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ANITA'S IN COMER, AND
THEY'RE DOING GREAT
Victoria Davton, a professor of philosophy at UGA, to lend her con
siderable musical abilities to their project and she added her congas,
violin and mandolin to Norton’s and Blaichak’s guitars, keyboards
and voices. The just-released “The Queen’s Havin’ Fun" cassette
(available at BigShot, Turtle’s and Frontier in Athens and Rowers
More in Winterville) was recorded with that line-up, but Davion
has since returned full- ome to academia, and the band is a duo again
The band recorded the eight tunes that are on their tape ar Full
Moon Studios with Bruce Neese producing and Rick Fowler (Ray-
ground, Lonely White Boys) engmeenng. Fowler is one ot the guest
musicians (bass, eleeme guitar) sitting in for some of the upcoming
shows in Athens and Adanta. Playground’s Eddie Gliken will be on
congas. Both will be onstage for the June 1st show at the 40Watt.
“No more labels and no more boxes," declares Norton. She wants
the band’s current and future audiences to know that their live shows
will be more inclusive of their range and mix of genres
“We’ll soil be playing a bunch of acoustic stuff, but we’ve been
adding some alternative rock and country flavored songs that we’ve
been working on."
It’s these songs that have made them the opening band for such
like-minded artists as Cracker, Peter Case and Joyce Jacque
Well, maybe one label: label Where’s Anita 7 “Must See."
Betsy Weioman
Where’s Anita. ? will be ploying after Marlee Macleod and before dis
appear fear at the 40 Watt Wednesday, June I.
Catch Michael in the Athens Arcade
The Athens Arcade Ion Washington Street next to Jittery Joe's and down
the block from the 40 Watt) has been holding impromptu shows here and
there Mostly, ifs a thance for very young bands, unknown folks and some
known to play in front of an all-ages group — a thing that began with
Frijoleros. opened up Peppinos, and now the Arcode offers music lovers of
all ages another chance and place to catch up and coming bands
One of these bands, Atlanta's Michael will perform at the Arcode Satur
day, June 4 The band combines alternative ambient rock with a folk-rock
base, strong vocals and interesting hooks in their music They ore influenced
by the likes of Smashing Pumpkins, Sugar and U2, which is evident on their
four-song cassette demo
The band Is made up of David Fairbaim (Id voc/gtr), Robert Sieppy (drums)
and John Nowidd (bass/voc) Members were once in Athens band Idle Green
Hillary Meister
One of the last places you might expect to find an opera-trained
coal miner’s daughter from Northeast Pennsylvania would be out in
Comer, Georgia. But that’s exaedy where Anita is right now (rela
tively speaking).
Anita Blaschak is loading the band's equipment into her shiny
red car, while Debbie Norton is wrangling the band’s traveling com
panion, a Yorkie named Roadie, into the dog’s carrier. On this night,
the band, a tnmmed-down duo, is opening for the Vigilantes of Love
at (one of) VOLs CD release celebrations. It’s a good match-up.
“Music can communicate things that need to be said from the
spiritual world to this world that you can’t feel any other way."
It could easily be Bill Mallonee speaking, but this time, it’s Debbie
Norton, founder and songwriter of Where’s Anita?. Norton de
parted San Antonio, Texas 17 yean ago, ended up in Athens, and
has been performing her original songs around town ever since.
She was a well-known solo player when, in 1989, she hooked up
with Blaschak and a handful of other musicians to have a try at the
full-band experience. That band, Problem Child, evolved -(de-
evolved?) into the trio DN A and about two yean ago Where’s Anita 7
popped up in its place. Blaschak and Norton had convinced Dr.
COMMON THREAD
Traveling Tollbooth Troubadors
If the Jacksonville music scene were your
local high school, Common Thread would
be the brainy class president and the eccen
trically beautiful prom queen all rolled up
into one. Lyrics worth listening to are
blended with layer upon layer of groovy mu
sical effects, giving their songs a “Hey-I-
know-this" quality but with an edge of dis
concerting unfamiliarity.
Common Thread is made up of Travis
Taylor, Joe Parker, Joey Zimmerman and
Craig Parlet Taking the best bits of Joy Di
vision, Echo and the Bunnymen, Sonic
Youth and the Seeds as their own, this four-
member group of twentysomethings have
been playing together now for around five
years.
From New York’s Knitting Factory and
Brownies to The Asylum in Washington, D.
C, these guys have had more than their share
of anecdote-filled road trips around the
Southeast. One fun-filled evening of bad
booking had the Thread’s multi-layered
sounds of psychedelia opening for not one,
but two, thrash metal bands.
“It was really awful," relates Travis. “They
didn’t even clap for us or anything; they just
stared at us like we were stupid.”
That’s more generosity than the band re
ceived from a certain tollbooth operator as
they exited the New Jersey Turnpike, penni
less. After several hours of fast talking with
a credit card, a kind-hearted gas station at
tendant finally got the boys some cash and
they were on their way to another venue-
from-he 11.
“We just stay to ourselves on the road a
lot,* Travis says. “Sometimes we’re sou able
If we run into someone cool, that’s a plus,
but we don’t expect anything. We always
expect the worst; that way if something good
happens it’s cool. We’re from out-of-town,
so no one knows to come out and see us.
They’ve never heard of us. We end up open
ing for bands
who are just
as unknown
as we are
because it’s
so competi
tive to get
shows Everywhere we play, we get shit on.
‘Hey, they’re from Ronda; let’s shit on ’em.’"
As far as the music goes, “We’re too far
beyond pop into the noise realm, but we’re
not too far into the noise realm. We’re not
totally noise, so people who like Sonic Youth
will dig us because we still have that pop el
ement But we’re not pop enough so people
are going to love us on the radio, so we’re
kind of just stuck in the middle of hell.*
Allison Norwood
Let's pve this rnore-than-harduvrkmi band
a taste of our Athens Southern hospitality ufien
they pby Frijdews June 3.
<J5>
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28S W Washington St «
Athens. CA ; -i
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