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Next Stop Cincinnati
The Rockwells are the latest local contenders for Midwestern fame as participants in the 2004 Midpoint Music Festival in Cincinnati, Ohio. Last year’s local reps at the four-day music festival and industry conference were Westside Daredevils, Senryu and the American Plague. The Daredevils’ Gray Comer vaguely recalls his band’s jaunt to the festival as “a great deal of fun, good turnout, enthusiastic crowds.
“The particular district of town in which the venues hosting the event were located in has perhaps the highest bars-per-square-hectare ratio of any place I’ve ever seen in my life,” Comer reports.
Speculating on the Rockwells’ upcoming stint at Midpoint, Comer is optimistic. “If the general musical slant on things is anything like it was last year, they will stand out amongst the general blandness of most other bands playing like Dick Cheney at a gay pride rally. If they keep it relatively upbeat and display the combination of exuberance and finesse that their recent local shows have shown, they will destroy. And win the hearts of many a scandalously underage lass that will most likely be in attendance.”
Our dear Rockwells—who have surely never wronged underage hearts—join a line-up of 250 independent, original bands from all over the country scheduled to play on 18 stages. In order to warm up the Cincy crowd, the Rockwells will play their debut gig July 10 at the Barrelhouse.
And the Winners Are...
Kingsport radio station K-Rock WRZK 95.9 will announce the winners of the 2004 Edgies Awards, a balloted contest that honors the best bands from the Tri-Cities, some of whom grace the Knoxville scene with their presence. The playlist of the station’s weekly show Monday Night Edge features hard and alternative rock from the likes of Joey’s Loss, Pleuroma, the Shazam and plenty of other regional bands whose monikers are less familiar. Some nominees you might have heard of: Sarah Lewis of Jag Star and Shannon Lindsey of Perfect Mercy both earned nods for Best Female Vocalist. Rob Russell is up for Best Male Vocalist, and his band, the Sore Losers, are nominated in the Best Live Performance category as well as Local Artist of the Year. Longtime Greeneville superstars Scull Soup rank in the Best Metal/Alternative Performance category for their song “Plasticky” and their album Cream of Green Scream Sickle, up for Album of the Year. Although voting ended July 2, you can still attend the awards ceremony on July 11 at the Sophisticated Otter in Johnson City.
Not-So-Local CD Review
Adam Hill & the Dead Birds
Willingness
Back when Adam Hill was local, I was oblivious to the scene he traversed with the Satellite Pumps, an outfit that he describes as “high-octane pop-a-billy.” Plenty of musical water has flowed under Hill’s bridge since those days. Moves to Chicago and New York City before landing in Nashville—with fellow former Knoxvillian, fellow Whitewall label-mate and sometime Dead Bird Greg Parker—have wearied and whittled his music even more.
Mostly recorded on a four-track, the songs of Willingness range from gothic folk to a loose, twangy gospel. Hill channels a melancholic, 4 a.m. kind of blues through a Hank Williams-style sentiment. There’s an effortless, casual honesty to the music, and lyrics aren’t overly clever; he isn’t trying to be anybody older/wiser/more soulful. Although the comparison may offend everyone who’s had enough of that rock star poser, Ryan Adams has been known to tap into a similar vein of hurt-so-good solo acoustic emoting (see: Heartbreaker). Both singer-songwriters have a definite affinity for the Replacements. Hill’s rough-but-endearing voice complements the acoustic production.
An additional degree of separation (and proof that you can’t throw a Dead Bird without hitting another former Knoxvillian): Former State Champs bassist Rob Matthews (a.k.a. Sweet Bobby) performed the sparse and stylish design duties for the Willingness CD package.
Adam Hill will perform July 17 at Patrick Sullivan’s with Rob Russell and the Sore Losers and the Everybodyfields.
Go.
Thursday: You gotta go where it’s warm? Paradise is only a few fruity drinks away when St. Somewhere plays at Barley’s.
Friday: Music meets performance art as Projexorcism creates a visual and aural collage with four synchronized 16mm projectors at the Pilot Light. Then again, George Mick’s Garth Brooks Tribute gives you a reason to wear your 10-gallon hat to the Prince Deli.
Saturday: Britney Spears may be done kissing frogs, but that doesn’t have to stop you. Dance your bootie off at Red Iguana.
Sunday: Leave your chores undone and read a good book.
Monday: Get politicized and polarized by Fahrenheit 9/11.
Tuesday: You have to have men who are moral and at the same time who are able to utilize their primordial instincts to kill without feeling, without passion, without judgment. Without judgment. Because it’s judgment that defeats us.
Wednesday: It’s hump day. Let Soltero and Jennifer Nicely depress you with their low-key new folk at the Pilot Light.
—Paige M. Travis
July 8, 2004 • Vol. 14, No. 28
© 2004 Metro Pulse
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