What some of us remembered most from the Knoxville music scene
Music is an ephemeral art, made up of small moments that go mostly unrecorded, except in the hazy memories of those who lived them. But for those who experienced them, these moments are what we most remember. At those times, we feel alive, not just caught in a routine into which so much of life sadly degrades. Metro Pulse polled various musicians, scenesters, promoters and drunks from around Knoxville to find out what shows, scenes and events moved them this year. Here is what they had to say. Check out our favorite albums and songs of the year in Platters.
Evil Twin had Friday and Saturday night shows booked in Bristol and Johnson City. We had places to stay and were most likely looking at two nights of complete fun. We were going to leave from Anonymous' place, so I met the freaks there. All were at the ready, it looked like, except that Daisy wasn't there, and Chili was on the phone giving me this look. Well. Long story short, Daisy was having a "bad feeling" about the road trip. A panic attack. After several attempts to talk the freak down, it was clear that Daisy would not move. We were kind of freaked. But the rest of us searched our black little souls and came up with, "Fuck it. Let's go anyway."
Anonymous worked on some guitar parts in the van on the way, but in the end we decided to just do without. We'd play with Trigger's drums, two bass guitars and a theremin. Well, and my screeching. Like I said, fuck it. We even asked the opening band at the 7th Street Saloon in Bristol if they wanted to headline. They said no.
Evil Twin ended up playing to a full house of punk rocker types dancing and cheering and raising hell to our first time playing without guitar. It was new for all of us. Someone even commented on how "bass-heavy" we were. Very fun show. At one point in the show we called Daisy on a cell phone, and I said, "Hey Daisy, it's us, on stage in Bristol! Everyone say hey to Daisy!" and held the phone up for a roar from the crazed kids. Wacky. We did a couple more similar shows, but that was pretty much the end of it. No Daisy? Come on.
—Rus Harper
There have been so many great shows this year, but I must say the finest moment was being glued to the stage, in one of those great moments when you are engulfed by a performance, as US Maple bashed out an impeccable "La Click" in their distinct form of stumbling exactness: the right hand playing the steady chime while the left holds up the other guitarist by the scruff of the neck. They are truly one of the finest rock bands ever. And on another night, in high contrast, seeing Neil Hamburger do his "zipper schtick" live and in person!
—Jason Boardman
On Feb. 6, the band and I were traveling to a gig in Boone, N.C. when we got hit with eight inches of snow. Two tractor-trailers collided on the mountain roads, and it took three hours more than usual to get to Boone. Our show was cancelled due to the ice and snow. We ended up staying in a strange motel with a water wheel, a comedy club with a huge stage called Geno's Lounge, a bocce ball court, and outside pet rabbits you can feed for a quarter.
—Jodie Manross
One show that I really liked a lot was Tim O'Brien at the Laurel Theater, back in March. Tim is a singer songwriter from West Virginia. He's so talented. To see one man do what he does by himself is just amazing. He handles a variety of material. It's astonishing to me that a person can stand up there with a guitar for two hours and hold the audience, doing a variety of originals and older songs, telling stories.
—Paul Campbell
Todd Steed "organized" RB Morris, Mic Harrison and myself to play at the Corner Lounge this fall. We all, well, except Todd, got blitzed. Some more than others. I overheard dear Mic Harrison with the hiccups. Every round of attacks from his diaphragm he took as a personal affront so it "sounded" something like this:
*hic*
GODDAMNIT!!!!!!!!!!!!
*hic*
SON OF A BITCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
*hic*
MOTHERF*($#@&!!!!!!!!!!
—Scott Miller
Perhaps my favorite performance of the year in a year with lots of great ones to choose from was a set that RB Morris did at the Corner Lounge back in November. RB had been riding the tokens of appreciation from the friendly staff at the bar and was perfectly riding that crazed wave of inspiration that can't be planned. By the end of the night he was down on the floor singing "Maggie's Farm" when Dave Nichols, who was playing bass, said: "RB finally found his angle."
Dixie Dirt's rock opera performed at Barley's was an inspiration, no doubt. What a treat to see a band come out and play two hours of new music for the people. A band with no limit to their stash of ideas.
—Todd Steed
Having lived a great deal of last year out of a suitcase, most of my most memorable musical experiences have been live and out of town. I look back over it all and feel like a really lucky SOB, my only regret being that I've missed many of the special things that happened right here in Knoxville.
A period of somewhat serendipitous synchronicity enabled me to see our own Robinella and the CCstringband during some special moments elsewhere. A quickly organized appearance before an awed NYC audience at a Tribeca club (when the Irving Plaza gig with Kasey Chambers was cancelled due to Kasey's illness); their great set before a tired but enthusiastic audience at Bonnaroo in June; and then a stunning lunchtime performance at the AAA Radio conference in Boulder in August, when they held a group of jaded radio pros in the palm of their hands. It felt really good to see the home team so beautifully represented elsewhere. I kept wanting to go up to people in the audience and say, "I KNOW THESE GUYS!"
Peak concert experiences:
NEIL YOUNG & CRAZY HORSE at Bonnaroo. One of the greatest musical experiences of my life, under a full moon with 80,000 people, as Neil and the guys put their Greendale show aside and deliver an incendiary set of greatest hits. Totally beyond description.
THE FLAMING LIPS. At Roseland in N.Y. and then at Bonnaroo. Two completely ridiculous shows, with the late-night Bonnaroo gig ultimately becoming a mind-bending psychedelic variety show climaxing with a journey to the Dark Side of the Moon.
RADIOHEAD at Madison Square Garden. An amazing band and a spectacular concert experience that manages to transcend the typical "arena rock" experience. For my money, this is THE rock band of our time.
BJORK and SIGUR ROS at Keyspan Park, Coney Island, N.Y. And Bjork is the DIVA of our time, for me at least. With a band that consists of an eight-piece string section, an electric harp, and two DJ/sound manipulators, our Icelandic pixie in an extraordinary variation of a flamenco dress, plus real fireworks, this was completely operatic in scope. With Sigur Ros providing rock symphonies to set the stage.
LOU REED at the intimate Bowery Ballroom with a great band and a set of greatest hits, including Velvet Underground classics.
GILLIAN WELCH at the Bijou Theater. Delicate, exquisite, and powerful.
RANDY NEWMAN at the Bijou Theater. One of the great songwriters of our time, and nothing beats the experience of hearing him perform those songs with his wry sense of irony, humor, and emotion.
BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB at the Tennessee Theatre. This was a fabulous performance that highlighted the "jazz" side of Cuban music in a way that this group has never really conveyed in their recordings. And Ibrahim Ferrer was in great form—charismatic and endearing. It had all of the elements of a truly classic performance.
TOM TOM CLUB at Sundown in the City, Old City Courtyard. A wonderful night of silly, funky fun.
GOD SPEED YOU BLACK EMPEROR at the Orange Peel. An intense and moving concert experience. Prog rock lives.
—Ashley Capps
One of our coolest experiences was traveling to Kwajalein, a tiny island between Hawaii and Japan, and meeting about 20 people from Knoxville. We were on a South Pacific tour, playing more concerts for our military. These Knoxvillians live on the island now, and gave us a "Knoxville Party" on the last night of the month-long tour. They fed us an awesome Italian dinner, and we talked about everything from The River radio station, to Big Ed's pizza, to football, to the music scene. These people work for the military, and miss the mountains of home! It was amazing meeting them so far away.
—Jag Star
On a trip to North Carolina, an impromptu version of my band (featuring Susan, Rivers, Paul Noe and my buddy from Batesville, Mississippi, Charles David Overton) played two nights in Winston-Salem as part of the CD release party for a Let's Active tribute. During the weekend, we jokingly came up with a series of increasingly bad "names" for the band (the lowest point was "Beer Diaper"), before settling on Susan's contribution, Knoxville Cooter, in tribute to Nashville Pussy. On that Saturday night, we played downtown at Winston-Salem's version of "Sundown in the City," where we introduced ourselves as Knoxville Cooter with tongue planted firmly in cheek. A couple of months later, I was in W-S to play at the Garage and a friend of mine gave me a copy of the Aug. 15 edition of the local newspaper, the News & Record. One of the photos on the cover of the "Life" section was a shot of yours truly onstage from the previous month's gig with a caption that identified me as "Tim Lee, lead singer of Knoxville Cooter." Needless to say, that is now one of my prized possessions.
—Tim Lee
The most appalling thing happened to us in Afghanistan this year. We took a chinook to Kabul to perform, and before the show they fed us an Afghani dinner with the general of the Afghan army. Later that night in Bagram, the military doctor visited our tent and told us we should not have eaten the Afghani food, because there is a chance we will have two-foot-long worms coming out of every orfice of our bodies some time in the next few years. We were obviously sick to hear this, so we gladly took our de-worming pills and antibiotics. (For anyone wondering, no signs of any worms....yet.)
—Jag Star
One of the funniest moments I recall was just last month. I went to Kernersville, NC, to record a few tracks at Mitch Easter's unbelievably well appointed studio, the Fidelitorium, and took a contingent of Knoxville folks (Susan, Don Coffey Jr., John Baker and Jim Rivers) along. One evening, Mitch took off for a while to go eat dinner with his wife, leaving Rivers in charge of the board. I looked up and realized that he'd left all of us unattended in his super-snazz recording facility. Don and I were playing Air Hockey, and Susan was watching the Queer Eye... marathon, while Jim and John were recording guitar overdubs. Don said, "I can't believe he'd leave a bunch of people from Knoxville to run loose in here."
—Tim Lee
Some of my favorite moments from 2003: R.B. Morris played his first gig at the Pilot Light to a handful of people on a Saturday night, and closed the show with "Thunder Road," per my request; Mike Doughty mesmerized a bunch of struck-silent kids with Soul Coughing hits, his solo material and a cover of American Music Club's "Firefly;" The Rockwells nailed an unbelievably tight 45-minute set their first time on the Blue Cats stage; Tim Lee, Todd Steed, John Baker, Susan Lee and Greg Horne culminated an acoustic show at Brazo with a surprisingly rowdy three-guitar, mandolin and bass rendition of "You Ain't Going Nowhere."
—Paige M. Travis
My favorite musical event in Knoxville this past year has got to be the Jurassic 5 show at Blue Cats. It was just amazing to think that they played in Knoxville and at a venue of that size. I don't have much faith in the people of Knoxville to support hip-hop shows, but this time the venue was packed. J5 gave another legendary performance and afterwards they all stuck around and took pictures and signed autographs for the fans. My only complaint with the show is that it was so packed I had to fight with some stupid trendy raver girls for my space up front... Since this show was so successful, why haven't we had another big hip-hop show at Blue Cats since then?
—Ratchet of The Elevation Hip Hop show on KFAR 90.9
7 year rabbit cycle... Falling into the void somewhere between destruction and birth, imagine the Run DMC/Aerosmith video for "Walk This Way" except it wasn't DMC/Aerosmith but Black Flag and Sonic Youth battling through those thin walls. That might explain 7 year, it might not at all. They lived here, played a few shows, and left again leaving quite an impact on those who saw them live and those who became their friends. That was 2003.
—Steve Greene
Mark Arnold, promoter who owns Red Mountain Artist, works production at shows around the country. He got one of the strangest requests during the Kenny Chesney concert in Neyland Stadium last year, when he worked as a runner. He was told to get 250 beach balls and some size-one panties for opening act, Deana Carter. He decided to pass the assignment on to buddy and musician Mic Harrison. "I told him if they say 'UT on them, that's even better.' He laughed and said, 'OK, what do you really want me to do.' I said, 'I want you to go out and buy Deanna Carter size-one panties.' He looked at me with this dog-looking-at-a-ceiling-fan look and said, 'You're serious, aren't you?'"
Harrison took Carter and her manager to store on the Cumberland Avenue strip. "She was with them and for some reason they got the wrong kind. He comes back later and they drew me a little diagram, which I wish I kept." Harrison went to a second store, but still couldn't find the right kind of undies.
Arnold says of Carter's waist: "That girl needs to eat more."
"That was the most exciting thing I did all year, unless you consider taking the Dixie Chicks' dog out to get groomed," Arnold says.
January 8, 2004 * Vol. 14, No. 2
© 2004 Metro Pulse
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