Photo via The Drip Edges - Facebook
The Drip Edges
The Drip Edges (2022)
He might live in Memphis, but Jeremy Scott knows Milwaukee well. He’s played in bands like the Toy Trucks, the Drip Edges, and Reigning Sound here, and he’s even visited the city when he wasn’t playing in a band to see other bands.
In July, you have two chances to watch Scott perform: at Sabbatic on Thursday July 2 with the Drip Edges and on July 26 at the Cactus Club with the Laundry Bats.
“I love Milwaukee,” Scott says. “It rivals Chicago as my favorite place to play in the States. It’s just always fun. My wife, Lauren, and I have some friends in the Milwaukee area.”
Enter the Drip Edges
The Drip Edges on this five-day tour will feature Scott on vocals and guitar, Noel Clark on guitar, Mike Michaud on bass, and Demetrius Neal on drums (sitting in for Luke Stubblefield). The band, which combines rock’n’roll, garage and power pop, evolved out of a post-Toy Trucks solo effort Scott released in 2022, Bear Grease, which he recorded with drummer Graham Burks Jr. (the original Drip Edges drummer in the revolving role).
An exceptional debut EP, Kicking the Tires on a Clown Car, featuring five originals and a cover of the Tokens’ wacky “Animal,” came out in early 2025. Scott, who is also in another Memphis band, the trio Sweat Cream Ladies, says he hopes to record more music with the Drip Edges for another EP before the end of the year. The band has its sights on a full-length album as well, Scott says.
“Yes, if it weren't for everybody's schedules, we’d have more stuff in the can already, as opposed to the approximately zero songs we have in the can now,” he says.
Scott adds, “It’s been really daunting as of late because everyone wants to record, everyone wants to play out of town.”
Reigning Sound Reissued
Reigning Sound’s revered sophomore album, Time Bomb High School, has been getting renewed attention lately after being rereleased earlier this year in a limited-edition version through Bull City Records in Durham, N.C, that is sold out and now in a standard version by Merge Records.
Scott, who was the band’s bassist on the record, was able to listen to the new mastering of the album before it was released. He says it had been many years since he had listened to the full album, and he thought it sounded good. He picked up on a few differences in the mastering and heard some mistakes on the live-in-the studio recording that included at least one or two first takes and limited overdubbing.
“It's like, yeah, I mean, shit, we were a good band, you know?” he says. “It's like you hear things and you see things. People say things about an album, and they're really big fans, and you're grateful for all of it, but sometimes it doesn't, you know, it doesn’t really get all the way up to your brain. You kind of process it, but you don't really ruminate on it too much, but when you’re confronted with a recording like that, where you feel like everything’s hitting, then you can take it to heart, maybe a little bit more.”
The original lineup of Reigning Sound did a farewell show after releasing new studio and live albums in 2021 and 2022 on Merge. However, the group did get back together for an unbilled show in Memphis in March, Scott says.
“[Lead singer] Greg (Cartwright) was concerned about people hearing about it, trying to get into the venue, which is a pretty small venue, and not being able to do that,” he says. “He didn't want people to travel into town just to be frustrated, and I understand that.”
On to Milwaukee
Scott says he’s looking forward to the Milwaukee show on Thursday and playing with Toadskin and Dr.EW and Associates, featuring Drew Fredrichsen. He’s a fan of Fredrichsen’s guitar playing in the Sugar Stems, and the New Jersey native says a longtime friend from the Garden State played on a bill with Toadskin when their band Cathedral Ceilings came to Milwaukee.
Every time he plays here, Scott says it seems like learns about a great new band or gets to play with a Wisconsin group that hasn’t yet made it to Memphis.
“There are a lot of good bands in the area that you don’t normally get to see in this part of the country,” he says. “Some fantastic bands like Dusk from Appleton and Chinese Telephones and Jinksie, and several others that are eluding me at the moment.”
The Drip Edges play at 9 p.m. Thursday, July 2 at Sabbatic,700 S. Second St. Toadskin and. Dr.EW and Associates also are performing.
