First, Tonight’s Activities (Brought to you by Don’t Look Magazine)
Iron Tongue, Trophy Wives, Heavy Eyes, These Wolves Are Robots @ Hi-Tone Cafe// TWAR kicks it off around 9:30pm followed by Iron Tongue/ $7
Midnight Radio @ Swanky’s 9pm
Albatross Party @ The Buccaneer 10pm
Hosoi Bros w/ The See @ Poplar Lounge 10pmish start time
Hosoi Bros Wine Witch Video made by the sweaty palms of one George Hancock
Interview Below the Fold
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CT from Iron Tongue &
Chris Terry (known to all as CT) is the vocalist in both Iron Tongue and Rwake. One of the three original members of seminal Sludge Metal group formed in 1996, Rwake has continued to put on fantastic live shows for the past 15 years culminating in a vicious set at Maryland Deathfest X this past Memorial Day weekend. Iron Tongue, his second band, is straight up heavy southern rock. Because both bands are playing Memphis in July and seeing as he’s friends with some of the people who make this zine, we forced him, at gunpoint, to do this interview.
DL: Your band, Iron Tongue, that’s some heavy southern rock….
CT: Yeah, very much so. We got together in September of 2009 after the guitarist sent me some tracks and asked if I wanted to sing with them. It’s my rock and roll band. It’s a little different than my normal stuff. But, yeah, it’s different but really good. I call it my c0^# rock band. We have between six and eight people on stage with female vocalists sometimes. And it’s going to be really cool to play Memphis again because, you know, it’s been too long…
DL: Rwake made waves with their Maryland Deathfest X appearance. It was intense- the room was packed and you guys were HEAVY!
CT: It was great. You know, that’s one of the things about playing is that you have to give the effort to make it. You have to keep playing and going out in front of people and it will work. We played so many times and then, you know, we got a chance to play it. It’s about getting in front of the right people and continuing to work at it. There’s a lot of talented people who play music but you have to be committed. That being the case, MDFX really helps with our record sales and in the big cities. We draw really well in places like New York and Chicago and we hope this will help out record sales in those places. But in towns like Memphis, everyone already knows who we are, so it doesn’t have as much impact as the bigger cities.
DL: The bill for the Iron Tongue show includes Trophy Wives (Louisville, KY) and locals Heavy Eyes and These Wolves Are Robots. Pretty sweet night of Southern Rock…
CT: I haven’t seen Heavy Eyes yet and I can’t tell you how excited I am to see them. I’ve really wanted to see them play for a long time. I’m really into anything being done in the Mid-South right now. It’s really good to see all these bands making great music. We were a little depressed when The Dirty Streets fell off the bill but how can you be upset at a band going on a full national tour with Radio Moscow? That’s great for them. And they deserve it. It’s also great to play with the Wives dudes. Really love those guys and they are friends. And of course, Danny Lewd (TWAR) is a close friend and those guys always are awesome to listen to. I have to tell you though again, I’m really, really excited to see Heavy Eyes. I’ve heard they are great.
DL: What are Rwake’s plans for 2012-13? I know your guitarist John lives in Nashville…
CT: It’s not a problem of John living in a different town as it is more of us not having a practice space. We lost ours about a year ago and while folks from around Little Rock have always been like “hey, our venue is closed tonight, you guys can come practice tonight if you want”. But, we need a dedicated space where we aren’t lugging gear in and out to practice. John has been awesome, though. He lives in Nashville and works with….well, it’s not the School of Rock, but Nashville’s version of it, kind of. He teaches kids for a living how to play music and he’s a genius. We’ll be sitting around and have a new song and tell him and next thing you know, he’s got the whole thing transcribed and ready to go. In, like, five minutes. As for our plans, we get offered a lot of gigs but we turn most of them down. Right now, we’re looking at maybe being included on a huge tour upcoming- don’t know if it will happen but it’s in the works. And we are going to release a bunch of back issued Rwake on vinyl through the fall. As far as touring, we have the Little Rock festival over Labor Day weekend and some out west dates in the fall and besides that we’re just going to get that practice space and regroup.
Iron Tongue is playing with Trophy Wives, Heavy Eyes and These Wolves Are Robots on Friday July 13th at Hi-Tone Cafe. Rwake is playing with Torche and locals Hosoi Bros on Monday July 23rd at the Hi-Tone
Iron Tongue from Little Rock