SaY taking a break for a while
It’s been a good run for me at Shock and Yawn. For seven months SaY brought breaking news and excellent features and a lot of people were reading. But several factors have come together to make it time to give the Web site a rest.
The idea behind SaY was to provide musical features on bands in the South that you couldn’t find anywhere else. For a while I got away from that, and then once I got steamrolling again, I realized how much commitment it takes to do this Web site well. At the moment, I don’t have the ability to commit the time it takes to run SaY well, and if it can’t be done well it should not be done at all.
I thank all of the readers who have been so supportive and all of the bands and others who I’ve worked with. SaY is certainly not dead, but at the moment, it’s just not right to keep the site live when I know I don’t have the manpower or financial capabilities to run SaY correctly. Thanks to all of you. I’ll be back again someday.
Songwriters keep on playing, despite being ’scary broke’
Ghosts in the Woods
This is another installment of the Small Name, Big Talent series. Recommend songwriters for this series through e-mail, click here.
Comprised of Clayton Carden and Scott Jenkinsan, Ghosts in the Woods is an acoustic duo based out of Kingsport, Tenn. Using multi-layer vocal tracks, dancing guitars and everyday objects such as spoons and decks of cards, they create a lush, folky atmosphere.
In a world with bands like Animal Collective forgoing song writing for ambiance, emotion and movement, Ghosts in the Woods manage to pull out all of the stops, combining soulful harmonies with strong, story-telling lyrics.
With their self-released DVD/CD coming out, an interview with the duo was in order.
Shock and Yawn’s Justin Plemmons: So, let’s get the generic questions out of the way: What are your influences?
Scott: I grew up with some kinda traditional stuff, like country and blue grass. But we sort of split in adolescence– I started listening to punk music and stuff like that, (as well as) the beginnings of indie rock, like Jaw Breaker and that kind of stuff. It still kind of has the song writing appeal that country music has, you know, heartbreak and loneliness, but has a different sound.
Clayton: My dad was a dead head, so I got into Jam bands.
S:I’m a big fan, and so is Clayton, of Ryan Adams.
[Continue reading about Ghosts in the Woods, hear the band]
Reatard hitting US after routing thru Europe with Pixies
Jay Reatard
Memphis garage rocker Jay Reatard is out on tour with what he considers to be the best touring group he has ever had.
“I’m driving to Chicago right now with Jacob and Anders,” Reatard said in an e-mail blast. “(And) after a month on the road in Europe with the new band, I can easily say this is best band I’ve ever had.”
Reatard is on tour all over the U.S. right now, and he just got back from Europe. Video of him shredding upon London and Dublin is available here.
Reatard was on tour with the famous Pixies, and meets back up with them on Tuesday in New York City. Come December, he’ll back rolling through the South again and spreading his lo-fi, raw punk rock to all who will listen. His tour includes some of the biggest names in the South.
Also, Reatard will be releasing the newest 7″ on his label, “Shattered Records” available for stream or purchase on his Web site. You can buy the vinyl from Goner now here. Reatard’s members of the Shattered Club will have it e-mailed to them, but that is a $75.00 membership plan.
[Tour info below]
E. Kentucky songwriter creating Spanish-folk style
Photo by Doug Strickland
This is the first installment of the Small Name, Big Talent series. Recommend songwriters for this series through e-mail, click here.
You never know what you will miss about home until you are gone, or what will bring memories of your roost rushing in.
For Jeff Hortillosa, an Eastern Kentucky native, it was the sound of his hometown’s rustling trees. Now living in a Spanish city and working as an English teacher, Hortillosa, or “Horti” to his friends, has only one sound that comes close.
“The only bit of home I really get is my guitar,” Hortillosa said. “Nothing comes close to sounding like the trees.”
It will be July before he comes moves back to the U.S., at which time he plans to teach so he can make money to support his habit: Music.
A natural musician, Hortillosa is the kind of guy who can pick up an instrument he has never seen before, pluck it a couple of times and then start strumming and humming out a new song. He is the guy who can play Van Halen’s famous guitar solo “Eruption” on a toy keytar. When he was young, he learned to play guitar just so he could teach his friend to play rhythm while Hortillosa jammed on his original instrument, the drums.
[Read on for more about Hortillosa, Download MP3s]
KY’s Jim James and Daniel Martin Moore sing out about mountain top removal
Jim James and Daniel Martin Moore are singing out against mountain top removal. Photo by Brad Luttrell | SaY
Just utter the word “coal,” and emotions flare, hotter and higher than the flames the black rock generates when burned for energy.
The supporters of coal mining fight back against the environmentalists, saying coal provides jobs and useful flat land in the impoverished Eastern Kentucky, while the anti-coal activists say the technology is readily available for a switch to green energy, and that we are destroying our environment.
Two Kentucky songwriters are coming together to help make their voices heard. Jim James, or Yim Yames as he is calling himself outside of his best-known band, My Morning Jacket, and Sub Pop’s pop-folk artist Daniel Martin Moore will be performing a show in support of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth’s effort to stop mountain top removal.
[Get tickets, directions, click more]
Read more
The Seedy Seeds’ eclectic nature makes great pop
The Seedy Seeds. Photo by Brian Niesz | WOXY
Today is Friday the 13th, so you’re looking for something screwed up and out of the ordinary to do. How about seeing a show that combines accordions, electronica, acoustic guitars, synths and banjo?
Yeah, sounds pretty scary, but it’s the sound Cincinnati’s The Seedy Seeds professionalize in producing.
“Folktronica” is the buzz word a Seedy Seeds promo e-mail loosely used to describe the group. Even then, that might be too tightly fastened. Oh, and they’re not just another Mates of States knock-off. This is sincere, eclectic pop music that expands the genre’s boundaries and tools required.
[MP3, tour info, click more]
Harper Simon sprouting from family tree’s shadows
Harper Simon is playing Natasha's Bistro this Friday.
Harper Simon does have a sober sound, comfortable within itself, just like his father’s music does.
Oh, you know his father. Paul. Right? Paul Simon, as in Simon and Garfunkel. But Harper Simon’s music honors its family tree while sprouting away from its shadow. He has found his place in folk-pop, and it doesn’t need the preface of his father’s work.
Starting Friday the 13th, Harper Simon is touring South. He’ll be playing in Lexington, then heading to Louisville, Nashville, Memphis and Bloomington.
Natasha’s Bistro has become one of the biggest little advocates of local and good music in Lexington, Ky. That reputation gets is solidified with the booking of Harper Simon.
[Click to see tour details]
CONTEST: Free tix to Evangelicals/Holiday Shores in Louisville
SaY is giving away tickets to see the Evangelicals and Holiday Shores in Louisville.
The Evangelicals and Holiday Shores have booked a last minute stop in Louisville on Friday the 13th, and SaY is giving away a pair of tickets to the show for free, courtesy of Crash Avenue Publicity.
Since the show is last minute, the contest is also last minute. This will be quick – leave your full name and e-mail below. I will randomly select the winner on Wednesday at noon Eastern time.
This should be an awesome high energy, psychedelic rock show. The Evangelicals are getting a lot of attention right now. Go see this show, everybody is doing it.
[Show info, enter contest, MPfree, click more]
BLOG: Jonathan Tyler & Co. shred to small crowd
Jonathan Tyler and the Northern Lights shredded an awesome blues performance last night at Buster's.
First – Buster’s is an amazing music venue.
Second – It helps that my first show there was a band that could absolutely shred some blues.
I’ve lived in Memphis, Tenn. for about six months now, and I haven’t heard blues sound so good as last night at Buster’s. Jonathan Tyler and the Northern Lights, hailing from Dallas, Texas, has all the right components to make up a true blues team, Kenny Wayne Shepherd style.
With two solid guitar players, exchanging lead and rhythm like a football pass, a bass player who can jam his own lead and a drummer who is as sick as his beard is long, they are the perfect team.
[More about Buster's, tour info, click more]
BLOG: Lexington’s Chris Soulis playing Elbow Room
Click to listen to Chris Soulis.
I first spoke with Chris Soulis back in the Spring when I did a column for the Kentucky Kernel on his band, Idaho Alaska. I really liked what they’re doing, and I think Chris is a good guy who cares about the local music scene in Lexington, Ky.
He’s playing a show with some other good artists in a week or so, and I wanted to put the word out. So, here it is, nothing fancy. Here is the event on Facebook. The show is next Wednesday, Nov. 11 at 10 p.m. at the Elbow Room on 6 S Washington St. Chris will be playing with Secret Twins (Michigan based band), Bad Medicine at the Campfire (also Michigan), Kommie Kilpatrick (you guessed it, Michigan) and the Chris Soulis.
I would say this show will cater to fans of Built to Spill, Modest Mouse, Bright Eyes or Eels. Come out and support a local musician. And be sure to check out Idaho Alaska, Chris’ band.
