The Kingston Springs, formed out of high school boredom in their namesake town, The Kingston Springs are living the dream. They started playing together in the summer of 2008, released “The Vacation Time EP” in 2010 and were playing Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits in 2011. Celebrating the April release of their first album, “Secret Game,” the band impressed both their audience at the BMI stage at Hangout and their hometown fans through a series of Nashville shows. The Kingston Springs teamed up with Red Bull Sound Select team for The Basement to The Beach showcase also featuring Moon Taxi and Chancellor Warhol.We met up with the band before their set at The Basement for a quick little chat.
L100: “Tell me about your first show in Nashville .”
KS: “Our first show in Nashville was really cool, ’cause it was in a small place. And it;s cool to do those shows because it’s pretty intimate, and dark, and it’s really different than playing outside. And it’s more, it’s personal.”
L100: “Is it easier to make fans at these small, intimate shows?
KS: “Actually it seems like we get more fans at festivals and places that you’re playing, because if you’re playing outside it’s definitely more people and it’s bigger, and there’s more fans that come to that, I guess. But venues, whether you’re in town or out on tour, it’s more random, I guess. And you can affect a crowd if they haven’t heard you before. It’s fun.”
L100: “What’s the largest crowd you guys have ever played in front of?”
KS: “We just played Memphis in May last weekend and – no wait”
“Probably Live on the Green.”
“yeah, yeah it was Live on the Green. Um I think that was like, five or six thousand.”
“it was cool too, because it was our hometown so that was nice.”
L100: “Talk to me a little bit how it’s different, playing hometown shows to these festivals?”
KS: “Well, definitely the festival shows are always a whole new crowd, so that’s pretty cool and it’s definitely kind of a bigger stage and just bigger crowd which is a whole different environment, cause at home you know we play a lot of house parties and smaller venues and so the vibe is definitely different the more intimiate crowd, to being on a stage taller than everybody, it’s a little different but they’re both good. Festivals are fun.”
“Yeah and you know whenever you’re playing shows either at home or just in venues in other states, people go there to see you, I guess, just to see that one show but here it’s like so many people stumble upon you, their vibe is completely different. But uh, it’s always good.”
“I remember being at like Lolla 2010 or something and stumbling upon Mumford and Sons and Black Angels before they were really well-known and that’s how I discovered these bands. It’s pretty cool.”
L100: “Is there anything special about playing on the beach? Is theere anything different about playing Hangout that you”ve noticed?”
KS : “Um, different vibes, playing on the beach for sure. Um I mean of course this breeze is just great. Yeah and just everybody’s- I don’t know, it’s just beachy. It’s different. You’re playing on a beach. I don’t normally play on a beach if you’re us I guess.”
We caught up with the guys with The Kingston Springs at their hotel, like the creepy stalkers we are, for a beach side performance before their set. Please take notice that we are not touching the dunes, no dunes were hurt in the filming of this take away show.
After cleaning all of the sand out of our camera lenses, tripods, computers(some how), and other places we don’t care to mention, Lightning 100 is able to start posting our backstage performances at 2013 Hangout Music Fest. Nashville artists were definitely representing at the festival this year performing at small/major stages and even the shuttle buses. The Nashville lineup included Moon Taxi, The Kingston Springs, Chancellor Warhol, The Weeks, Luella and the Sun, Josh Farrow, Wild Cub, The Wild Feathers, and a few others that were just enjoying the festival. Click here to check out photos from the festival! We’ve got more backstage performances coming!
It was last spring 2012, and John Gourley—frontman of Portugal. The Man—found himself in New York City about to ring the bell at Danger Mouse’s apartment–a long way from his current home in Portland, and farther still from his real home in Alaska. Six full-length albums in six years, nonstop touring, a stint with The Black Keys and festival stops at Coachella, Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza—up until this moment, Portugal. The Man embodied all dimensions of DIY rock range.
When it came time to begin work on the seventh album, Gourley thought long and hard about the next move and kept coming back to one concept: The most satisfying work is collaborative work. From building houses with his father in Alaska to building a devoted fanbase, he had sought partnerships. So he took a bold step — bold for a proven band, bolder still for its uncertainty of sound — a step up to the apartment of a possible collaborator, Danger Mouse.
“I walked into his place,” Gourley remembers now. “And it wasn’t going to happen. He was like, ‘Hey, man, just so you know, I don’t really want to record a rock band.’ And I was a little relieved. We’d done this by ourselves before, and we knew we could do it by ourselves again.”
But then they got to listening, and to talking about how much Danger Mouse had loved In the Mountain in the Cloud — the 2011 followup to Portugal. The Man’s break out record The Satanic Satanist. “From that very first meeting,” says Danger Mouse, “we were very ambitious about what we could do…otherwise there was no point. So we decided: Let’s try and make something really special.”
So Danger Mouse — aka Brian Burton, the five-time Grammy award winning producer behind everything from Gnarls Barkley and Beck to The Black Keys and now U2 —and the band agreed that they were game for the challenge and began production on what would become Evil Friends, the undaunted re-awakening for Portugal. The Man. As much as their collaborative imaginations melded, to construct songs that lived up to the ambitious visions they had would take some time. After all, here was a band with an evolving lineup — Kyle O’Quin on keyboards, Noah Gersh on guitar/percussion/keyboards, and Kane Ritchotte on drums joined Zach Carothers on bass and vocals and Gourley on lead vocals and guitar — building new songs with a new producer trying to do something neither of them had done before.
They went, together, to Los Angeles and worked through several sessions — at Mondo Studios, Eltro Vox Studios, and Kingsize Soundlabs. The band worked months longer than they ever had on one thing. And somehow — maybe it was the collaboration in the air, or maybe sheer will — they finally stopped searching and started realizing: “What really brought our record together was getting past that period of looking for something, and figuring out how to do something really new, really hard, and really satisfying,” said Gourley.
Each track on Evil Friends is as different from the next as Portugal. The Man’s previous records were from each other, which is to say a piece of a growing mindscape, and wholly a part of the group’s tumbling fever dream. Where the 2009 hit “People Say” was a cheery guitar rally, the new title track is a bells-and-balls ballad emerging from darkness into a pipe-whistling punky thump, albeit with Gourley’s trademark falsetto and thundering guitar. And yet here is Evil Friends swirling, like a tornado that sends a napping child toward Oz, into something of a tale of Portugal. The Man’s arousal from when it decided to make something special to when it actually did: The weighted down questions of “Plastic Soldiers” (Could it be we got lost in the summer? / Well I know you know that it’s over) give way to the confident melodies of “Modern Jesus” (The only rule we need is never giving up / The only faith we have is faith in us) and finally, brazenly, to the anthem “Smile” (We watched the sun come up / But took it down to hide it / Seems like the spring has come and gone / It felt like forever).
It took all year, and Portugal. The Man — a group guaranteed for seven years to pump out a record, to tour and tour and tour, to tuck its fans to bed at night with a community of psychedelic rock — had learned to slow down and transform all-day, all-night recording with Danger Mouse into adrenaline, into words that are at once dark and light, into sounds that are overlapping with danger and charm. The whole “evil friends” thing was just a happy writing accident, by the way, a lyrical coincidence belying a collaborative friendship Burton says taught him, too: “I felt like I was watching them do something special and I wanted to let them do it, so sometimes I was more hands-on, but sometimes more hands-off than I had been with anyone,” says Danger Mouse. “They had done enough albums that I thought it would be fun to shake it up a little bit.”
“In the beginning, I asked Brian why he had wanted to talk about making a record,” recalls Gourley. “And he admitted that he was surprised when he saw us live. ‘I didn’t know you guys could sound like that.’ There had been this perception that we’ve been something else — and I’ve noticed it, at festivals, everywhere — that we were something we were not. But then we got in a room with Danger Mouse, to the place where we could just throw that out, wake up and say, Here we are. We’re this band! Let’s just make it, together.”
Dawes will be returning to Ryman Auditorium on 6/09 in support of their latest release Stories Don’t End. Lightning 100 is hooking one lucky fan up with FRONT ROW TICKETS to the show! Leave a caption below and you just might win the best seats in the house. If you have not checked out Lightning 100′s in-studio videos from the band, your really missing out. The band performed “Something In Common”, “Someone Will”, and “From a Window Seats” for a few lucky listeners, a few weeks before the album came out! Click here to see these exclusive HD video!
Music City Mayhem winners Lulu Mae are getting ready for their big debut as the first announced band in this year’s Live on the Green lineup. Having this Nashville-annual festival looming ahead, they are feeling both anticipation and excitement.
We are looking forward to playing to such a huge group of new people. We are nervous about playing to such a huge group of new people… But seriously, we cannot wait. Every show we play is so much fun because we love playing music with and to each other, and we’re so grateful that we get to share that fun with an enormous, mostly brand new crowd. Hopefully, we make some new fans and friends in the process. (Ben)
The battle for this big win also proved them to be worthy competitors for Nashville’s love and loyalty and a new band to keep your eye on. When asked about their experience at Music City Mayhem, they had only brilliant feedback to give.
It was incredible. Never once did we feel like winning our match-up was a sure thing. We knew each band we faced was really, really good, and some of them were our really good friends as well. Our fans supported us in such a humbling yet affirming way. When the time rolled around for the Final 5 Showcase, we were nervous as all getout because we knew that our competitors (rightfully so) had huge and active fan bases, but we also relished the opportunity to play for so many new people (the crowd was amazing, by the way). It felt a bit surreal when they announced us as the winner. The whole thing was a mix of many pleasant emotions. Our main takeaways from the competition were these:
• Our fans are the absolute best. Every band says this; we truly believe this. They’ve done so much for us and we feel immensely loved and supported.
• Nashville is full of insanely talented artists and really, really good people. In particular, throughout the course of the competition we had a GREAT time playing and hanging out with the Paranormals, Diamond Carter, Mercy Bell and Levi Weaver. Shannon LaBrie and Jessica Frech were also very kind to us (and killer to watch).
• We are very fortunate indeed to have Lightning 100 as our hometown radio station. They do such a great job of supporting local music, and we are eternally grateful for the opportunity they gave us by selecting us to be in this year’s Music City Mayhem. (Ben)
They clearly have their eye on the prize as they walk towards the fall festival series. However, this prize may look differently than you’d expect. Good ole family fun is just as important to them as the inevitable outcome of so much talent. The band also has a neat facet of individualism that works in clean coordination. Their growing legacy as a family band fuels their unison, but still each member brings a little something unique to the group. I can only imagine the fun they have in crafting tunes.
The fun thing about our songwriting process is that it’s very inclusive. Joel always starts us off, but the final shape of our songs is always a result of collaboration and a fairly rich confluence of musical tastes. Our listening preferences are all across the board, and Adam, Ben, Joel, and Anthony have each been in several other bands of vastly different styles. Of course there’s a lot of folk and country flavor that goes into our writing, but the styles that shaped us as players and writers include a healthy amount of indie rock, jazz, soul, powerpop, and even some good old early/mid-2000s emo. Not saying that you’ll detect all that in our songs, but for better or worse we can’t deny our individual musical heritages. The result is a sound that we like to imagine would be comfortable in the company of Ryan Adams, the Decemberists, Iron and Wine, Bob Dylan, the Swell Season, and the Band. (Ben)
They have been all about family from the very beginning. Lulu Mae was the name of my great grandmother, and the diamond that is in [wife] Sarah’s wedding band belonged to her. When we first started writing music together we found that a lot of our music was family themed. Maybe it had something to do with lingering teenage angst, or the fact that we were all related, but one way or another we thought that a family name suited the band best. (Joel)
It seems only appropriate that the band derived it’s name from Ms. Mae, but the mix up of releasing their first EP under the official band name before getting a call from dad with the note of remonstrance that Joel’s gg’s first name was “Lula” is priceless.
“Is it too late to change it?” chimed his dad. Yep, way too late. (Joel)
The band has done some pretty incredible things so far, even though they call their beginnings humble.
Typical band story. Adam (keys) and I (Joel) recorded some tunes. I got married and started singing with Sarah. We fronted money for a small EP so that we wouldn’t regret never having recorded. Ben came in to play bass, Adam married Jen and she can shake the hell out of a tamborine, Anthony plays the guitar and has been a close friend forever (plus, he’s down to clown in the poor house with the rest of us while we make this thing work). We’ve told our band formation story in other ways, but really, it’s not very interesting. But, we love the living daylights out of each other, which is why the band keeps working. (Joel)
Their next big move post-LOTG is a new full length album to drop in Spring 2014
Local Artist of the week Lulu Mae – The Fiction of Speed- The Mockingbird & the Dogwood Tree
Dj Picks
Hammel – Kyle Andrews – The Way To Wonder
Wells – Alanna Royale- Listen To Your Momma- Bless Her Heart- ( Playin’ Musicians Corner Saturday 5/25 in Centennial Park)
This Just In Omega Swan- Get Along- Deluxe Edition of OS-1 Casey Wasner- She- Casey Wasner The Daily Howl – Be My Beyonce - The Revolver E.P.
Bands Around Town- Holly Williams- (Happy Acoustic)- Highway- (Playin’ live Nashville Sunday Night 5/26 3rd & Lindsley) South Of Specter- The Kids-South Of Specter -(Playin’ live The Rutledge on Thursday 5/23) Rebecca Roubion-Poison In My Veins- Forests- CD release show- (Playin’ liveThursday 5/23 The Basement 7pm) Milktooth-Eye’s that Say I love you- Beck songreader cover- (Playin’ live Saturday 5/25 Basement for No country for new Nashville 2 year anniversary)
Lightning 100 hooked a few of our listeners up with a not so secret show, secret show with Jake Bugg! WRLT was one of the first stations in the US to play Jake Bugg. Check out these live performances live from The High Watt of “Lightning Bolt”, “Trouble Town”, “Country Song”, Two Fingers”, and “Taste It”. What’s your favorite song from the performance? Click here to see all of the perfomances. Please make sure to share, rate, and subscribe to our youtube channel!
Outside of Midtown’s Tavern I catch the boys mid-conversation and end-cigarette with an old friend, looking like every other Nashvillian in need of a good beer by Tuesday night. Snarky comments and a functional dysfunctional bickering between these guys should always be expected… they probably hate each other more than anyone else – and love each other more too.
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[some.... girl] “The City Profits… What, are you like all about making a profit or something?”
[Terry] “Well no, but everyone has to make a profit, everyone has bills… money is something everyone can relate to, it’s a common denominator.”
Peter Terry & the City Profits, even when faced with boldly pointed questions from an unbeknownst audience member, know how to respond with the cool collection of a band who acknowledges reality and still knows what they are all about. As for their city profiteering, they have made something of themselves in Chicago and now in Nashville.
In a city culture riddled with wannabe musicians and aesthetic dreamers who dig Nashville’s niche-industry of re-surging “vintage” songs recycled from artists’ parents’ old vinyl collections, Terry and his profits have found it difficult to find their place here in music city. Cellist Stephen Juergensen and percussionist Chris Spann add unique elements of classical and Old Soul/R&B and Jazz sounds to Terry’s 50s Doo-wop / 70s and rock background.
Although all three band members claim the same Indiana roots, their individual backgrounds contribute in a unique way to the classical/pop/rock/blues trio.
Growing up in a household full of trained classical musicians, it is amazing that even at the age of eight Juergensen followed suit with a hunger for strings. Cello became his go-to.
Spann studied jazz at college in Chicago where he got together with mutual-student friend Terry whom he had oddly enough gone to high school with.
Chicago was the middle ground where they found each other, whether again or for the first time. Even with a large audience-on-command, the boys were looking for something more than friend-fans bleeding from the heart of a city that only beat routinely for them. The perks of rebuilding a local audience outside of their home state is knowing that new fans really dig their music, who they are and will stick around and support. All three had agreed that moving to Nashville seemed the best next option for them as uncomfortable and uncertain as that seemed at the time. As Juergensen so elegantly put it, they had to “just do it.”
As their sound has progressed, there is something of symphony and of pop running alongside their growing desire to make music that “people can dance to.” A significant power lies still within the lyrics that are somehow just as meaningfully crafted into songs as the intricately layered music itself. With their 2011 I Am Jackson album , stories besides their own were portrayed, but in the future more importance is being laid on their own experiences in this upcoming album that they’ll be getting under way with in June at the Tracking Room. They hope that even this late-spring planting will yield an August album harvest.
A potential single from the album, “And then there’s Flex,” unravels the tender experience of Peter’s struggles with anxiety and dependency on controlled substances in order to go out, to interact with others and then go home and fall asleep. “… And like, I probably wouldn’t have been able to sit here and talk to you without having had two beers…“
One past-album lyrical gym [lyrics here], Miss May and Dean kay originated from… “the Chicago tribune. Dating prior to the Korean war, a soldier went to war leaving the sweetheart of his yesteryears. When he returned much later she had married somebody else, and he in turn got married. They had their own lives, and 40 years later one sent a Christmas card to the other one, just checking in, and they started talking via letters and ended up starting a relationship and got married at 65″ -Peter Terry
The latter represents days past for the band, and now their focus is being narrowed to their experiences, struggles, and aspirations to engulf contemporary surroundings. Somewhere in between the Black Keys and Bruno Mars you will find them chasing after something brilliant that makes them echo “Hallelujah!” in the new Daft Punk album.
This team of profit-snatching bandits (as some people might like to see it) has their own interpretation of their band whose name they currently hate – and that fact which they will shamelessly and unforgivingly publicize – and would rather identify themselves as Lewis - “Like Lewis and Clark… the spirit of adventure.”
Local Artist of the week Peter Terry & the City Profits – Lawyer (Playin’ Live Friday 5/17/13 at Soulshine Pizza 7:15- FREE!)
Dj Picks
Hammel – Echo Group – Supra
Wells – The Delta Saints- Out To Sea- Death Letter Jubilee- (On Lightning 100 Friday 5/17 at 3pm- Playin’ Musicians Corner Saturday 5/18/13 in Centennial Park)
This Just In Los Colognes – Working Together – Working Together Farewell Flight – Begin Again – Out For Blood Kink Adore- Sunshine Cooper & the Jam- I Wanna Love You- Motown Suite (Playin’ Live East Side Hootenanny 5/25/13) Mother Honey- Moanin- The Peachtree Dance-
Bands Around Town The Commitment Bells- Double Secret Agent- Time WIll Fix It All (On Tap Thursday 5/16/13 at Tin Roof Nashville- 8pm w/ Carolina Story & Jessica Frech) The Weakenders- Sliding Home (Playin’ Live 5/13/13 at Mercy Lounge 8 off 8th featuring Gavin Shea, The Electric Hearts, Diamond Carter, Heavy Sole, Mercy Bell, Stacey Randol, The Weakenders and The Cultivation)
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Kyle Andrews- You Always Make Me Smile- (Featured on Music Business Radio Monday 5/13/13 at 10pm)
The festival in Austin, Texas, expands to two weekends this year, Oct. 4-6 and 11-13, at Zilker Park. Three-day passes go on sale Tuesday for $225.Go here for more information.
DEPECHE MODE | THE CURE | MUSE | KINGS OF LEON | ATOMS FOR PEACE | LIONEL RICHIE | PHOENIX | WILCO | VAMPIRE WEEKEND | THE NATIONAL | ERIC CHURCH | PASSION PIT | QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE | ARCTIC MONKEYS | FUN. | KENDRICK LAMAR | FRANZ FERDINAND | D’ANGELO | KASKADE | TAME IMPALA | LOCAL NATIVES | THE SHOUTING MATCHES | TORO Y MOI | GRIMES | PORTUGAL. THE MAN | SILVERSUN PICKUPS | THE JOY FORMIDABLE | NEKO CASE | DIVINE FITS | GROUPLOVE | JIMMY EAT WORLD | THE BLACK ANGELS | THE BRIGHT LIGHT SOCIAL HOUR | THE MAVERICKS | OKKERVIL RIVER | SHUGGIE OTIS | PURITY RING | DAWES | HAIM | SMITH WESTERNS | JUNIP | WALK THE MOON | VINTAGE TROUBLE | NOAH AND THE WHALE | PAPER DIAMOND | LISSIE | PINBACK | THE JON SPENCER BLUES EXPLOSION | WILD BELLE | PHOSPHORESCENT | COURT YARD HOUNDS | THAO And THE GET DOWN STAY DOWN | FOXYGEN | LITTLE GREEN CARS | SAVAGES | AUTRE NE VEUT | PARQUET COURTS | FIDLAR | WHITE DENIM | TRUE BELIEVERS | THE BLIND BOYS OF ALABAMA | DELTA RAE | JAKE BUGG | THE LONE BELLOW | ELECTRIC GUEST | DAN CROLL | DEAP VALLY | WILD NOTHING | TYPHOON | HUNDRED WATERS | TWIN FORKS | RED BARAAT | ELECTRIC SIX | SHOVELS And ROPE
REIGNWOLF
MONA
MS MR
WIDOWSPEAK
ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL
BEAR MOUNTAIN
GREENSKY BLUEGRASS
JD MCPHERSON
PACHA MASSIVE
VALERIE JUNE
WILD FEATHERS
ROADKILL GHOST CHOIR
JC BROOKS AND THE UPTOWN SOUND
DESERT NOISES
THE BAND OF HEATHENS
HOLLY WILLIAMS
ALANNA ROYALE
CHERUB
THE DYNAMITES FEAT. CHARLES WALKER
SHINYRIBS
JACUZZI BOYS
WICK-IT THE INSTIGATOR
SHAKEY GRAVES
HOUNDMOUTH
WILD CUB
PETERSON BROTHERS BAND
LUELLA AND THE SUN
X AMBASSADORS
SONS OF FATHERS
COURRIER
MY JERUSALEM
NOT IN THE FACE
DANA FALCONBERRY
BOBBY JEALOUSY
WHISKEY SHIVERS
THE PRESERVATION
MAX FROST
LATASHA LEE & THE BLACKTIES
CALEB
SHANNON LABRIE
ANDREW DUHON
KRISTIN DIABLE & THE CITY
COLIN LAKE
BROOKE WAGGONER
TYREE MORRIS & HEARTS OF WORSHIP
ENDURANCE
THE STAPLETONES
HEAVENLY VOICES CHOIR
THE MCCRARY SISTERS
DISCIPLES OF CHRIST
THE HENSLEY ENSEMBLE
THE DURDENS
THE WARRIOR GOSPEL BAND
BARTON HILLS CHOIR
THE VERVE PIPE
SCHOOL OF ROCK
TIM AND THE SPACE CADETS WITH MOTHER FALCON
PETER DISTEFANO & TOR
GRACE LONDON
PLAYDATE
THE OHMIES
THE Q BROTHERS
ANDY Z
CASPAR BABYPANTS
Levi Weaver is one of those artists who substantiates our hopes that “Someday I’ll make it big! I’ll get lucky!” And while Levi is definitely one lucky man, he has hoards of talent to back it up.
No one place belongs to Levi, and he belongs to no one place. Small town Texan turned immersed-European turned Nashvillian, Levi doesn’t define his home as a singular place. His “geographical commitment issues” may have spurred him to the road, but he has consciously made the decision to run down it with no backwards glances. Following his heart and marching forward blindly – literally – landed him a six-week tour gig with Imogen Heap and five previously released albums. The blindness I speak of, fear not, is this: I closed my eyes, spun a map, and pointed. This is how Levi pulled his lucky card again and landed in Nashville.
He had so much experience to bring too, after only a span of two years abroad.
When I couldn’t get on another tour, I started booking my own, saving up bus fare and playing around the country. I was in a new country with no professional contacts with musicians or studios… I’m proud that I learned how to work.
I know England still colors my music. As does Texas. As does Tennessee, now… It’s just the flavor I know how to cook with…
He has put himself in the unique position of starting over new many times. This from-scratch musician has cooked up a homeade career that has turned out to look like a gourmet 5-star meal. His lyrics are “something akin to food. The lyrics are the vitamins and minerals, and the music is the food. You can take the vitamins by themselves, and they’re still effective (poetry) and you can eat things that have no nutritional value (brainless pop music) but they are just so much better when they come as a team.
Levi’s far and wide search for his sound and his soul’s niche therein might not have always left him feeling full, but he is certainly satisfied with where he has come.
When I lived in a small town in Texas, I remember feeling like “I think I know where I want to be, but I can’t see any bridge that leads there”. I was — like, seeing a bridge but not being able to cross it would be frustrating, but this was something else altogether. Something like despair, I think. Moving to England was, in a sense, the experience that showed me that no one else was going to build that bridge for me, but hey – here are a bunch of materials and – no blueprint, but here’s a book about leverages and engineering, so… your move, pal. I mean, you absolutely need other people, and no one person can do everything that a career needs to be successful, but you can’t just sit back and expect it to come to you.
Expect his new album to drop some time around October!
The southern states of America held my hand for the first few months of self-discovery. Taking me to church for the first time, with the sermon being casually led by The Reverend Al Green, I asked myself why I hadn’t tried this whole religious thing years ago. But after coming to my senses whilst eating pulled pork BBQ shortly after service, I quickly realized church would probably never live up to that kind of high ever again, so I put the lyrics about the devil back in my jeans pocket and naturally turned to the all forgiving hard liquor-pouring juke joints of Clarksdale, MS. After learning a thing or two about the “real” blues, and finding out from a chap named Eddie who had a penchant for moonshine, that I clearly ain’t got them blues if I could afford a plane ticket from New Zealand to Clarksdale, I decided I better keep on chewing through this whistle stop tour of mine to find the true blood and bones of this record. So, I got down to business and started writing furiously. I wore my fingers down to a callous state writing with every Tom, Dick & Harry around the world, including a chap named Charlie who plays for a man named Bob, to wrestle my emotions and bring out the raw grit hiding in my tightly guarded sub-conscious. Lucky for me, it all paid off in the way of 11 tip-top songs that have the love of a cowboy, bathe in a little lonesome blues, dance to a touch of rock ‘n’ roll and have the swagger of a woman past midnight.
After much persistence in the form of incessant nagging to my label to get Mr. Butch Walker to produce and Mr. Jake Sinclair to engineer, I found myself in the beachside haven of Santa Monica in the U.S. summer of 2011 with those two fine gentlemen by my side ready to record my second album. After a month of live and loose recording with the Black Widows and Stu Thompson, we managed to uncover my newest album Gravel & Wine…
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The Weeks perform “Ain’t My Stop” and “King-Sized Death Bed” off their new record Dear Bo Jackson live at Lightning 100. Click here to check out previous in-studio performances and a live set for Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival! Have you listened to full album Dear Bo Jackson? Any other songs off the album you would like to hear on 100.1 FM? The Weeks will be performing at East Nashville Underground on May 10th and then on tour for a while with Kings of Leon in the U.K. We’ve also posted the entire interview via soundcloud here.
Lt Dan from Lightning 100 and Jared Corder from East Nashville Underground chat about and play some music from ENU Past, Present, and Future. Join Lightning 100 on the other side of the river this weekend for East Nashville Underground! Party on the Eastside with 20 local bands such as The Weeks, Kingston Springs, Erin McCarley, The Kicks, The Young International, Chancellor Warhol, and more! East Nashville Underground is sponsored by Grolsch. Click here to get your tickets!
Mondays from 9-10pm CST on WRLT/Lightning 100, Nashville’s Independent Radio lightning100.com
Indie Underground Hour 5-06-13
The National – Don’t Swallow The Cap (Trouble Will Find Me, 4AD) Frank Turner – Recovery (Tape Deck Heart, Epitaph/Interscope) The Replacements – I’m Not Sayin’ (Songs For Slim, New West) Telekinesis – Power Lines (Dormarion, Merge) Phoenix – Trying To Be Cool (Bankrupt!, Glassnote) !!! – Fine Fine Fine (Thr!!!er, Warp) The Weeks – Dear Bo Jackson (Dear Bo Jackson, Serpents & Snakes) Father John Misty – Nancy From Now On (Fear Fun, Sub Pop) Daughter – Human (If You Leave, Glassnote) Shuggie Otis – Miss Pretty (Inspiration Information, Epic) Marnie Stern – East Side Glory (The Chronicles Of Marnia, Kill Rock Stars) Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Mosquito (Mosquito, Interscope) Guided By Voices – Islands (She Talks In Rainbows) (English Little League, GBV Inc)
Jake Bugg’s, not so secret, secret show! Jake was in town from the UK May 1st, 2013 and invited Lightning 100 listeners to hear a few tracks from his new self titled full length debut album. Now you can enjoy this performance on demand and please share with your friends! From Nashville’s Independent Radio, Lightning 100.
Local Artist of the week Josh Farrow – Devil Don’t You Fool Me – Single
Dj Picks
Hammel – Guthrie Brown – Family Tree
Wells – Judah & the Lion – Hesitate – Sweet Tennessee (Playin’ live 4/30 at 12th & Porter 6pm)
Featured Guest of the Week The Features The Features live-This Disorder The Features live-With Every Beat
The Features pick- Non Commissioned Officers- Say
This Just In Commitment Bells – Thirst – Time Will Fix It All Night Beds- 22-Country Sleep
Bands Around Town- Repeat Repeat-12345678 (Playin’ Live 4/30 w/ Dick Dale @ Mercy) Anderson East- Flowers Of The Broken Hearted (Playin’ Live 5/2 @ Basement w/ Tumbleweed wanderers, The Lonely Wild, Swear & Shake- Communion Show) Deep Fried 5- Spotlight (Playin’ Live 5/3 @ 5 Spot) COIN- Atlas-(Playin’ Live w/Lonely Biscuits 5/2 @ 12th & Porter) Ranch Ghost- Ragged Mile-(Plain’ 5/2 @ The End)
The hippies from California, The Mowgli’s, perform “Time”, “Great Divide”, and “San Francisco live in the Lightning 100 studio! We crammed 7 band members, 1 dj, and a camera guy into our small studio.
Junip releases “Line of Fire” the first single off their sophomore album Junip, out April 23rd. JUNIP is José González (Guitar/Vocals), Elias Araya (Drums), Tobias Winterkorn (Keyboards). Featuring Öyvind Hegg-Lunde, Joel Wästberg, Johan Grettve, James Mathe, Andres Renteria as live band.
Lover of the classics, nature and water and the outdoors, Josh Farrow is making his own path in the music industry. He may be walking under the hot sun of Nashville’s song-writers’ spotlight, but he is well shaded by inspirations of Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder and The Beatles. Josh knows the beauty of things past and how to recycle his loves into meaningful lyrics and current tunes.
Since the tender age of 10 when he got his first guitar, music has been a constant in his life. It may not have been till age 19 when he began singing and writing hardcore, but he certainly has come a long way very quickly. Josh has been highly involved in years past with Lightning 100, and he has a record of popping up as one of their featured artists. Josh has experienced a wonderful give-and-take partnership with Lightning 100:
“I’ve played some sponsored shows for them, have been at their Christmas parties, and love supporting those guys!”
A fruitful relationship with the radio station has been just one of the high points of his career here in Nashville. Producer Dexter Green has inspired Josh not only by his intense involvement with the artist and in his support, but he has also challenged Josh through a respect warranted by his own talent. In Josh’s own words: “My biggest encourager so far has been my producer Dexter Green. He’s by far the most talented person I’ve met in this town, and has been willing to help me greatly.
Nashville has been the biggest blessing in my music career. From an overwhelming response from music city roots with Leon Russell, to meeting everyone I know from the 5 spot, the reception has been unreal.”
If you are ever in the area, you should stop by 5 Points Pizza and say ”Hey!” tothis fellow. After all, he promises that it’s the “best pizza in the south.”
It’s doesn’t take much to see that Josh truly loves this city.
“Nashville has put a little more country in me, kicked me in the ass a little bit, and pushed me to be the hard-working motivated person I am today. Nashville can wear you down in the music industry, but if you recognize your weaknesses it can pick you right back up.
“I don’t plan on leaving this beautiful city, especially East Nashville where I live. I’m going to be touring most of the summer, including some shuttle bus gigs for Hangout Fest and other festivals like Merlefest in 2014.”
Josh’s most recent releases include two singles titled Devil Don’t You Fool Me and The Worryin Kind. During a fairly stressful time in his life he turned yet again to music to learn to channel the tumultuous context of his life. True to the single’s name, he explained “I’m a worrier by nature and am learning to get it out creatively.”
But how exactly did Josh come to call himself an immersed Nashville native? For love of a woman, of course! Spring Break can do many terrible things to our lives, but in his case it did one thing tremendously right. Four months after a trip to Daytona Beach he moved to Murfreesboro to be with her, and five years later they are still going strong. Two years ago he made the official move up the interstate to pursue music full time in Nashville. He has dug his urban roots deep here, but he has not let go of his rural ties either.
“I feel like I write mostly about the natural elements of life, and it translates to music from a love of being alone in the outdoors. And being in water. Too many of my songs are about water…”
So what is on the up-and-coming for Josh?
“The new singles, and new songs I’m tracking in the studio right now are a lot more mature (naturally) and have a lot more harnessed energy and soul in them. A bit dark, a bit soothing, and a bit haunting. Southern Drag was all about a very young and fresh outlook on living and writing in a new place – the south.
“I’m expecting to release a new full length album in the later part of this year.”
Mondays from 9-10pm CST on WRLT/Lightning 100, Nashville’s Independent Radio lightning100.com
Indie Underground Hour 4-22-13
Iggy & The Stooges – Burn (Ready To Die, Fat Possum) Wire – Love Bends (Change Becomes Us, Pink Flag) The Features – This Disorder (The Features, Serpents & Snakes) Phoenix – SOS In Bel Air (Bankrupt!, Glassnote) Major Lazer feat Amber – Get Free (Free The Universe, Secretly Canadian) Devendra Banhart – Your Fine Petting Duck (Mala, Nonesuch) Paramore – Holiday (The Holiday Sessions 7″, Atlantic) Marcos Valle – Os Ossos Do Barao (Previsao Do Tempo, LITA) The Shouting Matches – Gallup NM (Grownass Man, Middle West) My Morning Jacket – Leaving On A Jet Plane (The Music Is You, ATO) Mikal Cronin – Weight (MCII, Merge) Little Green Cars – The John Wayne (Absolute Zero, Glassnote) R.E.M. – Strange (Live In Greensboro EP, Warner Bros)
Alabama native Matthew Houck & co have one of the most compelling songs of 2013. Here’s the live TV performance from Late Night with Jimmy Fallon’s 4/23 show.
The Kingston Springs, formed out of high school boredom in their namesake town, The Kingston Springs are living the dream. They started playing together in the summer of 2008, released “The Vacation Time EP” in 2010 and were playing Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits in 2011. Celebrating the April release of their first album, “Secret Game,” the band impressed both their audience at the BMI stage at Hangout and their hometown fans through a series of Nashville shows. The Kingston Springs teamed up with Red Bull Sound Select team for The Basement to The Beach showcase also featuring Moon Taxi and Chancellor Warhol.We met up with the band before their set at The Basement for a quick little chat.
L100: “Talk to me a little bit how it’s different, playing hometown shows to these festivals?”
