Upstart Memphis record label Electric Room Productions bursts onto the scene May 25th with the release of their first full-length album, Lucky Peso, by Souvenir Satellite - brainchild of Texas-born and Memphis-based visual artist Meikle Gardner, a stalwart of the regional art scene. For years his paintings have earned him critical acclaim and attention in Memphis press and beyond. With Lucky Peso, Gardner creates art with a different set of tools, and a wider set of collaborators.

Lucky Peso is called forth from the ether with the wailing call of sea beasts as the lead track Weathered breathes to life. This odd song, like much of this organic recording, gasps and strives for some hopeful ideal while it finds its sad way to the end, amid Earthy flutes and cold, crisp beats. The third track, Thorn, is just as much a contradiction of dark and light, of hope and failure. Bright and real acoustic guitars shine beside a stream of clear fluid piano, but are harshly oppressed by robot drum tattoos and open-wound lyrics.

Woven throughout this exhibit of abstract songs are wonderful musical snapshots, like Freedom’s Blues (all Texas and Tennessee, all dust and sun) and the weird Scottish space aliens from Circus Dirge. They sound like anthropology for the ears and suit the other material well. It makes for a very hallucinatory experience, like a good Pink Floyd record, a wash of sounds and textures. Expertly produced and orchestrated by Jeremy Shrader, it is a collection of songs very much worth a slow and patient savoring.

A couple of songs stand out as true pop gems. Shadow Song is a sassy, sexy burst of lusting and intimacy with some potent electric guitar which infuses much of the album with its distinct beauty-in-chaos sound. This Circle is a mini movie, demonstrated by the sound of a clicking projector that runs as the song begins. Like a good 60’s-70’s album, these two tracks are only kept from pop radio by their mind-expanding length and operatic scope. Perhaps not as hilariously full of pomp and strut as Bohemian Rhapsody, the songs of Lucky Peso definitely reward a willing listener.

Electric Room
P.O. Box 22127
Memphis, TN 38122

www.electricroomonline.com
Matt Timberlake, Media Relations

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Yes, Souvenir Satellite is a recording entity, but it isn’t a band as much as a vehicle by which visual artist Miekle Gardner delivers his musical works to the public. Not a trained musician, Gardner composes his passionate, optimistic songs by ear on his collection of oddly tuned acoustic guitars. Surrounding himself with good collaborators, he workshops the songs in the studio and shapes them into modern psychedelia with a strong influence from the UK drug and dance scene. Elements of James, the Verve, the Cure, Luna and Air are partnered with an older Richie Valens or Paul Simon vibe. It’s a grown-up sound that’s easy to enjoy passively as a sweet atmospheric accompaniment, or scrutinize beneath high-dollar headphones.

Born in Texas in 1969, Gardner has had a successful career as a visual artist there, in Memphis, Tennessee, and in New York City. He’s taught high school and college art classes, and exhibited his work in the U.S., and in South America and Europe. His musical resumé includes stints in Texas psych-rockers Tele, which produced a couple of records in the 1990’s, and Souvenir Satellite, which released its second album, Lucky Peso, in 2006.