Metro Pulse/Music/Eye on the Scene

Listen Up!

During R.B. Morris' kickass concert in Market Square Sept. 5, he gave a rousing history lesson and portrait of our fair city. We didn't notice Victor Ashe, Mike Ragsdale, or any other men of power in the crowd. So we thought we'd reprint this for their (and our) benefit.

Knoxville the gray lost in the middle of the alphabet K town somewhere south of the river Ohio and east of the mighty Mississipp lost like the Bermuda Triangle of the Appalachians that gray area of the map that gray matter as yet unused that gray K of Kansas where Dorothy had to come from to go over the rainbow like no place like home like All the Way Home filmed in black and white in Knoxville at the height of the age of technicolor to capture that early century silent movie smoky small town factory feel of Knoxville that still is waking from a two century doze with a bitten lip and bloody nose wearing a cheap B-movie grin and the borrowed clothes of the little tramp's landlord stumbling after some joneses who came through town one time on their way to nowhere and named for the first secretary of war who never set foot here and choked on a chicken bone on a paradox of Knox COUNTY who couldn't make up its mind but sided with the Union while its northern namesake in Maine had Southern sympathies building ships for the slave trade and looking the other way like Rimbaud might of done in some desperation to make money and justify his disportionate soul looming over the next century where souls still survive and good joes still reside like antique weathervanes waiting for the new world to blow a brave breeze out our way while we while away the glory days on hold for some corporate godot to come to the territory some don Quixote on a donkey enterprise come to save us to the greater ranks of mediocrity and modernity which is all the city fathers ever pray for anyway in that occasional sigh set aside for something other than their own good favor and please let us appear as others would have us wherever they may prosperously be hopefully accepting us as themselves in full mutual exclusivity from all those lesser villes until that glorious day we supercede even these and smite them righteously with indignation and appropriation we pray o pray we the gray here that we might be there

Hip Hop's Gonna Be OK

Knoxville's got its first ever FM commercial hip hop station, and it could be having an effect in the way of more hip hop shows in Knoxville (note this week's Ludacris and Juvenile show). But there's still a dearth of clubs willing to focus on the misunderstood genre in Knoxville.

Zakiyyah Modeste is trying to change that with her Hip Hop and R&B Parties at Fairbanks Roasting Room every Saturday night.

Each party will have a different theme. This Saturday's is aimed at an older hip hop crowd—you must be 21 to get in. (Not every week will be age-restricted.) Doors open at 10:30 p.m. and the cover is $5.

"We wanted to encourage people that are older to come out. Hip hop started with our generation," Modeste says. "There's still those people who appreciate the old school and the lessons behind the music. Now, we're just told to nod our heads."

This week, they're featuring a tribute to Tupac Shakur, the rapper who was murdered in 1996. They will show videos about Tupac and play his music. AP from the N.U.T.S. will be DJing, songstress Lady Wilson will sing and spoken work artist Starr will perform.

"A lot of people look at Tupac as a thug rapper.... But he was an individual torn between being an activist and going along with society. He was a very deep person who wore many hats and kind of got caught up. As a member of the hip-hop culture, we have a responsibility for his death. We want to make sure that a lot of younger people don't go down that path."

Future Saturday nights might feature parties of reggae music or for Greek organizations.

How Extreme Can You Go?

Sunday afternoon's Southeast Exports Battle of the Bands at the Tennessee Valley Fair—sponsored by 94.3 Extreme Radio—was a close call for the judges (which included yours truly—and I swear the cookies one band gave out didn't sway us).

Most of the 10 bands that competed were of the extreme nature and all of them impressed in some way. Glass Joe was damn tight and had a commanding stage presence. Straight Line Stitch was the hands-down crowd favorite, riling up all the kids in the frenzied mosh pit. But both bands ended up third and second place finishers, respectively. The winner was somewhat of a sleeper—Monsters of Japan. Caked in makeup and all wearing devil horns, their show involved swords, a cappella singing, a scantily clad woman with wings attached to her back, something that looked like a fake skull, and one hell of a bass player. Not bad for a death metal band. For their prize, they get to open for Local H at the Fair Thursday night at 7 and 9 p.m.

Also impressive (to me at least) were the authentic punk of Lab Rats (no posers here), the nice melodies of Senryu and the noisy Suburban Urchins.

Go.

Thursday: Take your pick—Kevin Kinney at Blue Cats or Local H at Tennessee Fair.

Friday: Get spooked by the Ghosts at Manhattans.

Saturday: You've read about the crazy punk blues of the Immortal Lee County Killers. Now check them out at the Pilot Light.

Sunday: You're probably too poor to afford the paid performances, but this Knoxville Symphony Chamber Orchestra Quartet concert is free at the Mabry-Hazen House.

Monday: Go running. Try reading Ulysses again.

Tuesday: Check out U.S. Maple at the Pilot Light.

Wednesday: Rest.

—Emma "Judge Me Not" Poptart with Joe Tarr