Graham Burks is a Memphis musician who has been playing music on its stages since the days of all ages shows at the famed Antenna Club. He currently plays drums for Memphis punk veterans Pezz, and guitar for the Perfect Vessels. Both bands will be playing Rock for Love 5, with Pezz appearing Friday, August 19th at the Hi-Tone and the Perfect Vessels playing Saturday, August 20th at Shangri-La.
1. tUnE-yArDs – I like the studio album w h o k i l l, but it wasn’t until I started browsing through all of tUnE-yArDs’s live clips on YouTube that I was hooked. At the heart of this band is Merrill Garbus and her loop pedal, which she uses to build the songs layer by layer. She loops drums, ukulele, and harmonized vocal phrasings from another dimension to create her anything-goes compositions. Influences from all over the place, including world music (particularly African music), dance, electro, folk, and soul, are combined to create something absolutely unique. Now, I just need to see them play live.
2. Memphis Memoirs: Overton Square, the Golden Age – WKNO’s documentary about the midtown party district in the 70’s. My dad and I had a great time watching this together. It was even better getting to hear Dad’s stories from back in the day to go along with it.
This airs again on WKNO2, Thur Aug 18 at 7 PM.
Here is a recording of Big Star playing at Lafayette’s Music Room in Overton Square, January 1973. By the way, the entire fourth disc of their box set Keep an Eye on the Sky is a recording of their performance from this night in Overton Square.
3. Street of Crocodiles, the Brothers Quay – I have always been a fan of stop-motion animation, and I recently made some stop motion videos for my band the Perfect Vessels. My interest in this lead me to discover the Brothers Quay , who are masters of this artform. Here is their short film Street of Crocodiles, from 1986. This is a bit dark and moody, but an amazing piece of stop motion animation.
See Also:
- Rock For Love 5 Artists Take Over Pick Three: Grace Askew
- Rock For Love Artists Take Over Pick Three: J.D. Reager of The Near Reaches
- Rock for Love 5 Artists Takeover Pick Three: Jeremy Scott of The Burning Sands
- Rock for Love 5 Artists Take Over Pick Three: Patrick Glass of Richard James and the Special Riders
- Best of 2010 – Graham Burks’ Top Ten Albums
