Secret Service - Always Says She Wanted

About a week and a half ago I was invited to come down to Young Avenue Sound to be part of the audience for a new monthly event sponsored by 93X called Locals Only Sessions. Local bands play accoustic for a select audience and the songs are recorded and played back the following week on 93X's Locals Only show. I wrote about this in my Commercial Appeal column On the Record last week - but now I have the pictures to go along with the story:

Last Friday, rock station 93X reintroduced their Locals Only Sessions, a private concert series that started in April with Augustine, but got pushed back a couple of weeks due to all the activity surrounding Memphis in May.

Described as a cross between MTV Unplugged and VH1's Behind the Music, Sessions lets fans meet and interact with their favorite local bands. Listeners can call in and win tickets to attend the sessions.

Last week's guest artists were The Secret Service's Justice Naczycz and Steve Selvidge playing a hilarious fake acoustic set with toy amps recorded before an audience of other local musicians and scenesters at Young Avenue Sound. The session will be played back one night next week on 93X during the Locals Only show at 9 p.m. It's a must-hear.









Here's Mark Jordan's review of their new record from the Commercial Appeal:

Filling a void left by the sorely missed Subteens, Secret Service is the reigning local purveyor of mindless, adrenalized, you-know-what to the wall rock and roll. Fronted by the potent singer/guitarist tandem of Justice Naczycz, who, oddly enough, started his music career as something of a folkie, and Steve Selvidge, the band's performances are tributes to '70s boogie rockers like Grand Funk Railroad, B.T.O., and the Stooges, with the two performers stripping down to their waists to flex their musical, theatrical and literal muscles.

On its debut disc, released on the Selvidge family imprint, the group recognizes that half the show is on the stage, so it concentrates its energies on economical renditions of its repertoire of originals -- 13 songs, most clocking in under three minutes -- and a pair of covers, including Stooge Fred "Sonic" Smith's "City Slang."

The project proves an excellent vehicle for Naczycz's outsized vocals, something of an annoyance when he was a solo acoustic performer, and especially for the six-string heroics of Selvidge, the former Big Ass Truck guitarist who was weaned on Jimmy Page and Eddie Van Halen and has finally found a place to let his inner rock god shine.

Not to be dismissed, however, are the contributions of bassist Mark Stuart and drummer John Argroves, veterans of many bands (the Glass, the Lights) who are vying with "Bubba" John Bonds and Terence Bishop for the title of best (and most ubiquitous) rhythm section on the local club scene.

I beleive the recording from Sessions will be played back one night this week on 93X at 9PM.





More Pics From Sessions

January show photos at The Hitone

April show photos at The Hitone

Secret Service Myspace Page