Newspaper Page Text
Page 12
Flagpole Magazine
October 16, 1991
What Jeff Heard, What Jeff Saw...
Well, the Tampa festival is officially on
the schedule now at the Downstairs —
that’s three (count 'em) three great bands to
you and me. Speaking of coming from out of
town, I hear that Rebecca Tex did in fact
make it to Austin and a coffee-shop(???)
conversation with DJ Dana Barnes recently.
Meanwhile, 28 Days is still recording at
Mark Smith’s new24-track studio. And Lenny
just finished mixing their tape down last
weekend. But Bob is getting edgier! Though
Refuse Factory is reforming. Not only that,
but Tori Pater’s making the jump from solo
artist to frontman after wowing them at
Lowery's the other Friday with two addi
tional guitarists and a drummer (no offense,
but some of these guys used to be Simple
tons) on pretty much a week’s unexpected
notice and the strength of spontaneity
coming together just so under exactly the
right circumstances. At the same time,
acoustic cowgirl par excellence Jennifer
Camp has been jamming with some friends
lately in sessions that just might gel into a
band soon, too. And what the hell ever
happened to George Vest, anyway: The
mild-mannered balladeer and former Athe
nian who at one point was going to engineer
a tape for Jennifer? Fie moved to Atlanta a
while back to concentrate on amateur film
and pro video.
“We’re gom’ in."
— Vic Chesnutt quips deadpan under
his breath while descending into the depths
of the infamous Cafe Underground with wife
and friends ...
(THAT ONE SMALL
DEVIL 'GAINST ALL OF HELL.)
Welcome back, boys and girls, to more
whirlwind detritus of legal advice, carrot
cake recipes, industrial classifieds, last
week’s bridge scores, somebody else’s
horoscopes, used
auto parts, sweet
nothings at your left
earlobe, missed
extra points, stained
and numbered
napkins, forgotten
introductions in
passing, crossed
wires tagged and
frayed, the blind
side of an elephant,
dream flashes
sparked by conver
sation about some
thing you’renotcon-
centrating on very
well; fish; Xs, Os,
dots, dashes, tri
angles, squares, and statistically-probable
runs of suspiciously new-age-looking sets
of three wavy lines.
Oh, well.
So how 'bout them there Braves...?
Looks like the Indians are threatening to
retake the land for the first time since — oh,
I don't know; since, say...before baseball
was discovered, maybe, possibly?
The Dogs seem to be doing okay for
themselves, as well (like the local mer
chants who cashed in BIG on the Clemson
crowd; the IHOP staff, for example, was
balls-to-the-wall with a line outside the door
from half past midnight to thirty minutes shy
of six in the morning): And you can bet your
last cold beer that all that sports excitement's
bound to keep spill
ing over into the
clubs and giving the
bands a charge
along with a few new
patrons. Don't be
lieve me 9 Just go to
the GA Bar on Mo
town Night some
time, and you’ll see
what I mean—that's
as good a litmus test
as any But ..hen's
Motown Night, you
may inquire? If so,
well, then rest as
sured: Unless a
friend grabs you by
the arm first and cor
rals you inside, you’re sure to hear it through
the grapevine.
You may have noticed that there’s a
groundswell of sorts starting in underground
film locally, also. Enterprising camera hound
Lance Bangs is at the forefront of this phe
nomenon as head of Flicker Film, of course,
and Californian Sharon Fitzgerald seems
bound to open the way between Athens,
Atlanta, and her home state in that regard
since her recent visit to this area. Now
apparently a major film festival along these
lines is slated to happen in June of '92. The
likes of Jims — Herbert and McKay will be
involved, and you can expect Lance and
Sharon to show up, too, naturally, I’m sure
I know I’ll be there.
I’m sure glad I was around for a recent
show at the Downstairs, by the way.
When I first heard Alex Marquez’s tape,
I liked his style a lot (as you may recall) and
thought he was a good musician; but I
wasn’t especially set on fire by the material.
Well, there were only two songs on the
cassette; and now I know that Steve
Crawford was right when he told me a few
months ago that I should go see Alex play
Because, yes, he is an exciting performer,
and overall, his material is more interesting
than the demo might seem to suggest
When you see him live, it quickly becomes
clearer that this guy is doing vital 50’s-style
stuff with a stepped-up contemporary kick
Nice.
Marquez opened for Bob at the Down
stairs recently; and let me tell you: Bob is
getting nervy, live-wire tight; tense, intense,
intensely good....!
Jeff Payne
PS. — NEXT WEEK: Grammatically -
correct rappers: the English teacher grades
the chemistry prof's papers — "all the ele
ments are there, but you need to work on
your metaphors' — and something you've
been trying hard to remember, off and on.
for eleven years.
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