Born of warehouses built on stretches of land that are not quite Memphis, Dire Con is quintessentially modern, underground, southern rock.  Front man, Hamilton Ellis, brings forth songwriting chops in the vein of Neil Young, dented and bruised by Arrison Kirby’s gruff production, harkening back to Check Your Head era Beastie Boys.  

 This self-titled collection of songs reflects on the darker, grittier aspects of southern living.  It touches not on topics of American pride and confederate nostalgia, but a small town underbelly of drug abuse, secret lives and death. 

 This disc is the sixteenth release from the El Deth recording label.  It will be digitally available on Spotify, iTunes  and all other major online distributors on May 29^th, 2011.

Check out the first single, “Pills,” on Soundcloud…

Sorghum was compiled and released by Kentucky native, Ellie Herring, and additionally contains electronic tracks from The Black Madonna, The Librarian, KBFF, Trells, Lazar-Bat, Bernstein, schädel, Chris Randall, Glacial23 and Holy Beast.

All proceeds from the sale of the album will be donated to the Mid-East Kentucky Chapter American Red Cross to aid the tornado victims of West Liberty, KY.

Click here to give it a listen and a purchase.

Click here to check it out.

You will find it at the bottom of the page.  Last entry for the day.

Originally released in 2004, this was one of the earliest projects to come out of El Studio.  I had met Hamilton at an open mic type of night at the now defunct Blue Cats in Knoxville’s Old City.  We kept in touch and he gave me a DIY cassette release of something called The Common Cold EP.  I absolutely loved it and we’ve passed through several musical doors together since.

This album features a track with Dire Con backing him up in full.  (Of course I’ll take this moment to plug the upcoming, self titled, Dire Con release that El Deth will be throwing into the universe in a few months.)  Also, note the additional lyrical stylings of The Illiest on that same track.

The chick on the cover, playing the part of Sara Lewis (who is named similar to that chick from Jag Star), is actually Melissa Fagan of The Melissa Fagan Band.

Check it out on Spotify here.

Get it from iTunes here.

I dunno.  Amazon music?  Anyone buy shit from them?

How bout this place?  I don’t even know what this is.

As the onesheet reads…

COP is a session project by Arrison Kirby (Never Sorry, Obadiah), Wesley Wyrick (DolphynRydyr, Star Mountain) and SK (The Glaring Sound).   

 Urgency was recorded at El Studio, Knoxville, TN in 2010 and subsequently edited, mixed and mastered by Arrison Kirby.  The name is a true reflection of the form; as this session was recorded in a single, very, very loud take.  By the second track, “Botched Operation,” the force of the sound was shaking beer bottles off the back of the studio’s piano.  Undeterred, the trio pressed on through these five movements of sound, their order on the disc being no different from the order recorded.

 This disc marks the fifteenth release from the El Deth recording label.  It will be digitally available on Spotify, iTunes  and all other major online distributors on December 27^th, 2011.  The track, “Money Games” is currently available for free MP3 download at www.eldeth.com. 

And here is that track…

“Money Games” – COP

That’s right, everyone. Obadiah’s last two, Obadiah EP and Rebirthday are now available on iTunes, Spotify and all your finer international digital retailers.

Why not download it through Japan?

These are the first two of several reissues coming down the line for El Deth.  Expect in the near future, reissues from Hamilton Ellis, the red cloud, and a specially remastered version of Obadiah’s FIRST album, Voda.  Stay tuned and tell all your friends!

photo by Maurita Roman

Thanks to everyone who came out to the Pilot Light for Kishi Bashi and Never Sorry last Thursday.  I’m really really glad that new people were exposed to Kishi Bashi’s music.  And thanks for sticking around for Never Sorry, also.

If anyone has pictures or video they would like to share, holla at me.  You can check out some video of the Kishi Bashi set on Maurita Roman’s YouTube account.

There is a massive interchange of energy going on in America right now.  Why fight it?

I don’t know why I kept myself and El Deth as separate internet entities for so long.  You can still access the older El Deth site here, though I am uncertain for how long.

I updated the “About” page and also created  “Collaborators” and “Discography” pages.  So this is it.  This is the new El Deth as well as the new arrisonkirby.com.  Yes.  We have some stuff for sale.  We also have some stuff for free.    Please make as much use of all of this as you feel it deserves…and share it accordingly.

That out of the way, thanks a lot to everyone who turned out for the show.  Everyone did great!  I also want to thank Dane Hill, Rachel Jae, Megan Driscoll and Katie Collins for making the show with me.  Also Zoe Erwin for running the sound, the Pilot Light for hosting the thing and, of course, Katie and the Bass Drums for hosing us down.

There is so much more to come.

So yeah…pictures?  Video?  If you got it, I want it!

photo by Christy Lawson

My birthday was February 1st.  I initially wanted to launch this new website on that day.  Unfortunately, my girlfriend and I parted ways instead.  It took a few days to recover from that stumble.

But hey.  It’s here now.  As with the old site, you will be able to find a ton of free MP3s.  Some full length albums.  More over time as I am moved to post them.  Who knows what else will come of it?  Videos?  I don’t really know.  Everything is suddenly a blank slate in my life so let’s be in this together.

This new blog format allows something that may be of interest to people who have worked with me.  That is the search option.  Want to find everything posted that you have contributed to with me?  Type your name and read the screen.

Also, one may notice also that I am no longer referring to myself in the third person, as on the last website.  I mean, let’s call a spade a spade:  I am me.  Since no one REALLY has much to sell beyond themselves, why not just be myself (whatever that is), cut and dried?

I want to be up front.  Conversational.  Loose.   I’ve had enough science.  I want people not only to know what I do, but also who I am…or at least some of the motivations behind what I do.

I am aware things are a little thin around here right now.  That is on purpose.  I’d like for this site to be something to explore over time – not the massive burst of information that the first one was.  Don’t worry, though.  The goodies will return.

So keep checking back.  I aim to ultimately please.