Metro Pulse/Music/Eye on the Scene

Warm up

Remember Woodstick? Well, maybe not. But that late, lamented Greene County music festival, which every year hosted some of the most vital musical up-and-comers East Tennessee had to offer, has provided a spiritual template for a new area music showcase, this one in Hot Springs, N.C. Hotoberfest 2000, the event's second annual convening, will be held on Saturday, Oct. 14 at Hot Springs Campground.

Hotoberfest will feature eight diverse musical entities from across Tennessee and western North Carolina, including Knoxville funk monsters A Band Called L.I.F.E. and former V-roy Scott Miller. Also featured will be Johnson City's Blue Rapture as well as the Glenn Rasmussen Trio, Greeneville's Jimmy D and the B-Movie Blues, Nashville's Trent Summar and the New Row Mob, and North Carolina's Snake Oil Medicine Show. The eighth act will be an extra special treat (for those of you old enough to remember, that is), a reunion performance by Greeneville's erstwhile funk-thrash project Scull Soup, a regional fave for several years in these parts.

Tickets are $20, available at the gate on showday. That price covers music, camping and even parking; gates swing open at 9 a.m., with a 3 p.m. showtime. For camping info, call the Hot Springs Campground at 800-462-0933.

No Mirage

Last weekend's Mountain Oasis Music Festival outside Hendersonville, N.C. ,was a rollicking success, even if organizer Ashley Capps does say so himself. (After trekking back from the three-day affair, he was still jazzed enough about it at 3 a.m. to leave a long account on the Poptart voice mail system.) "Friday night, we actually ended up turning traffic back," the AC Entertainment majordomo reports. By Saturday, with the fest fit to bursting at its 6,000-fan capacity, radio station sponsor WNCW was telling any other would-be concert-goers to stay home. Traffic snarls aside, Capps says a good time was had by all. Music highlights included Bela Fleck, Iris DeMent, the soon-to-appear-in-Knoxville �Cubanismo!, and Deadhead tributaries Dark Star Orchestra. So can we expect this to be an annual event? "We need to get a couple days sleep and then go back to the drawing board," Capps says. "But I think it's safe to say we'd like to do it again." And not just across the mountains, either—he's interested in scouting some sites closer to his hometown.

Hector's HQ

I've yet to check it out (I can't go out every night, you know), but word of mouth is that the Hector Qirko Band's regular Monday night gig at Manhattan's is turning into quite the scene. Besides hearing Hector's supple note-bending and smooth blues, your $3 cover charge might get you acquainted with any number of local luminaries. Among those who have hopped onstage for a tune or two with the band include Qirko's longtime associate R.B. Morris, blues belter Cheryl Renée, and man-who-needs-no-introduction Scott Miller. Qirko says the informal early-week vibe gives a chance to keep up the band's chops and let everybody's hair down. Dig it.

Get Your Movie Mojo Workin'

If this week's story about the Knoxville film scene has got ya curious, you should check out some of the upcoming offerings from the Knoxville Film and Video Co-op. Organizer James Henry has collaborated with Tomato Head impresario Brian Sherry to put on an initial run of Thursday night films at the Head. It kicked off last week with The Atomic Cafe, and continues as follows: Oct. 12 (that's tonight, kids), it's Stop the Bombs, a half-hour documentary by and about the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance and their efforts to halt bomb production at the Y-12 plant; Oct. 19, Jean-Luc Godard's futuristic noir Alphaville; Oct. 26, more Godard with his legendary chamber of bourgeois horrors Weekend; and Nov. 2, four short documentaries from the Kentucky-based Appalshop group, sort of a foretaste of their November five-day festival here (more on that in coming weeks). Henry notes that KFVC has also been helping with weekly Sunday night shows at Pilot Light, so stay tuned. The bummer, if you can call it that, is that most of these presentations are video projections. The cool thing is that they're free. The Tomato Head shows all start at 9 p.m.

Three 'roys Find Fault

When the Viceroys changed their name—prodded by a little-known reggae band of the same name that claimed rights to it—it caused a bit of consternation for fans. The so-called Three 'roys—drummer Jeff Bills, guitarist/ singer Mic Harrison, and bassist Paxton Sellers—seem to have been aware of that when they chose a name for their new official project.

"Basically, the name of the band is the Faults," Bills says. "It's just a name we came up with. Most of all it wasn't taken—at least through the avenues I checked."

Joining the former 'Roys on guitar is Robbie Trosper, formerly of Ramblin' Roy. Bills says the Faults don't have any local shows lined up, but have finished recording an album and plan to release it in December.

Go.

Thursday: Alice Cooper at Chilhowee Park. Come on. You know you're curious.

Friday: Evil Twin at Longbranch Saloon. It's Friday the 13th. It's a full moon. Crazy things will happen. And spankings will be had.

Saturday: KSO with Nadja Salerno-Sonnenber and Mark O'Connor at Tennessee Theatre. She's a little bit classical. He's a little bit country. She plays the violin. He plays the fiddle. It's an orchestra, East Tennessee-style.

Sunday: Y'all at Borders. We love the country-rock-folk stylings of Y'all. And, afterwards, you can check out the Okayplayer Tour at World's Fair Park.

Monday: HQ Band at Manhattan's.

Tuesday: Glossary with Fin Fang Room and The Mercury Program at Pilot Light. Glossary is alternarock from Murfreesboro, like The Features, sort of, if they had a girl.

Wednesday: CC String Band at Barley's. How many times do I have to tell you?

—Emma "Scott Miller is having my alien love child" Poptart