Metro Pulse/Music/Eye on the Scene

Local CD Reviews

Greg Siedschlag
What I Do When I'm Not at the Library

O.K., conflict-of-interest alert: Greg Siedschlag was once an intern here at Metro Pulse Amalgamated International Ltd., and I've never quite gotten over the time he left a spot on the passenger side window while polishing my company-issued Subaru Outback. But being a professional, I will let bygones be bygones and evaluate Greg's debut CD release strictly on its merits.

And it has many. Like, for example, the title, which is pretty funny and (given Greg's current status as an all-star Ivy League student) probably true, too. Likewise many of the songs themselves, mostly faux-country or alt-country or joke-country ditties with names like "I Wrote This Song With My Left Hand" and "It's Good to be a Quaker." He's got a nice knack for melodies, and if his baritone vocals are at times a little strained, well, why d'ya think they call it DIY? Bonus family values points for including his sister Lisa in the project; she sings harmonies on a few tracks and also wrote one of the best ones ("Chicken Loves My Kitty"). As one of my co-Pulsers says, "Greg definitely has some kind of talent. I'm not sure he's found the right application for it yet." But it's fun to listen to him searching.

Oh, and Greg: it's wax on, wax off.

The American Plague
Daemos

Everything about this four-song cassette screams "1983!" For one thing, it's a cassette, with the title scrawled directly on the tape with a magic marker. For another, the homemade cover art—a nice rendering of an open book with the outline of a human skull on the front of it—looks just like the kind of stuff I doodled on my Trapper Keeper during home room. But more than anything, it's the prototypical old-school hardcore captured on the tape that gives it that high school-era feel.

Most of this new project is the work of Jaw, formerly of the rudely-reputed and now defunct Malignmen (who probably hold the Knoxville record for being banned from local venues). Daemos is much like the Malignmen—four-chord metal riffing at a serious, deliberate pace, with brain-crushing intensity and gruff, to-the-point vocal delivery. Three original songs appear on the tape, all with typical (and slightly ponderous, I have to admit) hardcore themes apparent in the titles—"Doubt," "Tough Love," and "Man's Burden"—plus a good cover of David Bowie's "Suffragette City."

It's not a classic, and Daemos' devotion to old-school sounds may seem out-of-date. But there should always be a place for this.

Blue-Chip Dale

Knoxville theater aficionados have an extra reason to go see the new Sean Penn-directed drama The Pledge: the presence of Knox-bred actress Dale Dickey, a UT theater grad who starred in many local productions in the 1980s. Since relocating to L.A., Dickey has appeared in films including The Journey of August King and Sordid Lives, and the popular Smoky Mountains TV drama Christy. In The Pledge, she shares the screen with a cast that includes Jack Nicholson, Vanessa Redgrave, Helen Mirren, Robin Wright Penn, Sam Shepard and Benicio Del Toro. If that doesn't count as "local girl makes good," we don't know what does.

Speaking of Motion Pictures

No, Neil Young is not dropping by but the Third (has it been three years already?) Annual Valleyfest Film Festival has just announced its opening night line-up. The Fest will run March 15 through 18 out at Regal Cinema's Downtown West Theatre. The opening night will be kind of special this year, as it's constructed entirely from films made in the East Tennessee area. These include: Paul Harrill's Gina: An Actress, Age 29 (which you may remember us mentioning in conjunction with a little soiree called Sundance), Jayne Morgan's The Sleep Seeker's, James Henry's Giving Up the Ghost, and Larsen Jay's Pin Monkeys. Two experimental films—Bottle Rocket Wars and Of God and Man—will also be screened, along with a short called Traditions by Knoxville filmmaker/Atmosphere Pictures top-guy Scott Colthorp. (Oh, and Scott, we truly dig the Trashbusters spots but think that Steve Dupree and Andrew Miller should get more screen time...)

Also new this year is a wider selection of international features and a Spanish language block will get a special screening. For more info, check out the Fest's site at www.valleyfest.com. Oh, and save the back row for me....

Go.

Thursday: Green Day with The Get-Up Kids at the Civic Coliseum. This is your last Warning.

Friday: KSO Masterworks at Tennessee Theatre. Please, if you only hear "Thus Spake Zarathustra" once this year, make this the one time.

Saturday: Balfa Toujours at Laurel Theatre. It's cold outside, chere, but it's like the Bayou in here.

Sunday: Steve Earle with Stacy Earle at the Tennessee Theatre. Yes, he will play "Copperhead Road" and "Guitar Town." So you don't have to spend the whole show screaming for them. Really.

Monday: Watch Antiques Roadshow. Clean out attic.

Tuesday: Cave-in with Hot-Rod Circuit, Rise From Ruin, and New Brutalism at Pilot Light. Rock (art and otherwise) for the sweater-wearing young hordes.

Wednesday: Dave Douglas and Charms of the Night Sky at Fairbanks. Read the Gamut story already.

—Emma "Tuna Loves My Kitty, Too" Poptart