Newspaper Page Text
A Mini-Festival Of Sorts, The
Brings Five Local Bands
Georgia Theatre
To Its Stage(s)
A handful of local bands playing one venue? That's
any given night at any given club. But five local
acts, all with new recordings in the works or with
new albums ready to go, at one of the largest venues in town
and split over two stages? That's something a little out of the
ordinary—which is exactly what show organizer Jimmy Hughes,
who promotes touring bands under the Fat Man Touring banner,
wanted.
"It's weird how nicely it came together. The booking folks at
the Georgia Theatre actually asked me to do it," says Hughes,
whose band Folklore is one of the performing acts. "I had con
tacted them inquiring about opening gigs at the Theatre for
some of the Fat Man Touring roster and they very enthusiasti
cally suggested that we do a Fat Man showcase instead, offered
a weekend date, making the whole thing all the more enticing,
and a show was born.
"At first I had some reservations because that room is so
big that it's pretty intimidating," says Hughes, "but I told
them that if I could do five to seven solid bands and a some
what eclectic bill, then I would be into it. Then I started talk
ing to the bands I wanted to play and everyone seemed into it
for the most part."
Though the Georgia Theatre still primarily features higher-
profile touring acts and local bands more geared towards the
partying college crowd, the venue has opened its doors to
bands generallJPssociated with the West Washington Street
scene more and more over the past year.
For tonight's buck-per-band show, Hughes & Co. are set
ting up a second stage inside the Theatre to reduce downtime
between bands and keep the show moving, taking inspiration
from Mercer West's recent free shows at the 40 Watt Club with
a similar setup. "We will start on time and we will be trying to
keep to a strict schedule," emphasizes Hughes.
Chris Hassiotis
Venice is Sinking
Main Stage (10 p.m.)
For a band whose music is as understated and mellow
as that of Venice is Sinking, there was a period of time
when the group was omnipresent on the scene, play- •
ing shows in town every week or two. That hasn't been
the case since at least mid-2006, though the band still
struggles publicly against the we'll-catch-'em-next-week
apathy of local show-goers.
The time off from Athens stages has been well spent,
with the group at work on its sophomore album, Azar.
"We should be mixing by March and finished with the
album in April " says vocalist-guitarist Daniel Lawson.
"We still haven't found a label for this one, though, so
it may be a little while before it actually gets released."
Venice is Sinking has been working new songs into its sets
for a while, layering new sounds atop the band's signature
viola sweep. Accordingly, a trumpet and sax player join ir.
tonighOeremy Wheatley (The Low Lows, 3e Suis France)
pinch-hits on drums, as Lucas Jensen is out of town.
Quiet Hooves
Side Stage (10:30 p.m.)
Folklore
Side Stage (11:30 p.m.)
Childlike in both enthusiasm and aesthetic, Quiet
Hooves has been a mainstay at the Secret Squirrel DIY
venue since the band's inception. The group, fronted
by co-songwriting brothers Patrick and Julian Bozeman,
features a number of compositions played on toy instru
ments, and tonight celebrates the release of its first full-
length recording: No More o' Mine. The album's woozy pop
gems are significantly less abrasive and meandering than
the band's loose live shows; still, "what we have here is
little regard to perfectionism of form or performance,"
says drummer Mercer West.
"A good bit of the songs were recorded while they
were still supple little skeletons. I don't want to get too
chatty about it, but we are very excited with the way the
record has turned out."
The band is planning to head out on tour Texaswards
in March, hitting up the South by Southwest festival and
then later touring with Dark Meat.
2007 was a great year for Athens' Madeline Adams.
She released the quiet, intimate album The Slow Bang
in the early months, and then pulled a near-180 by put
ting together a massive band for a show to celebrate its
release.
Tonight that same band, a hearty conglomeration
of local talent that pulls from bands like Don Chambers
+ GOAT, Elf Power,
a fuller and a
next several months .iSfoPl
include holing up and * y
she's also hitting the | T 1
band Nana Grizol
with which she plays |
L
Show promoter Jimmy Hughes' band Folklore also has
a new release that should be available tonight the album
Carpenter's Falls. Folklore, the pop
music of which veers towards lo-fi
storytelling and takes unexpected
narrative turns, released an EP by
the same name in early 2007, and
followed that with the album The
Ghost of H.W. Beaverman. For the
new recording, Hughes says he
revisited some of the older tunes,
tweaking what needed work. "I was
working on some other songs that
seemed to work alongside those
songs," says Hughes, "so I got the
band to start cracking away at the recordings, and, in the
end, we had 12 songs... so the EP was now an LP."
In late February, Folklore heads out-og.the road for a
ir up to Omit and then around the Midwest for a week
or two before ^reading back to Athens in March. Shortly
jreafter, Hughes hits the road again as guitarist for Elf
wer. which is planning an early-summer tour in support
:oming album.
Dark Meat
Main Stage (midnight)
Athenians into the local music scene know the drill:
talk to anyone in another city about our town's musical
output, and one of the first questions that'll inevitably
surface is "So who's the next big band out of Athens?"
Dark Meat makes a strong argument to answer that ques
tion, and though the band's oyer-the-top live perfor
mances (costumes, streamers,
more than a dozen members
and a whole lot of jazz-influ
enced noise rock) have turned
off a number of show-goers,
there are just as many beyond
our borders picking up on
what Dark Meat is doing.
Vice Records, for instance,
the taste-making offshoot
of Vice magazine (an equally
loved/ loathed publication
that eagerly celebrates hedonism, nihilism and sincere
partying in an oddly detached way) has tuned into the
band. This year, Dark Meat will release its new album
on Vice and see its debut album, Universal Indians, re-
released on vinyl. Pairing up with Vice should also get
the band a lot of attention at South By Southwest in
March—word is Dark Meat already has at least one show a
day, if not more, scheduled during the festival.
WHO: Dark Meat Folklore, Madeline, Quiet Hooves,
Venice is Sinking
WHERE: Georgia Theatre
WHEN: Saturday, January 19
HOW MUCH: $5
V /
26 FLAGPOLE.COM JANUARY 16,2008 NEWS & FEATURES I CALENDAR I MOVIES I A&E I MUSIC I COMICS & ADVICE I CLASSIFIEDS