MetroPulse Stories: Eye on the Scene

Local Music Review: The Reigns Band

mconnergibson@gmail.com (Mike Gibson) — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 15:47:00 -0000

There’s a craggily handsome quality to Reigns Band frontman Evan Melgaard’s voice—a smoky, weathered tenor, with hints of honey audibly seeping into the cracks of each croupy rasp.

Local Music Review: Hudson K

neely@metropulse.com (Jack Neely) — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 15:42:00 -0000

Hudson K’s new album, Ouroboros and the Black Dove, marks a new turn for Knoxville’s most unusual duo. (Why, they don’t even have a guitar!)

Unfortunate Timing: Westside Daredevils Announce New Album and Break-Up

everettm@metropulse.com (Matthew Everett) — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 15:40:00 -0000

The Westside Daredevils have finally released their long-awaited fourth album of shimmering, sophisticated indie power pop, the follow-up to 2008’s Brave New Nothing. Unfortunately, it’s likely the last recording from the band, which is making Westside Daredevils available at the same time that they’re announcing their official break-up after more than a decade together.

Rude Street Peters Return After Four-Year Hiatus

everettm@metropulse.com (Matthew Everett) — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 15:35:00 -0000

You can’t keep a good band down. Just ask the Rude Street Peters, whose brand of punked-up country rock ’n’ roll has been an institution in Knoxville for close to 20 years.

Knoxville Film and Music Festival Prepares for a Week of Music

everettm@metropulse.com (Matthew Everett) — Wed, 29 May 2013 14:51:00 -0000

Michael Samstag was already working on a new Knoxville film festival, an outgrowth of Knoxville Films’ 24-Hour Film Festival, when a chance meeting with Andrea Kerns of Midnight Voyage Productions a few months ago inspired him to add a week-long music festival to the lineup. The result is the Knoxville Film and Music Festival, which starts this week with nine days of music from more than 90 artists in 10 different venues around downtown.

Local Music Review: Wesley Wyrick

Wed, 15 May 2013 15:00:00 -0000

Wesley Wyrick’s debut album, Second Nature, certainly isn’t an easy listen. It’s a psychedelic collage more than a collection of songs—10 eerie tracks built on left-field samples, electronic spasms, and droning, lo-fi synths.

Q&A: Todd Steed Talks About His New Album of Songs Written in China

coury@metropulse.com (Coury Turczyn) — Wed, 15 May 2013 14:55:00 -0000

Knoxville icon Todd Steed’s new album, Songs on a Stick, is a collaboration between Steed and his old friend Owen Davis. The songs were all written while Steed and Davis were in China, where they taught last summer.

AIGA Celebrates Design Week

everettm@metropulse.com (Matthew Everett) — Wed, 08 May 2013 14:41:00 -0000

Good design is sometimes invisible—if something is designed well, you might never even notice just how useful/elegant/informative it is, especially if you’re not a designer. So AIGA Knoxville’s third annual Design Week, scheduled for May 13-17, is a good opportunity for local designers to get the credit and attention they deserve, as well as a chance for non-professionals to think about what designers do, and how they do it, and why.

George Jones Joins an Exclusive Knoxville Club

everettm@metropulse.com (Matthew Everett) — Wed, 08 May 2013 14:40:00 -0000

When George Jones died on April 26, he also got a pass into an exclusive club: that small handful of famous performers whose final concerts happened in Knoxville.

AC Entertainment Announces Artists for October's Mountain Oasis Festival in Asheville

everettm@metropulse.com (Matthew Everett) — Wed, 01 May 2013 15:04:00 -0000

AC Entertainment may have lost the rights to the Moogfest name, but the Knoxville music promoter isn’t giving up on a fall electronic-music festival in Asheville.

Robinella Announces Upcoming New Album, 'Ode to Love'

neely@metropulse.com (Jack Neely) — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 13:59:00 -0000

Robinella, one of the most credible local almost-hit-it-big stories of the last decade or two, is still around, with its unusual jazz-country sensibility and its popular lead singer, Robin Bailey.

Knoxville Film and Music Festival Adds Music Video Contest

everettm@metropulse.com (Matthew Everett) — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 13:56:00 -0000

The upcoming Knoxville Film and Music Festival, scheduled for June, has just announced an addition to its lineup of local films and music performances that will combine both disciplines—the Competitive Music Video Awards, a four-day music-video shootout contest pairing local musicians and filmmakers.

Local CD Review: The Blue Heavy

everettm@metropulse.com (Matthew Everett) — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 13:53:00 -0000

On its very first recording, a four-song self-titled EP, the Blue Heavy convincingly recreates the nasty, scuzzy Neanderthal heavy rock of early-’70s bands like Mountain, Grand Funk Railroad, Black Sabbath, Blue Cheer, and Sir Lord Baltimore.

Local CD Review: King Super

mconnergibson@gmail.com (Mike Gibson) — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 14:25:00 -0000

Hammertime County is a profusely inventive 10-song set of originals from a band that staked its live rep almost exclusively on covers. Covers often chosen with an ear for kitsch and an instinct for surrealist melodrama, then twisted beyond aural recognition. But covers nonetheless.

'90s Band subbluecollar Reunites

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 14:19:00 -0000

The important thing for Kat Brock—who is back in Knoxville after a few years in Nashville and New York—is that she loves playing with her old subbluecollar bandmates, Dave Campbell (drums) and Joe McLemore (guitar). The three have reformed their late-’90s outfit, adding Bryan Garvey of the Coveralls on bass. The group will play at Barley’s Taproom on April 20 and plans on recording an album later this year.

Forbidden Fruit

everettm@metropulse.com (Matthew Everett) — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 15:28:00 -0000

It’s been a crazy year in local news—Stacey Campfield’s seemingly never-ending extravaganza of outrageous pronouncements and proposed legislation, butt-chugging, Gloria Ray, Bigfoot, Derek Dooley.

SouthFest Aims to Give South Knoxville a Boost

coury@metropulse.com (Coury Turczyn) — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 15:26:00 -0000

Call it the mother of all cash mobs, aka Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett’s DIY economic booster program for South Knoxville.

Knoxville Musicians Pitch In for Concert Fund-Raisers

everettm@metropulse.com (Matthew Everett) — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 13:38:00 -0000

April will see a bunch of notable benefit concerts, starting this weekend with a fund-raiser for a local girl with Hodgkin’s lymphoma and running through the well-established Wolfe Jam, which will raise money for the Joy of Music School.

Fort Sanders Fest Spreads Out

everettm@metropulse.com (Matthew Everett) — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 13:35:00 -0000

The music festival takes a big step up this year to World’s Fair Park—which is technically outside Fort Sanders, but close enough in both spirit and geography to count.

Local CD Review: La Basura Del Diablo

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 14:32:00 -0000

While Knoxville’s self-described “lo-fi horror trash” band La Basura Del Diablo (“The Devil’s Trash”) is somewhat uncelebrated hereabouts, the band have become bona fide heroes of the sub-underground garage-punk scene in Germany, where a handful of their 7-inch singles have become collector’s items, selling out immediately upon release.