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| Snakehips | ||
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Snakehips began strangely enough in Nashville, Tennessee, a city not widely regarded for nourishing rock n' roll acts. In this high gloss "Music City" environment Mark Harrison scraped together the Hips for a handfull of primitive performances. The original line-up consisted of Mark on guitars and vocals, Price Harrison on second guitar, John Sheridan on drums and the infamous Knox White on bass. The beauty of the original Snakehips was not so much the musicianship but rather the compositional power behind an ostensibly screwed up punk band. Throughout the summer of 1988 the group worked on new material, finally recording an excellent early demo with Nashville engineer Tom Harding before the members parted ways. | |
| Back to Memphis | ||
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Sometime in 1989 Mark moved back to Memphis, where he had once honed his skills with local acts such as Shag' Nasty, Panther Burns, Neighborhood Texture Jam, etc... Jim Duckworth (guitarist Panther Burns, Gun Club) helped lure Mark back with an offer to play in the band, along with Ross Johnson on drums and John McClure on bass. As the band re-formed and settled back into the Memphis environ their sound began to take final form: elements of early rock, blues and the trippier aspects of the southern muse being main ingredients in the Hips' homebrew. The groups public appearances, however, became increasingly rare as the musicians were more and more involved with other projects. | |
| A New Line-Up | ||
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From 1992 to 1994 a new line-up with Paul Buchignani (NTJ) as incumbant skin-driver and Dave Wiggins on bass started to play more frequently in Memphis and surrounding areas, and began recording tracks at Easley Recording. These recordings gave birth to the first single "Buried Alive", and finally a full length Lp "Lit". | |
| Lit | ||
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Upon the release of "Lit" things seemed to be looking up for the band as the record
was well received both locally and nationally. As plans were made for a first ever
tour, however, Buchignani was drafted into the big leagues with the Afghan Whigs,
and Wiggins soon opted for school and marriage. "There was really no band, and I
saw no point in touring with a bunch of guys who didn't play on the record. So I
basically was back to square one," relates Harrison. "I lost my job in Memphis and
things weren't going so great, so I just drifted for awhile travelling and writing songs."
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| The Summer of 95 | ||
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In the summer of 1995, Harrison returned to Memphis and began working with Doug Easley and drummer Kurt Ruleman at Easley Recording. "There were a few tracks I Had recorded with Paul and Dave after the first record that I really liked, so I decided to just build on that and keep going." The resulting collection of songs evidences a wide range of influences from the signature blues-based rock to the more introspective and sonically textural, all combining for a highly personal if somewhat idiosyncratic document of an artist in transition. "It took about two weeks to do and two years to be released." laughs Harrison. "I always wanted Snake Hips to be a band, but as it turns out, not having a stable group has probably worked to my advantage. The fact that there simply wasn't enough of a following to attract much attention has allowed me to be more anonymous and make music that I like without the unreal pressures and other nonsense that most artists have to deal with in the music business." | |
| Select Discography: | ||
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 Listen to songs from the new Snake Hips CD "Memphis Juke" |
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[the Big Bad Johns] [the Botswanas] [Features] [Feralette Catalog] |
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