Metro Pulse/Music/Eye on the Scene

Local CD review

Copper
Exchange

The hooks on Copper's first CD, Exchange, are just plain seductive. The record is a startling notice of the band's Big Rock sound, tailored perfectly for FM radio: smooth, fat guitars, earnest and thoughtful vocals, chugging rhythms that crash into soaring choruses. All in all, this is a polished record—good songs, energetic performances, and clean production—that's more than just a promising debut.

It's easy to make the comparisons to Creed, Pearl Jam, Staind, etc. Copper's certainly not breaking any new ground here. But while they're treading in familiar territory, they've put their own stamp on contemporary arena rock, sounding perhaps conservative but certainly not derivative. Singer Keith Wallen is clearly the biggest asset the band has. His voice is big and warm, with a dynamic range that reaches from guttural howls to whispered vulnerability to soaring crescendos.

The standout songs are "Around," the ballad "Holding Out," and the burnout rocker "The First Time." The eight-song disc suffers from the same mid-tempo pace on every song; a ballad that doesn't quite reach lighter-salute heights or a real flare-up would be welcome. But each song is well-constructed, and the accomplishment on Exchange is especially surprising considering the band's youth and that they've been together just over a year.

Yeah, yeah, yeah—this is Metro Pulse, and we're only supposed to like bands that play the Pilot Light and draw crowds in the dozens, not bands that bring in hundreds of people at the Campus Pub. But it's been a long time since such an openly friendly and populist band has had much impact here, and it's a welcome relief.

Copper's CD release gig will be on Friday, Feb. 15 at 10 p.m. at Blue Cats. Page 3 will open.

Local CD Review II

Immortal Chorus
Premonition

Immortal Chorus was nothing short of a phenomenon on the local scene in the early '90s. The band packed the house at Flamingo's and other long-gone clubs but somehow faded quietly away after a couple of years. Following a handful of reunion shows and half-starts in the intervening years, Steve Britton finally got everything back in order and Immortal Chorus is a full-on band again, playing regularly in town and now releasing Premonition, as solid a grunge-metal-dirge record as anything they did a decade ago.

In parts spooky and mournful, in other parts ferocious, raging wall-of-noise rock, Premonition is sinister throughout. Britton's effects-laden vocals chant and swoon with theatric flourishes; the heavy guitars chime and churn and swell; the rhythms are alternately gentle and pummeling. There's an obvious debt to Joy Division, but Immortal Chorus has a much fuller sound, drawing as much on the opulent decadence of Anne Rice novels as on Ian Curtis's lacerating bed-of-nails desperation.

The most effective songs are "Jekyll and Hyde," an allegorical tale about the darkness inside all of us; "Matador," a re-recording of an early favorite with an appropriately galloping beat and fierce guitar lines; and the singalong anthems "The Best Laid Plans" and "The Devil's Hooks," the brightest songs on the disc. For all the Goth trappings, these are all good rock songs. And the Goth hook never hides the intelligence under Immortal Chorus's dramatic act. They've been missed, and it's good they're back.

Immortal Chorus' CD release show will be on Saturday, Feb. 16 at 10 p.m. at Blue Cats.

Press Release Round-up

I get lots of errant PR faxes here at Metro Pulse Amalgamated. Sometimes, they aren't even worth the paper they are printed on. Othertimes, they are full of useful little tidbits that make a gloomy week ever-so-slightly less bleak. My greatest hope is always that all of this paper will point me to the path of divine musical well-being, where I can see all of the connections between these disparate snipes of unrelated information and assemble it into a coherent and beautiful ode to the local scene. Hope springs eternal. In lieu of that, here are two things I think you should know, culled from the spewage of the fax:

1) Jag Star's Sarah Lewis took a runner up award in the 2001 John Lennon Songwriting Contest (Pop Category), a contest started by Yoko Ono because of the "lack of recognition in the art of songwriting." The song, "Mouth," will be featured on Jag Star's forthcoming release and the band will play on March 2 at Blue Cats.

2) East Tennessee's own mini-Sundance, Valleyfest, will kick-off on March 13 at Downtown West cinema. This year, the fest will take over two screens at this Regal establishment, with one screen devoted to works by younger, high-school aged filmmakers. The popular East Tennessee night will open the fest—works by Renee Sanabria, Corey Meredith, and Ed Counts will be featured. And a series of West Virginia docs—including the cult classic "Jessco the Dancing Outlaw"—will be screened. Ticket info can be had at 525-7575 or www.valleyfest.com.

Go.

Thursday: V-Day Rave at Electric Ballroom with DJs Dan, Licorice, Scramby, Sam-e, and Slipmat. Dance your heartbreak away and/or create more.

Friday: Nug Jug with Round House and Mug Womp. Local rock.

Saturday: David Peterson with 1946 at Palace Theatre. If Moe Tucker isn't your thing, get filled up with some solid 'grass.

Sunday: John McCutcheon at Laurel Theatre. Traditional music for a lazy Sunday.

Monday: Fountain City Jazz Trio at Cafe Noir, formerly Brothers Coffee House. An night of jazz near the duck pond.

Tuesday: All skate. Now reverse.

Wednesday: Edwin McCain with Chuck Carrier at Blue Cats. Not my first choice, but the chicks dig his songwriting-based rock.

—Emma "Rollerballin'" Poptart with Matthew T. Everett