Deeter says Farewell

After 5 years of covering the local music and arts scene, I've decided that it is time to move on. When I started Localist in 2003 there was absolutely no coverage of music and arts, and back then there was a real need to find some way to champion the greatness of our humble little state. While there was very little coverage of the indie and punk scene, the hip hop scene was completely ignored, and I feel like we have brought the changes and the attention we were aiming to get. Now we have the coverage of "Rock Candy" the blog by Lindsey Millar (in pic with me!) of the Arkansas Times, Kyle Brazzel at the Dem/Gaz. has done a great job writing about happenings in the weekend section, and Onthagrind.net is making it's place covering the growing hip hop scene. We also have Sync, LR Blog, and OutontheRock, all of which attempt to write about the people and happenings around the state. It's been a lot of fun, and I have met tons of great people because of my work with the Localist. I want to thank everyone who ever helped design, take pictures, submit work, play a benefit, and all of our readers. Don't feel bad for me and think I'm sad about this, it's just time and I have plenty of other stuff to do, and for you to support like Hip Hop School and Cool Shoes. Also I have my own art projects and bands that I want to spend time with instead of always promoting other peoples work. I do however reserve the right to come back with the Localist if I ever feel the need to do so because there is still no coverage of the art shows and artists in Arkansas. See you at a party!

TJ Deeter

Publisher

Localist Magazine

Pop In The Park

Localist and The Rivermarket have teamed up to bring you a family friendly summer concert series with a diverse bill of Arkansas' best musical artists. The shows will take place at the history pavillion located just left of the junction bridge. Like the Rivermarket sponsored Movies In The Park, ice chest, lawn chairs, and blankets are welcome (no glass containers.) If you have never been to a show at the history pavillion you're in for a treat. It's a comfort setting, and the acoustics are nice. You also have the addition of taking the kids over to the new play area the city recently completed, just a few steps away. I'm sure the Taco Truck will be posted up so grab a burrito and bob ya head!

Help Put a Wind Turbine at Dunbar

Tonight (Monday.2.June) @ 6pm at the Oyster Bar, friends of Dunbar Community Garden and ECO (The Ecological Conservation Organization) are hosting a fundraiser to help toward the construction of a wind turbine at the Dunbar Community Garden. The turbine will not only help power Dunbar Gardens, but also educate local kids on alternative (clean, renewable) energy sources.

Dunbar Gardens is true localism in action, re-connecting young people with the sources of the food they eat in a culture that increasingly alienates them from those sources. With the community's support, they will continue to enhance the educational and productive value of their garden to its community. Their goal is to have the wind turbine erected by 4.July. Dinner is dutch-treat; we'll see you there.

Downtown Music Hall Moved

Say good by to those gray walls.

It may be old news to some folks, but a lot of people I have been talking to around town still don't know that Downtown Music Hall has moved one door down. Apparently they had the notion to expand after Don Vicci vacated the building. I highly recommend stopping in and checking it out. It's real nice and there is plenty of room, but the best feature is the sound-- nicely balanced acoustics from crispy highs to deep bottom lows (courtesy of the four 15" subwoofers). Hip hop has never sounded better in Little Rock, but I still haven't seen a rock show there. This would give me a better idea of the acoustic capabilities. Another nice thing is their divided wall. The venue is divided by a half-wall between the stage and a bigger seating area. In the case of sold out shows the wall can be removed, so the venue has the option of being a small or large space. Downtown is typically thought of as a metal venue, but they want to make clear they are open to any kind of music, and have always had a variety of bands to respresent. They do have a metal history and bring the best metal to Arkansas, but I have seen and booked lots of different types of bands at Downtown through the years. They were also one of the first venues to welcome rap promoters, and they are still an all-ages venue. Downtown has consistently expanded since 2000, and this is by far their most impressive improvement.

In Studio with The Weisenheimers

“If there are two things you need to know about this band, it’s that we’re punctual and we have good grammar.”

So saith Mark Wyers, guitarist for The Weisenheimers. We’re jammed into Wolfman Studios in downtown Little Rock on a Saturday morning, putting the finishing touches on the Arkansas punk-pop band’s self-titled debut. The rest of the band is needling lead singer/bassist Karle Johnson about a lyric that was deleted for—depending on whom you ask—grammatical reasons or because the rest of the band couldn’t sing the lyric without cracking up. Or perhaps both.

Grammar aside, punctuality eludes drummer/vocalist Sean Causey, who barrels in 20 minutes late, shirtless, wild-haired and beaming, bearing a few random Budweiser singles and bellowing about a wild night that ended with him chatting up a cholo at Waffle House after sunrise. While the other band members either have settled into relationships (Mark is married and a new father, while Karle and second guitarist Micah Wyers--Mark’s older brother--are engaged and planning weddings), Causey seems more content to fill the Keith Moon role. His latest hobby? Getting people to pose for cell phone pics while wearing Causey’s mullet wig.

Johnson and Causey cut their chops in the now-defunct Josh the Devil and the Sinners (Causey points out that he was the “original Sinner”) and Mark was also briefly a Sinner before being kidnapped away by the Weisenheimers. Micah joined in the spring of this year to replace a departing guitarist, and the group’s current sound gelled quickly by all accounts. The band’s easy camaraderie is a plus that eludes many bands who’ve been together longer.

Attention deficit disorder may be a prerequisite for hanging around the Weisenheimers. This morning’s hot topics pinball between Karle’s restaurant job at the Purple Cow, Mark and Sean’s jobs at a local law firm, the merits of Atari 2600 and cell phone games, various female conquests and near-misses, logistics for getting tickets to the upcoming Foxboro Hot Tubs show, and how many times Mark has seen Ted Nugent (for the record: 13 times). It’s an energetic, towel-snapping punk quartet mostly fueled—at least this morning—by homebaked cookies, water, and Coke Zero.

“We’re not really a drug band,” says Mark. “People think that that’s part of the lifestyle, but it’s not really something that we’re into.” That statement immediately launches Causey into reminiscing about sharing the bill with a touring band recently and being asked afterward to help one member score some of the harder stuff. “I just kind of laughed at him and said whaaaaaaat??”

“We’re a punk band,” says Karle after being asked to categorize the band’s sound. “Maybe a little more power pop or punk-pop than straight up punk, but I’d call us punk.”

The band’s sound is more reminiscent of early Green Day or Ramones—three chords, anthemic choruses, and a good hook—than the sound offered by angrier, more political bands. Karl’s clear vocals and strong bass lines cut through the double-guitar attack of the Wyers brothers and Causey’s fierce drumming.

The Weisenheimers have been working on the album since December, and the eleven tracks are loaded with up-tempo, hooky tracks that pulse with energy. “Converse” has been a fan favorite at shows and sounds terrific in the studio:

Come on baby put your Converse on

Come on baby put your Converse on

You know that you wanna have some fun so

Come on baby put your Converse on

Other strong tracks include “Bubblegum,” and “Believer,” and the band favorites include “Explode,” “May,” and “Bloodbath.”

The Weisenheimers is set for a midsummer release on Thick Syrup records. Two tracks (“Converse” and “Bubblegum”) are currently available for a listen at www.myspace.com/theweisenheimers.

-Glen Hooks

Music Videos @ Rev Room Saturday

Sat.17.May @ Revolution Music Room (8:30pm, $10), join the finalists in Little Rock's first music video competition, as well as special guests 607 and Techno-Squid Eats Parliament, for a multi-media slice of Little Rock music.

Show Review

SILVERTON
FAYETTEVILLE/OLD POST OFFICE/MAY 6TH

Midnight Tuesday has come and gone, and I’m in a dim ‘n’ rowdy Fayetteville basement brimming with broken guitar strings, a whirling barefoot tambourinist, and a sweetly sweating wave of countrified bo-ho coeds. We are the latest lucky victims to come under the spell of Silverton, an eight-piece folk-rock act that is helping redefine what it means to be a country music act in Arkansas.

Seeing Silverton live is an exercise in involuntarily shedding one’s cool pose. Comfortable in the corner nursing a beer? Put it down and move to the front. Are you the laconic head-bobbing scenester, smirking at those who dare to dance? Prepare to give yourself up to the ecstasy.

The sheer size of Silverton is a logistical challenge for most venues. Tonight, even minus the presence of vocalist Haley Mattox, Silverton’s seven remaining members arrange their equipment with the precision of a jigsaw puzzle enthusiast. While drummer Josh Spillyards, tambourinist Thom Asewicz, and bassist Ryan Hitt occupy the tiny step-up stage, lead vocalist/guitarist Phillip Huddleston, vocalist Jessica Hendricks, Jesse Bates (guitar, pedal steel) and keyboardist Whitman Bransford take up spots on the floor at eye-level with and a nose’s worth of distance from the crowd. It’s a necessary move logistically, but it also instantly connects band with fan and ratchets the energy up immediately.

Bam! Silverton opens up with a rollicking take on “Highway Rough” that sends Asewicz into instant percussive overdrive. Silverton is a band that owes a heavy debt to the country ghosts of days gone by, and soon segues into a shuffling, sing-along version of “I Get By” that signals a night of tunes very different than those generally provided by a band of twenty-somethings. Some like to speak of “old souls,” and that wouldn’t be misplaced when it comes to describing Silverton. If I close my eyes, I can sense this music being played in the roadhouses of my father’s younger years, or my grandfather’s.

The energy of Silverton is the type that can overcome obstacles that would cripple a lesser band. Broken strings by Huddleston and Bates pose little problem, and the buzz is enough to overcompensate for the utter lack of a PA system. Tonight is not about technical superiority or acoustics. Tonight is about howling dogs, shimmyshaking, and erasing boundaries. By show’s end, the magical line between musician and audience has evaporated entirely—Hendricks is in the crowd dancing with one-and-all, Asewicz is everywhere at once, and the twirling coeds from the audience have magically infiltrated the band space, snaking and slinking between the pedal steel and the keyboards. For a few moments, lines are obliterated and what was billed as a concert becomes an experience.

Catch the Silverton train whenever you get a chance. Their next gig is at Riverfest on Friday May 23rd, opening for 607 and Arrested Development.

-Glen Hooks