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APPLES IN STEREO
New Magnetic Wonder
Yep Roc
I've never been the biggest Apples
In Stereo fan During the heyday ol
the Elephant 6 collective, Neutral
Milk Hotel fed the world with its gritty
surrealism and The Olivia Tremor
Control delivered with its expansive
homemade psychedelia Conversely.
The Apples In Stereo always seemed,
and not without evidence, a study in
pop bookmarks. That is. the songs
sounded good because they sounded
like so much else; they sounded
familiar.
Ne* Magnetic Wonder is a 24-
song album It arrived in my hand
completely without context I have no
idea where or when it was recorded
nor can I even reveal the names of the
songs. I cannot describe the cover art
Musically speaking, it's very much
what I expected from this band It's not
horrible; nor. however, is it revelatory
or immediately obvious as necessary
Recorded without a trace of space
between the instruments, certain songs
are wonderful. Track 13. for example,
is a four-chord blend of instruments
that are entirely complementary and a
touching lyric (‘Simple lives we once
left behind / we're so distracted now’)
and a chorus that is sing-a-long magic.
Track 5 is a good blend of a jumpy
keyboard melody with, honestly, a
disco-guitar lead in the chorus.
It might sound irritating to some,
but I've got a soft spot for both Todd
Rundgren and Chic, so it’s fine with me.
If anything, this album shows The
Apples making a near-complete break
from 1960s pop and embracing, yes.
the 1970s rock forms of E.L 0., Styx.
Supertramp and Ambrosia Schneider
uses the vocoder ana/ or talk box (or
their digital equivalents) all over this
album Well, so did Peter Frampton.
But now. I guess I'm pushing the point.
New Magnetic Wondens very
long Many of the songs could have
been half their length Many of the.
interludes between songs could have
been jettisoned Again, though. I have
only the recording itself as a guide
Perhaps the liner notes hold some key
to which I am not privy Then, again,
with only the music here to justify itself
there is nowhere for it to hide
I really like The Apples In Stereo as
a live band I've got an entire collection
of records that have Robert Schneider s
production credit on them; I have mad
respect for him as a studio artisan But
New Magnetic Wonder has roughly the
same effect on me as the Apples' Fun
Trick Noisemaker did 11 years ago—I
listen to it and almost forget it's on
before it's over
Gordon Lamb
VARIOUS ARTISTS
Deeded to Itself:
Athens Southernoise
Thor’s Rubber Hammer
Perhaps taking his cues from
acclaimed regionally-themed noise
music compilations like RRR's
California \riQ\e-lP, dearly departed
Athenian Lars GOtrich (a former WUOG
Local Music Director and a creative
musician who seldom records or
performs) has released this limited-
edition (aren't they all?) CD-R to
spotlight one of the least-savory, least-
documented crannies of the Classic
City's music scene: experimental artists
not affiliated with Elephant Six.
Tasty jams abound, the most
notable among them being Garbage
Island's “Heart Skins.’ In its first
minutes, the song emanates a spooky
vibe, bells clattering alongside bracing
feedback and a molten core of sludge,
and the track then climaxes with a
wrenching psychedelic blues tug-of-
war Less pulverizing is ‘Stormdrum.’
an atavistic wash of churning, gurgling
tones from Killick. AKA mutant-
instrument player Erik Hinds
Younger acts also make impressive
displays Orthopedics (We Versus
the Shark guitarist and contributing
Flagpole writer Jeff Tobias) unleashes
a blistering red-level onslaught of
overdriven something-or-other (guitar'?’
samples of defenseless woodland
creatures in a blender?) that's over
before you know it. Chartreuse (Drew
Smith of Gasmask & Matchsticks)
imbues a charcoal-hued ambient
guitar drone with the epic thrust of a
video game RGP overture Telenovela
departs from its usual soft-rock moves
and matches Basho-on-cough-s/rup
acoustic guitar strums to pastoral
flute parries and whirring electronics
redolent of a souped-up lawnmower
Altruizine's contribution, a barrage of
squiggly synths. upper-register sax
trills and sundry knocks and screeches,
is one of the comp's less immediately
gratifying moments, but the cut reaches
some inspired and impassioned peaks
Two miscreants from Snellville's
Black Noise label also appear. Better
People shove us into an echo chamber
of psychotropic amplifier belches
and disembodied voices with a
transcendent track called ’Death and
Grieving.’ The usually excellent Sailor
Winters, however, phones it in with
a study in distorted high frequencies
and spoken word that sounds, at best,
half-finished.
If any of these songs sound
pretentious or obnoxiously obfuscated
to you. then lend an ear to Long
Legged Woman's cheekily titled
’It's the End of the World (And We
Don’t Know It).’ The clean guitar is
downright pretty, and the echoed-
into-oblivion vocals evoke Boredoms'
exuberant sun-worship. Euphoric and
unabashedly hedonistic, the song
celebrates lose-yourself indulgence,
championing obliteration of the ego
as a means of spiraling into elevated
states of consciousness Call this
music wanky. off-putting or perverse,
but also recognize each song as a
force thal subsumes its performer's
individual voice with an annihilating
field of jammed signals—noise—and
discovers liberation in this blood
sacrifice With over-earnest, self-
mythologizing singer-songwriters and
ego-tripping, consumptive rappers
failing us right and left, maybe it's time
to get with the T-abolishmg program
in whose favor these nine artists rally
Phillip Buchan
Gasmask & Matchsticks and Long
Legged Woman are both playing at the
Caledonia Lounge on Thursday. Feb 8
THE HEART ATTACKS
Hellhound and Heartless
Hellcat
Filthy, loud, cocky and ridiculous
are all words that could easily describe
The Heart Attacks, or the band's first
album. Hellhound and Heartless At
the start of the first track, "You Oughtta
Know by Now,' a wave of old-school
70s punk and fist-in-your muthaf’ing-
face rock and roll floods the room,
punches you in the neck, and then
acts like it's your fault. Nevertheless,
being that Lars Frederiksen (Rancid.
Bastards) produced the album, it's no
small wonder. What unfolds from this
disc is one of the most genuine and
adept exhibitions of a group inspired
by bands like The Stooges, The Dead
Boys, and true '50s rock, that has
ever existed in the Dirty South. Title
track "Hellbound and Heartless’ is a
rollercoaster of sound, speeding up and
slowing down over a chorus of chaotic
‘ahs.’ and sounding more like the
New York Dolls than any ‘post-punk’-
intluenced band from the last 10 years
And as if stepping into some tiber-
sweet time machine, as a bonus. Joan
Jett's timeless voice moans out feigned
interest to our new heroes in the track
’Tearstained Letters ’ This album was
meant for all those who miss the scene
and vibe this CD imbues And maybe
for those who don't mind a barroom
brawl every now and then
Charley Lee
The Heart Attacks are playing at
the Star Bar in Atlanta on Saturday
Feb 10.
NIOBE
White Hats
Tomlab
Yvonne Cornelius has a name
to make her a star Her project Niobe
gives a wonderful reason to believe
her voice could as well White Hats
is a genre-masher, to be sure, and
ultimately its failings can lay their
blame at this doorstep If there's a
dominant feel to the album, the fourth
under the Niobe moniker, it’s breezy
bossa nova, but the tracks skip from
dank dungeons to the club to the
beaches of Brazil
One truly sparkling gift Cornelius
possesses is her ability to create a
particular ambience using her voice
She's truly inventive when it comes to
her vocals, whether processed or just
recorded in a certain way ’Well and
Wise’ is thus the highlight of White
Hats. Cornelius doubles her vocal track
then runs the double through bizarre
filtering, rendering the combination
slightly mechanical Otherwise the
song would be a pseudo-gospel yawn
And again, therein lies the
problem. I spent so much time
admiring the quality of Cornelius'
techniques that once the record was
over, it faded like a dream I couldn't
remember if I actually, yknow, enjoy*d
it. And the second time through was
the same: interesting, certainly, but
vacucus White Hatd actual songs
themselves don't linger, no matter how
well-crafted and sparkling
Michael Wehunt
GIDDY MOTORS
Do Easy
Fat Cat
When I first heard Giddy Motors'
Make It Pop in 2002, it made me realize
how much I missed Jesus Lizard Not
just David Yows howling mess of a
band, but the entire early- 90s Touch
& Go scene Shellac. Arcwelder. et al
were collectively a blip in post-hardcore
history that is mostly hidden in a dusty
corner now London act Giddy Motors
obviously misses those days, too Make
It Pop was a visceral debut that was
soon overwhelmed by critics' use of
the word visceral The band's particular
nostalgia was pureed with free-jazz and
the urgent violence of grind metal It
was a complicated soup, and easy to
choke on. but it was deliciously filling
Now Giddy Motors has returned
with Do Easy, and the essential
difference in the recipe these days
is a single cup of straightforward
accessibility. (That is, relative to
the debut disc.) The violence is still
in place, from the opening bars of
’Sick' through the closing insanity
that is “Dot Dot Dot.* an eerie/ pretty
soundscape punctuated by shrieking
shards of noise
But while Make It Pop crammed
dozens of ideas into every track,
aiming to shock and awe with complex
breaks and polyrhythms, each part of
Do Easy—which barely tops half an
hour—is tailor-made and shrewdly
focused. Make It Pop was a surprising,
banging success, but it's this honed-
down version of Giddy Motors that's
most satisfying
Michael Wehunt
6 POOL TABLES LIVE MUSIC
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THURS.FEB. B
Another Fiasco
TOES, FEB. 20
Alex Orange
THE GEORGIA^*
WED, FEB 7th
JASON “LEFTY
WILLIAMS
159 W. CLAYTON ST
706-546-9884
wwwjnercuryathervs.com
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