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Lights, Camera, Action!
In their steady ascent to stardom, Jag Star is about to enter the music video industry—but not before getting a little help from their Knoxville fans. The pop band has booked the Bijou Theatre on Nov. 12, 8 p.m. to film a music video with director Scott Lee, who made a video for local heavy rockers 10 Years.
“There are a couple of new music television networks coming out, and we’ve been asked for a video, so we thought it would be cool to make it at home with hometown people involved,” says Sarah Lewis, the band’s fashionable lead singer.
As if the notion of new video channels weren’t exiting enough, the prospect of airtime devoted to Jag Star makes us all tingly. Be there, but don’t be square: wear your coolest clothes and learn to dance like a normal person.
Take the Stairs
When Lauren Karnitz, 34, bought the 1,900-square-foot loft at 120 S. Gay Street two years ago, she intended to use the space as her living quarters and the studio in which she would practice her life-long dream of painting. But life took a funny turn for the UT painting major: she fell in love, got married and moved into the house her husband already owned. On Nov. 5, the loft will make its debut as the Three Flights Up gallery, a space where UT art students will be able to display and sell their work while meeting interested (and interesting) members of the community on the first Friday of every month.
“One of the things we’re trying to do here is really have a situation where viewers of art can actually talk to the artist and reduce the chasm that modern art has [created],” Karnitz says. Although no one lives in the loft, it still has a comfortable residential vibe that Karnitz hopes will be conducive to artistic and cultural discussions, as well as introduce folks to the ways that paintings, sculptures, ceramics, photos and the like can accent the home setting.
The first show features the works of upperclassmen and one grad student. And the new gallery on the 100th block of Gay has already piqued the interest of teachers and professional artists. Karnitz plans to incorporate them all into future shows.
While UT students have exhibit space in the Candy Factory’s 1010 gallery (although its future is uncertain due to the city’s proposal to privatize ownership of the building), Karnitz feels strongly that student artists like herself needed their own space—for larger group shows and for an increased sense of freedom.
“We need a space we can really call our own and not have a turnkey kind of relationship. There aren’t a lot of places that allow students to exhibit,” she says. Frequently, gallery owners who are interested in selling the art they display are doubtful of student artists. Karnitz says gallery owners tend to believe that student work is sporadic and unreliable—not consistent like they want an artist representing their gallery to be.
“That’s a stereotype,” Karnitz counters. “There’s great work coming out of UT. We’re really serious about it. I think we can create a thriving all-ages art community.”
Three Flights Up Gallery will host its first open house Nov. 5, 5-9 p.m. with refreshments supplied by the Lunchbox and special “eclectic gallery mixes” on the stereo.
Local CD Review
Plan A
A View Through These Words
Sometimes pop music is a guilty pleasure, meant only to be enjoyed in your car or in the shower, where you can sing and play air drums in relative privacy. But when radio pop is as earnest and enthusiastic as Plan A’s, any shame dissipates, leaving only a warm fuzzy feeling.
Recorded over the spring and summer of 2004 with drummer and producer Don Coffey Jr., with guitar and keyboard assistance from Tim Lee, Plan A’s debut disc is a solid representation of the band’s live show and a testament to their grasp on pop hooks.
Magpie Suite veteran Matt Woods, who’s been making all the ladies swoon with his dreamy voice for years, leads the group with nice-guy confidence. His hooks and melodies frequently work better than his wordplay, but that’s fine; this isn’t Greek philosophy or rocket science. One of the disc’s standout tracks is “Behind,” a single already played regularly on 90.3 WUTK. It has a loping gait, a slide guitar, a chorus of cheery harmonies and a great bittersweet sentiment: “Sometimes what you think you’ve lost isn’t really lost at all; sometimes it’s just left behind.”
At its core a radio pop band, Plan A (which also features Grant Houser in bass, Bobby Chappell on drums and Jason Ellis on guitar and backing vocals) shifts gears at times to find a lighter acoustic tone as well as a rock groove that echoes the Black Crowes (“Desert Air”). Not as Southern as Magpie Suite was, Plan A still has its moments of laid-back drawl, mostly in Woods’ easygoing voice.
Add to the canon of songs about our fair city Plan A’s “Breaking Knoxville,” a nod to this town’s ability to challenge a citizen’s last nerve. “I’m breaking Knoxville...or Knoxville’s breaking me.”
Well, before they’re broken down by the inequities of the music industry, Plan A threatens to break out everywhere—on their own terms—with this debut disc.
—Paige M. Travis
November 4, 2004 • Vol. 14, No. 45
© 2004 Metro Pulse
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