Arrison Kirby and friends are Never Sorry

Revolving musical project Never Sorry brings the light show, led by Knoxville music maestro Arrison Kirby, above right.

KNOXVILLE — While in past years, Arrison Kirby has had a hand in nearly all of the bands recorded by his long-running El Deth consortium, it seems Kirby has been laying low lately. But appearances are deceiving. Though Kirby has not made many live appearances, he has been furiously recording and producing work out of El Studio. His latest projects include upcoming albums for Dier Con, Cop and Senryu, but the bulk of his attention is on the seldom seen but often streamed Never Sorry ensemble.

Never Sorry is a loosely defined conceptual act with a handful of revolving players. A core group and occasional guests attend optional weekly practices that double as rough recording sessions posted on Kirby's website (http://www.arrisonkirby.com/category/sessions). These resulting sessions are predominantly Kirby's original writings peppered with cover tunes. The frequency of these postings far outweighs that of the group's live outings, with only one August performance under its belt (before the group had selected its name). The second live performance will take place tonight.

"It's not too revolving," notes Kirby of the band's roster. "Never Sorry currently is the name applied to the conglomeration of myself, Katie Collins, Megan Driscoll, Rachel Jae and Dane Hill. At this show, we're also having Nathan Brown along to help sculpt a new song."

The rare performances allow for ample preparation. Never Sorry applies this abundant planning time to its stage presentation, which boasts theatrics Kirby will only vaguely discuss. The inaugural show's surprise antics included an appearance by Rainbow Brite, who played along, danced and scattered glitter to Never Sorry's music, which contains a blend of electronic and organic elements. The sound has been described, according to Kirby, as something between The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and Miley Cyrus.

Despite Kirby's professional studio capabilities, plans to release physical albums bearing the Never Sorry moniker are nonexistent at present. The group's indecisiveness will make it an exciting act to watch but perhaps a difficult one to follow.

"As for going forward and releases and all that, I'm not certain." Kirby admits. "We are a very loose outfit. In fact, no one is required to be at any of the sessions. Yet we all show up for this reason. It's no-frills and ultra creative. We have a few tricks up our sleeves that we intend to execute both on disc and live. However, once this show passes, I presume we will move into a nearly completely different array of material. That's kind of been the point all along, but we've stagnated on a few standards in preparation for the show.

"With the Internet and file-sharing, digital downloading is where it's at," he says. "Shows are great fun, and we put a lot of work into them, but ultimately MP3s can move a lot more quickly around the world than a live show can. If we're going to go anywhere with this project, that's going to be the outlet. And because we're not trying or needing to hustle shows like crazy, it gives us a lot more time to experiment with and tweak the material as well as the shows themselves. Because we can execute our songs in any number of versions by way of different allocations of instruments, there is a lot of room to really think about what we are doing and really stretch the way it's done."

Astro pop: Johnny Astro and the Big Bang joins The Black Cadillacs and Jonathan Sexton and the Big Love Choir for a show at The Cider House tonight. Doors open at 9 p.m., and tickets are $5 in advance or $8 at the time of the show. Those under 21 will pay an additional $3 sober surcharge.

Hyfantisy league: Saturday night, Downtown Grill and Brewery hosts Kevin Hyfantis and the Bishops Band. The show is slated for 11 p.m., and the cover is $3.

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