Memphis Pops

Memphis Pops 2008 Promo
Memphis Pops 2008 Poster

Memphis Pops Fest July 25 & 26, 2008

Growing into its second year, the Memphis Pops Fest celebrates the past, present, and future of Memphis pop music. This year’s Memphis Pops Fest will include two evenings of live Memphis music at the Hi Tone Café on Friday, July 25 and Saturday, July 26.

Friday, July 25 will be the Tops of the Memphis Pops contest with Mike Dees, Two Way Radio, Hi Electric, and The Barbaras dueling it out for $3000 in recording time from Ardent Studios and $1500 in an advertising package from The Memphis Flyer.

Saturday, July 26 will feature the artsy pop of the Warble, the Hombres, the return of Memphis musician and producer Terry Manning, and the inimitable Roy Head backed by Memphis’ own Bo-Keys!

The evening’s music begins each night at 9:00 p.m. Tickets are $20 including both evenings & are available now at www.hitone.musictoday.com/HiTone/calendar.aspx

Tops of the Memphis Pops Battle of the Bands Friday, July 25th
featuring The Barbaras, Mike Dees, Hi Electric and Two Way Radio

The Barbaras www.myspace.com/thebarbaras

The Barbaras are five best friends who spend their free time together trying to capture the magic that drove Phil Spector and the Beach Boys insane in their own basement on cheap recording gear, like kids playing with fire. They're more likely to burn the house down than learn to control it but are too busy admiring the flames to care. If it hasn't driven them insane yet, it's only a matter of time, but they want to trap as many people in their world as possible along the way. While they have enjoyed success in Kazalok and the Boston Chinks (as well as several members are part of Jay Reatard's backup band), their "Summertime Road" single is newly released on Goner Records and an LP on In The Red Records is in the works.

Mike Dees www.myspace.com/mikedees23

Mike Dees is a prolific purveyor of Southern-fried power pop and veteran of many bands, recently striking out on his own and not looking back yet. Whether playing solo acoustic or with a full-on rock band, he always delivers heartfelt (if slightly acidic) lyrics and ragged jangle rock. Imagine 1970's AM rock (Neil Young, America) mixed with British Invasion and Power Pop (Big Star,Teenage Fanclub, Gin Blossoms) filtered through a ragged dose of distorted bliss (Soul Asylum, Husker Du, Guided By Voices). Mike Dees' live band consists of Jobu Babin (guitar, vocals), Kevin Doherty (drums, vocals), and Adam Dodds (bass).
DISCOGRAPHY
Mike Dees - Buried EP 2007 Door 23 Records
Mike Dees - Unearthed 2008 Door 23 Records
Sensory Lullabies: The Ultimate Tribute To Jellyfish 2007 Burning Sky Records Beautiful Escape – The Songs Of The Posies Revisited 2008 Burning Sky Records

Hi Electric www.myspace.com/hielectric
Hi Electric is a five-piece pop/indie band, based in Memphis. The band’s origin is atypical of most Memphis projects and has led to one of the best new bands in the city. In 2007, Steve Selvidge (Amy LaVere/Antenna Shoes/Big Ass Truck) discovered home demos by Neil Bartlett on Myspace. Selvidge thought enough of the demos to lend his experience, producing a recording session for Bartlett. For the session, Selvidge enlisted former Big Ass Truck band mate Robert Barnett (Mouse Rocket/Rob Jungklas) to play drums, Tim Regan (Snowglobe/Oh No, Oh My/Antenna Shoes) to play Mellotron with Selvidge taking duties on bass, keys, and some guitar. The results are some wonderfully produced pop songs featuring Bartlett’s catchy lyrics and subtle harmonies.

Following the recording session, Bartlett put together the Hi Electric live band, featuring Alan Yee on bass, Kevin Cubbins (The Lights/The 1-4-5’s) on guitar, Dave Shouse (The Grifters/Blood Thirsty Lovers/The New Mary Jane) ..boards, and Barnett on drums.

Hi Electric will release its first 7” this summer.

Two Way Radio www.myspace.com/twowayradiomemphis

Two Way Radio is a unique, piano-driven rock band from Memphis that combines simple pop melodies with intricate instrumental and vocal arrangements. Lead vocalist and pianist Kate Crowder along with her husband/bassist Corey Crowder and guitarist Andrew McColgan formed the band Walkie Talkie in 2003, when all three were sharing a house together. After playing and writing together as a trio for a short time, veteran musician Joey Pegram joined the band on the drums, thus solidifying the band's rhythm section. More new members came aboard--keyboardist Joe McClusky and guitarist J.D. Reager--and the band had to change its name to Two Way Radio after a legal dispute with another band named Walkie Talkie in California. Their 2006 debut release on Makeshift, Residential Llama, received favorable praise locally and regionally, and the band is currently hard at work on a follow-up, due later in 2008.
"Blending lush Brian Wilson-ish pop with the bossa-nova beat and dreamy female vocals of Os Mutantes, these guys sound like nothing else in Memphis. Unpretentious and perfect, Two Way Radio is a sonic treat." - The Memphis Flyer, 2005
"The band's sound is lush and layered both in the studio and on stage, and their songs are dense, often whimsical, and, in a tradition that runs from the Beach Boys through Neutral Milk Hotel, often structured like mini-symphonies." - The Commercial Appeal, 2006
Members:
Kate Crowder
Andrew McColgan
Corey Crowder
Joey Pegram
Joe McClusky
J.D. Reager

Saturday, July 26th
The Warble, The Hombres, Terry Manning, and
Roy Head & The Bo-Keys

The Warble www.myspace.com/thewarbles

Astronomers/Musicians from the year 2027
The Warble are truly one of Memphis’ most innovative current pop combos with a flair for art pop as unique as any band from Memphis in many years. The Warble meets at dawn everyday in Downtown Memphis (somewhere near the Pyramid) to swim across the Mississippi River. Upon their arrival on the Arkansas shore, they cut down some tree and hunt “Beasts.” After obtaining cryptic messages, the crew teleports back to Mid-town Memphis…They write their songs at dusk seated in a half moon formation around the enchanted cosmetic fireplace inside the Warble Headquarters (where the “blues” become the “reds”).
Memphis Art Rockers:
Judith Stevens (vocals/violin/keyboard)
Alex Harrison (vocals/guitar/keyboard)
Ben Bauermeister (percussion scientist)
Steve Pereira (vocals/iphone)

The Hombres

One of the great obscure—yet, at the same time, mainstream--Memphis bands, the Hombres peaked at number 12 in the fall of 1967 with the inimitable pop ditty “Let it All Hang Out,” shortly following behind the smash number 1 hit the Box Tops scored that Memphis summer with “The Letter.” It was, indeed, a great time to be in a garage rock band in Memphis! Everyone in Memphis was in a band and everyone was having hits.

B.B. Cunningham, another of Messick High’s finest (along with Booker T. & the MG’s Steve Cropper and Duck Dunn), and the Hombres recorded for Shelby Singleton in Nashville and as well as Huey P. Meux down in Houston, leading to the Let It All Hang Out lp on Verve and several tours around the country in the late 1960s.

Cunningham has since joined Jerry Lee Lewis’ band as bass player and most recently toured Sweden this June. Cameron Crowe’s Elizabethtown (partially filmed in Memphis!) soundtrack featured “Let It All Hang Out.” Cunningham now shares a recording studio with Doug Easley in Orange Mound.

Terry Manning

When discussing Terry Manning, where do you begin? He has produced and recorded albums that have sold over 15 million copies…ZZ Top, Led Zeppelin, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Joe Cocker, George Thorogood, Molly Hatchet, Omar & the Howlers, the Staple Singers, Al Green, Lenny Kravitz and many hundreds of others. He helped to put Ardent Records on the map starting at their original National St. location in 1966.

He continues to record today at the Compass Point Studio in the Bahamas, owned by music legend Chris Blackwell. Manning, who has his own record label that focuses on Memphis acts such as the Memphis Horns, Rock City, Furry Lewis, and Van Duren also has tracks on the newly released Ardent Records Story as well as his solo record, Home Sweet Home, one of the few rock gems (and a cult favorite of Memphis music fans!) on the ill-fated Enterprise label, was recently reissued on Sunbeam Records.

Manning’s live appearance at the Memphis Pops Fest will be his first live Memphis gig in almost 30 years.

Roy Head & the Bo-Keys

Spanning over 50 years of entertaining the world with his out of control soul & pop sound, Roy Head is truly the Texas Tornado. Hailing from San Marcos, Texas, where Roy Head & the Traits began tearing up high school dances and sock hops in 1957, Head has endured to be one of the top live acts currently setting stages on fire.

While mostly known for the number 2 smash hit, “Treat Her Right,” Head also scored with the tunes “Just a Little Bit” and “Apple of My Eye” in 1965 as well as “One More Time” and “Live It Up” in 1959. Dismal Prisoner, recorded at Steve Cropper’s TMI Studios in 1972, is a Tony Joe White-esque tour de force that should be on anyone’s short list of best white soul records.

Recently Head has won a new generation of fans at the Ponderosa Stomps in both Memphis and New Orleans by continuing to put on show-stopping, high energy live performances. Head’s music jumps over every great genre of early r&b, rock ‘n roll, blues, rockabilly, pop, and soul to create one of the best live acts going in 2008! Roy Head and the Traits are listed in the top 200 greatest rock ‘n roll artists of the 1960s.

The Bo-Keys are a Memphis based soul super-group featuring Skip Pitts, Jim Spake, & Scott “Hustle & Flow” Bomar among others. They have previously backed Roy Head to massive critical praise and audience delight. The Bo-Keys recently recorded new material at their Electrophonic Recording studio in South Memphis.

Friday, July 25th
6:00 p.m. Meet & Greet with Roy Head Trolley Tour at Memphis Folk Alliance 510 S. Main (Free admission)

6:00 p.m. Harlan T. Bobo Goner Records 2152 Young Ave. (Free Admission)
9:00 p.m. Hi Tone 1913 Poplar
Tops of the Memphis Pops
9:00 Mike Dees
10:15 Two Way Radio
11:30 Hi Electric
12:45 The Barbaras

Saturday, July 26th
1:00 p.m. Memphis Pops Backstage Pass---A Conversation with Terry Manning at Ardent Studios 2000 Madison Ave., presented by the Memphis Music Foundation (Free Admission)

3:00 P.M. Roy Head Meet & Greet Shangri-la Records 1916 Madison Ave. (Free admission)

3:30 Jeff Evans and Ross Johnson Shangri-la Records (Free Admission)
9:00 p.m. Hi Tone 1913 Poplar Ave.
9:00 The Warble
10:15 The Hombres
11:30 Terry Manning
12:45 Roy Head & the Bo-Keys

Tickets available for both evening shows at the Hi Tone, 1913 Poplar Ave, Memphis, for $20 at www.hitone.musictoday.com/HiTone/calendar.aspx

Sponsors for the Memphis Pops Fest include Gossett Motors, Ful, The Memphis Flyer, Shangri-la Projects, Goner Records, the Memphis Music Foundation, Shangri-la Records, the Folk Alliance, & the Memphis Convention & Visitor’s Bureau.

2007 recap

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Memphis Pops had our first amazing show, July 27, 2007. Six awesome bands blew away the pop throngs at the Hi Tone Cafe in Memphis! Vending Machine and VivaL'AmericanDeathRayMusic put on their best sets ever and Tim Lee 3, Antenna Shoes, the Carbonas, & the Everyday Parade also put on stellar shows. Goner Recording stars the Carbonas in particular killed everyone! A great start to what is already one of Memphis' finest annual music events.Check out the great photos by infamous Memphis paparazzi Don Perry!The nice folks at www.livefrommemphis.com caught a bunch of the show on film and should have a document of the show up here soon! Mark your calendars now for 2008's big blowout July 25/26th!Thanks to sponsors Shangri-la Projects, 2 Chicks & a Broom, Goner Records, Shangri-la Records, Memphis Music Commission, 50 Years of Soul, & Ardent Records!

Tim Lee 3
www.myspace.com/timleemusic
Vending Machine
www.myspace.com/vendingmachineband
Antenna Shoes
www.myspace.com/antennashoes
CARBONAS
www.myspace.com/thecarbonas
VIVA L'AMERICAN DEATHRAY MUSIC
www.myspace.com/vivalamericandeathraymusic
The Everyday Parade
www.myspace.com/theeverydayparade