|
Life on the Flipside
If the local funk-rock band Flipside Runner was a character from a movie, it would without a doubt be Rocky Balboa at the end of every single flick starring the infamous Philly southpaw: bruised, bloodied and swollen but still triumphant, resolute and still cranking out cheesy jokes and one-liners.
The band experienced everything from showing up at scheduled gigs to find a dead-bolted door plastered with “Government Seizure” signs, to performing regularly at a bar straight from the early scenes of Road House. And Flipside lost its seasoned drummer, Brian Smith, this past summer.
“Until we have a finalized lineup, we have decided to make a bold move to keep the faces of Knoxville sufficiently rocked,” bassist Cousin Vinnie Vineyard wrote to Flipside fans in July. “After summoning the spirits of Night Ranger and Genesis, JR [Horn] will be switching from guitar to playing drums and singing lead. Yep, I dunno how he does it, either... but he does. This amazes children and small pets.”
Sometimes performing acoustic under the pseudonym Highly Inappropriate, Flipside has been through its share of major drama, yet the band always seems to end up upbeat.
Horn, Vineyard and lead guitarist Scott Sutherland are modern rock funkists—the bartenders of a tasty mixed-drink of musical diversity, blending the grunge of rainy Seattle with the proper aesthetics of classical, a touch of jazz with a balanced dose of punk and a fat dollop of the blues. Its performances live up to the hype with a heaping side of outrageous stage antics that have been known to include, but are not limited to, goofy synchronized dance steps, gut-busting comedy skits and beer-chugging contests.
The band’s impending compilation, a follow-up to a seven-song EP, is known as The Song Inside You, recorded at Atlantis Studios in Nashville by master producer Voytek Kochanek.
Vinnie promises that Flipside will soon expand its musical tentacles and start playing “less frequently in the city, tour more, and concentrate completely on our original music from now on,” he says. “The bad boy,” the smirking bassist threatens, “is ready to go!”
Local CD review
Lotus
Lost in Reality
Knoxville’s Lotus offers an object lesson as to how today’s so-called nu-metal has been gradually refashioning itself in the image of ‘80s arena rock; and that shouldn’t be taken as a slight. While Lotus don’t offer up the same kind of blatant, gleeful retro celebration as, say, the critically lauded Darkness, it does recall the savvy pop craftsmanship and melodic grandeur that characterized the best bands and best moments of the Metal era.
Lotus’ local release Lost in Reality makes that clear from the opening blast of “With You,” a desperate, crashing plea that enters on a maelstrom of anthemic fury, then rides out on the prog-ish flourish of a kiddie chorale. It sounds like Whitesnake (again, a good thing, believe it or not), recast for a more politically correct post-grunge generation, and it declares in no uncertain language that these fellows are bent on reclaiming the bold, munificent gestures of Big Rawk’s past.
Tracks like “Come Another Day” and “Best Laid Plans” soar atop doubled vocal harmonies and loud guitars, recalling at once the smart modern hard-pop of Incubus and the sweet arena sing-alongs of Night Ranger. “Beneath the Waves” and “Best Laid Plans,” meanwhile, offer up more overtly metallish gestures, overdriven harmonics and muted crunch rhythms that mostly disappeared from mainstream rock recordings more than 10 years ago.
Again, Lotus is not a throwback; at different times it bears passing resemblance to more recent hard rock standard bearers such as Incubus and even the now-defunct Creed—bands which also frequently broke with what other, more “Extreme” nu-metalists were doing at the time. No, what Lotus does isn’t re-hash, but rather re-appropriation—of the sort of populist and pop-friendly musical values that promise to make mainstream rock at least listenable again.
Go.
Thursday: Say “Bon voyage!” to Casey Jones at the Urban Bar before he embarks on a visit to Europe.
Friday: Check out one of K-town’s best under-the-radar hangouts, the Time Warp Tea Room, and enjoy the sounds of Steve White and Chris Durman. Go to bed early.
Saturday: Start out with a short visit to Hank Day in SoKno, then zip to the Black Box Theatre for The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Get your fill of hand-crafted brews at Knoxville Brewers’ Jam then drop by the Haunted Pie Social to sober up. Or just give up entirely and stay in bed with a good book.
Sunday: Take your pooch to Paws in the Park in Alcoa.
Monday: Cast your vote for poetry at the Spoken Word Medicine Show at Agave Azul.
Tuesday: What are you going to be for Halloween?
Wednesday: Watch Lost on ABC and have something to talk about at work tomorrow.
—Noah Bowman, Mike Gibson, Paige M. Travis
October 14, 2004 • Vol. 14, No. 42
© 2004 Metro Pulse
|
| 
