MetroPulse Stories: A & E

Shane Carruth's Follows 'Primer' With the Perplexing But Rewarding 'Upstream Color'

Wed, 15 May 2013 16:11:00 -0000

That Upstream Color even exists represents both a triumph and a rebuke to the mainstream film-production system that couldn’t spring for a work this daring and, for all its polish, most likely inexpensive.

Internationally Renowned Saxophonist Greg Tardy Finds His Way Into Knoxville's Jazz Community

neely@metropulse.com (Jack Neely) — Wed, 15 May 2013 15:40:00 -0000

He’s maybe not as familiar by sight as some of Knoxville's other jazz players, but judging by the crowds he draws around the world, and the prominent discs that have featured his saxophone, Greg Tardy is one of the most accomplished musicians in Knoxville.

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.

Baz Luhrmann’s 'Great Gatsby': All Spectacle, No Heart

Wed, 15 May 2013 14:48:00 -0000

Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby has quite a bit going for it: an epic soundtrack; eye-popping art direction; a titanic-sized (or Titanic-sized) budget, courtesy of co-producer Jay-Z; a number of radiant performances; and source material from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Great American Novel. It also kinda sucks.

Q&A: Food Writer Francis Lam

gervinc@metropulse.com (Cari Wade Gervin) — Wed, 15 May 2013 14:27:00 -0000

In this era where everyone who Instagrams his lunch and posts it on Tumblr fancies himself a food writer, Francis Lam is the real deal.

Nashville Garage-Rock Duo JEFF the Brotherhood Aim for the Big Leagues With Major-Label Debut

Wed, 08 May 2013 14:44:00 -0000

Over the course of a decade, under the name JEFF the Brotherhood, Nashville brothers Jake and Jamin Orrall released six albums of fuzzy, tone-deaf stoner-pop, full of blistering punk-pop riffs and hungover power-pop melodies. Their goal? Pay the rent and hopefully tuck away some booze money. But even if they weren’t aiming high with their commercial dreams, their music managed to turn a lot of famous heads—including the suits at Warner Bros., who released the band’s major-label debut, Hypnotic Nights, in 2012.

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.

Studio Ghibli’s Torch Is Not Quite Passed Yet With 'From Up on Poppy Hill'

coury@metropulse.com (Coury Turczyn) — Wed, 08 May 2013 14:35:00 -0000

From Up on Poppy Hill is a fine film. But it’s not a great one.

Uncle Acid and Ghost B.C. Try to Stay Mysterious in the Information Age

everettm@metropulse.com (Matthew Everett) — Wed, 08 May 2013 13:55:00 -0000

Sometimes the best publicity is no publicity at all. When the British band Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats released its second album, Blood Lust, in 2011, the group was shrouded in mystery—no interviews, no photos, no concerts, no names, even. But the finely spun web of secrecy that had surrounded the band started to come apart in the months leading up to the release, in April, of Mind Control, also on Rise Above and Metal Blade.

The Emporium Keeps Its Standards High With a New Exhibit of Contemporary Polish Prints

Wed, 08 May 2013 13:47:00 -0000

Upon recently rewatching Roman Polanski’s The Pianist as my nod to the 70th anniversary of the Warsaw ghetto’s Jewish uprising, I was reminded of how intrigued I am by Poland and its history. But even though I have traveled to other Eastern European countries, I’ve somehow missed Polska. So I’m excited that the Marek Maria Pienkowski Foundation has brought art from Poland to Knoxville. Until June, the Arts and Culture Alliance presents works from the Wroclaw School of Printmaking, produced by professors and teaching assistants at the Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Art and Design, as part of the larger Wroclaw Faculty of Graphic Arts and Media Art Exhibition.

'Repo Man'’s Class Anger Still Seethes Almost 30 Years Later

Wed, 01 May 2013 15:38:00 -0000

Without putting too much weight or importance behind what a bunch of now-elderly former youths once wanted to express, one of the key things that keeps the spirit of punk alive, or at least on life support, is class anger. And class anger is one of the key things that animates writer/director Alex Cox’s 1984 Repo Man.

French Band Ulan Bator Finally Makes It to America

Wed, 01 May 2013 15:30:00 -0000

A few tracks from En France/En Transe, scheduled for release later this month, are available on the band’s website; they point to a rawer sound reminiscent of Ulan Bator’s debut album, which Cambuzat says is a result of the band members getting to know each other during the recording sessions.

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.

Michael Bay Reveals Unexpected Self-Referential Wit in Action Satire 'Pain & Gain'

Wed, 01 May 2013 14:34:00 -0000

Some people have never been particularly friendly to the Transformers director; according to Rotten Tomatoes, his 1996 prison-break adventure The Rock is the only Bay film to inspire so much as toleration from critics, while serious film fans deride his rapid, nearly incomprehensible cutting as the depths of taste. But if we let fair criticisms and commercial savvy drown each other out, what remains of Michael Bay isn’t some empty-headed technician with a hard-on for explosions—it’s a filmmaker who’s conquered the biggest, dumbest beast in Hollywood, and now practices the blockbuster as a style unto itself.

Knoxville Gay Men's Chorus Makes a Joyful Noise

kennedyr@metropulse.com (Rose Kennedy) — Wed, 01 May 2013 13:57:00 -0000

The group is the brainchild of its president, the activist Bleu Copas, who met Hamblin at the Equality on the Hill demonstration in Nashville last year. Hamblin and Copas, with two or three other singers, had their first public performance at the Night of Noise that breaks the Day of Silence in Knoxville about a year ago; the group has grown to 30 performers since. Performances at last year’s Pridefest and Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church’s Hope for the Holiday concert put Knoxville audiences on notice: These gay men are here to sing, and sing well.

Knoxville Opera Delivers an Energetic, Sparkling 'Cinderella'

Wed, 01 May 2013 13:52:00 -0000

Simply stated, there are those operatic singers who consider themselves Rossini singers, and there are those who don’t. The diction and voice flexibility required for Gioachino Rossini’s characteristic style of rapid-fire runs of little notes is both an art and a craft—one that some singers luxuriate in naturally. Knoxville Opera, under executive director and conductor Brian Salesky, ended up with just such a solid cast of wonderful Rossini singers for its production last weekend of La Cenerentola (“Cinderella”), a production that bubbled and sparkled with typically melodic Rossini verve and a lot of lovable comedic energy.

Clarence Brown Theatre Produces High-Speed Farce With Tom Stoppard’s 'On the Razzle'

Wed, 01 May 2013 13:41:00 -0000

Tom Stoppard's On the Razzle is a classic mistaken-identity, disapproving-parent, jealous-pursuit romp turned up a few notches. It’s like a long Marx Brothers routine, with about a dozen Marx Brothers, and no musical breaks.

Q&A: Designer Paulie Gibson, Appearing at Knoxville Fashion Week

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 15:14:00 -0000

Paulie Gibson is an up-and-coming St. Louis based designer of think-out-of-the-box men’s fashion. His work will be featured during Knoxville Fashion Week.