PROFILES

Brad Postlethwaite

His music: Native Memphian Brad Postlethwaite, 29, formed Snowglobe while living in Athens, Ga., taking inspiration from the city’s then-vibrant psychedelic pop/avant garde rock scene. The band took fuller form when he returned home, collaborating with fellow Memphian Tim Regan to write complex, pop-rock tone poems, often filled with Brian Wilson-esque harmonics, punkish riffs and lyrical twists. The band’s earliest albums include Our Land Brains from 2002 and Doing the Distance from 2004.


In $5 Cover: Postlethwaite plays a part-time helper to a studio engineer as he moves through medical school. Featured songs: “Nothing I Can Do,” “Ms. June.”


In $5 Cover Amplified: Moments of insight break through the sleep-deprived haze of Postlethwaite’s second year in medical school, as he balances the responsibilities of his chosen profession, the needs of his new wife Adriann, and the near-constant urge to create.


On Memphis music: “Memphis seems to have more of a raw sort of soul to it, and people here are doing this for a different reason. In Memphis, people are more honest in their music.”


Latest news: Snowglobe is releasing a new EP, No Need to Light a Night Light on a Night Like Tonight, in May. A full-length release is planned for winter, and the band aspires to begin touring in January 2010. Learn more at myspace.com/snowglobe.


—John Hubbell


Snowglobe's website



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$5 Cover Amplified Summary:

Intimate, thoughtful, always entertaining and often formally daring, the 12 documentaries that comprise the anthology "$5 Cover Amplified" reveal a modern Memphis music scene that is as creative, passionate and vibrant as in the city's commercial heyday, when Elvis, Isaac Hayes and Al Green demonstrated that visionary art and popular culture could be inseparable as the 'A' and 'B' sides of a vinyl record.

Produced as a complement to Craig Brewer's episodic MTV drama series/ new media experiment, "$5 Cover," the "Amplified" series of documentary portraits chronicles the rousing art, uncertain careers and sometimes problematic home lives of a diverse, distinctive and often eccentric group of Memphis music-makers.

Mesmerizing Valerie June croons confessional lyrics from beneath a Medusan tangle of dreadlocks that's as thick as her family ties and her musical roots. The puckish Tommy Chong-meets-Pippi Longstocking "clown prince of rap," Muck Sticky, proves to be as dedicated to the welfare of his mother and sister as to his own pursuit of happiness. Punk rock pioneer Jack Oblivian, who plays to sell-out nightclub crowds in Europe, makes ends meet in Memphis by cleaning houses. "Crunk" hip-hop artist Al Kapone is shown to be a tough but loving father, bringing new urgency to the concept of rapper as "role model." Troubadour of heartbreak Harlan T. Bobo is portrayed impressionistically, through stop-motion animation, allegorical fantasy and other conceits.

Whatever the focus or style, the direction of Alan Spearman, an award-winning photographer/filmmaker with The Commercial Appeal, ensures that each segment is as visually assured as it is musically irresistible. "$5 Cover Amplified" was co-produced by Spearman, Andria Lisle and John Hubbell, and edited by Eileen Meyer; their familiarity with the Memphis "scene" ensures unprecedented authenticity as well as access.

John Beifuss- The Commercial Appeal