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IAN DARKEN
MUSIC NEWS AND GOSSIP
Well, our mayoral race may have come
down to a run-off, but there's nothing like
that in the Athens music scene. People vote
pretty clearly in that every day. I'm not even
sure what the prize is, but this week's candi
dates are below...
Give It Away Now: Steve LaBate (ex-Paste
magazine, 40 Nights of Rock & Roll) is curating
the soundtrack for a new, low-budget indepen
dent film. As per usual with this sort of thing,
there is "no music budget for the film but a
chance for good exposure and back-end cash
on a digitally released soundtrack." The film,
directed by Atlanta filmmaker Savvy Lorestani
(My Sixteenth Summer) is the first to be spon
sored by the Atlanta-based filmmakers support
group Will Film for Food. It's a coming-of-age
story titled Quarternfe Ben, revolving around
a slacker who falls for an older woman. If
you're interested in submitting something,
drop a line to stevelabate@gmail.com or send
a physical CD to Steve LaBate, 1074 Colquitt
Ave., Atlanta, GA, 30307. For more info,
please see www.willfilmforfood.com.
Y Local Is as Local Does: WUOG 90.5 FM
will host its first WUOG Festival this week.
Running Thursday, Nov. 11-Saturday, Nov. 13,
the three-night event will feature approxi
mately 12 bands performing at Farm 255,
Venice Is Sinking
Go Bar and the 40 Watt Featured acts are
Witches, M. Coast, Yo Soybean, Arturo in
Letto, Marriage, Abandon the Earth Mission,
Bigfoot, Nesey Gallons, Venice Is Sinking,
Reptar, Green Gerry, Oryx and Crake and'
possibly more. For more information, please
see www.wuog.org.
Open Your Eyes: A very special art and film
exhibition will happen Friday, Nov. 12 and
Saturday, Nov. 13, featuring the work of long
time friends, artists and collaborators Chris
Bilheimer, Oan Donahue (Great Lakes) and
Lance Bangs. The first night, Nov. 12 will
happen at Cin6 (opens at 6:30 p.m., films and
Q&A at 8 p.m.) and feature films from Lance •
Bangs, films and design work by Donahue and
a Polaroid exhibition from Bilheimer. The next
night will happen at ATHICA at 7:30 p.m.
and will feature the design work (albums,
posters, shirts, etc) of Chris Bilheimer. It's
hard for me to believe so much time has
passed since Bilheimer had a ponytail (and
had not yet dropped out of art school) and
since Bangs regularly read poetry onstage -
with local bands. Each has pursued his art
for the better part of two decades, but this
show, "Blackboards & Smokebombs," seems to
specifically express the closeness of the three
and the emotional component of their collabo
ration even though, undoubtedly, a lot of the
work was produced by them individually. See
our full feature on ChriS on p. 11.
The More Things Change: Modem Skirts will
host a pre-release show for its third full-length
album this Friday, Nov. 12 at the 40 Watt (see
story on this page). Promoter Troy Aubrey
says this is the only chance fans will have to
purchase the CD until its official release next
year. You can preview some of the tracks at
www.myspace.com/modemskirts.
Now, That's a Mouthful: UGA student orga
nization F.O.O.T.S.T.E.P.S. (Friends On One
Team Supporting The Effort to Provide
Sustainability) will host a benefit concert
Friday, Nov. 12 at Bad Manor. All proceeds will
go toward building a children's school in the
West African country of Mali. Tickets are SC
in advance and S10 at the door. Those under
21 will have to cough up another $2, too. The
featured bands this night are Doctor Squid,
Leaving Araby, The Orkids, The Less and
Lefty Hathaway. For advance tickets and more
information, please see www.ugafootsteps.org.
Keep It Real: There's a few days left to help
fund the production cf a new album by Hope
for Agoldensummer. The group is utiliz
ing Indie GoGo, which is a little bit differ
ent than the more popular Kickstarter. The
band's goal is*$10,000, but they'll get to keep
whatever amount they raise, whereas if they
utilized Kickstarter they'd forfeit this amount
if the goal was not met. To donate to the
new album, or simply see what Indie GoGo
is all about, please see www.indiegogo.com/
hopeforagoldensummer.
Gordon Lamb threatsandpromises@^pole.com
14 FLAGPOLE.COM NOVEMBER 10,2010
New Direction
Gramahawk Showcases a Band
That Relies on Instinct
Mt |*»ifs k een taking so much care of her,
■ VC and I'm sick...."
And so begins the song that has followed
Modern Skirts throughout their early career.
"Pasadena" became the band's most easily
recognized tune, sung by swooning girls and
mouthed by their boyfriends during shows at
the 40 Watt. In essence, it was a near-perfect
pop tune: beautiful, quiet, pleading and pos
sessing the ability to stay stuck in your head
for days. The album it sprang from, Catalogue
of Generous Men, was much the same way.
Next came All of Us in Our Night, an
extension of the sounds that got the band
compared to Ben Folds more often than they
might have liked. But rumbling beneath the
melodic structures and sweet harmonies was
a longing to be just a bit more than a piano
pop band. Traces of experimental rhythms and
less polished vocals appeared in songs like
"Soft Pedals" and "Conversational." The songs
began pulling away from the familiar indie-
pop ballads Modern Skirts had once performed.
But if All of Us in Our Night was a small
Gramahawk would be con-
into a whole new direc-
and the
pop-rock guitars and almost everything else
that gav® Flagpole readers a reason to vote
the group "Best Local Pop Band" in 2009.
Instead, the album contains challenging songs
full of samples, fuzzy double-tracked vocals
and a great deal more percussion.
"Percussion is more important than the
melody in most of the new tunes," says lead
singer Jay Gulley. "Most of the songs were
written without chords originally. A 'very-
simple-because-it-doesn't-have-to-be-compli-
cated' approach. When percussion is blasted,
the beat tends to make tones. You can use
those to write with."
Using those tones, the Skirts built several
songs that would become the Happy 81 EP,
the precursor to Gramahawk. T!»e live shows
changed from a mostly low-key affair to some
thing resembling more of a rock show. All four
members of the Skirts would clamber about,
banging giant drums and cuing samples. The
band had a bit more bite to it, but changing
up the foundations of what Modem Skirts did
wasn't exactly the easiest thing to do.
"Gramahawk is an evolution in that it
required us to get over our fears a bit," says
Gulley. "Any dismantling that happens is
because the songs sound like a child wrote
them—however you take that. The songs were
taken from original takes of skeleton songs,
and they remained somewhat intact after the
recording process. We were always scared of
going on instinct. We have gotten to the point
where that's what feels right."
For fans fearful that they may never hear
"Pasadena" again, relax. It's not like the band
is just dropping everything all at once.
"While it's true that we are selfishly hap
pier performing the new material, we still have
to drag the pillows out and beef on that old
stuff," says Gulley.
That may not be exactly what a Skirts
faithful would want to hear, but fans would do
well to give Gramahawk a shot. If anything,
the record is a look at how the Skirts, and the
members themselves, have evolved.
"There has been a departure from our usual
way of writing and composing," says Gulley.
"The older I get, the less satisfied I am with
making songs that sound like a tax write-off. I
think we all shared a vision and we stuck with
it I think we have matured a bit."
Modem Skirts are not going to apologize
for favoring their new material and sounds
over the pop-glazed croons of before. A little
experimentation and some openness have
yielded an inventive album, and they're pretty
proud of that. The future may be a little hard
to see, but at least the present is an interest
ing adventure to undertake.
"This record is just where we are at now,"
says Gulley. "The other two represent where we
were at then. I'm not saying this is a pattern
we can keep up, but we are a little more hon
est with ourselves now. I think that we were
tilting this way with the last record. Maybe
the next one won't be so 'dark' Maybe we can
afford to turn on the heat."
Jordan Stepp