About Flagpole. (Athens, Ga.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (May 31, 2000)
Won! let me."' Not that buoys of levity donT sur face occasionally: "Jeannie's Diary," tellingly an okter song, recounts an obsessive high-school crush. The first single, "Mr. ITs Beautiful Blues " bub bles along sarcastically on a chorus cl “God damn right, it's a beautiful day." By retying more on musicians *kJ less on samples, the songs sound more sin cere, less smirky, though the band’s always been too cute on the whole. But until Mr, £ gets a little more detached from his subject matter, some of his revealed scars I jusl do not want to see, Callahan's got his own set ol prob lems. He’s the guy staring at you from a window as you walk the entire length of a sheet. He admits as much, He's forth coming about all sorts of odd behavioral pathologies, like wanting his girlfriend to flirt with attendees of his funeral ser vice, while bragging about the strange places they used to bo it {'Dress Sexy At My Funeral"), »lf-depiwation ("The Hard Road") and begging God for the plagires of Revelations lo set him free ("Permanent Smile"). ^certain literary pluck resides in Callahan^ distilled observations of the world around him, and the humor in some songs, when dissected, comes from very real descriptions of facets of humanity that aren't fumy at ail. Callahan may sometimes sing like a bi- curious accountant, but Dongs Of Sevotion, Smog’s eighth album, docu ments one strange man's devotion to all types of songs, from SafcheMawred >: white soul to tstaTHtecay blues to edgy, raT&flQtotk. : Now relocated to Chicago. Smog* decidedly lo-fi approach—as opposed to the Eel$\giossy gadgefry—has been getting filtered through Windy City post rock players and producers like John McEntire and M Parker. The gritty vignettes say a whole lot more about the human condition that the Eds' radio ready pop, both because of it. and because Smog leaves the pathos up to you. (Dreamworks: 3260 W. 3rd $L. Beverly Hills. CA 90210; Drag City: P. 0. Box 476867, Chicago, 1160647) MarkEmge LITTLE MILTON & May 6,2000 Gwgwlbeofre Well, Athens obviously doesn't give a damn about good music and missed a rare opportunity lo sec one of Ihe leg ends ol tts blues when Little Milton played to an empty hall. less than 50 warm bodies wil- nessed what was probably /he show lo see in town ifils month. Why? Whal excuse could music fans have? it seems to me that either background noise fora booze, drug or breed-test at a packed bar or lire musical flavor of ihe month are pretty much the only things thal draw a crowd in this town. Was the cover charge ($10) too much lor students? Too much? How much did they spend on those Widespread tickets? BR5-49 had 500 people al its show on the same night. Oh, I forgot that swing is hot right now. DonT get me wrong: ihe guys from BR5- 49 are swell folks. I spoke with them lor a while. They were outside the Georgia Theatre on my way out of Milton’s show and they were pissed that they had to miss him. They were hoping to al feast get lo see a song or two alter their show at the Georgia Center I caught only the final seconds of the opening act, The Split Band, but wtiat J heard sounded good and others seemed to agree. Todd & The Aft Stars, Miltonbackup band, did a couple of numbers on their own before being joined by Milled. Most of what they played was a bit contemporary tor my tastes, but good lor what il was and well performed. Mitten was one of the forces in the early Sun Studios days, working there with Ike Tomer. He’s best known for wn’ing Ihe blues standard. ‘The Blues Is Alright," as well as "Who's Cheatin' Who* and his version of Ulio Wsdie John’s "All A/ound The World" idled ‘Grits Ainl Groceries." I4e didn't hit any of the super early stuff this time around. M it didn’t matter to me, as what he did p?ay was still great. His music was mellow as hell and deep as tbs ocean. Locking out cn trie empty at one point he said, “Weil there ain't a whole lot of us tonlgfsh but yon dcnl need a lot of people !a frave lum As a matter of foci if® most fen IV& ever had. there just two * His sd deluded "A3 no Mae’s Cate* 'My Dag And Me; "Uttfe f&s&fff; "fetch You On Your Way Down," ‘Coif My € bearin' Habit," "V&fkrr Tte? Bstks’f^s And Cry?/; A Possum In My Tree' and mare. Yes, ho did "Tie Is Alright v Ha wasn't going to (must bn kind ol to pl^-y te m&tj 40 .issri) tsut someone rtte> to ihe stage and ctfife&y askdL sn ha aid it as &\ Eicon?. The man could bellow. He belted ’em out and made that guitar of his weep; he made! I pop, cry, sing, moan and howl life a dog. It just can’t be explained. II was beautiful. Why should anybody of little Milton's caliber come to (own il nobody cares? He won’t come back, and there aren’t many people who will take the risk of bringing folks tike him in. Can you blame teem? I love Alhens. t am, how ever, unhappy that very good musicians trequantly do not come here because il is a town lull of musicians that lack either knowledge or appreciation of music history, if no! both. Thank You very much to Ihe won deriul woman from Chambers Entertainment who lost a lol ol money enhancing our lives tor an evening. Jim Tucci Friday, Moy 5 MoskMidtwn, Atlanta My music mi flown adventure gol off to a late start. I wasn't able lo even get to the site unlit 9:30 p.m.. Ol course, the real show was in the crowd as il always seems lo be at these mega-concerts. The smells of sweat mixed with cigarettes, beer and greasy food were mixed by Ihe wind into a car- nivai-hke aroma. People bumped into one another. Drunks stumbled inlo teenagers who looked like they’d usually be cruising Ihe matt on a night like this. There had lo be al leas! 40,000 in thal one area. Glistening shirtless bodies (usually attached lo beer cans) were everywhere. Figuring I’d already missed Travis, I settled in for Oasis as Ihe stage lights wen! dim and Led Zeppelin’s "Your Time Is Gonna Come" blasted through the PA Al the end, widow-peaked Travis frontman, Fran Healy, fed his band through a droning, raw song that con tinually repeated "At I wanna do is rock," I was surprised by his sincere delivery of the line and happy (possibly for Ihe first time) that a band was late going on stage. The Scottish group played a 40-minule set that relied Btil-band flavor of the month Travis was scheduled lo start at 9, so I was a brt let down a! the prospect of missing them. A my two compelriots and I found a parking spot (that cost half the amount ol a ticket te the stew) and rounded Ihe corner to the enkarree, we were flum moxed by the sheer number ol bodies trying lo squeeze through the gates nearly three hours after they opened. A good 15 minutes after getting lo one side of She gate, we made it lo Ihe of tier s?de and headed straight past tend, incense and l-sbirt verniers lo tee 93X stage. As tfiu missive stage came into sight, t suddenly realized what a gor geous spring nigh! this ted turned out 10 U. 1 . ft was oaSily She su&isif right of tteyM:.}? so !#. My friends and l nobced hundreds ot porta- johns stealing i Air around ite edges of fife cpm feife and bog.vy angling for 3 spvt i view el tee stoge and the moot jc rerun test mcmioted the event. heavily on simplistic, wonderfully naive lyrics. It was what John Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band might have become tf they had m mellowed, ftemartufig on the weather, Meaty tel us spoiled Georgians know teat this was tte "most beautiful nigh I we've ever played." I guess Scolland is not tte place lor outdoor shows of this sort. Lovely songs like "Drit!wood" and “Why Does It Always RaU'i on Me’ were absorbed by an amazingly receprive crowd, considering tear most ct tf sum hart probably never heard Travis, Before ‘Turn; ihe singer gave a speech eruxiiragmg us to let down cur guards a little more ss his thick Scotesh accent tether ingratiated turn to the crowd. 'Yeah, you might get slapped.* he iXtofewledg^, "bo! you might gd kissed; A tewmmuies ttfor, they launchj>;1 info a tetetel reading ot The Band's “The Weight; Somehow, teat song sfei rescues, esT.jeci?Jly in a -3 such as this, as it gave tte tererfes a chance to sing along Travis manned to put on a kinder, gen der Anglo-rock showlhat must certainly have made them a slew of new Ians. By ihe time Ihe Gallagher brothers took the stage (Liam spitting before he even reached tee mi c), the crowd was frighteningly thick. Oasis fell into "Go Lei It Oul* wilh a bad mix and an unin spired performance. The first lew songs were slow moving and dull. By Ihe time they hit ‘Supersonic," I had relin quished my place and moved back to a cooler spot. With Ihe exception of "Acquiesce," Ihe entire first half of Ihe show was I ifel ess. "Wonderwa! I" couldn't even wake up Ihe crowd, and many people gave up to go see foreigner cn Ihe 96 Rock stage. I almost yielded lo test temptation as well, bul I was inspired by Oasis’ complacency and decided (hat slaying there was easier.. Luckily, with "Cigarettes And Alcohol; tee group started livening up. Noel was letting on to why the English consider him a rtemt-god and adding cool harmonies teat werenl on the recordings. As he led a ragged segue into a chunk ol "Whole Lotta Love," By now “Donl Look Back in Anger" was blaring from tee speakers and Noel GaJIagtrer was once again showing jusl how unnecessary his brafty little brother Is as he outsang him hands down. After "Live Forever," Liam even started com plaining and ranting about the audience not participating as much as he wanted. Then he left the stage. Noel teen stepped up and did a dead-on cover of Neil Young's "Hey Hey My My." By now, the momenls ol greateess were coming faster and more frequent ly. Nobody even noticed teal the lead singer was missing as tee songwriter-guitarist slammed into a killer version ol The Beatles' "Heifer S kef ter* replete with false endings and an extended guitar solo teat had the elder Gallagher back in Neil Young terri tory. Fittingly, it took a Beatles $over to really kick tee band and tee crowd into high gear. Now at least they were rock stars up there. Perhaps sensing the audience pre ferred Oasis without him, Liam relumed lo life slage ior ‘Rock And Roll Star." The whole group made this performance worth tee wading through a hil or miss nig):!. By tee time they finished the tune and Noe! announced ‘See ya later, y’aii; me stidi once had already begun clam or teg lor an encore, t think we ah thought teat "Crernpagrc Superrsova" was thoobvious cho>ce. The Sind never played ri. though. The lights came up and tee next day's schedule appeared cn a screen that was dwarfed by tee omi nous Georgia Power buifemg behind it, O&is put cn 3 most medroers show and :teii managed lo leave the crowd wanting more ta occasional flashes of brusance are worth w'nessmn though, and at te&l i got a couple of those from them two. British bands. Chris McKay GO TO WWW.40WATT.G0IVI FOR DETAILS AND FREE PASSES EVERY DAY! 235 W WoshmgtooSf Athens. GA< Coil 549-7871 for $how Updates Wc ser\e Righ teous J uiees WEDNESDAY. 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