Memphis Sluggers Kick Out The Grand Slams: An Evening with Ex-Cult

Ex-Cult performing at Fresh Start Growers Supply in Louisville. Photos by Robert Brown.

I traveled over four hours on April 3 through heavy Nashville rush-hour traffic (praise Odin this was not Atlanta; on second thought, Outkast is reforming. . . . I would gladly deal with that even if they weren’t playing there, but Middle Tennessee could use something like AMP and lose the Koch brothers’ influence unless they want to pay for a mass transit system for us, which, from my driving experience traveling the area, I can attest we desperately need) and torrential storms (at one point I started to feel South Korean sheet metal slip away from under me gliding across the southern Kentucky Interstate, so I slowed down to 45 m.p.h. for a bit to avoid a Wayne Knight ending, minus the neck-frilled, venom-spitting death lizard that killed off his character, the traitorous Dennis Nedry, in Jurassic Park) to see the five piece Memphis band Ex-Cult (Goner Records) in Louisville, their first time playing in Kentucky.

This was my sixth time seeing them since 2013, and it was different in a weird and unique way. This venue was a cleared-out feed store/garden center, Fresh Start Growers Supply, which apparently occasionally moonlights as a DIY performance space, presumably for younger bands to have a place to play, as this was an all-ages show with a $6 price tag.

Fresh Start Growers Supply:

After seeing them for the fifth time at Nashville’s Dead Freakin’ Weekend V back in March (perhaps my favorite performance of theirs so far, my friends and I made a now-classic road trip out of it to save one of our buddies from the perils of Tennessee/Alabama border-town boredom), I blogged this: I have seen Ex-Cult perform five times now, and I almost can’t listen to their recorded work because they are that great of a live band, their sound quality is rarely diminished, if at all. This is a type of band that sends the moshers into a feeding frenzy, like a shiver of sharks ripping apart the chum thrown overboard. You must experience this band live!!!

Chris Shaw, the singer, is the band member I’ve talked with the most, and, after I asked him if they were excited for the new record (as we were sipping beer and enjoying the first band, Jovontaes, perform), he said that while he loves putting out records, he really loves touring. This makes total sense to me as someone who hasn’t done much traveling and has only lived in Dickson and Clarksville. Really, you’ve got to see this band live! Why have you not seen this band?!

In the back of the crowd, fresh from picking up a sixer of Bluegrass Brewing Co’s American Pale Ale to share, and doubling back, I spaced out to Jovontaes, but I think that is their intention. I probably would have to strap on some good headphones and sit back on my bed against the wall to really enjoy this band, but they are good to sway and nod your head to as you ponder how much alfalfa and how many pitchforks this place supplies the greater Lousiville area as the smell of cedar and grains becomes mixed with beer and sweat. They even had cassettes at the merch table! Hmmm . . . those are coming back to a degree.

Jovontaes:

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Next up was Ex-Cult, and for the first time I wasn’t in the pit, I took the chance to photograph them instead. For a band that I think of as switchblade music, they kind of got off to a slow start, but they let it build, and within a few songs they were locked into their signature cutting sound. Getting back to the switchblade comment, if Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino remade West Side Story with a Grindhouse style twist, I would suggest this band to be the soundtrack to the knife duel; their debut LP, Knives on Both Sides, seems aptly titled. Chris doesn’t as much sing as much he “barks” (suggested by another review), his raspy voice for some reason reminds me of Alan from Freaks and Geeks (and later, when I asked him how he hadn’t lost his voice from being in hardcore band Vile Nation, he answered, “That’s a good question.” As he walked the streets still in performance mode singing into inanimate objects and getting hyped up about entering a beer cave, I can imagine any and everything is a possible song waiting for him to come up with lyrics to).

The band seems comfortable playing in places where the paint is already peeling, because if it isn’t, their snarling sound will probably leave a brand-new building a few years older by the time they’re done pummeling it with their cut-throat sound. Chris and one of the guitarists, JB Horrell (still a young man for being 40; the only giveaway is the patches of grey in his otherwise ridiculously awesome sideburns), frequently launch themselves into the crowd, and JB climbed the forklift while he played, that sat next to the band space and huge bags of non-GMO corn and soy, as if to reinforce the notion that they can rock out anywhere as long as you have enough voltage to supply them with. Bassist Natalie Hoffman usually twirls and twists back and forth in the middle holding her own Kira Roessler-style with her El Barto bandmates, playing just as balls-out as the rest of them, while the other guitarist, Alec McIntyre, maniacally riffs away on his red SG and Michael Peery works his maturing magic on the drum kit, conjuring up primal spirits of yesteryear. This is an art school band with street barbarian murder fantasies coming to musical fruition. The music growls with to-the-death catfight bang and twang; as the sonic explosions of this band leave absolute wreckage behind it, this band is musical violence, and it’s so much fun! As Fela Kuti (the first album I ever bought of his happened to be playing on Goner’s PA) said, “Music is the weapon of the future.”

Garage, punk, psych, whatever label you try to slap them with, Ex-Cult ROCKS! Going back to the Nashville’s Dead appearance, my friends and I almost collapsed outside The End, catching our breath after their insane performance that had Chris crowd surfing at one point, we were beaten down but nevertheless thoroughly impressed. Go see this band!!! If they tour with Destruction Unit (whom I saw decimating souls in the dark at Gonerfest X last year, and whom I would be willing to see over and over again, like the Oblivians and Ex-Cult), that combo will surely melt the earth.

Destruction Unit:

White Reaper—what a cool band and funny guys to hang out with! High energy, I caught them raging to Ex-Cult before they closed the show. They were an endearing bunch, shouting out a happy birthday to their friends and showing some appreciation for some of their parents that made it out to the gig. For a band with a hilariously goofy sensibility once you hang around them and their friends (the consensus being they were all Team Tobey in Spider-Man preference and the story of the footbridge that Kentucky built but that Indiana has yet to complete the last part of cracked me up until they mentioned it had gotten violent), they are serious about their music; even after leaving the MTSU recording program, they seem bound and determined to make this work this time. I would definitely recommend seeing them. They put on a good show that I could feel myself convulsing to, and they and their friends were very gracious hosts. Oh, also they and Alec from Ex-Cult turned me on to the band Milk Music:

After the show, White Reaper announced that they had signed with Polyvinyl Record Company, and to expect a new EP out June 24 on limited clear pink vinyl, tape and CD. Hear the first single on Pitchfork now . . .

White Reaper:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sm3G-mohrAo
https://www.facebook.com/whitereaperusa
http://whitereaperusa.com/

As people started to depart, the rain picked back up, some people lingered to hang and chat, bands packed their gear (Ex-Cult makes good use of a golf bag for storing stands), streamers and balloons were swept up and some of the guys started attempting skateboard tricks and landing some of them while the door money was being counted and the rest of the trash was being taken out.

White Reaper and their friends then took us for some slices at Spinelli’s Pizzeria on Baxter. In the back dining room, comic book covers plastered the wall adjacent to a Burt Reynolds mural. I found myself noticing some things I had read in other interviews with Ex-Cult: for example, while they were waiting on their pizza they were kicked back, yet still plotting and critiquing, as a couple of them were quietly dissecting a cover song heard on the house PA. One of them held up their phone with a picture of a band, and whether it was that band or not, they really are in a constant search for music. This place had a good beer selection (I preferred the BBC Nut Brown Ale to the APA I had tried earlier in the night). Ordering a whole pizza was somewhat pricey, but they stay open late, the slices are huuuge, it has a cool atmosphere (check out the car booth in the video below), and they are friendly. I would like to try other places as a visitor, but I would go back especially if I lived there; I would even apply for a job there, they were that hopping. It’s nice to see that.

Spinelli’s Pizzeria:

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Ex-Cult are super cool to hang out with, but somewhat guarded about themselves. Whether that’s just me starting to get to know them and not being assertive enough, or, rather, the band members preferring to retain some mystery, I guess only time will tell. Such is the weirdness of finding notoriety: how does one deal with success? After the show I was talking with one of the members as he was smoking a cigarette as the rain continued to pour, and he let me in on why Memphis flies under the radar a lot of the time. With its heavy past (think Sun, Stax and Big Star for starters), they just tend not to talk about it, and in not doing so, it keeps the scene somewhat of a hidden gem from the rest of the world. This is very understandable, and something I can very much relate to, but it can make for a harder time trying to cover a band, so I will provide the reader(s) with the reason why I feel a personal connection to Memphis: Take, for instance, one of my previous jobs—easily my favorite, but it also had its own troubled past. We worked on some big jobs, and it was very interesting, so one day after work, being the inquisitive person I am, I put the company name into a search engine and found very little, save something I vaguely knew about. We didn’t talk about much; it was a news article about the young man who been had killed in an accident at my workplace before I had started. The thing that hit me the most was that a photo of his charred remains had been posted with the story (he had been electrocuted). It was heavy, heavy, heavy subject matter, really jarring, and it’s even painful to write this. (This portion of the piece, incidentally, was written as an ambulance’s siren tore apart the highway in front of my house, searching for its destination before I looked out the window to see it finally settling on the trailer park across the street; additionally, two of my aunts have just passed away. Death, it seems, is constantly reminding me of its ever-encroaching presence, and being someone who is 27, writing about rock music, it seems like at times it’s staring me in the face with a wicked grin). Even though I wasn’t there when it happened, the incident still wreaks havoc from time to time on the minds of those who know about it, but I feel like I need to get it off my chest, as it made sense why my friends/co-workers struggled with substance abuse (some of whom have tried to heal that phase of their life with military service or rehab and one day maybe they will all be free from the shackles of prescription opioids because now heroin is on the rise, and meth is still around, ravaging the rural backwoods where access to softer drugs is harder to come by and people are frustrated and feel disenfranchised, which in my mind most likely played a role in why we were eventually laid off, and even though I didn’t partake, I commuted with them, so between guilt by association, my lack of experience, and jobs slowing, my/our services were no longer needed, and it seems like it’s going to stay that way. . . . Damn, that was a great job . . .)

To bring this full circle, this is basically the story of Memphis and its music scene—a city where kings and pharaohs have been made and unmade, still largely blighted with ripples of gentrification, so be forewarned: if you are unaware of its history like I was, be ready to have your heart broken into a million pieces over and over again, but (and this is what has helped me the most in my own life and learning about its musicians, the music, the music, of Memphis, especially Goner and its bloodlines and shows I have seen at the Hi Tone) Memphis has sooo much soul. Even when it’s not “soul” music, it’s haunting in a way that makes you take a step back to reevaluate yourself and how you’re living, and it makes sense that a community that has seen so much destruction can maybe find some solace in knowing it has one of the greatest cultural histories of any city, however burdensome it might be to remember it.

Chris, who is also a reporter for The Memphis Flyer pays tribute to one of those legacies here:
http://www.memphisflyer.com/SingAllKinds/archives/2014/01/13/rest-in-peace-jay-reatard

Something I once read Mary J. Blige say: “Music makes us want to live. You don’t know how many times people have told me that they’d been down and depressed and just wanted to die. But then a special song caught their ear and that helped give them renewed strength. That’s the power music has.”

I find truth in these words, especially in all of this Memphis music that has helped save me from . . . despair? Also, I largely cut my teeth on this music for this writing gig at the Pulse, soaking it all in, and building in my mind some of the music and culture I would want to present to its readers. And while I have not remained completely objective, I can definitely tell people what I’ve enjoyed and what our region has to offer.

I think Ex-Cult has the sea legs to not fall overboard like some of their forebears. It will definitely be interesting to see how they proceed. Maybe I’ll even see you in the pit at one of their shows! And if you go to Memphis, Alec from Ex-Cult suggests you go early and visit the Stax museum before a show.