debuted all-new material including three new songs from world-renowned Blue Highway. The station begins the on-air portion of its fundraising drive soon, says Smith, and will re-broadcast the entire concert sometime in the coming weeks.

And On the Other Side of the Mountains...

As if funding a public radio station isn't difficult enough, try funding a station which sends a decidedly nontraditional format (for public radio, at least) of Americana, folk, blues, and jazz throughout the vast commercial wilderness of the North Carolina and East Tennessee region, as Spindale, N.C.'s WNCW has done for several years. When trying to maintain such an ambitious program on public support, something like a transmitter buried under a pile of snow can have substantial impact. Earlier in the year, the station was a band of static due to such a mishap, but it's been up and running at full throttle for a couple of months, just in time for the annual spring fundraiser. To help out with that effort, a benefit show with a couple of Knoxville's newest bands (and one not-so-new) will be held at Barley & Hopps on Saturday, April 11. Headlining the show will be Fiction, who have played together informally for a couple of years and are finishing up their first self-released CD. The disc of slightly twangy harmonic pop-rock should be available shortly after the show. Also appearing will be former Judybat Jeff Heiskell's new band SHOHO and local vets The Mystery Dates. All proceeds from the show will go to WNCW, but a taste of some local up-and-comers will be the real benefit.

—Zippy "Local Down-and-Goner" McDuff