Flora Shakespeare

Second Stage: Flora Shakespeare
According to a MySpace blog post, Flora Shakespeare gave away its four-song EP, Out of Our Hands, to fans as a gift. "Out of our hands and in to your car, ears, hearts, mind, spirit, life, sub-conscience, etc." The EP is a short, fun, and definitely infectious introduction to the Tennessee quartet.

Back in 2004, Michael Zadick and Josh Cooper began writing songs together in their hometown of Murfreesboro, Tenn. It wasn't until 2007 when bassist Graeme Morris and pianist Timothy Kenyon joined in that they got their official start as Flora Shakespeare. This past May, they began recording their first full-length record with producer Joel McAnulty (a.k.a. Joel J. Dahl) of the Nashville-based band, De Novo Dahl. The new album is expected for release sometime this October.

The EP, which is available for free streaming on MySpace, is filled with saloon-tinged piano and slurred barroom chants. Handclaps, whistling, and group singing give each song a friendly, down-home vibe. I love the ramshackle groove and yelping vocals on the Out of Our Hand's standout track, "Simple Divide (Wyatt Earp)."

by Meg Ruddick - NPR All Songs considered blog

Some things Murfreesboro has to look forward to:

A new Wiffleball season. 'Nuff said.

New records. Kelly Kerr and the Distractions, Velcro Stars, Cody Blaine and a few others are all either done with their respective releases or are in the process of completing them. Yay!

New bands. None of these bands is really new, but you've probably never heard of them: Awesome Shirt, Pots and Chains, and Flora Shakespeare are leading the charge of the young. Keep your ear to the ground.

Club 527. Hear me out: The club formerly known as Infernobar, Bongo Johnny's and Main St. is trying to get its act together. Booking bands like The Features and AutoVaughn is definitely a step in the right direction for the venue with the best-sounding room in town.

New house-music venues. We're like cockroaches—you can't totally kill our little house scene. We'll just get up and move. The venue formerly known as Midnight Mountain is now going by the name Megachurch, and hopefully Casa de Juan (East) and House Pride continue to have bang-up shows. From what I hear, the guys who booked for House House are in cahoots with at least one of these places.

I really miss House House. I think it's blatantly obvious why. The venue had that rare combination of really good bands and a homey ambiance that happened to be in a house. The people there were fighting the good fight, and as always, someone felt they had to mess that up, whether consciously or otherwise. When House House stopped having shows, I kinda lost interest in the music scene. It had brought new and exciting music to town several times a month, and it will definitely be missed.

A word on Wiffleball: As the sole member of the Wiffleball Writers' Association of America, I'm going to hand out the year-end awards. The MVP distinction goes to co-captains Eric Giles and Shane Spresser—co-captains because they are both so good it's quite unfair if they are on the same team. Eric also gets the Golden Wiffle, our version of the Cy Young. And surprisingly, Shane is the batting champ. Rookie of the Year honors belong to Tyler Coppage. Seeing as how the last couple of games ended in ties—yeah, there are ties in Wiffleball when it's 2:30 a.m.—we either saw a ridiculous amount of growth as players or a dramatic decline.

Oh, and Nashville, we still got your number, girl. - http://www.nashvillescene.com

Yesterday afternoon, the music-y half of Nashville for Free actually left the Ingle-Hood for some free live rock n’ roll at Grimey’s.The band was Flora Shakespeare, our very own “Artist of the Week”, and GODDAMN,was it packed. There were so many people in attendance, I got the vibe that it may have been the first “big show” for these MTSU kiddos.

My first impressions weren’t exactly “awesome”. They showed up a bit late, and then took a good 45 minutes to fiddle with their amps. It was hot. There were an abundance of soccer moms in attendance. There were was a lot of canned beer drinking going on. In all honesty, I was ready to hit the road before they even started. Then when I least expected it, fuckin’ Beatle Bob showed up out of nowhere. Brett and I were intrigued enough by this to stick it out and flip through some discounted vinyl while Flora Shakespeare turned their amps on and off. You know how we love discounted vinyl.
Brett with his (a little more than a) Dollar Record.

Brett with his (a little more than a) Dollar Record.

After a ridiculous and somewhat incoherent introduction by Beatle Bob, the band kicked it off with a Pavement-y little number and convinced me that they were pretty cool. Beatle Bob danced away, as expected. I even saw Grimes bust a few sweet moves over in the corner. I was quickly charmed by the fact that they sang off key in unison.

They also had an upright bass, clapped their hands, and had a keyboardist who really dug minor keys. Usually, all of these things at once call for some serious indie-douchebaggary, but this is not the case for Flora Shakespeare. They honestly seemed pretty unaffected by the whole hipster thang, and I liked that. Maybe it’s because they live in Murfreesoboro.
FloraShakespere

My shitty attempt at photographing Flora Shakespeare.

The rest of the set toyed with the upbeat-yet-melancholy theme, and the crowd seemed amused. Sometimes I was bored. Sometimes I was into it. All in all, I dug this band. A good majority of their set was actually pretty solid, and I really liked the fact that they were fresh and not yet jaded by Nashville. I could jump on my “Asshole Music Critc” soap box and go on and on and tell you how they sounded like the Violent Femmes or Dr. Dog. I’ll spare you and just leave you with the fact that their music was fun, and they got stamp of approval. If I were a little less tired and in a different setting, I’m sure I would have liked it even more. You probably will, too. Be sure to check these guys out next time they’re around. - Nashville for Free: For the Nashvillians Who Haven't Written a Hit Country Song (And Some Who Have)