Electric blues is blues music distinguished by the use of electric amplification for musical instruments. The guitar was the first instrument to be popularly amplified and used by early pioneers T-Bone Walker in the late 1930s and John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters in the 1940s. Their styles developed into West Coast blues, Detroit blues, and post-World War II Chicago blues, which differed from earlier, predominantly acoustic-style blues. By the early 1950s, Little Walter was a featured soloist on blues harmonica using a small hand-held microphone fed into a guitar amplifier. Although it took a little longer, the electric bass guitar gradually replaced the stand-up bass by the early 1960s. Electric organs and especially keyboards later became widely used in electric blues.
Matador Records is an independent record label, with a roster of mainly indie rock, but also punk rock, experimental rock, alternative rock, and electronic acts.
James George Thirlwell, styled as JG Thirlwell and also known as Clint Ruin, Frank Want, and Foetus, among other pseudonyms, is an Australian musician, composer, and record producer known for his use of a variety of different musical styles.
The Box Tops is an American rock band formed in Memphis, Tennessee in 1967. They are best known for the hits "The Letter", "Cry Like a Baby", "Choo Choo Train," and "Soul Deep" and are considered a major blue-eyed soul group of the period. They performed a mixture of current soul music songs by artists such as James & Bobby Purify and Clifford Curry; pop tunes like "A Whiter Shade of Pale" by Procol Harum; and songs written by their producers, Dan Penn, Spooner Oldham, and Chips Moman. Vocalist Alex Chilton later fronted the power pop band Big Star and launched a career as a solo artist. During that time he occasionally performed songs he had sung with the Box Tops.
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion was an American three-piece rock band from New York City, formed in 1991. The group consisted of Judah Bauer on guitar, backing vocals, harmonica and occasional lead vocals, Russell Simins on drums and Jon Spencer on vocals, guitar and theremin. Their musical style is largely rooted in rock and roll although it draws influences from punk, blues, garage, rockabilly, soul, noise rock, rhythm and blues and hip hop.
James Sclavunos is an American drummer, multi-instrumentalist musician, record producer, and writer. He is best known as a drummer, having been a member of two seminal no wave groups in the late 1970s. He is also noted for stints in Sonic Youth and the Cramps, and has been a member of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds since 1994. Sclavunos has led his own group the Vanity Set since 2000.
Tav Falco's Panther Burns, sometimes shortened to (The) Panther Burns, is a rock band originally from Memphis, Tennessee, United States, led by Tav Falco. They are best known for having been part of a set of bands emerging in the late 1970s and early 1980s who helped nationally popularize the blending of blues, country, and other American traditional music styles with rock music among groups playing in alternative music and punk music venues of the time. The earliest and most renowned of these groups to imbue these styles with expressionist theatricality and primitive spontaneity were The Cramps, largely influenced by rockabilly music. Forming just after them in 1979, Panther Burns drew on obscure country blues music, Antonin Artaud's works like The Theater and Its Double, beat poetry, and Marshall McLuhan's media theories for their early inspiration. Alongside groups like The Cramps and The Gun Club, Panther Burns is also considered a representative of the Southern Gothic-tinged roots music revival scene.
Grifters is an indie rock/alternative rock band based in Memphis who have released albums on Darla Records, Doink, Sonic Noise, Shangri-La Records, and Sub Pop Records. The band released five studio albums from 1992 to 1997. In the years following 1997, the band had breaks in activity with some members pursuing other musical projects and with the band sporadically touring in the years after. However, in recent years they have continued to tour on a consistent basis and have stated interest in recording new material. The band has released and reissued some of their material on Bandcamp.
Punk blues is a music genre that mixes elements of punk rock and blues. Punk blues musicians and bands usually incorporate elements of related styles, such as protopunk and blues rock. Its origins lie strongly within the garage rock sound of the 1960s and 1970s.
A.M. is the debut studio album by the American rock band Wilco, released on March 28, 1995, by Sire Records and Reprise Records. The album was released only months after the breakup of Uncle Tupelo, an alternative country band that was the predecessor of Wilco. Prior to its release, there was debate about whether the album would be better than the debut album of Son Volt, the new band of former Uncle Tupelo lead singer Jay Farrar.
Starlite Walker is the first studio album by indie rock group Silver Jews. It was released in 1994 as an LP and CD on Drag City (DC55) in America and on Domino (WIG15) in Europe.
Those Bastard Souls were an American independent rock band formed in 1995 as a solo side project by David Shouse of The Grifters. The name, somewhat of a nod to These Immortal Souls, was one that David Shouse coined as a replacement for A Band Called Bud, the original name of the Grifters. Shouse liked the name and held onto it, imagining a rotating roster of transient "bastard musicians" that would comprise a musical project that he might lead sometime in the future.
Stuart Sikes is an American recording engineer and producer best known for his work with the White Stripes and for engineering Loretta Lynn's Grammy Award-winning album Van Lear Rose, as well as producing Cat Power's 2006 Shortlist Music Prize-winning album The Greatest.
One Sock Missing is the second album by the American band the Grifters, released in 1993 on Shangri-La Records. The album was an underground hit. It was reissued by Fat Possum Records in 2016.
So Happy Together is the first full-length album by Memphis indie rock band Grifters. The album was noisy and lo-fi, even by Grifters standards. It was released on the now defunct Chicago label Sonic Noise.
The Eureka E.P. is the third E.P. album by Memphis indie rock band The Grifters. Tripp Lamkins' liner notes state the reason for an EP instead of a full-length album:
"Well, after much touring, little band practice, a new young'un, 38 more Pavement comparisons, & the inevitable demise of the flower shop van, we bring you-an e.p. Hope no one feels slighted, but having 6 or 7 fewer songs to tear our greying hair out over will probably keep us together a long while. It was a pretty good year though. Touring with bands like Rodan(r.i.p.), Ruby Falls, Dambuilders, The Strapping Fieldhands, GBV, Ed Hall, Versus, Red Red Meat, & Jawbox kind of makes being away from Memphis worthwhile not to mention getting to meet so many good people all over the world. We sincerely love you and look forward to seeing you all again this year. And we will. Maybe we'll even have that lunch we're always talking about."
Full Blown Possession is the fifth and last full-length album by Memphis indie rock band The Grifters, released in 1997.
Everything Is Nice: The Matador Records 10th Anniversary Anthology is a 3-disc compilation of tracks from the record label Matador Records from 1989 to 1999 from popular Matador artists such as Pavement, Modest Mouse, Mogwai and Cat Power. Also featuring relatively unknown artists such as Jega and Non Phixion. Alternate names for this compilation include: Don’t Be Afraid of the Product and Chain Gang Video Not Included. Included in the digipak release are 3 CDs and a booklet including the complete Matador discography as of 8/16/1999.
The American Sound Studio was a recording studio located in Memphis, Tennessee which operated from 1964 to 1972. Founded by Chips Moman, the studio at 827 Thomas Street came to be known as American North, and the studio at 2272 Deadrick Street came to be known as American East or the Annex.
Alex Chilton was an American musician, singer-songwriter and record producer, best known as the lead singer of the Box Tops and Big Star. Chilton's early commercial success in the 1960s as a teen vocalist for the Box Tops was never repeated in later years with Big Star and in his subsequent indie music solo career on small labels, but he drew an intense following among indie and alternative rock musicians. He is frequently cited as a seminal influence by influential rock artists and bands, some of whose testimonials appeared in the 2012 documentary Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me.
