Makeshift regulars Snowglobe, the Glass, Blair Combest, Holly Cole, and
Two Way Radio all pitch in strong new never-before-heard tracks. They
are joined by a number of veteran artists including powerhouse vocalist Susan
Marshall punk bands Pezz, and The Subteens. Togethere they round out another
great Memphis music compilation!"
Grassroots Memphis Music from Snowglobe, Vending Machine, Nervous Patterns,
Mouserocket, Cory Branan, The Reigning Sound, The Oscars, Andy Grooms and
more!
Grassroots Memphis Music from Palindrome, Loggia, Lucero, Lucero, Jetty Webb,
Lost Sounds, American Deathray, Mouserocket, Deloreans, Memphix, and Snowglobe.
Jeffrey James and the Haul - Ride the Wind Carnival
Buy Me! VINYL! $10.00
New Vinyl E.P. from Jeffrey James and the Haul (members of Snowglobe, the Coach and Four)! Includes a digital download card for the entire album as well.
"With a rich and full music resume already to his credit, Paul 'Snowflake' Taylor presents a solo disc that displays a wide variety of
influences and appreciations as well as showing off flashes of keen pop
sensibility..." - www.jasonblogs.com
Andy Grooms Living Room - Greatful
to Burn
Buy Me! CD $10.00
Former Pawtucket, Andy Grooms has been a staple performer at such Memphis
hang-outs as the P&H cafe and Hi-Tone, and now you have the chance to bring
his Living Room home to yours. With a little help from a few Makeshift label-mates,
Grooms has crafted a great blend of psych-folk that is sure to please the discerning
ears of our customers.
Debut solo record from Memphis-based singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist.
"The Repechage crackles with
ideas and ambience." - Blurt Magazine
Augustine - Broadcast
Buy Me! CD $10.00
Augustine is a live band without peer. Their music combines a disaffected
love-affair with minimalist art rock with infectious hooks and smart lyrics
aimed at destroying the behemoth of popular music's singular focuses.
Long-awaited debut release from the Memphis punk/garage/weird rock band.
"It's as if Pink Floyd's Syd Barrett, post crack-up, had been hired to write music for an Eastern European circus." - the Commercial Appeal
Blair Combest - Blair Combest
Buy Me! CD $10.00
Singer-songwriter comes through the (studio) fire with a fine sophomore album.
Another casualty of the fire at Easley-McCain Recording Studios, it took singer-songwriter
Blair Combest two years to finish his second album, this eponymous follow-up
to his fine debut, Prettier Than Ugly. Recorded at Easley with Kevin Cubbins
and Makeshift founder Brad Postlethwaite producing, Blair Combest is more
of a group affair than the title might indicate, with Combest getting a hand
from a host of local musicians, including members of Snowglobe and the Tennessee
Boltsmokers and a group of friends on background vocals that Combest dubs
the "Easley Tabernacle Choir."
This lends the record a musicality that broadens the palette of your standard
rootsy singer-songwriter record, with Boltsmoker Andy Ratliff adding bluegrass
accents to "Turn to Rain," Snowglobe's Nahshon Benford punctuating "Disarray" with
trumpet, and the Phil Spector-esque finale of sleighbells and vocals on "Silly
Girl."
Which isn't to say Combest himself isn't the main show here. Combest's slightly
nasal ache and scratchy, older-than-his-years delivery can't help but evoke
Bob Dylan, but it isn't just the voice: In its lyrical bent and musical lilt,
Combest's music sounds quite like a very precise moment in Dylan's folkie period,
post-protest songs, pre-electric. Think Another Side of Bob Dylan. At his best,
Combest evokes a more modest, more consistently earnest version of that tone
and sound, although there is also a spare, dusty undercurrent to this record
(see, especially, "Wait for You") that's reminiscent of Texas alt-country
pioneer Townes Van Zandt.
Blair Combest - Prettier Than
Ugly
Buy Me! CD $10.00
Allow me to quickly make note of the fact that Blair Combest's Prettier than
Ugly is, essentially, a country album. I'll clarify the fact that Combest himself
is actually more of a singer/songwriter type of guy, and that amongst this
near-country record floats the most obvious influence of Bob Dylan as well
as echoes of The Flying Burrito Brothers and folk singers from days gone past.
The most interesting part about this car wreck of musical sensibilities is
that on this release, Combest's backing band is none other than Snowglobe ...
Yeah, so how exactly does a singer/songwriter team up with a retro-indie-pop
backing band to make a rootsy country album? One word: Talent.
Brad Postlethwaite - Welcome to
the Occupation
Buy Me! CD $10.00
Folky, Songwriter from the band Snowglobe. Brad got mad about the war. Brad
wrote some songs about it. Brad recorded those songs and started selling
them to people.
Coach
And Four - The Great Escape
Buy Me! CD $9.00
Like their contemporaries and the burgeoning Makeshift scene/label that put this release in your mitts, The Coach and Four are a refreshing jolt of blues/garage-free Memphis rock. If you like rockist Jim O’Rourke, early Sea and Cake, poppier Sonic Youth, and I guess whatever has made great indie rock great, then listen up.
The Coach And Four - Unlimited
Symmetry
Buy Me! CD $12.00
If the Sea and Cake hadn’t of dabbled in the dual nether regions of drum ‘n’
bass and airport jazz, they still would lack the impact of Unlimited Symmetry,
but you Sea and Cake fans out there should try it out to experience what you’ve
been missing.
Emotional but low-key folk/Alternative with heart-breaking accents of cello
and electric guitar. Holly, aka Holly Cole, is a songstress with a sound
that isnt from around these author: Shangri-La Record Store, Memphis Holly,
aka Holly Cole, is a songstress with a sound that isnt from around these
parts. An epic flowing sound that may remind you of the expansive West Texas
soundscapes of say, Jimmie Dale Gilmore. Lovely acoustic strumming, songs
and singing with an undercurrent of atmospheric twangs and echos of saws
and other almost undecipherable sounds. Easily one of the most mature and
accomplished outings for the local Makeshift label.
Jeffrey James And The Haul - Win The National Championship
Buy Me! CD $12.00
Alot of Semi-trucks running into each other. Just Kidding,
it sounds like a bunch of Memphis kids drinking beer and chilling on
porches. Our sound goes all over the place.
Aching Big Star-informed Memphis pop from wunderkid Paul Taylor on Makeshift label! Taylor played with the Dickinson brothers in DDT before they went onto North Mississippi All-Stars jam band fame, and was perennially the best bass player in Memphis since he was 13 or so. So he took up drums. He's all over Shelby Bryant's great Cloud Wow Music, and this has some of the same feelings of loneliness and ache... mixed with Beatlesy/Chiltony touches. Pop pleasers!
Snowglobe - Oxytocin
Buy Me! CD $12.00
Having played together since high school, the members of snowglobe
have a unique ability create complex songs with a rich pallet
of sounds in a seemingly nonchalant way. The Memphis based
band continues the long lasting tradition of playing honest
music for the “right reasons”. “The sheer wealth of instruments
the band uses creates moments as jam packed as rush hour. Principal
songwriters Regan and Postlethwaite manage to keep the music
unpretentious with a homey, lived-in quality and a gentle,
unassuming lilt. “ Infectious songs like “regime”, “changes”,
“ms. June”, “Rock song” , set the pace for an eclectic but
cohesive mixture of pop gems. Memphis's Snowglobe plays an
entrancing blend of cosmic American music that owes as much
to pioneering psychedelic country/pop legends like the Byrds
and Gram Parsons as it does to modern-day fellow travelers
like the Flaming Lips.
If there's a difference between being musically obtuse and being psychedelic,
it's to be found in bands like Snowglobe. Rather than being quirky and experimental
for the sake of sounding druggy and far-out, bands like Snowglobe produce sonic
landscapes that defy convention for the sake of pure creativity. For many bands,
this isn't always successful, but thankfully Snowglobe scores more hits than
misses. Falling somewhere along the lines of the Flaming Lips and Elephant
6 bands like Neutral Milk Hotel, with traces of They Might Be Giants and a
whole host of bands past present, Snowglobe's music defies the simplicity of
pop, the seriousness of rock, and the whimsy of novelty acts, and it does so
by combining all three. Heavy on instrumentation, the songs on Our Land Brains
are a heady swirl of guitar rock supplemented with horns and organs, pianos
and strings, and applied in a mish-mash technique that would make many a jam-band
jealous. But somehow Snowglobe manages to break out of the psychedelic folk
mode, even while the sunshine lyrics of these tracks might suggest such a tendency.
This music is seriously goofy, and goofily serious, and always a bit surreal.
And fairly hard to categorize..."
Our Land Brains is a warm and inviting record filled with comfortable sounds
and friendly melodies. Though the Beatles and Beach Boys influences aren't
quite as obvious, Snowglobe shares many psychedelic affinities with the Elephant
6 bands, such as the Apples in Stereo and especially Neutral Milk Hotel. The
result is a charming and affable listen with swelling thrift-store organs,
horns, acoustic guitars, chimes, and even some strings all blending into a
pleasing whole. The band's vocals are occasionally a little bit too restrained
for their own good, limiting themselves within a specific vocal range. The
songs are catchy enough, though, such as Tim Regan's "Dream Works" and
Brad Postlethwaite's "Smiles and Frowns." Our Land Brains doesn't
aggressively push in any progressive direction, but that's not really the point.
Highly enjoyable.
A must-have document of Memphis' punk rock scene, including the legendary Pezz, and the up-and-coming While I Breathe I Hope. Tuneful, melodic punk rock.
Teflon Don - God, the Government, the Game
Buy Me! CD $10.00
Makeshift's first foray into hip-hop!
"Teflon Don has delivered a diverse record that will make you think and
make you dance. His straightforward delivery ensures that the message
will not get overtaken by the catchy music. The lyrics and beat
complement each other, and Don’s efforts clearly outshine many of his
contemporaries in the 'Memphis rap' genre." - Live From Memphis
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