LIVE FROM MEMPHIS

Even though the rain came down (several times) it did not stop the hard core friends and family of our favorite neighborhood bar!! The Bardog Anniversary and Benefit went off without a hitch! Money was raised, cups were raised and most of all spirits were raised!! Music from the Bluff City Backsliders keep people dancing while the meatballs and ribs keep people eating. The dunk tank never stopped and the shaving of the heads raised a ton of money for a great cause!

Around $20k (unofficial) was raised for St. Jude. Brittany Bloom (below) got her head shaved which brought in $5,550 alone!

Props go out to the Bardog crew, they did a great thing yesterday! Happy Birthday!

Since it's like 10,000 miles away from Downtown, where I live, I don't have many reasons to travel to Collierville, Tennessee. It's a suburban hell made of miles and miles of cookie cutter homes and apartments. I know, because I lived there until 1988, when I moved to fabulous downtown Memphis! At that time, Downtown was way more quiet that Collierville—that's what I loved about. No one was around to bother us when we RAVED till DAWN!!!

However, there is one reason I now will have to make the trip more frequently. New Que Huong is Vietnmese food that is totally awesome! I stopped eating meat in 1998, and in Memphis, as you might imagine, there are not very many places that service the vegetarian lifestyle. But vegetarians can now rejoice! New Que Huong is fantastic—and very vegetarian friendly.

When the food came, I got so excited that I forgot to take pictures till I had already devoured half of everything, so please forgive the half-empty dishes. I don't even know what I ordered. I said vegetarian and food came and it was all amazing!

I going to take my mother and aunt on Tuesday for dinner. See you there!

New Que Hung 942 W. Poplar Ave. Suite No. 5 Collierville, Tn 38017

This was my first  Memphis Midnight Classic Bike Tour. I finally made it out and had a blast doing it!! We pimped out rides with music and disco lights! We had lots of positive comments, thumbs up and smiles! I don't know how many people showed up for this ride but it looked like thousands! Our little group of friends sported Live From Memphis shirts as we rocked our way through the 17 miles of Memphis streets.

There were all kinds of different people, freaky outfits and bikes! This is one of those events were people are people and everyone has a good time.

I was also really surprised by the level of support for bike safety at this event. There were cops on every intersection blocking traffic. It was really nice to see that this kind of thing can happen in Memphis. Hopefully this is only a precursor to making Memphis more bike friendly.

Good times, it's a must do Memphis event!

Sure you do!

I’ve never had much of a sweet tooth; salty and savory have always been my preference. So when I sat down for my first listen to the Magic Kids debut Memphis, my taste buds revolted and my body went into insulin shock. The album opens with “Phone”, a nostalgic blast of sunshine that blew up my skirt like a Day-Glo suppository. Reminiscent of Herman’s Hermits “I’m Into Something Good”, all the sudden I was frolicking on the beach with Priscilla Presley like I was Leslie Neilson in love. It set the tone for an album that is brimming with bouncy, antiquated themes but with all the nutrients of high fructose corn syrup.

On my way to the HiTone Friday night for an evening of rocking for love of the Church Health Center, I was admittedly a little concerned that all the rocking and all the love would be outdone by the sweating and the being-sweated-on, and also that I might end up at the Church Health Center before the weekend was over.

Rock for Love 4 with Lucero

Rock for Love 4 with The Bullet Proof Vests

Rock for Love 4 with The Jeremy Stanfill

Friday night's action at Rock for Love 4. Make sure you make it this NOON 5pm at Shangrila Records and then at the HiTone 9PM. Be there for Lucero, The Bullet Proof Vests, Jeremy Stanfill and Al Bell.

Skewby!

The Magic Kids at Rock for Love 4

The Dirty Streets!

Glorie at Rock for Love 4

Rock for Love, 17 local acts, to benefit the Church Health Center. R4L 4 Kicked off last night at the Hi-Tone Café. All the action starts tonight at 9pm and go through Saturday! Go!!!!!

Thursday nights show!

Holly Cole

Star and Micey

Teflon Don

See MOre!

I must admit that last Fridays performance of Firetribe Memphis was way better than expectations. No, I am not saying that because I was in it. I am saying that be cause I saw the rehearsals and not till all the performers came together on one stage with lights and amplified music was it really a show. ...and boy what a show it was!

I think for everyone this was the surprise show of the summer. Even the Levitt Shell staff said it was more people than they had seen in a while. Even after the show People kept coming up to tell us how amazed they were. There were so many excited kids with smiles from ear to ear. I was really not expecting to be received so well by the community.

Congratulations to everyone involved, it was amazing and I can't wait for you... er us.. to do it again!!

Thanks to Brad for shooting photos for the first part of the show.

Charles White is a mainstay of the hip-hop and poetry scenes in Memphis.  On his latest project, The Alpha Male Mixtape, he talks about his life and his struggles.

Sorry there was a bit of a delay between this post and Part 1. This was caused by a) Antenna Documentary production taking up all of my time and b) the fact that Tommy Kha supplied me with a bunch of great pics he took at the reunion, most of which I promptly deleted in a bout of idiocy. All of these pics were by Tommy Kha, but trust me, there were more, that were equally, if not more, awesome.

I went to see the Crystal Method at Minglewood and I was presently surprised by the turnout. It was packed! Local DJ Mary Jane more than held her own as the show opener. The tunes were hard and edgy throughout the night, keeping the energy bumping the whole time. By the looks on everyone's faces, they were having a great time.

I think the best part about seeing an electronic or hip hop show at Minglewood is the bass. The sound is amazing. There is no match for the kind of raw power you get from bass in a club. The light show was amazing, and in general it's an awesome place to see a show.

Good times. Enjoy the photo gallery.

This Antenna Shoes performance is one of my favorites from the shoes. I don't know if i just got used to hearing these versions or if they just truly jammed it that night but it's on of my favorites. Open Arms, Wait, Singer, and a pretty cool version of St. James Infirmary.

This recording was made at the Hi-Tone as part of The Memphis Pops Festival.

Recorded by Christopher Reyes :) Photos by Don Perry

2007-07-29 Antenna Shoes Live Music Archive Memphis 1 0 / Friday, 13 August 2010 13:35 Released 2007 Format Digital Audio Type Live Length 1529 N° discs 0 Label Live Music Archive Memphis Genre(s) Price 0.00 € Catalog N° Live Music Archive Memphis

So I may have lied and cheated my way into the Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros show, or I may not have. All I have to say is that, it's surprising what making a few phone calls and having about 2 things published on livefrommemphis.com will do. You see, last month I was on a mission. A more James Bond than Tom Cruise type of mission (because Sean Connery is classy and Scientology is scary) I was determined to catch the Edward Sharpe show and with only $13 in my pockets, it wasn't looking likely but I was getting in damnit.

So I went to a family reunion on Hawaii. Yes, it was awesome as you will see in my picks. The full album is available if you are friends with me on facebook. Got off the plane and went right to work at the Antenna Reunion. Be sure that you check out me photos from der. Ill follow those up with some Jack O picks and Crystal Method. Also Im getting ready fer the big fire/dance performances at the Levett Shell this coming Friday. More on that soon. Heh. It wouldn't be Live From Memphis if my hair wasn't on fire :)

here's the sign that goes with the rock

Jason “Da Hater” Harris is a Memphis underground rap vet and one of the founding members of local rap collective Iron Mic Coalition (IMC). He is also one-half of the duo Kontrast, along with fellow IMC founding member, rapper/producer Empee. Gearing up for the release of his sophomore effort, Harris released this mixtape, which serves as a prologue.

After Shangri-La it seemed like our motivation had been stomped out. My mother and I went from searching for a record player with a feverish passion to going days without even mentioning it. We stopped looking. For weeks, my lonely Jimi Hendrix album was shelved away in my closet, untouched and still in the plastic. With summer nearing it's end I was on the verge of considering our epic, summer-long adventure one big bust.

What to say about last weekend's Antenna reunion? That I was reunited with old friends I haven't seen in more years than I care to think about? That the spirit of DIY rock and roll is alive, well, and living in Memphis? That all of the people flying and driving in from the four corners of the country confirms the un-remarked-upon depth and reach of the club's (and thus, Midtown Memphis') cultural influence? That egos still clash whenever you get a whole bunch of musicians together, or that collaborations which years ago would have been unthinkable produced great results?

Well, I know what I want to say: That the music, in all of its diversity, was great.

We live in a time of utter hypocrisy. Priding ourselves in our few progressive strides, we too often take back such advancements when something conflicts with "our" way. We're so obsessed with our own civil rights that we tend to protect whatever is ours, often ignoring the fact that others feel just as entitled to their personal liberties as we do. Indie Memphis recognizes these discrepancies, and for that reason will continue its Freedom Series as it poses the question: What is freedom?