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MUSIC NEWS AND GOSSIP
Welcome back to the T&P corral Everyone is welcome here and
everything around here is just a-okay. This week's assignments can
be found below...
You Thought It Was All Over. Okay, last chance. Flagpole has
extended the deadline for voting in the 2005 Flagpole Athens
Music Awards, so this *5 your last chance for reals. Get us your
paper ballots (see p. 14) or just vote online at www.flagpole.com by
Friday, June 3. ;Quc wive demoaacia!
Nothing But Trubble: New-ish Athens band Trubblegum is keeping
extremely busy on the live circuit which is probably due to guitarist-
vocalist Tim Conley (ex-Furzy Sprouts, Aqualove, Abbey Road Live!)
and his ye^rs of experience dedicated to booking his bands nearly
everywhere. The group also includes Michelle Hutchings on key
board, guitar and vocals and Rick Williams (Park Bench Trio) on
drums and vocals. The band, musically speaking, can sound like
someone tacked the vocals from any Bryan Ferry record onto a
straight up rock song, and alternately, like a child lost inside a huge
Hello Kitty factory. It's goofy stuff. Sometimes the humor works.
Rock City Dropouts, The Cogbums, The Moto Lite's, The Bloejays,
Hi-Test The HungweU and Edgewood. That's a pretty full plate of
rock and roll there, but the major concern for Athens music fans
should be the performance of a band that used to call our town
home and who you would have never imagined in a place like
Underground Atlanta: Nashville Pussy. Th* band is still rocking as
hard and as fast as it ever has and while it still has yet to return to
Athens, the trip to Atlanta isn't too far to give the band tribute. The
event takes place Saturday, June 18 from 12 noon to 12 midnight
A Helping Hand: AthFest is still looking for volunteers in nearly
every capacity, so please, think of the kids and considet helping
out See www.athfest.com or email volunteering@atlrfestcom.
It's Like a Band's Funeral Kinda: Chuck Bradbum, Don Chambers,
Jim Wilson and Jason Korn chum it out one more time as Pig Iron
calls it quits, performing its last show on Friday, June 3 at the
Caledonia Lounge. See more info in the ABC section on p. 19.
Brevity is the Essence of Wit: Nocturne For A Dying Planet one of
Athens' most creative new bands, has announced that it just fin- §
ished work on a new 7* record. The single, containing two pieces £>
tiled "Bacchus* and "Kulscop," will be released by Shapleigh, ME, g
label Tsunami Records (not to be confused with the UK label of the <=■
same name) which has also released records by the Nocturne-related
and dearly-departed local band Divorce and also the late, great This
Scares Me. Nocturne For A Dying Planet creates genuinely com
pelling soundscapes of noise arid environmental sounds that gener
ally find their way to longer recorded formats such as the compact
disc. It will be interesting to see how the members handle the
process given the relatively small canvas of the 7" record. The
expected release will be mid-July to mid-August For more informa
tion. please see www.tsuthrash.com.
The Walls Will Melt Athens band Music Hates You enters the studio
in the next few weeks to lay down some tracks with Andy Baker.
For the uninitiated, let me just say this: Music Hates You is brutal.
These guys are seriously one of the heaviest bands to ever call our
town home. They perform a devastating blend of metal and hardcore
that reveals not only a pretty thorough knowledge of each, but a
passion for both. If you wanna try me on this one, catch the band's
next show at Tasty World on Friday, June 3 at the Community Chaos
reunion show.
Sustained: Over Memorial Day
weekend, Athens' Shiitake
Knights performed at a barbeque
in the backyard of James Hugh
Potts II. Who? Perhaps the phrase
"rock-and-roll lawyer" means something to you? Potts, an Atlanta
trial lawyer, has endeared himself to many in Athens thanks to his
easygoing visage, flowing mane and enigmatic omnipresence on a
Broad Street billboard near Vision Video. Brown Frown even wrote a
song about him. Former Murder Beach and current Shiitake Knights
member Sean Sawyer works in Potts' office, explaining the unlikely
gig. Swing it over to www.jhpii.com to get the goods.
Roadwork: It's summer, so a bunch of local musicians have busted
out the road maps and cracked open the phrase books. Erstwhile
local rockers Paricer & Lily have been in Spain for the past several
weeks and performed the Primavera Festival in Barcelona in late
May. The festival featured acts like Iggy & the Stooges, Sonic Youth,
Steve Earle, Tortoise and Gang of Four; Vic Chesnutt also performed
at the festival Parker & Lily's heartwrenchingly anesthetic tunes will
find their way onto a new album tentatively titled The Last Wonder
of the World. It'll be the band's fourth full-length recording and is
due out this falL Catch the band at the 40 Watt on Saturday, June 4
sharing a bill with My Homing Jacket and Doug GlUard.
< As Is The Style: Vic Chesnutfs been making his way around the
Old Country; in the past month he's performed shows in France,
England, Belgium, Spain, Austria and the Netherlands, and this
weekend he wraps his European tour up in Germany. The wry Athens
songwriter has drummer/ wife Tina Chesnutt and bassist/ niece Liz
Durrett in tow, and Durrett's been opening tne shows. Though
Chesnutt has no performances scheduled upon return, swing by the
EARL in Atlanta on Saturday, June 11 to ask Durrett how the trip
went* that night she's performing with Phosphorescent
Do You Got the Hookup?: Hey, if you've got connections in the
Midwest Hope For Agoldensummer wants to hear from you. The
band's seeking help setting up shows in Des Moines, Minneapolis, St
Paul and Chicago. "If you know someone who knows someone who
has a friend in any of these towns," says the band, "we'd love to hear
from you. We're not above begging or sexual favors at this point so
any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated." Yeah? Please
contact Claire Campbell at agoldensummef@yahoo.com.
So that's it for this week. Keep your news coming in and I'll be
sure to get to it Always mention either my name or Threats &
Promises in the subject line of all emails. I still haven't found what
I'm looking for via email to music@flagpole.com, voicemail at 549-
9523, ext 203; or by post at P.O. Box 1027, Athens, GA 30603
Ham 1
sometimes it doesn't It may well turn out to be your thing. The
band has launched a new website (www.trubblegum.com) and
can find MP3s and nearly nothing else there. You can see the band
live on Thursday, June 2, at the Roadhouse and on Saturday, June
25 during their AthFest performance at The Georgia Theatre.
A Short Take: The self-titled debut album by Ham 1, which you
should be able to find in local stores, is an understated pop gem.
Songwriter Jim Willingham has been very productive while flying
Summer Is the Perfect Time: Local dude-
about-town Lucas Jensen (Venice Is Sinking)
has used the name Big Gray for several years
now as the vehicle for the songs he's been
writing, but not giving to the bands he's
been in. Recently, a backline of musicians
who have dubbed themselves the Jones
County Boys has been playing with him. The band debuted two
weeks back at a Boulevard-area house show but promises 'gigs
aplenty" (ha-ring already performed at the 40 Watt as of this
writing) until member Nate DcYonker (ex-Reading) leaves town in
July. The piano/ keyboard-based tunes that Jensen oerforms are
fleshed out live by Julie Dytes (Murder Beach), Courtnte
Wolfgang (ex-Bella Coola), the aforementioned DeYonker and
Daniel Lawson (Venice Is Sinking). While Jensen will surely con
tinue his songwriting after this current b'neup is no longer, you
would do well to get your pop fix via this intelligent crafty bunch
before it goes away.
below the radar a little bit The band recently played at the
Caledonia Lounge, but WilUngham had to cancel what would have
been the CD release show at Ricker, as collaborator/ roommate Bo
Tompkins passed away last week. Hopefully more shows will appear.
We Haven't Seen their Kind In A While: The first Atlanta Hot Rod
Fast will take place at Underground Atlanta's Alley Cat dub. Yes, it
will be an actual automobile show, with prizes for "Best Rat Rod,"
"Best Muscle Car (1964-1972)' and "Best Vintage Rod (Before
1964),' but since I don't know a damn thing about cars. I'm gonna
focus on the music Featured performers are Artemis PyUArlm,
It's Like a Band's Birthday, Kinda:
Joe Rowe (theoretically a
drummer for the Glands, but that
band doesn't play, doesn't tour,
doesn't release long-completed
albums, so...) has put together a
new band that'll debut at Tasty
World on Thursday, June 2. The
Ice Caps is Rowe on bass and
vocals, Jonathan Lueke (Polemic)
on guitar and vocals and Toby
Broadie on drums. "It is a little
bit punk rock, a little bit pop lock
and a little bit dance rock, while
all the time being on the fringe."
says Rowe. "We rip off the Fall on
one song. One song is somewhat
inspired by Interpol Jonathan
used to be in a band called
Ampathy, and we are playing a
couple of his songs." Polemic and
Mauser share the bill
Video Killed: Wanna see the Drive-By Truckers on television
(again)? The band was interviewed for American Revolutions:
Southern Rock, a documentary which also features some live footage
of the band off its recent DVD. The station's description of the doc
is promising: "As a young white South looked to redefine its identity
after the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, Southern rock gave a
voice (and driving backbeat) to that struggle in the 1970s—and
had a pretty damn good time doing it." Focusing on bands like the
Allman Brothers Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Wet Willie and more, the film
airs Saturday, June 4 at 8 p.m. on CMT.
Money, Maybe?: Independent media manufacturer Disc Makers is
sponsoring the Independent Music World Series, a Southeastern
music showcase series. The winner is
"crowned" at Atlanta's Hard Rock Cafi on g
Thursday, Aug. 18; the show will feature the %
top six unsigned acts, as selected by Billboard $
Magazine. The competition is open to all
Southeastern musicians not currently signed ^
to a major record label (and to all styles and
genres of music). Each artist who submits an
entry will receive a free copy of Billboard's
Musician’s Guide to Touring and Promotion and
Electronic Musician magazine, and tl>e S35,000
grand prize package features "everything inde
pendent musicians need for a career boost,"
including massive amounts of gear, studio
time, etc. Career-minded musicians, hop to it
Visit www.discmakers.com/imws to register
and get more information. Submissions must
be postmarked by Friday, June 10.
JUNE 1, 2005 • FLAGPOLE.COM 29
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