This list is by no means complete- just a
few suggestions from the crew at GONER
For a more complete, entertaining guide (and great pictures c/o JIM
COLE!) check out
KREATURE COMFORTS' LOWLIFE GUIDE
TO MEMPHIS (4th edition)
updated guide to best barbecue, music spots, and cool cultural stuff around
the Memphis (and Arkansas/Mississippi) area! Topics covered include 10
Free Things To Do, Memphis Restaurants Owned By Memphis Musicians, What
to do if you're considering sitting in with a blues band, and more. Introduction
by Jim Dickinson! 3.00
(via Shangri-la))
New edition coming!
for a map of Memphis, go here
(the excellent YAHOO maps)!
check out the wonderful Memphis
Weather for your trip!
other links for info on memphis happenings
& hotspots:
livefrommemphis.com
unbelievable site! TONS
of Memphis music, videos, more!
rachelandthecity.com
youngavenuedeli.com
hitonememphis.com
memphiswithme.com
(Memphis Society event calendar!)
Memphis
Craigslist
Dining With Monkeys
(kid-friendly restaurant reviews)
Record Stores
(one thing the Lowlife Guide omits!)
GONER
Records Shangri-la |
River Records Collector's store tons of expensive rare Memphis & rockabilly records not priced- not mint- not fun 822 S. Highland 324-1767 Audiomania Lots of jazz & blues vinyl, CDs too Worth poking around in their good blues/ jazz /memphis cd selection. 1698 Madison Ave 278-1166 |
video store
Black Lodge Video
831 South Cooper at Evelyn
Great selection of Cult, foreign, weird, and lots of just GOOD movies
like you can't find in your regular video store.
Easy terms (no late fees!), good peoples, occasional personal appearances
and low-key rock shows (USAisamonster)- check it out!
Places to See Music
Hi-Tone 1913 Poplar 278-TONE Young
Ave Deli 2119
Young Ave 278-0034 P&H
Cafe 1532 Madison 726-0906 |
Buccaneer
1368 Monroe. For some REAL blues / R&B:
|
james arthur attacks Gus' amazing chicken
|
Taqueria
Guadalupana La Espiga Big S Grill Bryants Huey's Memphis Pizza Cafe Arcade Restaurant |
Paynes
Bar-B-Q Cozy Corner
Vietnamese Food Pho Saigon Sekisui Edo Bayou Bar & Grill
|
Music Equipment Stores
Taylor's Music
1739 Madison Ave (901) 276-7717
Great small store, best prices in town, good stuff!
Xanadu
Right around the corner from Goner, John Lowe
makes his Lowebow cigar box guitars, sells Orange amps,
and has all kindsa book, too!
Consignment Music
3952 Park 458-2094
Consignment's got a 24 hour vending machine for strings, picks, etc!
VICE
Memphis is ruputed to have some of the sleaziest
strip joints with the best-looking young
girls in the south (maybe the country?), even as the city tries to close
these
revenue-grabbers down as "public nuisances". One expert (works
for Playboy, okay?) declared
Memphis' Platinum Plus the best strip club in the USA.
For gambling, you've got your dog races (and "games of skill")
in West Memphis (5 minutes from downtown) and the much-improved casinos
of Tunica (1 hr 15 minutes south to Mississippi). Tunica, previously one
of the poorest counties in
the US, is no Las Vegas. Still, big-name acts play Tunica when they won't
come to Memphis, but the
casino atmosphere and audience leaves lots to be desired.
Speaking of vice, if you're arrested and taken
downtown (jail is at 201 Poplar), expect to spend 5-18 hours in
piss & vomit-covered holding tanks with trash-talking gangsters, wanna-be
gangsters, real gangsters, rednecks, and habitual
drunks. Hopefully not your idea of fun. Avoid at all cost.
Radio Stations
WEVL
89.9: community free-for all: great blues,
jazz, weirdo rock
107.1
hard rap, lotsa New Orleans bounce & Memphis G's
WHRK 97.1
more slowjams, but some good southern rap too...
| Sun
Studio it's worth standing in the room where it all happened, and the tour can be pretty good (depending on the tour guide)! Say hey to Goner friend filmmaker Mike McCarthy if he's there! Graceland ...is a zoo. Especially during Elvis Week (in Aug). But if you gotta see it... The Jungle Room rules! National Civil Rights Museum in the Lorraine Motel, where Rev Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated- interactive tour of the Civil Rights Movement hopefully does the cause justice- across the street is Jacqueline Smith, who was kicked out of the apartment complex to make the museum and has been camped out across the street ever since, protesting her (and other tenants) evictions to make way for the museum. |
Stax
Studio Has been reborn as the Soulsville Museum of Soul Music & Stax Learning Academy, teaching music and performing arts to kids. Great! Record geeks could spend hours in the hallway with thousands of Stax / Volt / Truth / etc Lps and 45s on display... whoah! Beale St. used to be THE place to go throw away your paycheck if you lived in the mid-south... now it's a pale (ha!) version of what used to be a center of Black entertainment. Still, there's decent food and music... Charlie Woods plays great Hammond B3 james |
