Local musician curates a day of free sets at Local Smokey
For several years, Brandon Biondo seemed to be everywhere.
A fixture in The Pilot Light scene of bands and musicians that eschewed conventional labels, he lived and died by a single ethos: write, record and play music. From Twinkiebots to Royal Bangs, from Coolrunnings to Walsh, from New Romantics to his own label (Dracula Horse), the multi-instrumentalist and unsung genius of a scene often overlooked by Knoxville’s more mainstream music fans always got more attention and press outside of Knoxville than he did from within it.
And then, he kind of disappeared.
COVID-19 had something to do with it, but a reset was necessary, he says, to recalibrate and plan something of a return. Like most projects he’s been a part of over the years, the first New Romantics show in roughly five years will be a part of a Big Ears-adjacent event called Channel Pressure, a day of music scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. March 24 at Local Smokey (404 Williams St., downtown), literal footsteps from one of Big Ears Festival’s linchpin venues, the Mill & Mine.
“I never stopped recording, I just stopped playing live,” Biondo says, taking time out as a cook in the Local Smokey kitchen. “I felt like staying to myself, so I sort of went inward. I put out a New Romantics record in October, an actual physical release [a self-titled vinyl on Gezellig Records], and I wanted to perform it live, but then this thing happened.”
“This thing” is billed as a night of “free curated music,” and it’s sponsored by BLANK Newspaper and The Blom Shop. It came together organically, Biondo says, once he went to work for Ashley Diggs and Nancy and Michael Ledbetter, who took over the sports bar after the death of its founder and the family patriarch, Mike Ledbetter.
“The idea for Channel Pressure came about because I was trying to build a link between all of these burgeoning local electronic musicians that don’t necessarily fit into the regular categories of popular music,” Biondo says. “It used to be really hard in Knoxville to do the kinds of things these artists are doing because, generally, there’s no real scene for a lot of it in this town. Things have changed a lot over the last 5-10 years, and there’s more of a community around these kinds of groups/projects where there really wasn’t before.
“I wanted to put a bunch of really different kinds of talent together and express that and maybe have a different kind of experience to show that while all wildly different, these things all fit together and show a side of Knoxville and the surrounding areas how great that can be. Outside of the Pilot Light, which is where most of these artists call home, there isn’t much of this kind of music being played out locally.
“My boss Ashley was very generous about trusting me with this because it is not a normal show for Local Smokey,” he adds. “Everyone has been so kind and open to something different happening there, and that is exactly what we need in this town. More people to be adventurous musically and more places for artists to play.”
He’ll take the stage as well help organize the event, and while it won’t be a full New Romantics set – more of a solo reemergence of the man for whom “weird” is a badge of honor and a distinction that sets him apart as a titular creator in the music scene – it will feature him onstage alongside some familiar names to Knoxvillians (Dialectic Sines, Horcerer), at least one out-of-town act (Meth Dad, from Nashville) and more: Megamoon X, a project by local artist Lorna E Vela; a DJ set by Bunny Roolz; performances by the bands Escort Mission and Carry Ripple; and FKA Ice, whose journey has taken her from a country band in St. Louis to underground electronic in Knoxville.
“I’m excited about all of them, but I’ve never seen her play,” Biondo says. “A couple of Big Ears ago, she did this afterparty at Landing House, and I showed up right as she was done. I really like her music. Honestly, I’m excited to see everyone. Everything’s very different on [the bill], and in putting it together, I was trying to get a lot of things. I feel like it makes sense. I just want people to come and know that it’s free.”
And, he adds, it fits perfectly with the weekend ethos around the co-occurring Big Ears Festival. By the same token, it shines a spotlight on a niche subculture of the Knoxville music scene that’s only come into its own, in terms of respect and fandom, over the last several years.
“As long as I’ve lived here, it’s been more of a rock ‘n’ roll kind of town,” Biondo says. “It used to be if you pulled out a laptop or a synthesizer, people would scoff at you or just in general have the opinion that all you were doing is hitting play when you perform. I look at it this way: Synthesizer music has always been punk to me. Even back in the ’80s, a lot of these bands were just punks with homemade synthesizers – Human League, New Order, The Screamers, etc. I love that this town is finally embracing electronic music without the negative connotations that it used to. In my experience, it’s always been hard for locals to wrap their heads around anything like that not being EDM or DJ sets.
“I feel like Big Ears is a very broad spectrum of music. I love that, and I wanted some of these artists to be able to present their art in a way where they could really shine. I’m not sure that some of these artists would normally play with each other outside of this show, and I love that about it. I’ve always been a fan of the outsider shows that go on during Big Ears. Those have often ended up being some of my favorite things to see.”
For more information and the full schedule, visit instagram.com/channelpressure.
For the touching story about how Local Smokey came about, click here.
wildsmith@blanknews.com
