Local band to play in Little Rock
Frown Pow'r has Henderson ties
Amy Damron
Issue date: 10/13/08 Section: Features
"Weirdo lo-fi garage sounds," is what The Arkansas Times describes this local Arkadelphia band called Frown Pow'r.
"We actually do not claim Arkadelphia," said Marshall Dunn.
Marshall Dunn, senior mass media major, John Thomas Martin Babb, Henderson alumnus, JT Tarpley, and Blake Phillips, junior UAMS student, make up the band.
On their myspace, they have their band members listed as JT "Flash Gurdon" Tarpley - guitar, vocals, shoes, tambourine; "Uncle Marshall" Dunn - 12 string guitar, b-bender, banjo, tambourine; John Thomas Martin "Stankerbell" Babb - electric mandolin, cowbell, tambourine; Blake "Doc Possum" Phillips - drums, tambourine.
The band's name Frown Pow'r came from Stetson Kennedy and his frown power movement. He started the anti-racist movement where he would pointedly frown at people to end bigoted speech.
"I thought it would make a badass band name regardless of the meaning," said Dunn.
Babb recently got a tattoo that is placed on his right inner wrist that represents the band's name. The image is a frowning face that Dunn found imprinted on a bar of soap on the Internet. He printed it out and used Photoshop to take to Red Beards for the image of the body art.
Frown Pow'r has three shows coming up in the near future.
On Oct. 24, they will be playing at Lyon College in Batesville for a festival.
At Juanita's on Wednesday, Oct. 29, the band will be headlining with the Dark Knights of Camelot at 9 p.m. $5 at the door.
They will also be playing at a Halloween show on Friday, Oct. 31, for a private party in Little Rock.
Tarpley and Dunn took a road trip to Merigold, Miss., to visit Po' Monkey's Lounge. They figured going to one of the last authentic juke joints would be a lot of fun, and it was for them. They had just finished playing guitar for Tarpley's cousin's wedding the week before, which had them in a band-starting mood.
They finally get to Po' Monkeys, met Po' Monkey Himself, and after about 80 to 120 ounces of beer a piece, not to mention the mass of alcohol consumed on the four-hour trip down there, they met Will Oldham (more commonly known as Bonnie 'Prince' Billy).
He had driven in from Los Angeles, heading back to his hometown of Louisville, Kent., happened to find this little shack in the middle of a Mississippi cotton field and decided to stop in.
"It was pure serendipity - here we were, drunk as shit, hanging out with one of our songwriting idols in the last juke joint in the south," said Dunn. "It was an inspiring experience. We formed the band on the hung-over drive back to Arkansas."
At first, it was just Tarpley and Dunn. They recorded a couple of songs in a friend's garage and decided they needed more people in the band, so Dunn called up Babb and told him to bring his mandolin. Tarpley called Blake down from Little Rock and he took over drumming duties. They recorded "That's Upgradeous" and kind of blew up after that.
"That's the Frown Pow'r story from the beginning," said Dunn. "So far, so good."
"We actually do not claim Arkadelphia," said Marshall Dunn.
Marshall Dunn, senior mass media major, John Thomas Martin Babb, Henderson alumnus, JT Tarpley, and Blake Phillips, junior UAMS student, make up the band.
On their myspace, they have their band members listed as JT "Flash Gurdon" Tarpley - guitar, vocals, shoes, tambourine; "Uncle Marshall" Dunn - 12 string guitar, b-bender, banjo, tambourine; John Thomas Martin "Stankerbell" Babb - electric mandolin, cowbell, tambourine; Blake "Doc Possum" Phillips - drums, tambourine.
The band's name Frown Pow'r came from Stetson Kennedy and his frown power movement. He started the anti-racist movement where he would pointedly frown at people to end bigoted speech.
"I thought it would make a badass band name regardless of the meaning," said Dunn.
Babb recently got a tattoo that is placed on his right inner wrist that represents the band's name. The image is a frowning face that Dunn found imprinted on a bar of soap on the Internet. He printed it out and used Photoshop to take to Red Beards for the image of the body art.
Frown Pow'r has three shows coming up in the near future.
On Oct. 24, they will be playing at Lyon College in Batesville for a festival.
At Juanita's on Wednesday, Oct. 29, the band will be headlining with the Dark Knights of Camelot at 9 p.m. $5 at the door.
They will also be playing at a Halloween show on Friday, Oct. 31, for a private party in Little Rock.
Tarpley and Dunn took a road trip to Merigold, Miss., to visit Po' Monkey's Lounge. They figured going to one of the last authentic juke joints would be a lot of fun, and it was for them. They had just finished playing guitar for Tarpley's cousin's wedding the week before, which had them in a band-starting mood.
They finally get to Po' Monkeys, met Po' Monkey Himself, and after about 80 to 120 ounces of beer a piece, not to mention the mass of alcohol consumed on the four-hour trip down there, they met Will Oldham (more commonly known as Bonnie 'Prince' Billy).
He had driven in from Los Angeles, heading back to his hometown of Louisville, Kent., happened to find this little shack in the middle of a Mississippi cotton field and decided to stop in.
"It was pure serendipity - here we were, drunk as shit, hanging out with one of our songwriting idols in the last juke joint in the south," said Dunn. "It was an inspiring experience. We formed the band on the hung-over drive back to Arkansas."
At first, it was just Tarpley and Dunn. They recorded a couple of songs in a friend's garage and decided they needed more people in the band, so Dunn called up Babb and told him to bring his mandolin. Tarpley called Blake down from Little Rock and he took over drumming duties. They recorded "That's Upgradeous" and kind of blew up after that.
"That's the Frown Pow'r story from the beginning," said Dunn. "So far, so good."
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Stankerbell
posted 10/15/08 @ 3:37 PM CST
Thanks for the write-up, Amy Damron of the Henderson Oracle! We love publicity!
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