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MUSIC NEWS AND GOSSIP
The days are already getting longer, and
lucky for you there's plenty of news to fill that
time. This week's samples are below...
In Memoriam: Our deepest sympathies go
out to the members and extended family of
Widespread Panic. Equipment manager Game
Vereen was found dead at his home on the
morning of Wednesday, Feb. 16. Vereen was
a 20-year member of the band's crew and by
all accounts was beloved by friends and fans
alike. This heartbreaking news came just as
the band had played a pair of sold-out home
town shows and stood before the Georgia
General Assembly in honor of its 25 years .
of "music, service, charity and longevity."
Donations in support of the Vereen family can
be made to The Vereen Family
Trust c/o First American Bank
& Trust, 300 College Ave.;
Athens, GA, 30601.
Be There on Time: A rare live
show by The Jersey Barrier
will happen Wednesday, Mar.
2 at the Caledonia Lounge.
Following the band's 2008
release, Steady Pace in the
Slow Lane, member Carolyn
McLanahan moved to Colorado
and member Greg Harmelink
(Kincaid) became a father to
two. The show this night will
be a departure for Harmelink
as it will involve mostly loops
and electronic accompaniment
performed by only himself and
McLanahan as opposed to a
full band. Harmelink has long
been one of my favorite song
writers, and I can't imagine
having gone through the '90s
without his music. The Jersey
Barrier will play first this night and after them
will be KING/COBB, North Carolina's Dylan
Gilbert and Arturo in Letto.
Repeat: As mentioned in the Feb. 9 Threats
and Promises, The Sprockets Music Video
Competition will return this year. The dead
line for entries is Apr. 1. The Sprockets Music
Video Show will happen June 18 at the 40
Watt Club, and the winners will be announced
at The Flagpole Athens Music Awards on
June 23 at the Morton Theatre. Please note,
howeve-, that Sprockets is not affiliated
or associated with AthFest as previously
reported. I apologize for the error. Entry forms
are now available over at www.filmathens.net.
Something in the Air: Noise/industrial/ambi
ent lifer Eric Lunde (Boy Dirt Car, XCHDX,
Trait) and his wife Julia Cross will travel
from Minneapolis to Athens early next month
to participate in ATHICA's "Taking Part"
exhibition. The pair's specific performance,
"Localized Noise-Induced Transitions: The
Athens Survey: A Found Sound and Image
Report," will feature found and initiated
sounds and images from Athens. This is where
you come in: the pair is seeking help from
locals to advise them on "acoustically
intriguing geographical and architectural
sites/' contributing sound elements, etc.
Technical support and recording assistance
is also needed, and ft'd be great if anyone
has direct access to, or knows how to gain
legal access, to some abandoned buildings,
factories, empty land and the like for this
project. Lunde really doesn't want to get into
a trespassing situation. The pair will record in
Athens Mar. 2-6 and will present their find
ings in the afternoon on Mar. 6 at ATHICA. To
participate and help out, please drop a line to
Eric Lunde via trait@live.com. For more infor
mation on the kind of stuff he does, please
see www.traitcentral.com.
Y Your File-est Hour: R.E.M. fans all over the
world have really taken to the band's new
remix project. Producer Jacknife Lee made
available all the individual tracks for the new
song "It Happened Today" in both AIFF files
and Garage Band files. Remixes of the song
started pouring in the day the files were
released. As one might expect, they run the
gamut from pretty awesome to pretty bad,
but it's pretty phenomenal how immediate
the reaction was, and I think it's a pretty
cool street-level thing to do. Want to try your
hand? Well, head to www.remhq.com to get
the files and then upload your remix to www.
soundcloud.com/groups/iht-remix.
Hands Across the Sea: Maserati leaves for a
European tour early next month and will play
the Czech Republic, Moscow, Italy, France,
Norway, Greece, Luxembourg, Germany and
Sweden. The German dates, as well as the
date in Prague, will have the band playing
with krautrock legend Gunter Schickert. After
a handful of days off, the band will set out
for a U.S. tour which will take the entirety
of April and run out to the West Coast, the
Pacific Northwest, the Midwest and then back
home to play the 40 Watt on Apr. 29. In other
news, Maserati's track "Monoliths" (from the
group's 2009 album Passages) was featured in
the Valentine's Day broadcast of popular game
show "Jeopardy." The episode was titled
"Human vs. Machine: IBM Challenge" and
humans played against a new super-intelligent
computer named WATSON. Video of the epi
sode is available on YouTube. The stoners
among you will notice that Maserati's music
begins at 4:20 into the clip. Whoa, dude!
Keep up with other happenings over at www.
ihaveadagger.net. For more information on
WATSON, please see www.ibm.com/innovation/
us/watson.
Gordon Lamb threatsandpromises@tlagpole.com
R.E.M.
LUL1WATER
Silhouette
Spectra
Some rock bands stake their
reputation on thoughtful songwrit
ing. Others, like Athens act Lullwater.
demand listeners’ attention through
energy alone. On "Worse by Better,"
the opening (and most single-worthy)
track on Silhouette, frontman John
Strickland comes across as a bom
bastic. cocksure singer without much
regard for. well, much of anything.
Strickland’s lyrics are much like
Lullwater’s music: banal, angry,
vaguely reminiscent of a trove of
1990s grunge acts and amped up to
ear-splitting levels. The song, about a
romantic relationship gone south, is a
distillation ot all the well-worn tricks
of last decade's mainstream rock radio:
fat electric guitar power chords, clear,
snappy drums and enough melodic
hooks to keep the song in your head
for days.
On later tracks, particularly album
closer "Faithful Sinners.' Lullwater
shows off some sonic diversity with
Old 97’s-influenced folk. This, as
in just about every other track on
Silhouette, shows off both the best
and wofst of Lullwater. On the plus
side, the production quality is more
accomplished than just about any band
of Lullwater’s stature. And, for fans of
Pearl Jam or any of its descendants,
there are enough meaty bits and reli
able guitar jamming to keep the faithful,
um. faithful. And the truth is, bands like
Lullwater build their reputation on a
couple of good songs and the convic
tion with which they play them.
Mark Sanders
YUCK
Yuck
Fat Possum
The ’90s have been creeping
back into indie rock lately, but almost
no one is doing it with the warmth
and perfection of London's Yuck.
Romancing that decade’s dawning,
the debut full-length by Fat Possum’s
brand-new star shimmers between the
broken-in wrinkles of Dinosaur Jr. and
Teenage Fanclub. Though set in cozy
rumples, Yuck’s bursting, swollen-heart
pop penmanship—diamond-etched
and glorious—is what gives breath
to this record. Dress that verve up in
beefy guitars and woozy distortion and
you've got something worth sinking
your teeth into.
Some of the more temperate songs
showcase range and clear-eyed inti
macy; the best being “Shook Down."
But Yuck is simply life-affirrping when
it cranks up the fuzz and lets its soul
loose, like on cathartic, top-down
rocker "Operation’ and the ragged,
jangly "Georgia." But ‘Get Away"
and “The Wall’ are instant classics.
Heart-wringingly tuneful and liberating,
they’re a couple of the most crush
worthy rock songs heard in ages.
Immediate, consistent and spirited,
few are injecting indie nostalgia with as
much tune, tone and freshness as Yuck.
All its early buzz is completely validated
with this album, and it's likely to still be
standing at year’s end as a superlative.
This is music to lose your shit to.
Bao Le-Huu
DEERHOOF
Deerhoofvs. Evil
Polyvinyl
Deerhoof kicks the modern-day
evils of apathy and complacency out
the window with its latest album,
Deerhoof vs Evil. The genre changes
from album to album and song lo song,
but Deerhoof s electro, jangly cooing
is unmistakable in its basic message
of triumph. Satomi Matsuzaki’s high-
pitched voice gently narrates over .
skewed tones and synthesized rock.
Varied world instruments make lovely
and restrained additions to the pre
cisely structured chaos, sounding like
an enraptured chef—adding electronic
sounds here, just a pinch of guitar riff,
drums to taste and something secret
The elements may be harsh, but
the result is reassuring and almost
dreamy. Aimless wails and short drum
bursts steadily build unfamiliar song
structures that ebb into cheerful clink
ing. "Super Duper Rescue Heads!"
sounds like the soundtrack to a utopian
video game where you are eternally
winning, soaring through space accu
mulating computer-animated gold, fruil
and life points. In the arena of Deerhoof
vs. Evil, the enemies are both brightly
colored cartoon monsters that explode
on impact and sneaky, snaking forces
that must be forced out with innovation
and perseverance. Deerhoof: 1.
Sydney Slotkin
'
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LUBEK
Nothing Is Enough
Acme Thunderer
Hailing from Richmond. VA. Lubec
has dubbed its noisy, fuzz-drenched
shoegaze as "sculpt-rock." In its debut
EP, Nothing Is Enough, Lubec has
managed to capture something of Ihe
essence of Old Dominion's under
ground house shows: Ihe sound is
abrasive and thick, distorted and lo-fi,
yet bursting with spontaneity and a
tinge of anarchy.
For instance, in "Your Magic
Wand," when Eddie Charlton sings
“Believe me when I say I'm trying
here." a roaring guitar bursts in out
of nowhere, hitting the listener like a
brick in the face. Later on in Ihe song,
you can briefly hear the crackle of cell
phone static in someone’s speaker. Part
of Lubec's youthful charisma is thal
they clearly aren’t sugar-coating any
thing. The chatter of a party in “Cherry
Adair" furthers the impression that the
recording is coming straight out of a
basement somewhere.
While uber-hissy distorted guitar is
the crux of Lubec's sound, it positively
overwhelms the mix more often than
not, and at times it’s difficult to hear
anything but. In "Gang Knife Battles,"
for example, multiple vocal harmonies
fight to be heard above the track's
overall white noise. That being said.
Lubec is best when listeners just let
themselves be enveloped in the may
hem without worrying about, say. the
notes of a particular keyboard part or
what Charlton is actually singing. In a
dingy basement, surrounded by beers
and friends, that's not what's important
anyway.
John Granofsky
LA SERA
La Sera
Hardly Art
Considering the mighty under
ground rise of her olher band, the iron
couldn't be any hotter for Vivian Girls'
bassist Katy Goodman to strike with
her latest muse. La Sera. This brand-
new Brooklyn band largely sheds Ihe
scrappy noise-pop leanings of VG and
gazes instead through a softer, more
sonorous looking glass. This debut
is amply rendered in the oldies cur
rents and echoing nostalgic washes
that are white-hot right now But the
edges are softer, dreamier and mere
sophisticated than VG. Besides its styl
ing and pacing, La Sera's lush choral
layering distinguishes this band as
something more crafted and evolved.
Picks include the childlike folk-pop
innocence of "Left This World’ and "I
Promise You," a lovely, moody medita
tion that sounds straight off a rare ’50s
B-side. But nothing enthralls as much
as the Phil Speclor-like rhythm and
girth of “Never Come Around."
With no song even hitting the
three-minute mark, La Sera's music still
retains the efficiency of pop and punk.
It's just that its lingering mien is some
thing that’s more interested in washing
over you like the slo-mo waves of a
bath-warm sea Most importantly, this
material is anything but the secondary
chaff of a side project. La Sera already
has its own two legs.
Bao Le-Huu
14 FLAGPOLE.COM • FEBRUARY 23, 2011