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FRIDAY
NOVEMBER 17
doors open at 10:30pm * six dollars adv
SATURDAY. NOVEMBER 18
AN EVENING WITH
MEMPH S
RHyTHM
BAND
doors open at 8pm * twenty dollars adv
SATURDAY. NOVEMBER 25
71 BEYOND
TOMORROW
doors open at 9prn ^ five dollars adv
^omingTsoon
11/28 23JINX / CRUMBLING ARCHES
11/29 ECHO VALVE / SOUNDS OF SILENCE /
NOVAKAYNE / ANY GIVEN MOMENT
11/30 PHOSPHORESCENT / JEFF FALLIS / .
GOOD SHIP / TITANS OF FILTH
All Shows and up
Advance fix Available at School Kids Records
Advance Tix Sold at http://www.40Watt.com
EXCLUSIVE lUJtVIEL
III mi.
PBR 24nz C/\l\l
WALCOTT
Swallow the Ghost EP
Independent Release
Local band Walcott wears its influ
ences. mainly early- 90s hippie rock
and 1970s keyboard-driven R&B, the
way a ghost wears a sheet once re
moved, there's nothing there More and
more records like this are being pro
duced here in Athens and this trend is
becoming increasingly disheartening
Swallow the Ghost is among the most
soulless and generic releases from any
Athens band this year
Beginning with the rhythm-and-
blues driven 'Song For The Quitters/
the band moves from an irritating guitar
intro into a pretentious vocal melody
that apes no one so much as the late
Shannon Hoon ot Blind Melon, another
dude famous tor stealing stances laid
Me Down* is barely even a song, even
though it runs more than four min
utes, but it is a killer pastiche of trite,
lossed-oft ideas.
The EP's title track is a veritable
rogues gallery of lyrical shame, with
lines such as 'The roach can stand fall,
but dead bugs don I crawl* and "Seems
like yesterday we dreamed of tomor
row * Walcott must realty want the
listener to absorb this stuff, too, as the
music accompanying the track sounds
like an Elton John piano melody satu
rated with Robitussin
• At what point does a band decide
that it s desirable to sound this empty’
Swallow the Ghost bears absolutely no
sign ol anything beating below the sur
face With the current state of technol
ogy being such that anyone can make
music and promote it worldwide via the
Internet. Swallow the Ghosl is the best
argument this week tor the master tak
ing his tools back
Gordon Lamb
Walcott is playing at ihe Georgia
Theatre on Wednesday Nov 15
MUSTAFA
Athganistan mix-CD
Independent Release
A mix-CD written on with a Sharpie
and accompanied by a folded piece
of 8 5 x 11 paper is no! a promising
thing, despite the clever title But there
is always room in life for pleasant sur
prises. and Mustafa is a genuinely tal
ented emcee on the Athens scene Born
Willie Wester (or maybe Willie Lynch,
depending on whether you believe the
lyrics on Ihe record or the information
included with it) in North Carolina,
moving to Athens m middle school
and fresh out ol Ihe Clarke County jail.
Mustafa has an ear for choosing good
beats (and credits the origin of each
backing track, unlike most mixes) and
a nice, bouncy delivery that slips easily
between drawl and paifer. in rhythms
clearly representative of our region's
speech patterns
Athganistan also manages to keep
it under an hour, with subjects, pacing
and lyrics varied enough to preclude
boredom, even after multiple listens.
While the CD includes a fair amount
about drugs, guns and bitches, there's
also a track ('Domestic Violence')
that begins with a couple of minutes
of conversation about how Mustafa
“IgoesJ there with solutions* and feels
hip hop needs to change or die. then
progresses to a story about an unwise
marriage It provokes interesting sym
pathies without being preachy Local
emcees Tommy' Valentine ("the Irish
Cosa Nostra') and tshues contribute
excellent guest appearances on 'Da
Session.* which uses Ashanti to great
effect Even the obligatory 'don't give
a tuck* song, here titled ‘Ion t Give a
Fuc,* turns out well, riding a Jamaican
vibe that somehow manages not to ir
ritate with its apathy
Other highlights include "My
Momma,* a paean to strong matri
archs; 'Momma Cita.' which addresses
issues ol illegal immigration through
having the hots tor Latin ladies, the
last track. *Jon Da Baptist.* and the
opener "Welcome,* which sets the tone
with energy and serves as a kind of
rundown ol the appeal ol the Classic
City, albeit in terms too vulgar tor the
Visitors Center to use for promo pur
poses A more official studio album is
in the works, and Ihe talent evident on
Athganistan bodes well for Mustafa vs
the State, expected early next year
Athganistan isn I available in
stores, but Mustafa's selling them him
self. give him a call at 706-300-9469
to hack down a copy
Hillary Brown
THE BLOdD BROTHERS
Young Machetes
V2
They clumsily lip iheir hand right
off the bat, screaming a cappeiia 'FIRE!
FIRE! FIRE 1 * Yes. there is no question;
The Blood Brothers have been listen
ing to MIA and. for that matter. Nina
Simone And U.e Lemper So if you
are talking about the Btood Brothers
in a fashioncore context, you need to
stop, because things like the receipts
lor their jeans and the way they cut
their hair are. in fact, red herrings. The
Blood Brothers are interesting because
they are one of the biggest punk bands
maybe ever to take a real, tangible
influence from music made by women
Sure, a few jean-jacket dilettantes with
dog-e3red copies ol Please Kill Me
will swear up and down about Patti
Smith, but Young Machetes wears
its femininity on its sleeve, however
stylishly tom Besides, androgyny has
been a hallmark of rock and roll since
the Beatles, so it you're still bitching
about how these dudes ‘sing like girls.*
please stand further away from me, be
cause I do not want to get spinkicked.
Thank you.
For the uninitiated; The Blood
Brothers are a live-piece from Seattle
fronted by singers Johnny Whitney (the
incredibly sassy one) and Jordan Blilie
(the lower-voiced, olt-typo'd one), and
their call-and-response histrionics
are typically shrieked at top volume,
but the pair are very fond nowadays ol
busting out some sweet sweet soul All
the white, the remaining trio pulses and
spasms with a sound very much borne
of the Three One G/ Gravity Records
rosters of the mid-to-late '90s, which is
to say angular guitars dry humping on
top ot a furiously busy rhythm section.
Time signatures, volumes, tempos and
moods are never static here
A lot ol folks, it seems, are waiting
for the Blood Brothers to *go away.*
Unfairly judged by the company they
keep—such as skim-milk emo super-
star act The Used, etc —the skinny
quintet has managed to outlive its own
hype, and has iearned to balance the
subtle with the salient along the way.
Perhaos most interestingly of all. it has
managed to unintentionally expose the
rampant message-boaru homophobia
and misogyny that bubbles under in
hardcore scenes worldwide Who knew
a few dudes who 'sing like girls’ could
cause so much controversy in 2006?
Jett Tobias
The Blood 3roine r s are playing at
Ihe Masquerade in Atlanta on Thursday.
Nov 15
JOANNA NEWSOM
Ys
Drag City
A lot ol people reacted with enthu
siasm upon hearing Joanna Newsom's
sophomore album would consist ol five
songs, but run 55 minutes I. however,
have a thing for short and pop. not
expansive and iammy The news of
Steve Albim's involvement could have
been good or bad. that of Van Dyke
Parks' role was mostly weird The cover
art was almost wolf-in-the-moonlighf-
T-shirt bad What to think when it was
almost sure to be a disappointment af
ter 20041s The Milk-Eyed Mender, that
initial firework of skewed beauty’
E M W Titlyard. in his marvel
ous liny book The EH&bethan World
Picture, describes the difference
between angels and men like this: men
have reason, and that's what distin
guishes them from animals, but angels
have a kind of innate understanding,
3nd they don't need to think things
through Jo know truths That distinc
tion is very much in play when I call
Newsom's Ysan angelic album it takes
almost unimaginable (lights and leaps,
like some kind ol diunken interstellar
bird, many of which are transporting^
delightful, as when Newsom's voice
reaches up into a literal squeak, a
sound that you would think no human
could make and one that passes so
quickly you need to scroll back and
listen to it again and again to grasp
what s going on
But that same very inhuman quality
that fascinates makes the album occa
sionally unrelatabte How do you wrap
your head around a song like *Onfy
Skin,* which is nearly 17 minutes long
and absolutely crammed with words’
You need time to have some hope of
doing so. and lots ol it Luckily, com
prehension isn't necessary The pure
aesthetic experience provides enough
motivation to buy the thing and spin
il plenty, as in the part ol "Only Skin*
about 13-and-a-half minutes in where
the vocals ol Smog's Bill Callahan
come in to supply bass, winding and
slipping against Newsom's in a way
both ethereal and sexy as the tempo
speeds up throughout
Ys might exist in another sphere
from our terrestrial one. but so do the
things glimpsed through the Hubble
Telescope, and we re better for knowing
both, even with our tmy. leason-driven
minds.
Hillary Brown
Joanna Newsom is playing at
the Variety Playhouse in Atlanta on
Sunday. Ncv 19
SOUTHERN BITCH
Strong Medicine
Captiva
From the start. Southern Bitch has
been about playing loud Southern rock
in the tradition ot the great arena rock
bands of the'70s Though the local
band's first record or two had more
country in it than the Bitch carries
today, the band still stays pretty much
true to that sentiment The Bitch isn't
going to convert you if you re not into
that sort ol thing, but it you are. it's go
ing to rock your socks off
The new album Strong Medicine is
about exactly that, it s an entire record
about rock and roll and the entire life
style that surrounds:!. (I haven! asked
the band, so I’m not sure if "concept
record* applies here, hut that's what
th* content centers around) Far from
being a celebration ot excess and
gaudiness that are often portrayed as
its hallmarks, this album centers on
the struggles, toys, hopes and dream:
of a young band on the road. Tve had
my mind made up since I picked up my
lust guitar,' Adam Musick sings early
on That sets the tone for the ups and
downs ol the rest of Strong Medicine.
which is a constant barrage ol Southern
rock rifts and rhythms for its duration
The musicianship is top-notch
here. Southern Bitch has always played
as it the band were in a sold-out sta
dium, whether playing in the studio, to
50 people or a packed house Particular
standouts on this album include ‘On
A Roll.* *My Time* and "Fire Road
90.* in which Adam Musick sings.
’Everything's new when you're 17!* US
probably the best summation of Strong
Medicine available. After a few spins,
the album feels as idealistic as taking
30 FLAGPOLE.COM • NOVEMBER 15,2006
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