Newspaper Page Text
the Headlin
The Best of the Rest: Flagpoles Hsfo) M AthFest Live Music Picks
FRIDAY, JUNE 25
‘Powers
40 Watt Club, 10 p.m.
The guitar/music enthusiast cannot miss
this shred fest in live quadraphonic sound.
Four guitarists (members of Cinemechanica.
We Versus the Shark, Lazer/Wulf and Coulier),
each assume the res'ionsibility of transmitting
the sonic character of a heading on Metal's
razor-edged compass and accordingly locate
their power stations in corresponding comers
of the room, leaving you, the rest of your
pals, and billions of electrified atoms collid
ing somewhere slightly askew of center m a
cocoon of electric ecstasy that won’t quit until
the spirit of Metal has spoken its mischievous
message and those *24 angry wires* and mas
sive drum bursts are silent again. [Tony Floyd)
Amelia Winger-
Bearskin
The RaJto Room. 10 p.m.
Performance artist Winger-Bearskin
has formal training in opera, dance,
sculpture and theater and received her
MFA degree in the unfamiliar category of
Transmedia, which is art based on time
(passage, effects, etc). Although known
for her video work (the reputation of
which has taken her around the wortd
for performances), it is unknown exactly
what she has planned for her AthFest
performance, but the word on the street
is that she requested time to distribute
100 flashlights to the audience. Winger-
Bearskin is an assistant professor of
Video and Performance Art at Vanderbilt
University. [Gordon lamb)
Justin Evans and the
Chinatown Diaries
Little Kings Shuffle Club, 10 p.m.
If you're in the mood for heartfelt country
music on Friday, littLe Kings should be your
destination. Justin Evans and company will
be taking to the stage with a mix of twang,
a hint of jazz and a whole lot of heartache.
Evans has been working recently as part of
Adam Klein's Cowboy Angel collective, partner
ing with Klein and others for recent shows.
"Adam and I are working on a fall tour called
Cowboy Angel Rides," says Evans, "where we
plan on hitting the road as two songwrit
ers hoping to make it to the West Coast and
back." Those tucky enough to catch the guys
in action will be treated to a night of laid-
back tunes about life and all the bumps and
bruises that come with living on the road.
[Jordan Stepp]
and keyboards in The Tenant alongside Brad
Register, ex-frontman for Summerbirds in the
Cellar, and both are former Georgia residents.
Truly immersive live, Bananafish's rustic and
noble sound is a huge under-the-radar gem
that could soon have much broader regional
impact. [Bao le-Huu]
Flash To Bang Time
Qn6.11 p.m.
Take one part experimentation, two parts
pop. add in some Athens musk veterans, and
spice it up with a little fon craziness and
you've got Flash to Bang Time. The new wave
rock band specializes in creating interesting
soundscapes with unexpected melodies and
interesting rhythms. Fans of Flash to Bang
Time won't have to wait much longer for the
band to finally put out a release. The band
has a seven-inch coming out on Happy Happy
featured on NPR's "All Songs Considered.*
[Tony Floyd)
Bambara
40 Watt Club. 11 p.m.
The boys in Bambara have been very busy
this year, collecting some media love and
playing blistering shows in support of their
new album, Dog Eored Days. A sinister trio
of psychedelk, shoegazing power-players,
Bambara's live shows just keep getting bet-.
ter and better. Brookshire and the brothers
Bateh have come into their own with Dog
Eared Days, a fierce and unrelenting attack of
rapid-fire drums, haunting vocals, distorted
guitar and ear-bursting bass. And they're
giving it away for fiee. Score! But this is far
from the end of evolution for the band, says
bassist William Brookshire. "Blaze [Bateh]
and I are always getting more and more in
unaffected, unpretty singing in the spirit
of Daniel Johnston, Grindstaff extols the
debauched revelry that his band's heavy metal
moniker suggests. His lyrics are deliberately
secular—he has described them as "inspira
tional hymns"—and indeed, the Titans' musk
sounds something akin to a down home country
jamboree on the Devil's front porch; a group of
ne'er-do-wells having a damn fine time drown
ing out that noisy choir of angels next door, or
at least keeping them up late Saturday nights.
If you're smart youll let them keep you up
late Friday, too. [David Fitzgerald]
Night Moves Gold
Caledonia Lounge. Midnight
The artists formerly known as Night Moves
have faded into the dawn, but Night Moves
Gold is forever. "We added the GolcT so people
wouldn't get the impression they were going
to see a Bob Seger cover band," says
Ryan 8ergeron of the Atlanta-based
smoove rockers. To them, the Ramblin'
Gamblin' Man bore no great importance,
nor was the Gene Hackman noir a source
of inspiration. "The Bee Gees and Hall
and Oates, they're the portraits that we
hang in the practke space to try to look
up to and collect their vibes and inspi
ration.* The band features more than a
few members of transnational kraut-bros
Je Suis France, so you wouldn't be off
the mark to pick up a trace of parody in
Night Moves Gold's blue-eyed R&8 slink,
but there's plenty of honest homage
present as well. Songs such as "Personal
Hypnotist" and "Make Vacation" forecast
a Fender Rhodes-powered quiet storm
moving into the Caledonia Lounge. [Jeff
Tobias]
Engineering
Bananafish
Fly© Bar, 10 p.m.
Named after a deliciously wicked J.D.
Salinger short story, this rising Ortando band
crafts symphonic folk that's in line with pre
mier acts like Fleet Foxes and Le Loup. Though
it's a young outfit its background is rich
with the essence of Orlando indie-rock roy
alty; bandleader Travis Reed also plays guitar
Birthday to Me near the end of June featuring
a song that bleeds in from side one to side
two. "I believe the last time I notked a song
continuing on side two was a James Brown
single from 73...,' says drummer Charles
Greenleaf. "A lot of hands were in the record
ing process of the tracks as they spanned over
several months and formats." The result is
pure Flash: creative, innovative, hum-worthy
and ultimately cool. [Jordan Stepp]
Hope For
Agoldensummer
Flcker Theatre, Midnight
Vocal harmonies, acoustk instrumentation,
slow melodies and sparse percussion lend this
folk act a tinge of the San Francisco-in-the-
'60s vibe, but many years of Southern dust and
the accumulated nagging feeling that those
"free-love" experiments of yore only made
men lazier add a deeply sincere gravity to
these Athenian vokes—something the flower
children of Haight-Ashbury couldn't have
known yet This effectively lands Hope for
Agoldensummer's songbook closer to a hymnal
than a protest pamphlet The band is currently
working on its fourth album and was recently
sync with each other, rhythmically," he says.
"Our songwriting is going in a really cool
direction right now. Reid [Bateh] has added
another amp to his set up. and that opens all
kinds of new layers and textures." If there's
one thing Bambara is good at it's textures. A
live show will throw you from the darkest pits
of the human mind to the highest points of
psychedetic bliss. Get ready to have your mind
blown. [Jordan Stepp]
Titans Of Filth
Cin6, Midnight
The creative vehicle for lead singer/
songwriter Sam Grindstaff, Titans of Filth
has counted a cavalcade of Athens' best and
brightest indie musicians among its ranks over
the years, and that seme of community—of
inside jokes between friends and whispered
secrets between intimates—translates to its
decidedly local sound. With a quivering violin
here and a legato trumpet there, the band
takes some cues from Neutral Milk Hotel and
various other Elephant 6 incarnations, but
Grindstaff shrinkwraps his off-kilter tales of
youthful experience down to one-minute-
and-change indie-folk anecdotes as quick
and eye-opening as a shot of bourbon. With
Go Bar, Midnight
Destiny, plain and simple: the
magnetizing trio Donovan Babb, Zach
Hinkle and Matt Sapp were just meant
to play together, and no amount of distance
between them could keep the band apart Not
for long, anyway. Athenians might remember
when Engineering first broke onto the scene
about five years ago, with its post-punk dance
rock. The band's shows were pure, unadulter
ated fun, echoing the trend of Gang of Four-
inspired acts who were packing the dancefloor
at the time (The Strokes, Franz Ferdinand,
Radio 4, etc.). And then, just as soon as you
could buy an Engineering t-shirt the group
parted ways, with Hinkle and Sapp moving up
to New York to pursue other endeavors. But
luckily for us, the Georgia boys were all back
in town over the holidays and decided to jam
just for the heck of it Babb says the magk
came back instantly. "We were like, why did we
ever stop? This is awesome!" he exclaims. And
just like that a publk reunion was planned.
Babb says the band is even making plans for
a new release this year, but with two-thirds of
the group remaining out of town, live shows
wilt remain a rare treat. [MkheUe Gilzenrat]
Lona
Caledonia Lounge. 1 am.
If you haven't heard of Lona—or specifi
cally, Clay teverett—you probably aren't that
16 aAGPOLE.COM JUNE 23,2010
%