who: Junior

what: Sunset Concert Series (pop punk)

where: Steps of Shryock

when: Thursday, July 10

Junior:
It's a Southern Thing

by T.J. Jones

Junior, a trio of pop-punk jokers from Gladwater, Texas, will play Thursday, July 10 on the steps of Shryock at one of the final Sunset Concerts, a series that is celebrating its thirtieth year in Carbondale.

The band's sound is a blend of pop-punk acts like Blink-182, Goldfinger, and even a touch of Green Day. Like those bands, Junior uses humor, fast beats, and a whiff of pop culture to engage their audience into a good time.

"I think we all dig all sorts of stuff, from country to metal to punk. We are a cornucopia of rock," lead singer and guitarist Kiley Bland wrote the Nightlife via email. "Is that how you spell cornucopia?"

"Steve [Cox, drummer and vocalist] and I started out in high school [in] a four-piece band, and it eventually worked its way down to a three-piece," continued Bland. "That way, if we ever make any money we'll get more each!"

With song titles like "NASCAR Man," which can be heard on ESPN, and "The Burger Queen," Junior's current roster has been rocking out for five years, playing shows in Texas, Arizona, and the surrounding West Coast. After the Sunset Concert, Junior will head to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. "As fall rolls around we will be doing a lot of college based shows, said Bland. "We'll play wherever if the price is right!"

"I can honestly say that there is no band on Earth, other than maybe Aerosmith, [that has] been what we've been through," said Bland of their experiences on the road. "We were recently robbed for the second time in Houston while we were on the road with Reel Big Fish. They stole everything. [The thieves] took the whole van and drove off. That's happened twice. We've been broke[n] down everywhere. We've toured Japan, we've toured the U.S. The All American Rejects used to open up for us-- now they are huge. I could go on forever. It's been a roller coaster."

The band's name comes from how all three members, including bassist Adam Hoffoss, are named after their fathers. "That's a southern thing, I think," said Bland. "Everyone laughs when we tell them the truth. Wish I had some clever answer to give you! But that's really where the name came from."

But Junior does have a clever answer when it comes to how they hope the audience will react to their performance. "Imagine a million dollars falling from the sky while hearing 'Free Bird' in the background, and then topping off the night at a NASCAR race," said Bland. "Multiply that times fifty, and that's kind of what our show is like. It's fun, real fun. We get the crowd involved. We rap, we rock, we crack jokes, have danceoffs, and more. In the South we like to call it 'Havin' a hoot!'"

More information about Junior can be found at <http://www.myspace.com/junior>, and their album Are We Famous Yet? can be found online and in stores now.

who: Kepi: The Band / Copyrights / Humanoids

what: punk showcase

where: Hangar 9

when: Thursday, July 3

Kepi: The Band
A Groovie Ghoulie Goes Solo

by Meg Moynihan

Carbondale favorites the Copyrights will spend the next month giving the rest of the continental United States a chance to convert to their gospel of melodic punk rock. In late June, the Copyrights began a thirty-city tour with Kepi: The Band, and the two groups will be joined onstage for various Midwest gigs by Saint Louis-based the Humanoids. The triple bill will come through Southern Illinois Thursday, July 3 at the Hangar 9.

The Copyrights' latest full-length album features a split bill with longtime Chicago-based collaborators the Methadones and constitutes the first release from newly formed label Transparent Records. Coming off a four-year spate of almost unbelievable productivity, the band is well-equipped to perform songs from a nuanced and rotating setlist from one city to the next.

Copyrights bass player-vocalist Adam Fletcher recently told Nightlife, "Counting the new CD with the Methadones, we've released two-and-a-half albums in two years, so we have a lot to choose from on tour.

"We left yesterday, and we'll be playing all over the country. We're really excited to play a few cities we've never been to-- New Orleans and Seattle are new ones, and we haven't been to Birmingham in a while-- and to be back on the road with Kepi."

Indeed, Fletcher has been liberal in his praise of the Sacramento-based punk musician who used to front the Groovie Ghoulies. In the wake of the recent dissolution of the Ghoulies, Kepi has now formed the succinctly titled Kepi: The Band to continue his inimitable brand of melodic sci-fi punk.

While the new outfit features different personnel, Kepi emphasized that his new musical incarnation remains true to the punk vision that fans have come to expect.

"We're a bigger band now-- we have two guitars, bass, drums, and me singing-- so I think it's a more dynamic show," he said. "There's more people running around making noise, that's for sure. But since I wrote and sang most of the stuff for the Ghoulies, the new band doesn't really go off in a shockingly different direction. I don't want to shove a new project down anybody's throat. I know I have all these old songs that people like, so about half the setlist will be old stuff and half will be new."

When asked whether the new group would foreground the themes of sci-fi, horror, and monster annihilation that inspired countless Groovie Ghoulies tracks, Kepi laughed. "A little bit, but not so much," he said. "I kind of feel the same way now that I did on the last couple Ghoulie records: I like those kind of songs, but I don't want to feel like I have to write them or that they're all that people are looking for. My approach is basically that I cruise down my little path, evolution-wise, and write a bunch of songs, and then the ones that stick in my head, I record. But a lot of the stuff I'm listening to hasn't changed."

Kepi explained that he first met the Copyrights after Fletcher began bringing his band's demo with him to Groovie Ghoulies shows in 2005. "Fletcher gave us the first full-length [We Didn't Come Here to Die], and we thought it was really great," Kepi recalled. "Then we heard Mutiny Pop and liked it even more-- they just put out so many CDs. I don't know how they do it. They're fantastic songwriters.

"That's how it goes with all the best bands-- you fall in love with the music and then later find out that the band is cool," he continued. "I love that I get to tour with them and hear them every night, because the songs are the kind that you want to hear every night. You can tell that Fletcher is a music lover. They're doing it because they love it, not to get somewhere or to get famous, and that's what I really look for in people."

While the rest of the Copyrights have just recently traveled to the East Coast to begin the first leg of the tour, Fletcher has spent the last seven weeks playing acoustic shows with Kepi and members of the Rock Band. The sudden switch from acoustic to electric performance may seem potentially jarring for the musicians, but Kepi said it fits in with the diverse arrangements of his two new records.

"There's an acoustic record and an electric record and they both came out the same day," he noted. "We've been playing 'Supermodel' off the rock record acoustically every night, and yesterday, the Queers asked us to do an electric version of 'Running on Empty,' which is off the acoustic record. Only one person from the band plays on the acoustic record, but we always try to translate and intermingle the songs. That's something I love, because it keeps it fresh for me and the audience."

The two CDs, titled Kepi and Friends-- American Gothic (acoustic) and Hanging Out (electric), feature some of the same songs distinctly arranged and reimagined. Kepi said that the ability to play two different versions of some tracks helps the band tailor their set to a particular venue.

"We've been able to play at some really awesome places recently, and to do a real variety of [material]," he said. "We played in somebody's basement in a house in Carmi, Illinois one night... and then we also played a New York harbor cruise with the Queers. They pretty much packed two-hundred punks into a boat and we floated around the Statue of Liberty at night and played. We also just played a bowling alley in Asbury Park, New Jersey. Every day is a new adventure-- even if we've been to a town before, we know it's going to be something different this time around. It's magic."

Kepi also stressed that he is thrilled to be back on tour and is looking forward to performing in Carbondale. He mused that simply being able to make a living at musical performance is a longtime dream that he's now living.

"It's really great to see people like the Cramps, who I've always loved, who have been around for so long and are still playing and never sounding better," Kepi said. "It's inspiring. It just says, 'This is what you can do if you play by your own rules and fight for it.' Mostly it's just about being staying happy, creating the art that I want to create and hoping somebody likes it. That's pretty much always been my modus operandi. And now-- the records are selling, and my agent is happy, and it's all good. What more can you ask for, you know?"

For more about the Copyrights and Kepi: The Band, log on respectively to <http://www.myspace.com/TheCopyrights> and <http://www.myspace.com/KepiGhoulie>.

Green Thoughts

The Shawnee Green Party will hold their fourth annual Independence Day celebration Friday, July 4 at noon in Carbondale's Town Square Pavilion. Various Greens will read from the Declaration of Independence as well as from the writings of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Thomas Paine, John Adams, and Ben Franklin. Their words are probably far more radical than most present-day Americans realize.

George Washington, for one, signed the Treaty of Tripoli, which states, "As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity [sic], of [Muslims]; and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any [Mohammadian] nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries."

Wow.

"At a time when many of our citizens, including all too many in our government, seem to have forgotten the principles upon which our Republic was founded, we try to do our best to remind ourselves about those principles," reads a Green Party press release from Rich Whitney. "Recall the vision. Renew the struggle to defend the Republic from its usurpers, and realize America's unfulfilled promise of liberty, justice, and opportunity for all."

The potluck picnic takes place at noon, with the readings to follow.

Later that evening, at 7 p.m. the Big Muddy Independent Media Center will screen Revolution. Directed by Hugh Hudson (Chariots of Fire, I Dreamed of Africa), the 1985 film stars Al Pacino, Donald Sutherland, Nastassja Kinski, and Annie Lennox. "Kind of a flop when it came out, some critics say it deserves a second look," Whitney first understates, then overstates. "It tells the story of the [American] Revolution from the standpoint of the ordinary working people of the day."...

Big Shows

The 2008 Du Quoin State Fair will run August 22 through September 1, and as always will feature a few cutting-edge grandstand performers along with a ton of country superstars.

Shows open with 2006 American Idol finalist Kellie Pickler Wednesday, August 27 with Bucky Covington, another Idol alum. Southern-rock band Sawyer Brown headlines Thursday, August 28. Alternative metal reigns Friday, August 29 with P.O.D. and Sevendust. Then it's back to country when Corbin Bleu performs with Justin Stein Saturday, August 30.

In addition the grandstand will feature horse, monster-truck, motorcycle, and auto racing, while a beer garden will feature dozens of shows by local talent.

For tickets or more information, log on to <http://www.DuQuoinStateFair.net> or call (618) 542-1535.

The Benton George Harrison Beatle Festival will culminate Saturday, October 4 at 8 p.m. in the East Gym of Benton Consolidated High School. The mainline concert will feature a performance by former Beatle Pete Best, who Ringo Starr replaced in 1962 just as the Beatles prepared to launch one of the most incredible chapters in music history. Best can be heard keeping time on Beatles Anthology cuts, as well as on seminal recordings the group made when backing British Elvis Presley soundalike Tony Sheridan. Best's group is called Best of the Beatles. Other local musicians, booked by Warren Batts-- a former guitarist for Bill Haley and the Comets as well as a native Southern Illinoisan -- will play as well.

The city may seem like an odd place for such a celebration, but the Quiet Beatle's sister, Louise Harrison, lived in Benton during the 1960s, and George came to visit her there right before the Beatles made their legendary appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show. While in Little Egypt, George reportedly camped in the Shawnee, sat in with local musicians, and got in some of the last quiet, fame-free moments he would ever experience. The house where he stayed with Louise is now the Hard Day's Nite Bed and Breakfast.

For more about Best, visit <http://www.PeteBest.com>. For more about A Hard Days' Nite and the Beatle Fest, visit <http://www.myspace.com/HardDaysNiteBnB> or <http://HardDaysNiteBnB.com>...

Gallery Work

The deadline to submit work in the Paducah Summer Festival's photo competition is Monday, July 7. The contest is open to all photographers. Contestants may submit as many as five photographs that have been completed in the last three years. Works generated in any photographic process including digital, color, or black-and-white will be accepted. All works must be framed and ready to hang and a fee of $5 per entry is required.

This year's judge is Chris Walker, a professor in Auburn University's Department of Communication and Journalism. Walker will award $1,800 in cash prizes, including $500 for first place, $400 for second place, $300 for third place, $200 for fourth place, and four $100 honorable mentions.

The festival photography exhibit takes place July 18 through August 30 at Tribeca Mexican Cuisine. A reception, juror critique, and awards presentation takes place Saturday July 19 at 3 p.m.

For submission information, contest rules, and more, visit <http://www.PaducahPhoto.com>...

I Shall Be Released

Cabaret Decadance has a new CD out, Dangerous, available at local record stores. The CD consists of vampy jazz, cocktail blues, faux showtunes, and circus polkas, and are all overlaid (so to speak) with coy sexual innuendos, only slightly subtle sadomasochistic inferences, and an intentionally surreal atmosphere. In places, in fact, the music on Dangerous resembles any number of classic Disney soundtracks, a tone utterly subverted by lyrics a-dripping with double and occasionally just single entendres.

The disc can't quite capture the mania of Cabaret Decadance's live show, where a half-dozen or more burlesque dancers add a wild visual context to the songs. Furthermore, the vocalists on Dangerous are neither as consistent as they should be when they use foreign accents nor as percussive in their phrasing as they might wish.

But the interplay between John McCall's keyboards and Gwen King's woodwinds nicely accents the campy atmosphere, while singers Bridget Shepherd, Clare McCall, and Pat York blend their voices both beautifully and creatively. Drummer Andrew Santiago keeps the whole, insanely finger-popping affair lurching forward.

Two Bourbon Knights, Mortimer Bustos and Patrick Rollinson, join in on the fun on "That's as Far as I Go," a salacious barroom anthem for the ages...

Paducah native and former Carbondale musician Kent McDaniel's band performed at the 2007 Custer Street Fail in Evanston, and recorded the show for a new CD, Live at Custer Street, which appends two studio tracks. The set mixes classic blues numbers like "I'm Ready" and "Boom Boom" with McDaniel's more folksy originals.

For these reasons it's not as successful as McDaniel's solo disc, About Time-- McDaniel's voice is more suited to the laid-back country blues of a J.J. Cale-type number than to a scorcher like "Pride and Joy," and in any event topping the definitive versions of, say, "The Thrill Is Gone" is simply impossible. His originals, however, like "Jimmy Stu" and the bouncy "All the Alligators," provide far better showcases.

Catch up with McDaniel at <http://www.kriya-records.com> and <http://www.myspace.com/ClearSailingl>...

The Bourbon Knights are recording their fourth CD at Misunderstudio. Vocalist Patrick Rollinson says the sessions are going great...

WriteNow

Springhouse, the journal of local history, literature, and arcana, always features a few interesting pieces, and the new edition is no exception. John J. Dunphy has two articles, one about an armada made entirely out of recycled materials that is sailing down the Mississippi River from its northernmost point to New Orleans, and another about the Ku Klux Klan's history in Alton. The latter is an inspiring story about the city. Even during times when the hate group flourished nationally, Dunphy notes, Alton's reactions to the KKK ranged from lack of enthusiasm to organized resistance, preventing the white supremacist organization from gaining more than a token foothold in Alton.

For this issue, editor Gary DeNeal also unearthed John Herbert Hays's Journal of the Southern Illinois Historical Society article, "Carbondale Amuses Itself, 1865 to 1900." Modern readers will will think his writing style charmingly quaint, and find much of the activities Hays documents-- ice-cream socials, jelly joints, and the like-- hard to recognize in today's Carbondale. But it's interesting to note that Carbondale once had a city baseball team and an opera house, among other desirable amenities, that are no longer. The article also discusses the humble genesis of SIU athletics.

Meanwhile, those who need seasonal culinary ideas should peruse Dixie Terry's muffin, pie, brownie, and grilling recipes.

Pick up Springhouse in local bookstores, and visit it online at <http://www.SpringhouseMagazine.com>...