The Spin
Popsicle prince
Expecting a sizable crowd Friday at Grimey’s for the ice cream social with BONNIE “PRINCE” BILLY, we got there well ahead of the 6 p.m. start time to trade some old CDs for store credit and make sure we were in position to grab a paleta. Before long, the wind kicked up outside, the sky darkened; and before the rain even started, the power went out as we thumbed through the racks. While the staff scrambled to back up the day’s sales data (all the while drinking beers that were never offered for public consumption), we were moved onto the balcony and eventually downstairs to The Basement. With the venue nearly pitch black except for candles, the low buzz of expectation felt kind of like we were in a scene from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. (You know, at The Bronze). Finally, B. “P.” B. arrived con paletas, and said, “If you’ve got some kind of horrible allergy, then you can be the show.” Folks lined up stage left, walked in front of the house drum kit to receive their frozen treats and exeunted stage right. One fan quipped, “I felt like I was getting my diploma.”
Pickin’ party
Guitarist TYLER GRANT’s a busy guy these days, but a brief pause in mandolin man DREW EMMITT’s schedule left an opening for Grant and the friends he’d recruited for his first CD, In the Light, to celebrate its release. The supersized band spent the first set working through the album’s mostly original contents—a solid collection of progressive ’grass in which mountains and cabins are more often Western than Appalachian. Then the band relaxed into a second set, heavy on engagingly loose renditions of standards. Presiding with a kind of cheerful diffidence, Grant tossed off tasteful, inventive solos while giving plenty of elbow room to his companions, including fire-eating Monroe acolyte CHRIS HENRY (mandolin), fiddler CASEY DRIESSEN and several members of the buzz-laden THE INFAMOUS STRINGDUSTERS. Beyond the music’s intrinsic merit, the show offered a provocative glimpse of a growing community of mostly young musicians for whom bluegrass is less a church than a comfortable home base—and of an audience right there with them.
Rock for rock’s sake
Last Thursday, The 5 Spot hosted a benefit to raise dough for Murfreesboro’s SOUTHERN GIRLS ROCK & ROLL CAMP, the weeklong day camp schooling girls age 10-18 in lessons of rock. This year’s East Nashville fundraiser was sparsely attended, with the largest crowd there for opener and camp instructor JASMIN KASET, who performed under the alias BOB JASMIN. Accompanied only by her guitar and a chord organ played by “Bob Jordan,” Kaset’s short set consisted of songs about rejection, passion and lust for Halle Berry. Though occasionally stumbling through chord changes and forgetting a line or two, Kaset’s playful naïveté was comedic and endearing. Next was the notoriously inconsistent A POET NAMED REVOLVER, whose ramshackle, off-the-cuff post-punk folk comes off as either refreshingly unique or awkwardly disjointed, depending on the night. This night they were on top of their game. The band was better rehearsed than The Spin has seen them in past shows, but they still maintained their loose, lo-fi aesthetic. After what seemed like a rather long setup, HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMY took the stage. While the band certainly bears a resemblance to frontwoman AMY SMITH’s other band, Cutthroat Junction, HBA have a bit more pep. The tail end of their set teetered dangerously close to redundancy, saved only by the addition of a horn player on the last two songs, who added a cool lounge feel we’d like to see them incorporate more often. Rounding out the night were newcomers CANTASY FAMP. It was only their third show and the band still have a few kinks to work out. Add to that the band’s heavy Sonic Youth influence, and this affords them a bit more sloppiness than more veteran acts. Even with everything that went wrong in their set, they still showed a great deal of promise—they just might have to stay a bit more sober to fulfill it.
Put a Spell on you
If you think “ironic” and “uplifting” are contradictory traits that can’t coexist, maybe MAMA SPELL can change your mind. Part comedienne, part performance artist, the Pittsburgh resident (via south Mississippi) tells stories, provides social commentary and performs hilarious lounge versions of seemingly incongruous songs: her rendition of the Sex Pistols’ “Anarchy in the UK” accompanied by cheesy synth tracks is to die for. Mama Spell will perform a set Tuesday night, Aug. 1, as part of Comedy Night at The Bar Car in Cummins Station. Festivities begin at 8 p.m. and admission is free. For a taste, check out www.mamarama.net .
Stompin’ off to school
Warning: the city is about to have idle ramblers, rapscallions and rakes on its hands, as the rowdy JAKE LEG STOMPERS will be laying low for a while. The closest thing Middle Tennessee has to R. Crumb & His Cheap Suit Serenaders, outside of the hoosegow, the hot-jazz jug-band act will be taking a break as mandolinist/fiddler/rose-among-thorns CHARLEE TIDRICK heads off to graduate school. Send her off to the dusty shelves in style when the Stompers play their last gig for the near-future Saturday at the Station Inn.
Email music news, gossip and Popsicle recipes to thespin@nasvhillescene.com.
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