As Elvis, Robert Patrick wanted to pay tribute, restore 'dignity' to the King : commercialappeal.comAs Elvis, Robert Patrick wanted to pay tribute, restore 'dignity' to the King
By John Beifuss
Saturday, August 1, 2009
For his role as the shape-shifting, Schwarzenegger-slashing android assassin in "Terminator 2: Judgment Day," actor Robert Patrick is guaranteed a prominent place in the modern movie hall of fame.
But as entertainment icons go, even the T-1000 can't compare with the character Patrick portrays in the new comic murder mystery, "Lonely Street."
The film's title, which alludes to the lyrics of "Heartbreak Hotel," is the tip-off: In "Lonely Street," Patrick portrays Elvis Presley.
In this case, however, Elvis is a 75-year-old man preparing a surprise comeback after faking his death, hiding out in Albuquerque for three decades (as a reclusive millionaire named "Mr. Aaron"), and giving up prescription drugs and fried peanut butter-and-banana sandwiches for smoothies, wheat-grass shooters and tai chi.
"This is a man that's sure of himself," said Patrick, 50, of his onscreen interpretation of Elvis. "He's confident, he knows who he is, he's got a sense of humor about himself. It's kind of what we all wish would have happened if Elvis had stayed alive. He's making protein drinks and he's a fit man."
He also unwittingly launches a murder investigation when he hires New Mexico-via-Mississippi private eye Bubba Mabry (Jay Mohr, one of the film's producers) to protect him from a zealous tabloid reporter.
To become a gray-haired and somewhat wrinkly but still handsome, easily recognizable and convincing Elvis, Patrick had to spend about five hours in the makeup chair to begin each of his five days of shooting. (The makeup was developed by the famous team of Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff, known for their work in "Alien" and "X-Men" movies.) Despite this ordeal, Patrick was eager to star in "Lonely Street" because he wanted to restore "dignity" to Elvis, and not parody or mock the singer, who died on Aug. 16, 1977, at the age of 42.
"That's the most important reason why I did the movie," said Patrick, who shot a scene as Elvis with Mohr several years ago as a teaser to help the producers raise money for the film. "I didn't want to play into any stereotypes. I wanted to do it as a tribute to him.
"I was born in Atlanta, Georgia, I was raised in the South, and I remember Elvis Presley and the impact he had on the people I knew," said Patrick (who said he was speaking on the phone from "my car in a parking lot in Hollywood, California").
"So I felt like I wanted to do it in a way that honored the man, and I also felt like we had a unique opportunity to portray him as what he would have evolved into as a human being, not necessarily where he ended, stuck in time in the '70s."
Said Peter Ettinger, the film's writer and director: "Robert and I were very much on the same page about not wanting it to be too outlandish -- to make it an interpretation of Elvis rather than an imitation."
Often cast as a steely-eyed tough guy in such films as "The Marine" and "Die Hard 2," Patrick already had a professional relationship, so to speak, with Elvis and other Sun Records artists. He portrayed Elvis' father, Vernon Presley, in the 2005 CBS miniseries "Elvis" (with Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Presley); and he was Johnny Cash's daddy, Ray Cash, in 2005's "Walk the Line." (Somebody please cast Patrick in movies about Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis, so he can wrap up Sun's entire Million Dollar Quartet.)
The production of "Walk the Line" brought Patrick to Memphis for 15 weeks.
"I really got to immerse myself in the whole Memphis life," he said.
Did he visit Graceland while he was here?
"Hell, yeah. I've done Graceland like three times, and that was before I even knew I was gonna play Elvis.
"I love Elvis, the whole Elvis story, who he is, where he came from. I mean, I've been to his (childhood) house in Tupelo, I've been to his teenage residence in Memphis, that (Lauderdale Courts) public housing apartment. I mean, he was so frickin' cool."
Patrick said he eats barbecue at Rendezvous every year when he passes through Memphis on his Harley-Davidson motorcycle, on his way to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, where he visits "the troops."
Said Patrick: "I'd love to live in Memphis."
Patrick said he "constantly" watched concert footage of Elvis while shooting "Lonely Street," to "get a concentration of what it must have been like to have been that man. You know, I don't sing, and I've never had the ability to have that many people in the palm of my hand."
For the performance scene at the end of "Lonely Street," Patrick said, "the producers got me this jumpsuit, and I said, 'You're out of your (ever-loving) mind,' I said, '(Forget) that.' I said, 'I want to see the guy in an elegant suit, like Frank Sinatra or Tony Bennett.' He's a 75-year-old man, and there's an elegance to him. Otherwise it becomes a caricature."
Patrick said he's disappointed "Lonely Street" didn't get a theatrical release, but he believes it will find appreciative viewers on DVD. "I want this project to get as wide an audience as possible. I'm really proud of what I did, and I'd really like for people to see it."
August 1, 2009
As Elvis, Robert Patrick wanted to pay tribute, restore 'dignity' to the King : commercialappeal.com
The Rumors Are True!!! Memphis Wrassling Book Out Soon!! via shangrilaprojects.com
The Rumors Are True!!!
Memphis Wrassling
Book Out Soon!!After four years of research, Shangri-la Projects is thrilled to announce the release of the greatest book on wrestling ever! We give you Ron Hall’s Sputnik, Masked Men, & Midgets: The Early Days of Memphis Wrestling to be released September, 2009!!!
Memphis music historian Ron Hall created a whole audience for the over-the-top Memphis garage rock scene of the ‘60s & early ‘70s with his two books: Playing for a Piece of the Door: A History of Garage & Frat Bands, 1960-1975 and The Memphis Garage Rock Yearbook as well as two compendium CD’s. The compilation CD’s gathered unbelievably rare lost 45 gems from many of the bands featured in the books. Not only did the books break all garage rock book sales records, they also revitalized the historic Memphis garage rock scene and helped many of the bands re-form 35 or 40 years later!
Now Hall has turned his attention to the also-amazing Memphis wrassling world — pre-cable, bleached hair, and steroids–with a new book Sputnik, Masked Men, & Midgets: The Early Days of Memphis Wrestling to be published by Shangri-La Projects in September, 2009. Memphis wrassling WAS the roots and forerunner of the WWF and the WWE. Many of the giants of the corporate cable wrestling world first wrestled in Memphis–including Jerry Lawler, Jimmy Hart, Lance “Banana Nose” Russell, and many others. But before Lawler, in Memphis, there was Sputnik Monroe, Jackie Fargo, Don and Al Greene, Tojo Yamamoto, and Plowboy Frazier. Why do you think Andy Kaufman put his multi-million dollar career as a comedian and actor on hold? To come be a part of the greatest wrassling territory in the U.S., of course (and to wrestle Memphis women as well!)
Hall’s book captures the insanity of the ring and the outrageous costumes and get-ups of the wildest and most original wrestling era. The book contains over 400 images of wrestlers, programs, advertisements, and other Memphis wrassling ephemera. Any professional wrestling fan must own this book!
If that is not enough, the King of Memphis, Jerry “The King” Lawler adds his thoughts about early Memphis wrestling in the book’s introduction! But, wait, there’s more…
Additionally, Hall’s book includes some of the most amazing early 1950s never-before-published live action Memphis wrestling photos from the Robert Dye, Sr. collection.
And, like all crazy releases from Shangri-la Projects, this book comes with still even more: a cd of rare recorded gems from Sputnik Monroe, Handsome Jimmy Valiant, & Len Rossi–among others!!!!
This book is a must-have for any & all wrestling fans. Read more about it at Ron Hall’s Early Memphis Wrestling Blog.
Available September, 2009! Order yours now & it will ship before your neighbors get it!
Memphis Goons’ long-awaited Peppo release is now available on itunes! Call up your friends at Apple, ask for the Memphis Goons newest & greatest, & download away!
Peppo, now available worldwide!
Check out Nashon in this week’s $5 Cover Amplified!
Well, the $5 Cover bomb landed all around Shangri-la Projects last night! Twas Craig Brewer’s best production to date, shot in mid-town/downtown Memphis last summer, weaving Memphis musicians’ soap opera lifestyles throughout their day jobs, live gigs, & personal daily lives. The “acting” was surprisingly very good in most cases for what most would agree were acting debuts by Memphis musicians (Granted every one of the musicians have “performed” in public before this so they are not new to showbiz, but only a couple of times during the series did things fall off into cheesy dialogue/bad indie film acting territory). Memphis looked great visually and sounded tasty musically. Overall, $5 is a massive improvement over the very disappointing, unfortunately cast/written/directed/acted and farcical Black Snake Moan (although the rootsy soundtrack saved the day for that flick!) and better than the interesting and edgy Hustle and Flow. Standouts are Al Kapone, who comes off larger-than-life on the big screen; Packy, the erstwhile dope-smoking scene keeper of the flame recording engineer played by Jeff Pope; Patti Pistol, who plays the bitchy boss foil to Amy LaVere (ironically, in real life, they work together at Sun Studio!); & Claude, Packy’s curmudgeonly tough-talking landlord turned Memphis music mogul.
Enough movie critiquing, let’s move some units, to paraphrase Stephen Colbert. Let’s laser in on the Shangri-la Projects’ connections in this mini-series debuting nationally tonight on MTV and playing for the next month. Let’s start with producer Scott Bomar, who was Shangri-la Records’ employee of the month June, 1996, as part of the crack crew that set sales records that still stand on the books today. Bomar has become quite the producer and studio maven working with Brewer on all of his successes since the P& H days. In addition to producing the series, Bomar composed, performed, and selected many of the tracks. (If there was a small flaw with this show, perhaps giving Muck Sticky three songs was at least one too many…).
Roy Berry makes many appearances in $5 Cover playing himself, drummer for Lucero and looking more and more like Animal all the time. Most Lucero fans—and there are tons of them and many more to come with their new tour and recently cut record at Ardent coming out soon—do not know that before the massive success of Lucero, Roy produced and recorded some of the best indie rock in Memphis in the early ‘90s. Specifically Berry recorded the 1st groundbreaking record by the Grifters, So Happy Together, (“a brilliant pastiche of noise”) at the now infamous Shops of Ann Adler where Dave Shouse and Stan Gallimore worked and the band practiced and recorded at night (as well as drove their flowershop van all over the country on tour!). In addition Roy produced and drummed for the Simple Ones Worth the Weight and 2 Cups for a Tale. Both have genius pop moments throughout and Worth the Weight is like a greatest hits of the first few years of this very popular early ‘90s indie rock group. Kudos to Roy, and the Roy Army, for all his silver screen success. Lucero fans: start stocking up on Simple Ones downloads, 45s, & cds today at your neighborhood Apple download center! Let the buying begin!
As a corollary to the Roy Berry story, many of the $5 scenes were shot across the street from Shangri-la Records at Rakapolis where legions of Memphis musicians including Jeff Evans,
Jeff Evans, the Mayor of Rakapolis & the godfather of Memphis Garage Rock!
Nick El Diablo, Roy Berry, Tripp Lamkins, Jack Yarber, & Brent Shrewsbury (“Nic”) have lived and recorded—including 2 Cups for a Tale as well as friend of the label Jeff Evans‘ late ‘90s yet to be released Memphis garage bonanza compilation.
Former Shangri-la Records co-conspirator and ordering guru Eric Friedl’s Goner Records was feted with many t-shirt and sticker sightings as well as label stars like Harlan T. Bobo featured. There was even one obscure Oblivians t-shirt appearance!
Cody Dickinson (as well as $5 Cover drummer/lover Paul Taylor), featured on Gutbucket’s “Where’s the Man with the Jive”–one of the rarest 7”s manufactured & distributed by Shangri-la Projects, has a small role as a musician/engineer trying to implore the voluptuous & flirtatious Clare to “be sexy” on a record.
The biggest surprise to Shangri-la Projects’ fans (present company included!) was the amount of screen time given to Antenna Shoes‘ star Tim Regan, who was wearing an Antenna Shoes shirt on-screen. The Antenna Shoes also received an on-screen recommendation for Antenna Shoes’ drummer Paul Taylor to hook up with Amy LaVere in the plot. Antenna Shoes’ Nashon, Luke, & Steve Selvidge were also given massive airtime on stage with Amy LaVere, Two Way Radio, and my favorite joke of the whole series.. Snowballs, er, Snowglobe. In fact, Snowglobe, which is basically the non-touring version of Antenna Shoes, played and starred in the climactic final episode scene. Millions of $5 Cover fans can now discover the majesty of the great Antenna Shoes Generous Gambler. Ladies & gentleman, let the downloading begin now!
All in all, $5 Cover is a great promotion for many of these bands, Memphis, & Shangri-la Projects’ artists! Thanks to Craig Brewer and Scott Bomar for helping Shangri-la Projects get these musicians the recognition and sales they deserve. MTV & MTV fans, time to enjoy some down-home Memphis music!
P.S. I went out to two live Mid-Town clubs to catch some great Memphis music after the world premiere–one was $7 cover and the other was $10 cover. $5 cover is ancient history!!!!
You can’t keep a good band down! The Memphis Goons, who never really went away, are returning for their first album in 10 years, and their last album from 30 years ago! Peppo!
The Memphis Goons came of age 10 years after the U.S. garage-rock phenomenon and 20 years before grunge. Recording between 1968 and 1974, the Memphis Goons were largely ignored by their fellow Memphs musicians, and likewise the Goons ignored their neighborly influences of the time–Elvis, Al Green, Alex Chilton. They were indeed a clump of crabgrass sprouting in America’s rich musical soil.
The Memphis Goons recorded in the garages and basements of its members—Xavier Tarpit, Wally Moth [Vanilla Frog], Jackass Thompson, and Rover Rollover—literally one mile from Graceland. (After “successful” recording sessions, the band members would often frolic at the entrance of Elvis’ humble abode to piss on its gates). The Memphis Goons managed to ingest all that went down in the ‘60s and subsequently infuse it with the nervous propensity of a youth culture run amuck. Influenced by great garage groups such as The Stooges, The Seeds, and Grand Funk, the Goons piled the rawness of pre-punk on top of replicas inspired by Trout Mask to achieve a noisy synthesis unlike anything in popular music up till then.
The Memphis Goons named themselves after the British radio comedy team, the Goons, as well as Alice the Goon from Popeye comics. Their initials are a tribute to the MG’s of Booker T. fame. The band came from the Memphis suburb of Whitehaven. Every day after school, the group members would gather to create recording projects they were convinced would attract the attention of the music business beyond Shelby County.
That day did occur in 1969 when founder Xavier Tarpit received a personal letter from Frank Zappa on Straight label stationary, praising the recent reel of tape the band had submitted. With this inspiration, the Goons floundered forward, their dream of suburban escape nearing closer with every revolution of the tape reel.
The nut of the the Goons’ musical genius is the so-called ecstatic monkey wrench. Just when a song seems so out-of-tune or so chaotic that it is about to collapse, it comes together in an epiphany of adolescent abandonment. There are hundreds and hundreds of hours of these documented songs, with many of them only now surfacing and reaching the light.
The Goons’ projected output of albums were all sequenced, arranged, and packaged as if they were destined to be major releases, including intricate liner notes and surrealistic scrawling. In the fall of 1996 the brave Memphis label, Shangri-la Projects, Memphis’ most beloved record label, released the Memphis Goons’ first full-length CD Teenage BBQ from this treasure trove of material–a kind of “greatest hits.” The album became an instant underground success with over 50 positive reviews in online and print publications all over the world. Rolling Stone’s Alt-Rock-A-Rama called it “One of the greatest garage recordings of the 20th century!” Thurston Moore said of the Goons: “The Memphis Goons are this fantastic American rock ‘n roll story.” Fans of the then-current lo-fi sound loved the Memphis Goons and recognized their clear sense of purpose and astounding commitment to the garage sensibility. Suddenly it was apparent that the Memphis Goons were the missing link between garage-rock and the Sex Pistols’ brand of punk. Indeed.
Although the Memphis Goons practiced and recorded constantly, they never got a chance to play live, except once when they were pelted with rocks and bottles by neighborhood kids in their backyard. Therefore, Shangri-la Projects gave them that opportunity on the first day of spring in Memphis in 1998 at the 10 year anniversary of the Shangri-la Record store. There, they gave a highly successful performance, and although the members were 25 years older, the band’s aural madness moved garage rawness to an even further edge. From that moment, the Goons developed a strong base of loyal fans that continues to this day.
So, get your paypal accounts out and get ready to download some digital Peppo, as the Memphis Goons’ reissue series begins May 5th, 2009, in your favorite corner digital download store all over the world. It’s been a great year for the recording industry: 1st Bruce Springsteen, then U2, &, finally now, the long-awaited return of the Memphis Goons to save the music biz!
This Memphis Goons reissue series is dedicated to Rover Rollover, the Goons’ longtime manager & confidant extraordinaire, who passed away in January, 2009. Rover Rollover, wherever you are, the Goons miss you a whole lot!
Flyer Flashback | Flyer Flashback | Memphis Flyer
Flyer Flashback | Flyer Flashback | Memphis FlyerFlyer Flashback
To mark the Flyer's 20th anniversary, we're looking back at stories from our first two decades.
- Jerry Lawler
Jerry Lawler may never break the tights barrier to become Memphis' first wrestling mayor, but his place in entertainment history is assured. On July 24, 1997, Flyer writer Jim Hanas put Lawler's most famous nemesis, funny man Andy Kaufman, on the cover. His story "The Comedian and the King" was a meditation on the night in 1982 when Lawler smacked and allegedly injured Kaufman on Late Night with David Letterman.
"There had been a plan, but Kaufman getting smacked wasn't part of it," Hanas wrote. "They were supposed to show footage of Lawler injuring Kaufman with an apparently vicious pile-driver move at the Mid-South Coliseum ... . Lawler was to apologize for the injury; and then Kaufman was to burst into a rendition of 'What the World Needs Now is Love.'" But that's not what happened. Lawler hammered Kaufman, Kaufman threw coffee on Lawler, and a lot of words got bleeped.
"You can see it in Andy's eyes and you can see it in Letterman's eyes," Lawler said of the moment when he hit Kaufman. "It's like, what's wrong with this guy? Why ain't he doing what we all said we were going to do?" The incident, named by the Museum of Radio and Television as one of the top 100 moments in the history of television, marks professional wrestling's jump from niche sport to lucrative mainstream entertainment. It's also the big bang of fake reality programing and everything from Jerry Springer to the comedy-meets-reality antics of Stephen Colbert and Sacha Baron Cohen owes a debt of gratitude to Lawler.
In 2007 Lawler told the Flyer that if Kaufman were still alive he would have been asked to induct the King into the WWE Hall of Fame.
Graduation | Music Features | Memphis Flyer
Graduation | Music Features | Memphis Flyer
Those Darlins
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- Seth Dana
It's fitting that that the Murfreesboro trio Those Darlins will play Memphis on the tour supporting their much-raved-about debut album the same week that the first Delta Girls Rock Camp will be held at the Hutchison School.
Kelley Darlin, the blond, bass-playing member of the roots-pop trio, founded the Southern Girls Rock and Roll Camp (SGRRC) while a student at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, and then expanded the camp to Memphis as the organization's executive director, first at the Gibson Guitar Factory and then at Hutchison.
Kelley stepped down as SGRRC's director this year when her band began to tour frequently, and, under new leadership, SGRRC decided to pull back its Memphis presence, but has assisted locals — including musicians Angela Horton and Kate Crowder and artist Sheri Bancroft — in forming a Memphis-based counterpart, the Delta Girls Rock Camp, which starts July 27th.
The original SGRRC in Murfreesboro was also the genesis of Those Darlins, according to guitarist Jessi Darlin. After Kelley, as a college freshman, founded the camp for girls ages 10-17, Jessi, then a junior-highschooler from nearby Nolan, Tennessee, was an attendee. Jessi continued to attend the camp for several years, even after moving to Kentucky, and later met the band's third member, ukelele-playing Nikki Darlin, who visited the camp with a friend who was volunteering. (The bandmates have adopted the group surname, Ramones-style.)
"I was talking about moving to Murfreesboro because I wanted to start a band and play with people," Jessi says. "At that time, we'd moved to Kentucky and lived out in the middle of nowhere, so I didn't know anyone who wanted to play music."
With Nikki also relocating to Murfreesboro from Nashville, the pair became roommates, introducing each other to faves from the Carter Family (Jessi) and Woody Guthrie (Nikki) and playing music together. Soon, Kelley joined up and the band was born.
Those Darlins, the band's recently released debut, is rooted in old-timey acoustic country sounds, with all three band members playing stringed instruments and swapping or sharing vocals. The band deploys this style with gusto, charm, and an utter lack of the self-righteousness that plagues so many (mostly male) alt-country types. But the band's musical range extends beyond early country. Strummy acoustic guitars pour out over rough-and-tumble, slapdash percussion (credited instrument: "belly slaps"), while twangy lead vocals lead into girlishly modern group choruses.
The opening "Red Light Love" is early rock-and-roll that evokes Buddy Holly and the Everly Brothers. "DUI or Die" has a girl-group swing. The band takes the Carter Family's "Who's That Knockin' at My Window" and converts it into classic-rock, with heavy drums and a menacing opening guitar riff.
Thoughout, the band plays with Southern imagery. "Whole Damn Thing" opens with the confession, "I got drunk and I ate the chicken." "Glass to You" sets this scene: "Sitting here on the front porch of my little house in the country, sittin' here with nothing to do."
Though Nikki's snarling "Wild One" comes off as the band's statement of purpose, Jessi's "Snaggletooth Mama" is the band's most intensive deployment of the Southern iconography that some mock and others romanticize.
"I live so far out down the country roads/There ain't nothing for hours/By the time I get back from the grocery store/The milk's already gone sour," Jessi sings. "Well the mechanic say my pickup ain't doing so hot, but it sounds pretty good to me/It may be old and it may be rundown, but it can still climb the hills of Tennessee." Surveying the scene, Jessi concludes, "Between the midnight kisses and front-porch sittin', I love my backwoods life."
While the song sounds like a loving but sarcastic bit of band self-mythology, an exaggerated take on their house-sharing life in "backwoods" Murfreesboro, it turns out that the song — one of the band's first — was instead inspired by Jessi's out-of-the-norm upbringing.
"I grew up in the middle of nowhere in this old house in the country," Jessi says. "My parents were both artists, and we were really poor at the time. The woman who owned the house let us live there for free if we'd mow her mother's yard. We fixed it up and lived there, but for a while we didn't have electricity or water. We lived half a mile from Lake Cumberland, and we'd go swimming there. That was our bath. It was a crazy way to grow up. Being as young as I am, most people don't have that experience. At that time we pretty much had nothing but each other, but we had a really good time. We would just hang out and do creative things. I learned to play guitar. We had animals and gardened. We would just be a family, and I really cherish that time in my life."
After self-consciously avoiding the trappings of "redneck" and "hillbilly" stereotypes in high school, Jessi says that traveling began to change her view.
"I started to really appreciate some of the people who had been supportive of me that other people would consider backwoods hillbillies. So I wanted to write something that [had an] 'I'm proud to be from the middle of nowhere' [attitude], about being satisfied with yourself and happy with what you're doing and where you're coming from. I didn't think the country was going to hear it. I was just happy to have another song that was ours to play."
