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: THE YEAR IN REUIEUJ
ince the Internet has succeeded in shredding your atten
tion span in ways MTV only dreamed, what's the sense
in waiting all year to find out what happened? Exactly.
So I've gone ahead and recapped the highlights of the 2011
Athens music scene. Hope this helps.
JANUARY
Label owner Mike Turner (HHBTM Records) formed a band
with the fresh-from-Seattle Keenan Dowers (Single Piece
Slate record manufacturing). After a handful of shows, the pair
experimented Modem Skirts-style by recording in Jay Gulley's
(Modern Skirts) bedroom. Shortly thereafter, the project suf
fered a crisis of confidence and Turner broke up the band via
Facebook. Jay Gulley, meanwhile, repainted his bedroom and
rearranged the furniture to try to recapture the "vibe" of those
Modern Skirts sessions. "Some places are just sacred, you
know? Real special stuff happened right here near that bed.
Over near that lamp, too," he said.
FEBRUARY
The year-in/year-out tour machine of Elf Power pulled a
fast one. Just as the long-running band was about to pull out
of town for yet another overseas winter tour of former Iron
Curtain nations, band leader Andrew Rieger realized that he
could just as easily announce a tour, hide out at the Orange
Twin compound for eight weeks and then reappear as if he'd
just returned from the road. "Really," said Rieger, "no one in
Athens is eve. gonna care that we spent another three nights
in fuckin' Bucharest or that we played the Nutella stage at
0yafestivalen. If they ask III just tell them no one remembered
to bring a camera. Oh, yeah, that's off the record, by the way."
MARCH
Seeking better digs and in-house employee perks, Flagpole
moved its offices into the perennially cursed Georgia
Traditions (755 E. Broad Street). The rooftop pools and
24-hour concierge were an immediate hit with the music staff,
while the city writers spent the majority of their time trying
to figure out how to best repurpose the lower floors into a
combination dog park, library, reform school, community salon,
fresh market and bistro. Athens Rising columnist Dan Lorentz
praised the overall walkability of the building but writer Kevan
Williams finally put his foot down and refused to work in
what he described as "that brick-and-tan monster." Publisher
Pete McCommons wrote a lengthy editorial enthusiastically
proclaiming the move to be as "sweet as peach pie—similar to
the kind you used to be able to get at Blanche's Open House
over on Hancock back in the days when Athens had only one
streetlight and, even then, that was more than enough," and
that generated 104 comments from Oconee County residents on
the paper's website.
APRIL
Party Party Partners released its own line of house show
donation buckets. Sadly, most late-night townies were con
founded by the proper use of these things but thought they
were a pretty cool place to stash that secret sixer of Pabst Blue
Ribbon.
MAY /
Having semi-formally adopted a slogan of SSDY (Same Shit,
Different Year), the Athens Human Rights Festival decided
to forgo any speakers this year and simply held a 48-hour
jam session featuring members of Cosmic Charlie and Pam
, /
18 FLAGPOLE.COM DECEMBER 22,2010
Blanchard & the Sunny-Side Up Band. Timi Conley (Kite
to the Moon) attempted to have a Wild Rumpus parade dur
ing the event, but activist/organizer Ed Tant went on a tear
about how the first Wild Rumpus was held in Bolivia dur
ing the revolution of 1952, and it was the height of cultural
appropriation to hold it without a Bolivian at the helm. Conley
misunderstood Tant, though, and went ahead with his plans
after convincing Olivian John Fernandes, who can trace his
roots all the way back to the Tremor Control, to walk ahead of
everybody.
JUNE
Newly elected county commissioner Jared Bailey declared
that all AthFest (of which Bailey is the founder) activities
would now take place exclusively in District 5. Local businesses
re-purposed as live-music venues include Wendy's, Big City
Bread Cafe and Chase Street Package. Shows at Dunkin Donuts/
Baskin-Robbins suffered greatly when no one could figure out
when they were open. Bailey defended the drastic move by
saying, "Actually, 'jobs, bitches!' was on the short list of pos
sible campaign slogans, and I'm just glad we could see that
through. You just don't mess with number five, yo."
JULY
In honor of Our Nation's Birthday, local promotion squad
Team Clermont hosted a month-long amnesty program for
all college radio music directors who failed to chart records
the organization was pushing. The Team's Nelson Wells said,
"Look, we know who you are and, mostly, we know where
you live. It's cool. It's just time to make things right. Get in
touch." University of Georgia station WUOG 90.5 FM was able
to plead innocence, honestly, as no one working at the station
was old enough to have ever encountered a piece of analogue
mail before.
AUGU5T
Absolutely nothing happened this month except that every
bandmember (and his, well, not really "girlfriend" but, you
know, just a friend) in Athens tried to sneak into that one pool
on the Eastside that everyone thought was a secret. "Don't
worry," everyone said to everyone else, "that dude from the
party totally has a cousin who lives there."
5EPTEMBER
The Whigs and Dead Confederate headed out on the road
together on their "2007 Remembrance Tour" vowing to only
play their hits. Dead Confederate manager Dawson Morris
described the tour as "a strategic pairing of classic Athens
bands. This tour will really give fans a chance to re-live the
days of easy home financing."
OCTOBER
Halloween tribute bands this year included Tunabunny
playing the hits of U2 (as TunaBono), of Montreal covering
actual Montreal rockers April Wine (as April Drinking Wine
with Epimetheus on the Bank of the Tikamaganda River as
She Dreams of Visiting Sudbury, Home of the World's Largest
Nickel), Maserati playing the songs of The Dead Milkmen (as
Bitchin' Camaro) and The Gold Party playing New Wave hits of
the '80s (as The Gold Party).
NOVEMBER
Promoter Tommy Valentine attempted to assemble the
largest group of Athens musicians ever to ride atop a gigantic
float for the annual Athens Christmas Parade (AKA "Parade Of
Lights"). The ambitious gesture failed, though, when Valentine
was unable to convince the majority of participants that when
he said it started at 7 p.m. that was actually when it started.
Other.roadblocks included various non-musicians showing up
saying they were on the guest list for the float with at least
40 saying they won passes on the radio. The month ended on
a high note for Valentine, though, as he was able to secure a
promotional tie-in for his latest musical project with Athens
celebrity Darius Weems and launch an ad campaign called
"Darius Really Goes for Valentine & West."
DECEMBER
4 ’ v
The year wrapped up quietly as local dub owners, after
dealing with roving gangs of drunks all year, decided to close
for the night and just host small New Year's Eve parties at
home for their dose friends. Although initially disappointed,
most Athens singles breathed a big sigh of relief knowing that
at least this way they wouldn't get stuck somewhere listening
to a "DJ" play Europe's "The Final Countdown," various hits by
Journey and the latest record by Beyonc£. Local rock music fan
Sam Williams said, "Seriously, do you have any idea how hard
it is to compete with some dude streaming these emotional
soft balls from an iPod? I'd rather be sitting on Reptaris porch
listening to someone blather about Animal Collective." In a
similar sentiment, a local woman (who spoke on the condition
of anonymity) said, "Last New Year's Eve I got stuck hanging
out with this dude who yelled That's my jam!' at every damn
song. None of those songs were even his jam. He already
told me what his jam was, and I had to sit around for four
hours waiting for it while he lied the whole time about what
his jam was and bro-fived people he didn't even know. It's
gonna be much better this way."
Gorton Lamb