WYXR Stereo Session #3: Grifters "Crappin' You Negative"

1350 Concourse Avenue,Memphis TN 38104

13 April, 2022

Description

"WYXR's Stereo Sessions presented by nexAir and MEMPHO" will feature Grifter's "Crappin' You Negative" at the Memphis Listening Lab. Grifters may not be a household name to all Memphis music fans, but the band occupies a unique and influential place in the continuum of sounds to emerge from the city, with a large and fiercely loyal audience in both local and international markets that remain a full thirty years after they first burst upon the scene. At the peak of their activity in the early-to-mid-'90s, they toured tirelessly, crossing paths with artists such as Jeff Buckley, Pavement, and The Flaming Lips. Touting an audacious sound that incorporates the Delta Blues, Zeppelin-inspired grooves, delicate ambient textures, and outright noise, the band's songs tend to disregard conventional notions of structure and harmony, often with dramatic shifts in dynamics and tempo. Their third full-length release, "Crappin' You Negative," released on Shangri-La Records in 1994, finds Grifters straddling the lo-fi sound of their earlier recorded work (much of which was committed to four-track cassette in the storeroom of an East Memphis flower shop) and the rich, full sonic possibilities afforded by Memphis' Easley-McCain Studios. The LP's startling opener number, "Rats," sets the tone for a kaleidoscopic and disorientating journey. Hosts Jimi Enck and Andria Lisle step in as your guides for a discussion and play through of the seminal record. Seating is limited so we are asking all attendees to RSVP. "WYXR's Stereo Sessions presented by nexAir and MEMPHO" featuring Grifter's "Crappin' You Negative" is sponsored by Orion, Shangri-La Records, Fat Possum Records, Memphis Listening Lab, and VIA Productions. The event is powered by a grant from Humanities Tennessee.