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Speakeasy invites you
to a closing art reception
Friday May 16, 5 - 7 pm.
ARTWORK BY ERIN MCINTOSH
Free appetizers. Cash bar
RESERVATIONS ACCEPTED
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GREGOR SAMSA
Rest
The Kora
Often a subject of much contro
versy, there is a psychoacoustic phe
nomenon known as "binaural beats' in
which two indistinguishably differing
frequencies produced in a pair of head
phones will create an apparent pulsing
at the difference of the two frequencies,
which in effect, has been purported to
increase communication between the
two hemispheres ot the brain.
Whether or not the benefits of brain
entrainment hold true to their claims,
one can almost feel the alpha and
beta brainwaves being traced by the
contours of the music upon listening
to Gregor Samsa's Rest. An album ot
painstaking subtlety. Rest demands a
solitary listen in headphones, as its
lush sound Is the direct result of its.
brilliant exploration ot the stereo field.
Though the album's soft-spoken
lyrics occasionally detract from the
sheer elegance of the music, its crown
ing achievement rests in its use of tone
color Through unique timbral associa
tions. the album's trembling pianos,
gamelan-style percussion, wine glass
like synths and tremelo-processed
vocals blend into an indistinguishable
mass of sound.
"Abutting, Dismantling" relies
upon the static repetition ot a C-minor
chord against a rotating patchwork
of murmuring woodwinds, cellos
and vibraphones before fading into
“Company"—a short, ambient work
shrouded in Sigur Ros-sized reverb.
It's not until "Jeroen Van Aken" that
the album breaks from its trance-like
stupor, with its abrupt realization—"It
seems that death has got a grip on me"
Ryan Monahan
/
NO AGE
Nouns
Sub Pop
The album's called Nouns, but
there are also plenty ot atfirmative
adjectives to describe the lirst lull-
length from Los Angeles noise/punk
duo No Age. Goigeous Fun Intriguing.
There's also awesome, because this
band has yet to misstep. After releasing
a collection of vinyl singles last year
on Fat Cat Records, Weirdo Rippers.
Sub Pop came calling, and No Age was
picked up lor its first cohesive album.
And a great one it is.
Both genres, noise and punk,
tend to scare off a lot of listeners and
bring to mind assaultive, punishing
feedback and guitars, respectively,
but No Age never gets harsh. Guitarist
Randy Randall keeps his distortion
on the sot! side, sounding closer to
California pop-punk than any British
glue-snifters, while both he and drum
mer/vocalist Dean Spunt fiddle with
samplers to produce gauzy, lilting
sounds that might recall listening to
the movement of the interstate on a
clear summer night.
A lot of hoo-ha gets made about
No Age's do-it-yourself ethics, artistic
ambitions and connections to art
scenes. When not bashing out two-
chord. unpretentious punk, Spunt and
Randall trade off on ethereal interludes
that often bring the punk crashing back
in explosive drum kicks.' Keechie" is
an instrumental lolky track eeking out
ot an AM radio before segueing into
the slashing "Sleeper Hold."
Nouns is a short listen at 30
minutes, but the duo plays like a ninja
squad In. Rock. Out Crammed into
your subconscious before you realize
what's happened. Despite the genres
No Age operates in. Nouns is a peace
ful. engaging listen. Meant lor the
summer; ready to be soaked in and
valued.
Scott Reid
LOXSLY
Flashlights
Independent Release
The do-it-yourself indie-rock band
from Austin. TX. Loxsly sounds like
emo's more optimistic little brother,
except in this case, the band took the
extra step of digging through its elder
brother's closet, ripping out a page
from his 1974 Nautical Almanac, and
defiling the margins with a hand-writ
ten note in order to promote the new
EP. Flashlights, to the Flagpole. On the
Beaufort Scale of 0-12.1 woutd rate the
album's calm and collected atmosphere
around a 4 (11-16 knots), for a moder
ate breeze...
Loxsly's four-song EP is a tightly
produced and concise effort, and it
evokes a similar mood to the quirky
power-pop style that The Bens (Folds,
Lee and Kweller all-star collaboration)
delivered on their aptly titled four-
song EP The Bens. However, Loxsly’s
driving mid-tempo rock is tinged
with a slightly more haunting charm
reminiscent of My Morning Jackel
and The Flaming Lips. Occasionally,
bittersweet synth-arpeggios resound
like an abandoned Apple IIGS crying
out from the ocean floor to a world
that has turned its back on its inferior
computational abilities; otnerwise, it's a
guiltless listen
Now. perhaps I'm taking this too
tar, but the arrangement to Loxsly's
“Virgin Isles" sounds strikingly similar
to the Beach Boys’ “That's Not Me" (Pel
Sounds), and I'm trying to figure out if
there's some abstract connection to the
seahorse on the album cover, but I've
become distracted by all these nostal
gic sailboat photographs...
Ryan Monahan
DRAKKAR SAUNA
Wars and Tornadoes: Drakkar
Sauna Faithfully Sing Songs
of The Louvin Brothers
Marriage
Lawrence. KS duo Wallace
Cochran and Jeff Stoltz look like a
couple of hipster goofballs. complete
with ironic facial hair and thrift-store
clothing Their inability to behave seri
ously in an interview or when providing
information about themselves (“When
Jett Stoltz was young he hunted boar
in Pretoria ’) only reinforces this
impression.
But this album is sincere and won
derful. or at least comparably sincere
and wonderful to The Louvin Brothers'
own renditions of these old-timey
close-harmony tunes. There is much
about death and faith and marriage
in the lyrics, which come out ol a
dyed-in-the-wool Southern evangelical
tradition, but the brothers mixed a little
Smothers in with their Stanley, which
may have been what intrigued the mod
ern alt-country dudes.
Cochran and Stoltz can't quite
match Ira and Charlie in vocal awe
someness, but the album is simply
recorded in a way that calls the origi
nals to mind much more than the pris
tine tones of many a revivalist effort
Presumably. Drakkar Sauna loves The
Louvin Brothers a lot, which results
in the album feeling like a particularly
successful encounter with a ouddy who
wants to spin all his new audio finds
for you. It doesn't say anything about
their ability as songwriters, but it testi
fies nicely to their musical talents and
enthusiasm.
Hiilary Brown
NEIL HAMBURGER
Sings Country Winners
Drag City
Depending on where you stand
on the in-joke that is Neil Hamburger,
Sings Country Winners qualifies as
either the funniest bad album of the
year or the most excruciating listen that
the uninitiated will have to endure.
In the tradition of Tony Clifton.
Andy Kaufman's lounge lizard persona.
Hamburger is not a stereotypical come
dian The timing is off. the jokes are
often cringe-inducing With that being
said. Hamburger can be pretty tunny
once listeners get past his intentionally
negative qualities.
On Sings Country Winners.
Hamburger stammers and pauses
awkwardly through 10 rather convinc
ingly authentic sounding country
songs While some songs are side
splittingly hilarious diatribes by
Hamburger, others are unfunny
(“Jugtown"). even it you get the joke.
But the songs are wonderfully
played by Prairie Prince (of The Tubes).
Atom Ellis (of Dieselhead) and Rachel
Haden (formerly of That Dog), who
ali do a great job ot making the music
as authentic to the classic Country &
Western sound as possible.
Sings Country Winners may nei
ther be a laugh riot nor will it help to
break Hamburger into the mainstream,
but it is a rather tun little album that is
good tor a listen every once in a while
Jason Bugg
RDBuTOUE
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GHOSTLAND
OBSERVATORY
Robotigue Majestique
Trashy Moped Recordings
Aiming to create dancefloor
anthems, the Austin. TX band
Ghostland Observatory takes a mini
malist approach to a maximalist sound,
that of throbbing, mid- 90s electromca.
club-ready and bridging the gap
between icy technology and grimy
human bodies.
Aaron Behrens specializes in a
hyper-emphatic, round-voweled-yet-
breathy sort of delivery that's not too far
otf from Freddie Mercury, and for those
who'd prefer a more elemental experi
ence with electronic dance music, well,
his vocals only pop up on about half
the tunes as it is.
From the plinky. rubbery synth
intro on “The Band Marches On" to
the more churning bassiines of the
instrumental track "Holy Ghost White
Noise," there's nothing particularly new
that Robotigue Majestique otters up
But news not the point with an album
like Robotique Majestique. it aims to
incite giddy dancing, and its incessant
rock-influenced Euro-dance tunes pro
vide that very opportunity, regardless
ot whetner that's already been done
recently (Head Automatica) or near-
perfectly (Daft Punk)
In fact, the album's biggest
drawback is that it is an album,
and inherently lacks the visual
stimulus associated with Ghostland
Observatory's captivatingly showy live
performances—Behrens often gets
soaked with sweat as he prances about
the stage in ridiculous costumes, while
Thomas Turner does the same in front
of a laptop, clad in a cape
Robolique Majestique suggests
strongly at that visceral experience,
though it never quite captures it (the
frenetic, yowly, Kathleen Hanna-
conjuring "HFM" comes pretty damn
close, however)
So Derivative 7 Yes But tun 7 Also,
yes
Chris Hassiotis
Ghostland Observatory is playing
in Atlanta at Centennial Olympic Park
on Saturday. May 17.
28 FLAGPOLE.COM ■ MAY 14, 2008
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