After four years of research, Shangri-la Projects is thrilled to announce the release of the greatest book on  wrestling ever!  We give you Ron Hall’s Sputnik, Masked Men, & Midgets:  The Early Days of Memphis Wrestling to be released September, 2009!!!

Memphis music historian Ron Hall created a whole audience for the over-the-top Memphis garage rock scene of the ‘60s & early ‘70s with his two books: Playing for a Piece of the Door: A History of Garage & Frat Bands, 1960-1975 and The Memphis Garage Rock Yearbook as well as two compendium CD’s. The compilation CD’s gathered unbelievably rare lost 45 gems from many of the bands featured in the books. Not only did the books break all garage rock book sales records, they also revitalized the historic Memphis garage rock scene and helped many of the bands re-form 35 or 40 years later!

Now Hall has turned his attention to the also-amazing Memphis wrassling world — pre-cable, bleached hair, and steroids–with a new book Sputnik, Masked Men, & Midgets: The Early Days of Memphis Wrestling to be published by Shangri-La Projects in September, 2009.  Memphis wrassling WAS the roots and forerunner of the WWF and the WWE.  Many of the giants of the corporate cable wrestling world first wrestled in Memphis–including Jerry Lawler, Jimmy Hart, Lance “Banana Nose” Russell, and many others.  But before Lawler, in Memphis, there was Sputnik Monroe, Jackie Fargo, Don and Al Greene, Tojo Yamamoto, and Plowboy Frazier. Why do you think Andy Kaufman put his multi-million dollar career as a comedian and actor on hold? To come be a part of the greatest wrassling territory in the U.S., of course (and to wrestle Memphis women as well!)
Hall’s book captures the insanity of the ring and the outrageous costumes and get-ups of the wildest and most original wrestling era. The book contains over 400 images of wrestlers, programs, advertisements, and other Memphis wrassling ephemera. Any professional wrestling fan must own this book!

If that is not enough, the King of Memphis, Jerry “The King” Lawler adds his thoughts about early Memphis wrestling in the book’s introduction!  But, wait, there’s more…
Additionally, Hall’s book includes some of the most amazing early 1950s never-before-published live action Memphis wrestling photos from the Robert Dye, Sr. collection.

And, like all crazy releases from Shangri-la Projects, this book comes with still even more:  a cd of rare recorded gems from Sputnik Monroe, Handsome Jimmy Valiant, & Len Rossi–among others!!!!
This book is a must-have for any & all wrestling fans.  Read more about it at Ron Hall’s Early Memphis Wrestling Blog.

Available September, 2009!  Order yours now & it will ship before your neighbors get it!

Memphis Goons’ long-awaited Peppo release is now available on itunes!  Call up your friends at Apple, ask for the Memphis Goons newest & greatest, & download away!

So, Nashon Benford is one of my favorite Memphis musicians.  He really rounds out and completes the sounds of many Memphis bands, delivering them a sweet, high-pitched pleasantness from his trumpet. Two Way Radio, Snowglobe, Jeffrey James & the Haul…to name a few.  But you can really hear him on this delicious gem we released last year…

Check out Nashon in this week’s $5 Cover Amplified!

Well, the $5 Cover bomb landed all around Shangri-la Projects last night!  Twas Craig Brewer’s best production to date, shot in mid-town/downtown Memphis last summer, weaving Memphis musicians’ soap opera lifestyles throughout their day jobs, live gigs, & personal daily lives.  The “acting” was surprisingly very good in most cases for what most would agree were acting debuts by Memphis musicians (Granted every one of the musicians have “performed” in public before this so they are not new to showbiz, but only a couple of times during the series did things fall off into cheesy dialogue/bad indie film acting territory).  Memphis looked great visually and sounded tasty musically.  Overall, $5 is a massive improvement over the very disappointing, unfortunately cast/written/directed/acted and farcicalBlack Snake Moan (although the rootsy soundtrack saved the day for that flick!) and better than the interesting and edgy Hustle and Flow.Standouts are Al Kapone, who comes off larger-than-life on the big screen; Packy, the erstwhile dope-smoking scene keeper of the flame recording engineer played by Jeff Pope; Patti Pistol, who plays the bitchy boss foil to Amy LaVere (ironically, in real life, they work together at Sun Studio!); & Claude, Packy’s curmudgeonly tough-talking landlord turned Memphis music mogul.

Enough movie critiquing, let’s move some units, to paraphraseStephen Colbert.  Let’s laser in on the Shangri-la Projects’ connections in this mini-series debuting nationally tonight on MTV and playing for the next month.  Let’s start with producer Scott Bomar, who wasShangri-la Records’ employee of the month June, 1996, as part of the crack crew that set sales records that still stand on the books today.  Bomar has become quite the producer and studio maven working with Brewer on all of his successes since the P& H days.  In addition to producing the series, Bomar composed, performed, and selected many of the tracks.  (If there was a small flaw with this show, perhaps givingMuck Sticky three songs was at least one too many…).

Roy Berry makes many appearances in $5 Cover playing himself, drummer for Lucero and looking more and more like Animal all the time.  Most Lucero fans—and there are tons of them and many more to come with their new tour and recently cut record at Ardent coming out soon—do not know that before the massive success of Lucero, Roy produced and recorded some of the best indie rock in Memphis in the early ‘90s.  Specifically Berry recorded the 1st groundbreaking record by the Grifters, So Happy Together, (“a brilliant pastiche of noise”) at the now infamous Shops of Ann Adler where Dave Shouse and Stan Gallimore worked and the band practiced and recorded at night (as well as drove their flowershop van all over the country on tour!).  In addition Roy produced and drummed for the Simple Ones Worth the Weightand 2 Cups for a Tale.  Both have  genius pop moments throughout and Worth the Weight is like a greatest hits of the first few years of this very popular early ‘90s indie rock group.  Kudos to Roy, and the Roy Army,  for all his silver screen success.  Lucero fans:  start stocking up on Simple Ones downloads, 45s, & cds today at your neighborhood Apple download center!  Let the buying begin!

As a corollary to the Roy Berry story, many of the $5 scenes were shot across the street from Shangri-la Records at Rakapolis where legions of Memphis musicians including Jeff Evans, 
Nick El Diablo, Roy Berry, Tripp Lamkins, Jack Yarber, & Brent Shrewsbury (“Nic”) have lived and recorded—including 2 Cups for a Tale as well as friend of the label Jeff Evans‘ late ‘90s yet to be released Memphis garage bonanza compilation.

Former Shangri-la Records co-conspirator and ordering guru Eric Friedl’s Goner Records was feted with many t-shirt and sticker sightings as well as label stars like Harlan T. Bobo featured.  There was even one obscure Oblivians t-shirt appearance!

Cody Dickinson (as well as $5 Cover drummer/lover Paul Taylor), featured on Gutbucket’s “Where’s the Man with the Jive”–one of the rarest 7”s manufactured & distributed by Shangri-la Projects, has a small role as a musician/engineer trying to implore the voluptuous & flirtatious Clare to “be sexy” on a record.

The biggest surprise to Shangri-la Projects’ fans (present company included!) was the amount of screen time given to Antenna Shoes‘star Tim Regan, who was wearing an Antenna Shoes shirt on-screen.  The Antenna Shoes also received an on-screen recommendation for Antenna Shoes’ drummer Paul Taylor to hook up with Amy LaVere in the plot.  Antenna Shoes’  Nashon, Luke, & Steve Selvidge were also given massive airtime on stage with Amy LaVere, Two Way Radio, and my favorite joke of the whole series.. Snowballs, er, Snowglobe.  In fact, Snowglobe, which is basically the non-touring version of Antenna Shoes, played and starred in the climactic final episode scene.  Millions of $5 Cover fans can now discover the majesty of the great Antenna Shoes Generous Gambler.  Ladies & gentleman, let the downloading begin now!

All in all, $5 Cover is a great promotion for many of these bands, Memphis, & Shangri-la Projects’ artists!  Thanks to Craig Brewer and Scott Bomar for helping Shangri-la Projects get these musicians the recognition and sales they deserve.  MTV & MTV fans, time to enjoy some down-home Memphis music!

P.S. I went out to two live Mid-Town clubs to catch some great Memphis music after the world premiere–one was $7 cover and the other was $10 cover.  $5 cover is ancient history!!!!