There’s something for everyone when it comes to BIG EARS (as long as you include a video of Keith Sweat).
MAP AND SCHEDULE BELOW.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDP_dULGfGk
Go ahead and hit play before you scroll.
by Chris Lewis, Matt Rankin, John Flannagan, William Wright & Rusty Odom
BIG EARS can be challenging, so we wanted to lighten the mood a bit with some silky R&B before diving in. But we assure you, BIG EARS is no laughing matter and the organizers of the 2016 edition left no stone unturned to create a truly uncommon weekend.
Once a year, Knoxville becomes the world of visionary music’s unlikely capital city when AC Entertainment, a company already known for throwing some of the most well-loved parties around, resurrects its loftiest and, in it’s own way, greatest party.
Big Ears would be a significant achievement in any city on Earth. Instead of simply showcasing the masters of modern music and composition on the same stages as some of history’s most significant artists, Big Ears brings them to humble Knoxville and puts on a live cross-pollination that would be a bold-letter event in, well, anywhere. Big Ears sells tickets, not to a mere festival, but to the year-by-year evolution of what becomes, for a few mind-expanding days in the spring, the living, breathing sum of our great living creators. Let’s take a look at some of 2016’s contributors to Knoxville’s weirdest and most magnificent weekend (click on the name of the artist for a sample of their music). -William Wright
Thursday, Mar 31
Olivia Chaney
(Thu. 8-9PM, Bijou)
With a lineup that is so jam packed with quality talent, Chaney’s name maybe doesn’t carry the same weight as some others. However, the prolific, classically trained multi-instrumentalist – and accomplished thespian, for good measure – is adept at fashioning lilting chanties that balance heartache with gorgeous melodies and sweetly sung vocals. Every single track on her most recent album, The Longest River, is a gem, and they should make a fine transition to the Bijou stage on Thursday evening. –Matt Rankin
Wolf Eyes
(Thu. 10-11:15PM, Standard)
Despite being around since 1996, I had never heard of Wolf Eyes until a few years ago when I made the trip to Raleigh for Hopscotch Music Festival. A friend was incredibly excited for them, and I felt I could not turn down a chance to see one of the best (if not the best) noise bands in the country. This feeling was doubled when I thought on that I had never really seen a noise band live, and I like to try new things. The Michigan based band certainly did not disappoint. I wonder how some genre tags get associated with acts at times, but noise is really the only thing I could ever envision Wolf Eyes being put under. This is not to say that there is not musicianship there. There is an ebb and flow to the wall of noise that comes at you, and if you can get past the initial off-putting nature of it that some will encounter, you get an experience that stands far apart from some of the other acts on the lineup but is no less rewarding. – Chris Lewis
Yo La Tengo
(Thu. 11:30-1:00AM, Mill & Mine)
Yo La Tengo, one of the most beloved and consistently adventurous bands of the last thirty years, will be returning to Knoxville for this year’s Big Ears. Though it had a famously unpleasant experience at a now-defunct venue more than a decade ago, the trio came back to deliver sparkling sets in both 2007 and 2009 to rapt audiences at the Bijou. Expect more of the same energetic, unpredictable goodness for which the group has become known this time around. –MR
Andy Stott
(Thu. Midnight-1:15, Standard)
Modern dub music is saturated with derivative and uninspired producers, but this talented Mancunian stands with a select few as an original voice in the genre. Having cut his teeth performing both solo and with others under various monikers over the last ten years, he already has amassed an impressive discography. With his last two studio efforts, however, Stott has fully embraced the album format. Layering minimalist, glacial synths with tribal percussion and repetitive yet alluring vocals, Luxury Problems and Faith in Strangers find him building tracks gradually and organically. His midnight slot at the Standard on opening night should be perfectly suited for his absorbing rhythms. -MR
FRIDAY, Apr 1
eighth blackbird
(Fri. 7-8:45PM, TN Theatre)
This contemporary classical sextet has been active since its formation in 1996 at the prestigious Oberlin Conservatory. Favoring chaotic original scores over conventional fare, the ensemble’s impact and resonance are not unlike Stravinsky’s with respect to challenging audiences. Given the acumen and versatility of its individual members, it should come as no surprise that the group will be participating in a collaboration with Will Oldham and Bryce Dessner on Friday night at downtown’s grand palace, the Tennessee Theatre. -MR
Hieroglyphic Being
(Fri, 7-8PM, Mill & Mine)
Jamal Moss is an experimental DJ / Composer out of Chicago who is bringing his electronic afro fusion to Big Ears this year. Having long been a member of the Chicago house / techno scene as both an artist and promoter, Hieroglyphic Being first came to prominence in the early 00’s. It wasn’t until he was taken under the wing of house legend Adonis that Moss began to hone his craft and make a name for himself. Whether it is house, acid, funk, afro-pop or just about anything else, Hieroglyphic Being gives 100% max effort and expects the same out of his audience. Moss stated as much in a recent FACT Magazine interview, “I guess my energy is only meant to be tapped into by a select few and not the many, and that’s what I’ve accepted in what I do.” Don’t miss this one of a kind set and bring your dancing shoes. – John Flannagan
Shabazz Palaces
(Fri, 8:30-9:30, Mill & Mine)
Another one of a kind performance at this year’s installment of Big Ears is Seattle’s Shabazz Palaces. This experimental hip hop duo is led by former Digable Planets Ishmael Butler aka Butterfly and the multi instrumentalist Tendall “Baba” Maraire. Signed to the Seattle label Sub Pop, Shabazz Palaces mixes influences of hip hop, jazz, and African percussion. Shabazz Palaces have two albums to date, 2011’s “Back Up” and 2014’s “Lese Majesty” with plans to release their third full length later this year. Shabazz Palaces promises to be a very lose and enjoyable show. –JF
Andrew Bird
(Fri. 9:30-11:00PM, TN Theatre)
As virtuosic a performer as the avant-garde festival has ever booked, the Chicago-born multi-instrumentalist, though perhaps not a household name, nevertheless has attracted plenty of mainstream attention for his excellent solo material in the last decade. Equally skilled on guitar, violin, mandolin and xylophone, Bird navigates genres with ease, always defying listeners’ expectations while steadily and masterfully honing his craft. His proficiency and malleability has allowed him to work with a diverse roster of artists; among these past collaborators includes Will Oldham, with whom Bird will share the stage at the Tennessee Theatre on Friday evening. -MR
Lambchop
(Fri. 12:15-1:45AM, Bijou)
The wonderfully eccentric Kurt Wagner and his rotating group of ace studio musicians have carved out an interesting niche for themselves in our state’s capital. Wagner’s stilted, peculiar vocal delivery perhaps isn’t for everyone, but his lyrical content is superbly poetic. And the backing band’s feverish brand of alt-country is expertly crafted, both on record and in a live setting. You can catch them both alone and performing with their old friends, Yo La Tengo, over the course of the weekend. –MR
Nicolas Jaar
(Fri. 12:30-2AM, Mill & Mine)
When I first begin listening to an act, I do not dig into much information about them. I just does not matter to me that much. As their work continues to stick with me, I have an increasing desire to flesh out their story. Where are they from? How long have they been around? What other acts have they played with? I listened to Jaar’s 2011 studio album, Space Is Only Noise, on occasion, but I do not think that he hit that next level with me until his work with Dave Harrington as Darkside. To say that I was surprised by Jaar being currently 26 years old would be an understatement. His work just feels like it is coming from someone who has been producing music for much longer than that. Along with contemporaries like Four Tet, DJ Koze and Burial, Jaar seeks to take electronic music and find where it can go, so you never know what his next release will sound like. Of all the great acts playing Big Ears 2016, Jaar is easily the one that I am most excited about and will surely be a great closer to the festival on Friday. -CL
Satuday, Apr 2
The Necks
(Sat. 5:00-6:15PM, Bijou)
Australian experimental jazz trio will bring their ambient sounds to Knoxville for Big Ears for a highly anticipated performance. The Necks will usually start off pieces, sometimes an hour in length, with one instrument at a time building throughout the composition. Their music builds with complex layers and textures throughout usually leaving listeners in a trance mid way through. If going into this performance for a conventional set, this may not be the show for you, as The Necks works usually build throughout the performance thus eschewing the typical song structure of typical sets. Go into this one with an open mind and prepare to be blown away. -JF
Bedroom Community
(Sat. 8-9:30PM, TN)
Because it comprises four such radically different artists (Nico Muhly, Ben Frost, Sam Amidon, Valgeir Sigurdsson), it is hard to fathom that the collective would be capable of fusing each disparate element into something resembling a cohesive whole. Somehow, though, the combination not only works; each contribution melds into a beautiful musical dreamscape. Sigurdsson’s placid, patient structures intertwine with Muhly’s intricate compositions. Frost’s propulsive, sometimes jarring percussion is tempered by Amidon’s distinctive vocals and banjo. The resulting sound is vaguely folky, definitively worldly and undeniably exceptional. Catch them at the Bijou on Saturday night for a once-in-a-lifetime experience. EDIT: THIS SHOW WAS CANCELED. BIG BRAVE TOOK THIS SLOT. GO SEE THEM. -MR
Sunn O)))
(Sat. 9-10:30 PM, TN)
Describing the intensity and spectacle of a Sunn O))) show to anyone who has heard the drone metal band only on record is nigh impossible. There is a strange theater to the performance that is as unsettling as it is intriguing to behold. But the sheer volume of the music, filtered through towering stacks of amps placed on either side of the stage, is something else entirely. Each monster riff will tingle your spine. Walls of feedback will reverberate your chest cavity to the point that you will be reminded of your own mortality. When it’s over, you will leave a changed person. And you will have loved every second of the experience. -MR
Angel Olsen
(Sat. 10:00-11:00PM, Bijou)
With her 2014 sophomore release, the elegantly lo-fi Burn Your Fire for No Witness, the Asheville-based Olsen immediately established herself as an exciting and formidable new force in independent music. Both compositionally and lyrically stunning, yet it retains an endearing playfulness while traversing raw emotional territory. Live, Olsen’s husky croon, similar to that of Sharon Van Etten, stands up to its studio counterpart. It’s an impressive feat, one that should lend itself well to the Bijou’s cavernous interior on Saturday night. -MR
Faust
(Sat. Midnight – 1AM, Bijou)
German “kraut rockers” Faust brings their styling’s to this year’s installment of Big Ears. Having originally formed back in the early 70’s , Faust released 4 albums to critical acclaim although this did not lead to billboard success and they dropped off for nearly twenty years before re-forming in the mid 90’s. Since then, Faust has released eight albums, four of which have come since 2009’s masterpiece “C’est Com…Com…Complique.” Krautrock is a genre of rock and electronic music that originated in the 1960’s in Germany, which has an emphasis on improvisation and minimalistic arrangements. While the term went on to describe almost all German music, it is widely accepted now that the term applies to experimental German artists. Faust definitely fits this bill and will surely embody the Big Ears ethos that has carried on the past several years with this one of a kind festival. -JF
Kamasi Washington
(Sat, 12:15-2AM, Mill & Mine)
Although he’s probably best known for his contributions to Kendrick Lamar’s immaculate To Pimp a Butterfly, Washington has played with artists ranging from Herbie Hancock and Chaka Khan to Nas and Flying Lotus. But he also is rapidly and deservedly developing a reputation as a brilliant solo artist and bandleader in his own right. Last year’s appropriately titled The Epic was a modern jazz masterpiece. Dense, sprawling and inspired, it instantly scored more cool points for the genre than had been accumulated over the last couple of generations. Expect an ambitious, breathtaking performance when the saxophonist and his orchestra take to the stage for a late-night show on Saturday. -MR
Kiasmos
(Sat. 12:45-2AM, Standard)
One of the most exciting acts of the entire Big Ears installment is Iceland’s experimental minimalist electronic duo, Kiasmos. Kiasmos have been able to combine their love of minimalist piano and strings with heavy synth and electronic sounds, which make for a uniquely danceable sound. Coming off 2014’s double EP “Looped” and ““Swept,” Kiasmos are coming into their own, discovering their sound. They’re only playing select dates this year and lucky for us Knoxville is one of them. A good starting point would be their most recent KEXP session, which was released on 2/15/16. -JF
SUNDAY, Apr 3
As the festival winds down on Sunday, John Luther Adams takes center stage. He will perform Inuksuit at Ijams Nature Center from Noon-1:10PM in what is sure to be a mesmerizing finale. For this performance, the musicians will begin together at a central point in the Nature Center before dispersing throughout the environment far and wide, at times separated by such distances that only faint echoes of sound may be heard by one another.
If you didn’t get a chance to check his “Veils and Vespers” exhibit at The Santuary throughout the weekend, located in the former First Christian Church of Knoxville, you’ll have one last unopposed chance. Located at 211 W Fifth Ave., the venue will house this installation throughout the duration of Big Ears. The installation will take place from Noon until 6:00 PM on Sunday.
There will also be four feature films playing at Regal Riviera on Gay Street on Sunday. The schedule includes “Sex and Broadcasting,” a documentary about the world’s longest-running free form radio station, Jersey City’s WMFU and its fight to stay alive along with “All the Light in the Sky,” “Diamond Toungues” and “Uncle Kent 2,” which I’m pretty sure is the tale of how Kent “O” Oglesby started Knoxville Music Warehouse (/sarcasm).
For a complete BIG EARS schedule, look below THE SECOND Keith Sweat video. Oh yes we did.
CLICK HERE FOR BIG EARS SCHEDULE
CLICK HERE FORE COOL HOMEMADE MAP by CHRIS LEWIS
UPDATE: Be sure to check out the schedule of events for Boyd’s Jig & Reel throughout the weekend to experience what the local music scene has to offer. Some choice shows include RB Morris & Friends (this will feature the Tim Lee 3 and you should really see this if you want to know what Knoxville music is about), any of the Knoxville Stomp offerings or spoken word from I.N.K. There will also be surprise shows throughout the weekend at this venue. Stay up with us.
digitally hang out with us on twitter, insta and facespace for updates throughout the weekend #blanknewspaper
