Top Stories Memphis

• Finster’s “Baby Elvis”

Elvis has entered the building — the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, that is. Okay, technically the King won’t make his grand entrance until after the new year when “One Life: Echoes of Elvis” opens on Presley’s 75th birthday, January 8th, 2010. The one-room exhibit “devoted to the evolution and influence of Presley’s image after his death” will feature work by Robert Arneson, Ralph Wolfe Cowan, William Eggleston, Red Grooms and Howard Finster, as well as the original artwork for the U.S. Postal Service’s commemorative stamp created by Mark Stutzman. It’s the first of two shows organized by the Smithsonian slated to open next year. “Elvis at 21: Photographs by Alfred Wertheimer,”a traveling exhibition, featuring images of a young musician on the cusp of superstardom hits the road on October 30th, 2010.

“Elvis at 21,” will showcase a series of candid shots commissioned by RCA shortly after Elvis signed to the label. They document the last relatively normal moments in the singer’s life.

Not too shabby for a greasy hoodlum whose swiveling hips were once viewed by many as the ruination of everything America stands for.

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Just released: A Stax Chrismas ornament from the folks at the Memphis Music Foundation, handpainted by local artist Connie Lampden and available for a cool $35 via Amazon.com.

While you’re shopping online, get in the holiday spirit with the Staple Singers’ “Who Took the Merry Out of Christmas”, William Bell’s “Everyday Will Be Like A Holiday” and Carla Thomas’ “Gee Whiz, It’s Christmas”, available as MP3s for 99 cents each.

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There’s almost too much to take in tonight.

First up: Dirty Negatives, a photography exhibit from Memphis musician Don Nix, which opens at 6 p.m. tonight and runs through the end of the year.

With the assistance of curators Dan Oppenheimer and James Jaworowicz, several thousand photos were culled down into a series of images starring the likes of Furry Lewis, Rufus Thomas and George Harrison which mirrors the arc of Nix’s career: Playing alongside Lewis, Rev. Robert Wilkins and Mississippi Fred McDowell at the Overton Park blues festivals of the late 1960s. Working at Stax Records, first as a member of the Mar-Keys, then playing saxophone behind acts like William Bell and Carla Thomas. Collaborating with Leon Russell and helping Harrison stage the Concert for Bangladesh.

See the exhibit at the Jack Robinson Gallery at 400 S. Front Street, before it moves to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010.

Afterwards, head over to Minglewood Hall for this fantastic local two-fer: Alvin Youngblood Hart’s Muscle Theory with Monsieur Jeffrey Evans and His Southern Aces.

Later tonight, as Chris Herrington notes in this week’s Flyer, the almighty Meat Puppets, Arizona’s greatest contribution to rock-n-roll, play the Hi-Tone. Around for eons before a generation of grunge rockers discovered them via Nirvana’s Unplugged version of “Lake of Fire,” the Meat Puppets have survived a decade long break-up, exacerbated by co-founder/bassist Cris Kirkwood’s drug addiction and subsequent arrest after a bizarre shoot-out at a Phoenix post office. Appropriately, Memphis’ longest-running hardcore band, Pezz, opens, along with Alabama garage rockers the Dexateens.

Also: Star & Micey, Rainy Day Manual and Rebecca Almond Trio at Neil’s; a mixtape listening session with Gangsta Boo and Drum Squad at 515 S. Main; and a free show from the River City Tanlines and JD Reager & the Cold Blooded Three at Swanky’s.

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• MGMT

Local author/filmmaker Robert Gordon and Brooklyn-based White Station grad Andrew VanWyngarden of MGMT snagged Grammy nominations Wednesday night.

MGMT, in which VanWynGarden [son of Flyer editor Bruce VanWyngarden] is joined by Ben Goldwasser, was nominated in two high-profile categories.

They’ll compete with fellow alt-rockers Silversun Pickups and the Ting Tings, R&B singer Keri Hilson, and country-rockers the Zac Brown Band for Best New Artist. And the band’s song “Kids” was nominated for Best Pop Performance By a Duo or Group with Vocals, competing with “I Gotta Feeling” by Black-Eyed Peas, “We Weren’t Born to Follow” by Bon Jovi, “Never Say Never” by The Fray, and “Sara Smile” by Daryl Hall & John Oates.

My early handicapping: I think MGMT is probably a longshot for the Best Pop Performance Category, but I’d tab them co-favorites along with Hilson for the more celebrated Best New Artist honor. Ting Tings and Silversun Pickups are lesser lights (in both commercial and artistic terms) in the same genre and I think the Zac Brown Band are a little too unreconstructed for Grammy’s tastes. Hilson will be tough to beat, but MGMT could do it.

Big congrats to Gordon, who is nominated, along with his filmmaking partner Morgan Neville, in the Best Long Form Music Video category for his film Johnny Cash’s America.

Some other Memphis-connected nominations: Millington’s favorite son, Justin Timberlake got two nominations for “Dead and Gone,” his collaboration with rapper T.I., in the Best Rap/Sung Collaboration and Best Rap Song categories. And Stax veterans got some comeback nominations, Booker T. Jones pulling in two — Best Pop Instrumental Album for Potato Hole and Best Rock Instrumental Performances for “Warped Sister” — and Mavis Staples garnering a Best Contemporary Blues Album nomination for Live: Hope at the Hideout.

For a complete list of nominations, go here.

The Grammys will be broadcast January 31st on CBS.

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After weathering nearly a decade of comparisons to Replacements frontman Paul Westerberg, Lucero vocalist/guitarist Ben Nichols has been tapped as the heir apparent to the Boss in this recent A.V. Club feature.

From A.V. Clubber Jason Albert:

When Ben Nichols growls about bolting into the streets hoping to get out alive, my mental transformation from couch-jockeying hermit to asphalt-chewing hardass is no less complete than when I blast “Born To Run” in my, um, Jetta. That said, for as much as Nichols’ anthems like “Smoke” and “The Last Song” get my fists pumping, it’s his introspective moments that most recall the heartbreaking gut-punch of my favorite Springsteen record, Nebraska. And for a non-musical cosmetic point, Nichols looks how I wish I looked in a jean jacket: tough enough to not give a fuck what anybody thinks about his jean jacket.

Lucero’s brand-new video further channels the imagery of Springsteen’s circa-1982 portrait of working class America.

Both Nichols and Springsteen have a propensity for bandanas and plaid shirts. 1372 Overton Park, Lucero’s latest release, features the best rock horn section heard since the Boss’ collaboration with Clarence Clemons on The WIld, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle.

And last time I talked to Nichols — for the December issue of Relix magazine — he discussed the distance he’s put between himself and his former musical hero, the aforementioned Westerberg:

“You don’t want to puke onstage, get hammered and fall over and play half-songs. Although I’m sure there will be nights when everything goes awry, right now it’s so much fun playing the music.”

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Just last night, Jay Reatard wrapped up his mini-tour with the Pixies. Starting today, he’ll steamroll his way down the East Coast with dates in North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana and Texas then take a two-week break before hitting Milwaukee on New Year’s Eve.

While in Belgium last month, Reatard managed to find time to film a solo acoustic performance of “Nightmares” and “Fading All Away,” above.

Meanwhile, Jack O and the Tennessee Tearjerkers and John Paul Keith and the One Four Fives wrap up their coast-to-coast tour with stops in St. Louis, Kansas City, and Omaha later this week.

And after spending Thanksgiving here in Memphis, Lucero revs back up for a southern run that includes gigs in Little Rock, Oxford, Birmingham, and Jackson.

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Just the other night, a tidbit in the New Yorker about Harper Simon’s self-titled debut caught my eye — mainly because the album was recorded with American Studios session alums Gene Chrisman and Mike Leech. What slipped my attention was the news that Simon was performing at the Hi-Tone Cafe tonight, after a month-long residency at Los Angeles’ famed Largo nightclub.

The son of the iconic Paul Simon (and the subject matter of tunes such as “St. Judy’s Comet” and, yes, “Graceland”), Harper updates Sweethearts of the Rodeo-era Byrds and Dylan’s Nashville oeuvre with the help of legendary producer Bob Johnston, who manned the control board for Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited, Nashville Skyline, Blonde on Blonde and John Wesley Harding; the Man in Black’s Hello, I’m Johnny Cash; Leonard Cohen’s Songs From a Room; and Simon & Garfunkel’s Sounds of Silence, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, and Bookends.

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After Midtown label Goner Records dropped the King Khan & BBQ Show’s self-titled debut album five years ago, plenty of locals jumped on board the party wagon helmed by this Berlin-meets-Montreal duo, currently in the midst of a relentless tour promoting the release of Invisible Girl, just released on In the Red Records.

Sure, King Khan and BBQ’s pastiche of Little Richard-inspired falsetto runs anchored with punk rock sing-along choruses makes for a great reason to get out of the house tonight. However, my money’s on tour openers Those Darlins, who came from nowhere (okay, Murfreesboro) and have recently exploded on the national scene, thanks to scorching appearances at the Scion Garage Fest and at SXSW and rave write-ups in Paste, the New Yorker and even Oprah Magazine. No strangers to Memphis, Jessi, Kelley and Nikki Darlin have volunteered their efforts for the Delta Girls Rock Camp and played countless gigs in town, most recently with the Magic Kids last April.

Rude, raucous and brilliant, off-the-cuff musicians, Those Darlins are the aural equivalent of the babysitter you wish you had when you were twelve — willing to teach you how to smoke, cuss and kiss, before loading you up on ice cream and shots of your folks’ whiskey.

Download “Wild One,” from their self-titled debut, here.

And don’t miss tonight’s show at the Hi-Tone. Admission is $10 and doors open at 9 p.m.

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