Todd Steed and the Suns of Phere: Press

Heartbreak And Duct Tape named top release of the decade. Yes, we are shocked.

Local music review: "Eskimo Hair," by Todd Steed and the Suns of Phere

I call it the Tom Hanks phenomenon -- the realization that an artist you had pegged as one thing is not only capable of so much more, he often excels at whatever he tries his hand.

It's a purely speculative theory, based on the fact that for years, the actor Tom Hanks was known mostly for goofball comedy -- "Bosom Buddies," "Turner and Hooch," "Bachelor Party," "Splash" ... you get the idea. Starting with "Big" and continuing with such films as "Forrest Gump," "Philadelphia," "Saving Private Ryan" and his films of later years, however, you suddenly saw a guy who's seems able to take on any role and make it his own.

Such is the case with Todd Steed, who's about the closest equivalent to Tom Hanks the local music scene has to offer. The guy who, for years, made a name for himself playing indie rock wrapped around quirky, offbeat lyrics in such bands as Smokin' Dave and the Premo Dopes and Apelife, is still more than capable of rattling off a few witty verses, sometimes made up on the spot in the middle of a show. But starting with his last album, "Heartbreak and Duct Tape" and the tender song "Beware of Boxes," he displayed a mastery of the more serious side of songwriting as well.

"Eskimo Hair," the most recent release by Steed and his band, the Suns of Phere, take that a step further. Sure, there's plenty of Steed's brand of offbeat humor -- the intro, intermission and outro spoken-word pieces by his bandmates, behind which Steed players some killer mood guitar, is one example. And the songs themselves contain enough imagery and analogy to bring a smile to the faces of those who love a well-crafted song.

What lifts "Eskimo Hair" to the level of stellar, however, are the little things -- like fireflies snatched out of the thick air of summer twilight, the pictures he paints are illuminating snapshots of times and places and memories that are personal enough to be intimate but general enough for us all to identify.

"Preservation Roof" is a song Steed wrote shortly after Hurricane Katrina tore through New Orleans, sung from the perspective of a Big Easy resident riding out the storm's aftermath from the roof of Preservation Hall. He paints a vivid picture of a "Lord of the Flies" landscape where the residents listen and watch and die while politicians slap themselves on the back and do nothing. "5 O'Clock" dates back to his days with the Opposable Thumbs and is a paean to Miller Time; "The French Girl and a Redneck" is the story of a French relief volunteer in post-Katrina New Orleans who's hit upon by a Tennessee boy in the Crescent City to drink; "Stuck in Asia" has that sublime balance of melancholy and wistfulness and optimism that calls to mind "New Slang," the song by The Shins that made the "Garden State" soundtrack so good.

The centerpiece of the album, however, is "Highway 78," a tender, funny, poignant song that captures the dream of a young boy to go to Disney World, only to be taken on a backroads adventure that winds up at his grandmother's house in rural Georgia -- where "she hugged me so hard, I never cared about Mickey Mouse again," he tells us.

It's an album that finds the Suns of Phere at the top of their game -- tighter than ever, drawing from a variety of genres and piecing "Eskimo Hair" together like an intricate puzzle of layers and tones and warm moods. And with Steed's songwriting at its heart, it's one of the best albums to be released locally -- or nationally, for that matter -- this year.

Todd Steed and the Suns of Phere
Eskimo Hair (Apeville)

By Matthew Everett (Contact)
Wednesday, August 13, 2008


Very little of the ferocious energy that fueled Smokin’ Dave and the Premo Dopes can be found on Eskimo Hair, which might be Todd Steed’s most laid-back album, if you don’t count the 2005 disc of ambient music, Music for Bus Stations.

It’s also his most accomplished. Steed opts for a quiet, reflective tone on much of the disc—“Agnostic’s Prayer” and “Temple, Ga.” are among the most gentle songs he’s ever recorded—and the peppier numbers, like “Preservation Roof” and “The French Girl and a Redneck” draw from jazz and cabaret. Much of Eskimo Hair’s ruminative mood comes from the sense of place that dominates the disc. Several songs are about specific places (“Zverynas,” about a neighborhood in Vilnius, Lithuania, “Stuck in Asia,” “Highway 78”), others about getting there (the Zappa-influenced “Movement”).

Beyond the sophistication of the songs, Eskimo Hair (named after a barber shop in Beijing) just plain sounds great: The Suns of Phere have developed into a swinging little combo, and they’re helped out by a cast of Knoxville all-stars. (It’s also worth mentioning that it looks great—the digipak decorated with travel photos is one of the most carefully packaged self-released CDs ever produced in Knoxville.)

New interview--

Believe me, we didn't expect this - but the suns are honored to be on any list with Donald Brown, Dixie Dirt, etc.

Which reminds me, if you don't have Heartbreak and Duct Tape, you need to have it to get 2006 going.

Here is a nice write up of some promises we are probably going to break.

Review of Music for Bus Stations

 
Todd Steed & The Suns of Phere “Heartbreak and Duct Tape” (Disgraceland 2005) Review by Jeremy Searle

Career high mixture of the rocky and the wistful from Tennessee veteran. Todd Steed hails from Knoxville, Tennessee (his band name is a pun on local attraction the Sunsphere) and has been making music in one band or another for twenty-odd years, but in “heartbreak and duct tape” he may have made his best album yet. Vocally Steed sounds somewhat like Brent Best, but the Suns are not Slobberbone, having as they do a bit more twang, a bit more country, and a better handling of the slow stuff than that late lamented band.  The album opens with ferocious rocker “Status No” it mixes more of the same with delicate heartfelt laments like “Beware of Boxes” desperately sad recounting of the memories and feeling brought on by digging through old boxes of mementos and “10 Years” high school reunion “where did it all the time go?” tale.  It also includes, in “Grandma’s Hymn”, the glorious opening lines “Grandma’s going to die/she’s too old to sit/to even care the reason why ” in a song which immediately subverts those lines by being a wistful piece where the theme is change in said Grandma’s life and the difference between now and then.  The piece de resistance though is the most atypical track, “Chapman Highway Motor Inn”, which is a dark and dangerous rap (vocals by one Ho Chi Eddie) that burns with righteous anger at the gap between the moneyed and the poor and the difference between how the world is portrayed and how it actually is.  It’s a visceral masterpiece.  Album closer “Freebird 2” runs it a close second, a tongue-ish-in-cheek lament about a man (allegedly Steed himself) who’s become too cool to play the legendary track and is ultimately nothing but a fake, unlike the non-cool he feels so superior too who are honest in their taste and appreciation.  Laced with sly guitar references to Skynyrd’s classic, it’s a cautionary tale for anyone who’s ever fancied themselves and their taste a bit hip, a bit better than the average. Elsewhere there are highlights aplenty (Mic Harrison’s vocals on “IWDWIST”, the unexpected punk of “Corner Concerns”, the guitar work everywhere to name but three) and overall this is a damn fine album.  www.toddsteed.com

"Heartbreak and Duct Tape," Todd Steed and the Suns of Phere (Apeville/Disgraceand)

Todd Steed is the bane of anyone who wishes that rock 'n' roll really would die. The tenacious Knoxville rocker has survived for more than two decades in a stack of local groups, the most-noted and longest-running being Smokin' Dave and the Premo Dopes.

As good as much of Steed's 20-year oeuvre has been, something happened when the singer-songwriter decided to make the album "Knoxville Tells" - in which all the songs were either about or related to Steed's hometown: Suddenly Steed grew up. Incorporating a multitude of guest artists, he created a disc that was simultaneously goofy and important. With his off-kilter wit in tow, he presented a picture of a town and its people that was as affectionate as it was irreverent.

Surprisingly, Steed's non-themed follow-up, "Heartbreak and Duct Tape," is even better. The first half of the disc is packed with the best rockers Steed has ever created. From the absolutely joyous kickoff "Status No" to the gonzo instrumental "Bonnie Lou and Buster vs. Caligula," it's perfect summer driving music. There's a little punk ("Corner Concerns") and a sweet tribute to domestic bliss ("Not Frank").

It's definitely a disc divided into two halves. As if this were created in the days of vinyl, the second half of the disc makes an abrupt shift with "Grandma's Hymn" a chipper folk-tinged number in which Steed happily sings, "Grandma's gonna die!" With Hector Qirko tossing in some tasty electric guitar picking and drummer Jeff Bills giving it a driving shuffle beat, it turns out to be a sweet song about regular visits to a Georgia-based grandmother and the changes that have happened in her life.

But it's the sweet and sad "Beware of Boxes" and "10 Years" that mark the biggest moments of growth for Steed. "Boxes" casually depicts the conflicting emotions that arise upon the discovery of mementos of a lost loved one: "If you're open and you're willing, well, the past can look appealing, but I don't want to live there, and I don't want to leave it behind."

And "10 Years" is a reluctantly nostalgic take on a high-school reunion.

Steed turns over lead vocals to guest Kat Brock (Dixie Dirt) on the dark "IWDWIST" and distorts his voice to become the slightly deranged philosopher-poet Ho Chi Eddie on "Chapman Highway Motor Inn."

Finally, he closes with a fun remonstration from a former high-school buddy angry over the fact that Steed found himself too cool to cover "Free Bird." The fact that the lyrics actually came from a high-school buddy makes it all the better.

Throughout, Steed is a better singer, a better musician and a more honest songwriter than he's ever been. "Heartbreak and Duct Tape" is world-class music from one of Knoxville's best artists.

And more on that bus station you have been asking about.

New story from Maryville's finest rocking writer.

Here is an article from our friends west of the center.

Todd Steed and the Suns of Phere
heartbreak and duct tape


The Shins and Decemberists take notice: Todd Steed is putting on a clinic on how to remain relevant.

Back in the 1980s Steed earned some national attention and some gigs with REM and The Replacements while playing with Smokin' Dave and the Premo Dopes. Over time the band split up, Steed traveled the globe and found himself employed by the University of Tennessee.

Then, in 2003, he called up some old friends, formed the Suns of Sphere and put out an inspired album about his hometown, "Knoxville Tells."

Steed's latest, "heartbreak and duct tape," still finds him being true to his home while venturing out on more universal themes, most notably change. Steed is getting older, his grandmother is dying, his old hang-outs are being destroyed and he finds himself on the verge of being washed over by the world. Steed braves the changes and challenges around him with two longtime companions: rock music and humor.

The result is a fantastic album that manages to mix punk with East Tennessee twang, humor with death, love with fear and rebellion with acceptance. There are plenty of glances to the past, like "Freebird 2," but Steed has managed to grow up while hanging on to the joy of a younger rock star.

"Grandma's Hymn" opens with the words "Grandma's Gonna Die." This is understandable, after all Steed says, he didn't "feel that great at 28." What Steed finds compelling is the change that has surrounded her life. "Where she made love and played baseball/is now a giant shopping mall."

But don't think age had made Steed soft. The Suns Ñ including Superdrag's Don Coffey, Jr., the Premo Dopes Dave Nichols, The V-Roy's Mic Harrison and Hector Qirko Ñ navigate the highs and lows of catchy tunes with precision. Their rock is uncomplicated, but effective. If there is a surprise on the album musically it is the freshness. "IWDWIST," featuring Dixie Dirt's Kat Brock on vocals, is right at home on college radio.

Steed's lyrics are straightforward and honest. There is no posturing or posing in his writing, nor in his playing. He sings and plays every note with a joy most albums lack. Most 1980s rock stars still touring today could learn a thing or two from Steed. Hopefully, today's artists are taking note.

4.5 stars out of 5. Available at www.disgraceland.com

E-mail M. Trevor Higgins thiggins@timesfreepress.com