The Black Keys & Two Memphis Rap Pioneers Added to 2024 Raised By Sound Fest
Musical worlds will collide at the 2024 Raised By Sound Fest in Memphis, Tenn., on Dec. 7. Billboard can reveal that the annual festival put on by Memphis radio station WYXR will feature an afterparty DJ’d by legendary rock duo The Black Keys – as well as performances from Memphis hip-hop pioneers Lil’ Noid and Tommy Wright III.
Lil’ Noid, whose 1995 mixtape Paranoid Funk has become a cult classic, features on the Black Keys’ latest album, Ohio Players, guesting on the track “Candy and Her Friends.” Wright, who began self-releasing music in the early ‘90s, is an unsung pioneer of the Memphis rap sound; live performances from either rapper are a rarity.
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Now in its third year, Raised By Sound Festival is a fundraiser for WYXR, a nonprofit Memphis radio station that unpacks the city’s expansive, eclectic musical history and present. The first Raised By Sound Fest in 2022 featured an all-star salute to Memphis power pop icons Big Star, led by surviving founding member Jody Stephens. Last year’s fest saw Cat Power recreate Bob Dylan’s iconic “Royal Albert Hall” concert from 1966 in breathtaking detail (with Tenn. State Rep. Justin J. Pearson watching from the front row, no less).
This year’s headline event is a live score performance of Music for William Eggleston’s Stranded in Canton by J. Spaceman (of Spiritualized) and John Coxon. The 85-year-old William Eggleston is a Memphis-born photographer often hailed as the “godfather of color photography,” as he helped to establish color photos as a legitimate artistic form of expression in the face of art world critics who preferred black and white. In 1974, he shot an experimental video project called Stranded in Canton that J. Spaceman and John Coxon have created a new score for. (In another Memphis music connection, Big Star’s second album, Radio City, features an Eggleston photo for the cover art.)
Additionally, the festival will feature free daytime sets from Hurray for the Riff Raff (a solo set), Cut Worms, Heartbreak Hill Trio, fosterfalls and Blue Tom Revue, the lattermost group consisting of University of Memphis music students. General admission (for the non-free events) is sold-out, but VIP tickets (which include the Black Keys-hosted afterparty) for the fundraiser are available here. Raised By Sound Fest takes place at the Crosstown Concourse in Memphis on Dec. 7 from 1-11 p.m. CT.
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