Metro Pulse

Rob Russell, the Tri-Cities’ favorite rocker and no stranger to the stages of many Knoxville dives, has announced his “retirement from rock,” which will be celebrated by a final show with his band, the Sore Losers, at Johnson City’s Down Home on Saturday, Aug. 30. Music’s loss, however, is the public’s gain: Russell recently won the Democratic congressional primary, and he’ll be running against former Johnson City mayor Phil Roe in the upcoming general election. Full story »

Sort of like a punk-rock version of kudzu, seminal Knoxville punk rock band Teenage Love never seems to go away. A decade after its first break-up, the band reunited in 2002 for a show on Market Square and a handful of other gigs. Now the last line-up of the band—singer Rus Harper, bassist (and Metro Pulse contributor) John Sewell, guitarist Jeff Cregger, and drummer Jay Martin—have just finished recording nine songs for a new full-length CD that should be out in a few weeks. Full story »

WDVX and AC Entertainment have scheduled a series of monthly live concert broadcasts from the Bijou Theatre, hosted by Nashville singer/songwriter Jim Lauderdale and starring national, regional, and local roots artists. The series, called Tennessee Shines, premieres Wednesday, Aug. 27, at 7 p.m. with the SteelDrivers, Darrell Scott, Shawn Camp, and the everybodyfields. Full story »

Nicknamed “Biker” Mark for his love of motorcycles, Gallagher was as enthusiastic about extreme sports and bodybuilding as punk rock. He played a key role in the careers of the STD’s and Teenage Love by driving his van, the “Urban Assault Vehicle,” on several tours for each band. A surveyor by trade, and perhaps the most avid Ramones fan on the planet, “Biker” Mark was an unstoppable force, the kind of guy who would party hard all night long and then wake up and eat a hearty breakfast, seemingly no worse for wear. Full story »

The upcoming five-band show at Pilot Light on Friday, July 25—a benefit for the club—will probably be the last chance to see local rock band Woman on a Knoxville stage for a while. Singer Chris Lowe and guitarist Tyler Mucklow are both leaving the country for extended periods in the next couple of months—Mucklow to Mexico to study for two semesters, and Lowe to South Korea to teach English. The moves will bring to an end, at least temporarily, the band’s two-year run. Full story »

Singer/songwriter Jay Clark has begun laying tracks for his third CD at Eric Nowinski’s Rocksnob studio. He’s completed the first of three sessions, the third of which will probably fall in August. Full story »

Eye on the Scene: Jazz singer Sara Schwabe has been a reliable double-threat in Knoxville for years, first as part of the Actors Co-op company and, for the last five years, as the leader of Her Yankee Jass Band. But she’s leaving soon, heading to Arizona State University in Tempe, Ariz., for the school’s MFA program in acting. Full story »

MySpace really does work. First the Royal Bangs get a deal with Black Keys’ drummer Patrick Carney’s Audio Eagle label based on Carney’s visit to the social networking website. Now the Tenderhooks, after getting connected with a New York University undergrad through MySpace, are about to finish a Big Apple recording session that the band hopes will turn into a new album this fall. Full story »

Straight Line Stitch has been around forever—nine years, to be precise. It’s hardly been an unsuccessful run, with two EPs, one full-length CD (2006’s self-released To Be Godlike), appearances at the Vans Warped Tour and shows alongside Slayer, Anthrax, Killswitch Engage, and Napalm Death. But the group’s initial development was slowed by frequent lineup changes.
Things began to turn around in 2003, when singer Alexis Brown joined the band. Now, with a permanent roster that includes Brown, guitarists Pat Pattison and Seth Thacker, bassist Jason White, and drummer Patrick Haynes (Haynes and Thacker are the only remaining original members), SLS has its sights set on bigger things. Full story »

Eye on the Scene: Ever tried to make a three-minute film? Ever tried to do it in just 10 hours? That’s the challenge of the fourth annual Marble City 10-Hour Film Festival—start work at 8 a.m., shoot and edit all day long, and pit your final cut against other teams. Full story »

The first issue of a new quarterly journal about the city’s contemporary art scene is scheduled for release on Friday, July 4, just in time for that month’s First Friday celebration. The unofficial working title of the project is the “Art Journal of Knoxville,” but the publication doesn’t really have a name, exactly. Full story »

They reunited last fall for an East Coast tour, their first in five years. They recorded the 1-900s song “Now” for WUTK's ReDistilled compilation. They even got on the cover of Metro Pulse again. Now Superdrag is back in the studio, working on what may become the belated follow-up to 2002's Last Call for Vitriol—and the first disc with the original line-up since 1998's Head Trip in Every Key. Full story »

Former Knoxvillian Laith Keilany, a sometime musical partner of Jodie Manross and an extraordinary guitarist and oud player in his own right, is bouncing back from a recent medical emergency related to his 2006 lymphoma diagnosis. Full story »

On Monday, May 5, the evening before his concert at the Tennessee Theatre, Elvis Costello was spotted on Market Square with members of his band the Imposters. A quick post on the Knox Blab message board apparently prompted a few fans to make their way to the Square. Full story »

Eye on the Scene: Since January, the new go-to venue for grown-up entertainment—not that kind of grown-up entertainment—in Knoxville has been the Broker Banquet Hall, a 21-and-up, non-smoking, classic blues and R&B venue on Magnolia Avenue near Chilhowee Park. Full story »