Metro Pulse/Music/Eye on the Scene

Local CD Review

Apelife
Natural Selections (Disgraceland/Apeville)

On "North Knoxville," the second song on Apelife's new CD, Natural Selections, Knox-rock kingpin Todd Steed sings, "Thank God for North Knoxville...It's the last place in America/That ain't trying to be somewheres else." Well, thank God for Apelife while you're at it, because they may very well be the last band in America that's not trying to be somewheres—or something—else.

For something like 15 years—first in Smokin' Dave and the Premo Dopes, then with the Opposable Thumbs and now with Apelife, in between stints in other outfits and sojourns to Indonesia and other far-flung corners of the world—Todd Steed has been the most Knoxvillian of Knoxville rockers, singing about local people and places in songs that can be side-splitting funny and tear-jerking poignant, sometimes all at the same time.

Now he's done it again, with the able assistance of "Bleedin'" Matt Richardson on drums and MP photographer Ed "Ed" Richardson on bass. The songs on Natural Selections cover the whole Steed gamut, from Himalayan Sherpas (on "Sherpa") to breaking up (on "Everybody's Breakin' Up") to high school shootings (on "Rebel Fight Song"). Most of the songs are classic Steed mid-tempo rockers with slashing guitar flare-ups and sing-along choruses; "Rawk and Roll Show" tends more toward rocking out, and "Everybody's Breakin' Up" is more subdued—but on the whole Natural Selections is good-natured, no-frills pop-rock.

The most Steed-ian of these songs, "Goin' Out Tonight," is a pitch-perfect ode to Knoxville night life: "Tonight I'll go see an out-of-town band/Stand against the wall with my pockets full of hands...But tonight I hope the band is good, so I can dance just like a fool/Just like I said I would to myself when I got out of schoo-oo-ool.../I only got five bucks to last the night, but it'll take me where I'm bound."

There's something predictable about a Todd Steed performance. But there's something predictable about drinking beer with your friends on a Friday night, too—and that's what Natural Selections is like.

Feel the Love

Since their beginnings in 1995, Gran Torino have rolled around the country from Maine to Colorado. They have played approximately 1,000 shows and their three albums have sold a total of 35,000 copies. One song, "Moments With You," recently won the Best Pop Song in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest. Their success has led them back to Knoxville to reward the hometown crowd with a series of inexpensive shows at Moose's Music Hall.

The shows will be a test run of 15 new songs and some older songs that have been redone. The band's manager, Ted Heinig, says the band wants to test material for its new album, tentatively due for release next fall. The band wants to "build the record around what the hometown crowd likes," Heinig said. Each show is being billed as a "completely different experience" to the one before it and will feature a local band in an effort to promote the Knox music scene.

Gran Torino's next show will be on Feb. 14 at Moose's Music Hall, followed by another one on the 28th. The tickets for each show will be $5.

Another One Bites It

On Jan. 1, visitors to the Lava Lounge's website (www.thelavalounge.com) were greeted with a strange but accurate message. "Thanks, everybody," it read, "It's been a great few years. As of January 1, the Lava Lounge is closed. We're going to miss all of you."

It was a quiet departure for one of Knoxville's more controversial clubs. The Lounge, which was located out west on Kingston Pike, just behind the Army/Navy surplus store, was a deviant little piece of the city that didn't match its suburban surrounding. Fetish nights, goth nights, and even a band of singing Satanists played there at one point or another, adding a bit of color to the vanilla Pike and giving local lovers of the dark a place to celebrate.

One facet of the Lounge still exists—Funk for ya mind has moved to The Electric Ballroom on Tuesday nights. DJs Special K, Satoshi, Tall Skinny Black Dude, Gabriel and Jest will be spinning discs for your dancing pleasure.

The future of the owners and the building are uncertain at this point in time. While the rumor mill is as active as ever (God bless Knoxville), we couldn't reach the former managers of the Lounge for comment.

"Now that it is all said and done," says Knox-belle, Lounge-lover and keeper of the definitive guide to the local Goth scene at www.knoxvillegothic.homestead.com, "people will miss the Lava, and not realize the source it was for Knoxville's gothic and alternative communities."

Go.

Thursday: American Plague with Atropos at Pilot Light. Old-school punk.

Friday: King Django with Heavy Step at Pilot Light. Ska, ska and more ska.

Saturday: Haunted: Voices from the Pendragon Cycle at Black Box Theatre. An Actors Co-op Beehive production of five Don Nigro (Laestrygonians) monologues that add information to the ongoing story of the Pendragon family.

Sunday: Watch the Ravens kick the snot out of the Giants. Hey, a girl can dream...

Monday: Ildar Huziakhmetov and Ilia Steinschneider at St. John's Cathedral. Cello music always makes the day better. Always.

Tuesday: Bare Jr. with The Faults at Moose's. Rock on.

Wednesday: Croonin' Kurt and the High Geared Combo at Barley's. Honky-tonk from the Empire State.

—Emma "Come together. Right now. Over me." Poptart