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One of Knoxville's best bands…

Back in 2008, Metro Pulse published a poll of the "Best bands in Knoxville". Koro scored a tie for all-time #26 (with the Kevin Abernathy Band). Here's what they said:

A Local Icon Returns - by Mike Gibson / Metro Pulse

Carl Snow is a portrait of studied resolution poised in front of a microphone stand next to friend and conscripted back-up singer John Tilson. With earphones clamped tight on bobbing noggins, he and Tilson are laying down vocal tracks to a song off Snow's forthcoming Useless CD on a rainy evening at Knoxville's 613 Studio.

"MMMMM-wop, wop!... MMMMM-wop, wop!...," the duo croon in something that falls just short of unison. The vocal line is a backing part on the song "One of Them," a gritty, rousing celebration of rock 'n' roll vinyl LPs, though it sounds like nothing so much as some minimalist take on a cappella doo-wop to the studio onlookers who can't hear the main track blaring in the singers' ears.

"Wait; we missed that last 'wop,'" Snow says, suddenly breaking off and signaling engineer Rick Wolfe to stop the recording. Much animated discussion of humming and wopping ensues, as the three men try to figure how to achieve a happy synchronicity of parts on the already densely arranged track.

All of the recording sessions for the album have had a similarly loose, impromptu character about them, with well-traveled local musicians and FOS (Friends of Snow) trailing in and out, contributing piecemeal parts to a record that will be the first full-fledged label release from one of the city's most accomplished guitarists.

Though mostly absent from the local music scene in recent years, Snow is a veritable Knox rock legend, a burly punk-rock madman who played in any number of notable outfits dating back to the early 1980s. His resume includes stints in Whitey, 30 Amp Fuse, Red and Screaming Boy Blue; he was also a founding member of KoRo, a short-lived but seminal 1980s hard-core outfit whose ferocious early demos are still dearly traded in underground punk-rock circles the world over. Snow is a consummate musician—a studio adept, a versatile multi-instrumentalist, a virtuosic guitar player who was at one point on the verge of attending the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston.

- Mike Gibson (excerpts, Metro Pulse, January 2003).