Coury Turczyn

All too often, the motorcycle media doesn’t treat women as real riders—they’re typically used as adornments in photos. And while that may make lots of male riders happy, you’ve got to wonder if it really helps the overall cause of ...

I must admit to having felt a rush of excitement back in 2003 upon discovering Scott Miller’s Upside Downside in the “hot new artists” rack at a Tower Records in Northern California. “He’s really in the big leagues!” I thought. ...

Modern-day blues bands typically take their cues from Chicago’s guitar-drenched sound, but Jon Worley drops in all sorts of different musical influences: soulful ’60s-style organ, countryish lap steel guitar, and maybe some ’60s psychedelia via his own offbeat self. It’s ...

Is there a single man in the entire celebrityverse who has more verbiage spilled over the state of his testicles than Johnny Knoxville? We say not! Last year, bloggers went into copy-and-paste overdrive, endlessly repeating the same headlines: “Johnny Knoxville’s ...

It’s not easy trying to sell CDs these days. In the face of rising digital downloading (both legal and illegal), the music industry has reacted by shooting itself in as many limbs as possible, leaving independent record stores in the ...

Barley’s in the Old City has achieved what every business owner dreams of: Being all things to nearly all people. Want to have a nice family dinner? No problem. Want to sequester yourself from the outside world and sit at ...

Back when the original Flying Tomato opened on Market Square in 1990, it didn’t exactly seem like a sure thing. There’d been other hip pizza parlors in Knoxville, but they hadn’t lasted very long (oh, Vatican... oh, ACME....). Plus, owner ...

The Bliss empire continues to grow, spreading its message of affordable yet comfortably hip home decor and personal adornment. Owners/spouses Scott Schimmel and Lisa Sorensen may have started with a small boutique, but now they’ve branched out into furniture and ...

For many riders, life begins with a two-stroke. Growing up in the wild, unregulated ’70s, your first motorcycle often involved mixing oil and gas, then hitting the throttle for instant power—thrusting your 10-year-old body into hyperspeed. Or maybe it just ...

Knoxville ex-pat and current Nashville singer-songwriter Louise Mosrie just landed a monster gig, winning a slot at the Grassy Hill Kerrville New Folk Concerts for Emerging Songwriters. It’s part of the 38th annual Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas, sort of ...

It was standing room only Saturday at the Square Room for the Whiskey Angel CD release party by Cruz Contreras’ new band The Black Lillies. This strong freshman effort of rock- and blues-tinged Americana should put to rest any concerns ...

On stage, Scott Miller offers a few apologies then begins singing about sin in Indiana—the crowd responding with hand-claps and a few laughs as he plays the song’s irresistibly hooky guitar lines. It’s standing room only (no chairs), as fans ...

Lunch with Jay Nations is always a pleasure. The former owner of Raven Records is one Knoxville's true originals—an affable fellow who now enjoys earning a living by selling vinyl records and CDs at shows and in local shops. While ...

One of the first rumors to hit cycling circles when we revamped Handlebars was that the magazine had been “taken over” by people who don’t ride. As one biker-bar owner asked us via e-mail before canceling his advertising, “Is there ...

Who knew that putting out a magazine covering the wide range of motorcycling available in East Tennessee would be so controversial?

So here we are at last: After more than 20 years of hype, a few hundred doctoral dissertations, a thousand imitators, roughly a billion failed Hollywood deals, and one lawsuit, “the greatest graphic novel of all time” has finally been ...

To get from North Carolina to Oregon on a bus requires three days, multiple connections, and a stack of tickets.

When Handlebars was launched nearly five years ago, it really filled a need among East Tennessee motorcyclists. This is one of the best regions in the country to ride on two wheels, and it’s home to all sorts of different ...

m>Coraline has sent critics scrambling for their thesauruses, and for good reason: If you overuse words like “sumptuous” and “stunning,” the other critics boot you off their Facebook friends list and won’t let you eat lunch at their table. Swirlies ...

The name may be unfamiliar, but the Austrian sound-sculptor who performs under his surname as Fennesz (his Christian name is Christian) is one of the most imitated, influential electronic artists in the world. It’s not incidental or coincidental that Fennesz ...

Knoxville has had more famous bands, more popular bands, more successful bands. But Smokin’ Dave and the Premo Dopes was our most influential band, daring to embrace its Knoxvilleness at a time when the number-one goal of most musicians here ...

Over the past 29 years, Todd Steed has played as a member of seven different Knoxville bands, not to mention solo under such non de plumes as Todzilla and Johnny Stank. He has released 10 albums, three cassettes, and one ...

Coury Turczyn peels back the layers of the one and only Kepner Melt.

In order to attain true movie-geek supremacy, you must find that one failed film which only you can love—and then defend it to the death. But it isn’t easy. Every psychotronic-DVD collector and his disappointed mother knows that The Incredibly ...

Editor Coury Turczyn makes his endorsement for the 2008 presidential election.

As it enters its fifth year, the Secret City Film Festival is hitting its sweet spot: large enough to get the attention of European filmmakers, small enough to make everybody feel at home. Coury Turczyn talks with festival mastermind Keith ...

Coury Turczyn offers a slice of DollyPOP, a Hollywood lowbrow-art show featuring surrealist renderings of Dolly Parton.

As digital cameras and hard drives have gotten progressively cheaper, we’ve become a nation of videographers, not only documenting the daily magic of baby dribble, but also taking our own stabs at the auteur theory with short films, fan extensions ...

After years as a sideman for legends like James Brown, George Clinton, and the Purple One, funk/R&B saxman Maceo Parker is nearly a legend himself. On the cusp of his appearance with Knoxville Jazz Orchestra on Sept. 23, Coury Turcyzn ...

The funkiest sax player of all time talks more about James Brown, George Clinton, and the future of funk

In June of 1942, the Office of War Information's head photographer, Alfred T. Palmer, arrived in Tennessee to record the lives of workers involved in the war effort. The results are a remarkable record of the Tennessee Valley Authority's early ...

“Mildly entertaining” is the kiss of box-office death these days. We live in an extreme era and we demand extreme entertainment at our movie theaters: spectacles of mass destruction featuring all-powerful heroes, super-villains, and occasionally Robert Downey Jr. Case in ...

Movie Guru: In the golden age of R-rated comedies—roughly, 1975 through 1982—there was much to gladden the hearts of 14-year-old boys: National Lampoon’s Animal House, Caddyshack, Used Cars, Stripes. Now considered classics of the form, they all delivered on their ...

Much to the chagrin of 12-year-old boys and prematurely indignant moral guardians everywhere, Swingtown really isn’t all that steamy. In fact, it’s as boring a take on drug-drenched orgies in ’70s suburban America as one could avoid imagining.

Joss Whedon, the talented nerd/writer/TV producer who somehow infiltrated network TV with Buffy the Vampire Slayer a decade ago, has produced his own Web series, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, and it’s a humdinger. He’s managed to infuse just the right ...

John Bean was a true original; a wiseacre of epic proportions, he concocted elaborate practical jokes that verged on genius. Bean also recorded some of his prank calls, and they were collected after his death as the legendary “Whupass Tapes” ...

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 ...

Pixar has enjoyed an unprecedented run of eight superb films released over 12 years. How can they possibly keep it up? Can they really manage to advance the cartoon art form one more time, balancing wide audience appeal with idiosyncratic ...

There comes a time when every rock fan reaches a certain age (I think they call it “middle”) when he or she decides that every hot new band pretty much sucks. Perhaps it’s only a temporary condition, soon to be ...

We don’t really ask much from our summer movies—just distract us long enough to get through half the mini-keg of diet cola and our vat of popcorn. Some chase scenes, a few fights, and a proper explosion to end things: ...

Metro Pulse has been completely redesigned from front to back. This is rather momentous for us because Metro Pulse has looked pretty much the same since the early ’90s. Since almost any change we make seems to send a few ...

In the United States, the art of reviewing automobiles has become a balancing act of stiflingly polite opinions. Very rarely will critics straightforwardly say that a new car actually sucks (unless it’s imported from China). Instead, they are able to ...

Introducing some fresh recurring features in Metro Pulse.

Despite taking geekdom to untold heights of popularity around the world, George Lucas is not a fan favorite in the world of obsessive DVD buyers. He is the Emperor to their Ewoks. They simply want to live in peace, collecting ...

For all its fantastic scenes of pure hardware lust—growling European supercars, fanged robotic missile launchers, and of course Tony Stark as a human Swiss Army knife—Iron Man is notable for one very un-superhero-movie quality: a grim sense of sudden mortality.

Game designer (and honorary Knoxvillian) Tim Schafer reveals the innermost secrets of his creative process!

Why is California-based gaming innovator Tim Schafer in Knoxville, giving a local reporter the lowdown on his latest creation, a mixture of heavy metal music and classic gaming-style medieval fantasy entitled Brütal Legend? Because as it so happens, Schafer met ...

If there’s one thing Americans love more than a no-holds-barred, back-alley knife fight, it’s food. Combine the two and you have a burgeoning sub-genre of reality TV: the battle of culinary misfits. If cable networks could simply figure out a ...

Music: As a 7-year-old boy, Ustad Zakir Hussain would begin his days at 2 o’clock in the morning when his father would wake him for drumming lessons while everyone else in their home slept. They would talk about drums and ...

The renowned tabla virtuoso discusses his earliest influences, his career in the U.S., and the limitations of genre labels.