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A Thief in the Night

Turns Out It Was Peach Cobbler

Blog - A Thief in the Night

Written by Kirk Rawlings

Wednesday, 06 May 2009 12:15

It’s no secret that I am a Robby Grant super-fan. I have all the Big Ass Truck action figures. I have a Vending Machine vending machine in my garage that is chock full of Mouserockets. I even have his rookie card from Fester. As a matter of fact I am sitting in a lawn chair across from the street from his house right now. It looks like his family is sitting down to eat. It’s hard to tell. These binoculars are foggy.

^{When you're as awesome as Robby Grant, you can expect to have LFM bloggers stalking you.} ^{(photo by Don Perry)}

Everyone is looking for the genuine article, a song or a sound that defies all categorization and genre, free of influence and uncolored by convention. But this can cause problems. In an uncomfortable exchange that I had with a presumptuous, albeit very talented producer, I was unsuccessfully trying verbalize the sound of an airy, washed-out cymbal. When I asked him if he had ever heard a particular song by Jesus & Mary Chain, he tossed aside his computer mouse and replied, “Um, I am pretty anti-reference.”

While I got what he was getting at, the noble inflection got me thinking he was misguided at best and grossly naïve at worst. The thing is, there is no such thing as original music. Everything comes from something. The best painters, sculptors, scarf knitters are not always the ones that shun their predecessors. Christopher O’Riley is a classical pianist who recently released an album of Radiohead songs reinterpreted for solo piano. In an NPR interview with Terry Gross, he was asked what makes such a band, as songwriters, worthy of such attention and reworking. His reply was great. “The best musicians, period, are those that assimilate, refine, and regurgitate in a creative way everything they hear…so you have a musician, who is writing music that could not have been written at any other time in history and yet takes into account all that has come before it.” That is the thing that makes Robby Grant’s discography noteworthy. Grant embodies what O’Riley said about truly great artists. The best musicians are not reference-free. The good ones are the in-betweeners—the ones who recontextualize the familiar without being confined by it. You can hear the Beach Boys, the Beastie Boys, the Dead Boys, and any number of other boys in his music. It all comes from something. I’m not holding out for a reinvention of the wheel, I just want to see someone put a dope-ass rim on it.

Speaking of references, Grant, in all of his incarnations, is a virtual Cliffs Notes to Memphis’s musical past and present, from Alex Chilton’s hooky garage pop to The Grifter’s disjointed slack rock, from Steve Cropper’s single-string guitar stabs to Isaac Hayes’s lush textural funk, from Ross Johnson’s lyrical oddity to Amy LaVere’s whispery ballads, from Early 8-Ball & MJG's creeping bounce to Greg Cartwright’s spastic rock n’ roll, not to mention every Memphis teen’s homebrew four-track self-indulgence. He has even modeled some of Elvis’s mutton-chops at times. But don’t get me wrong, he is not simply a conglomeration of these people. While reflecting these artists, Grant has avoided the 800-pound honor badge of nostalgia that has kept this city anchored to its own out-dated identity.

I am not one to blow sunshine up a whole region’s ass and praise all that hails from it. Memphis has certainly contributed to the collective pile of shit-music out there. I’ve stacked a few turds myself. But we do have a strong handful of those artists who reflect and reinterpret with honesty and quirk with an exposition of one’s own abilities and identity without the bullshit posturing. Grant is one of them. You are never forced to consider his motives; the music is simply enjoyable, like the funny-looking kid with the harelip you knew from grade school—offbeat, unassuming, and ultimately endearing.

Until his next release, I am resigned to sit and wait, stroking the lock of hair I just dug out of his trash. It looks like the family is on to dessert. Apple crumb pie, I think. I’ve got a ladder. I’m going in for a closer look.

13 Comments

annie-nonnie-mouse makes this comment

Thu 07 May 2009 04:49:19 EDT

a blog author who makes a point contradicted by his next needs Immodium for his mouth...a member suck session should at least include a climax oops... if memphis music doesnt reference itself, then dont reference the same cliche local artists...why dont you write a member suck review for $5 Bill too...isnt memphis more than all this??
kirk makes this comment

Thu 07 May 2009 10:46:27 EDT

My first anonymous dissent! This is awesome! I've got to go spit, my mouth is full from the $5 suck session. Well done Mr. PointMaker!
mopey ninja makes this comment

Thu 07 May 2009 14:22:39 EDT

If I could, I would regularly hold self sucking sessions! Nice article! Maybe you could do one on that really awesome band known as Organ Thief. Do you know them? I know them, I could put in a good word or two.
stephen makes this comment

Thu 07 May 2009 14:25:37 EDT

contradictions? i don't get it. great article!
mk makes this comment

Wed 13 May 2009 05:42:09 EDT

annie, hope that you're having a better day today. kirk, right on.
a presumptuous, albeit very talented producer makes this comment

Thu 21 May 2009 00:03:26 EDT

Ummm...thanks...I think. Perhaps you should have said something like, "I'm going for the sound of an airy, washed-out cymbal." Obviously musicians reference the music of other musicians all the time. By anti-reference (not sure I use that exact term), I meant let's try to chase what we're hearing, not what someone else has already heard. That's taking the easy way out. Organ Thief rocks!
Cheap Nintendo DSi makes this comment

Sat 23 May 2009 11:35:47 EDT

Not entirely convinced because I've nothing but bad experiences with Memphis.
I'm just sayin' makes this comment

Mon 15 Jun 2009 18:55:58 EDT

See, here's the thing. I was so excited to get out and hear what the musicians in the Memphis music scene had to offer. My appetite was positively voracious. Having come from a city that just killed off it's local music scene with a smoking ban (for real), I couldn't wait to check out some rockin' riffs in a hot, sweaty, smoke-filled music hall. Much to my chagrin, I seemed to have brought the smoking ban curse with me. I got what I wanted for maybe two months before Memphis' own prohibition kicked in. I said I got what I wanted, but that's not entirely true. I was expecting too much, maybe. I'd heard all these things about how great the music in Memphis is supposed to be once you can get off Beale Street. I have to say, taken individually, the most talented musicians I've heard hear *are* on Beale Street. Most of the midtown stuff sounds like so much posing and rehash. I mean, one of the most lauded "local" bands is fronted by a Brooklyn transplant with about as much real soul as a doorknob. My midtown stray cat has more authentic Memphis soul than that guy. I actually thought Organ Thief was doing some of the most interesting stuff I'd heard until the singer opened his mouth. It wasn't the words or the singing, but the stage character that says, "hey look how cool I am, I act like a cross between Jim Morrison and Robert Smith, but I don't care what you think of me, but please please think of me". It's distracting from the cool stuff that really is going on in the music, but I got the feeling it was all about him. Sorry, dude. I like what you're doing when you're not doing what you seem to want to do. Maybe I just don't get it. Amy Lavere can't carry a tune in a bucket. Just ask Conan. The best thing happening in her band is happening behind her. She sure is cute, though. And I'm sorry, I guess I'm a moron, but Jack Oblivian? Really? I've heard the word genius used. Really? I could go on insulting people, or I could just kick back with some Stax classics and pretend I'm living in the real Memphis...you know, the one the posers are killing.
Christopher makes this comment

Mon 15 Jun 2009 20:11:16 EDT

Somebody get that man a cigarette
kirk makes this comment

Tue 16 Jun 2009 00:12:29 EDT

"...I like what you're doing when you're not doing what you seem to want to do." but I always seem to want to do what it is I think I seem to be doing.
JF makes this comment

Tue 16 Jun 2009 13:13:38 EDT

You are right. You didn't get it. Its more like Jim Morrison and George Carlin. The OT singer is just a goofy fucker. I've never seen the band when he is not cracking jokes. Isn't this about Robby Grant? I forget.
electric boogaloo makes this comment

Thu 18 Jun 2009 15:23:02 EDT

i'm just sayin...clearly you have no sense of humor (e.g., ot singer). and yes, please...stay at home and kick back with your stax classics and stop spewing your hatefilled rants and baggin on people brave enough to try something different rather than recycling the old beale street classics. i mean how many times can you listen to mustang sally anyway?
i'm just sayin' makes this comment

Fri 19 Jun 2009 02:03:45 EDT

It's not hate, it's disappointment. Let me clarify...I said "taken individually" and I was talking musicianship, not song choice. Mustang Sally can suck my balls...yes, it's a good song, and yes, it's overdone. That wasn't my point. There was a lot of talk about referencing...postmodernism meets rock and roll (well, rock and roll couldn't really exist outside of a postmodern context, which is essentially A Thief In the Night's point as I take it...that and Robby Grant rocks his world). I've heard OT's singer, and I've heard his jokes. George Carlin? Carlin is one of my greater gods. Like I said, I dig Organ Thief's music. I don't dig the posing. It smacks of reference in and of itself, and there IS nothing new under the sun, but there's a fine line between reference and rip-off. For the record, midtown has some good things to offer. I like Harlan T. Bobo (take that, those of you who think I have no sense of humor). The Subteens and The Secret Service are brilliant. But WTF, why can't so many of the guitarists I hear in other bands TUNE their instruments (don't ask me to name names...there are too many)? Out of tune doesn't equal cool...out of tune equals bad musicianship. Unless you take it to the nth, and the Sex Pistols did that a LONG time ago. And really, all I'm doing is agreeing with the original blog in so many ways: "I am not one to blow sunshine up a whole region’s ass and praise all that hails from it. Memphis has certainly contributed to the collective pile of shit-music out there." Let's start a revolution...the best kind...the kind with a memory for the turds and the balls to stand up and say, "this sucks" rather than, "this guy's a legend".

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