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MUSIC NEWS AND GOSSIP
This week I want to start out by welcoming
all visitors to Athens. I know a lot of you are
in town for AthFest, although I imagine a few
could have just started driving and wound up
here, so please have a good time and enjoy
our city and our music. Remember, too, that
we locals live here year-round and we're an
amenable bunch if you need help with direc
tions, advice on where to eat, etc., but we'll
bristle up really quickly if you start throwing
around big-city attitudes. So, stay hydrated
and kind, and we'll all get along just fine.
Now, let's really get into it...
> Sing Out Loud, Sing Out Strong: Collapse-
rock band Tunabunny has a new video out for
its song "(Song for My) Solar Sister" which
has been a live favorite of the band's for
several months. The song is featured on the
group's new self-titled 7-inch single (available
locally at Wuxtry) and is from its upcoming
album Minima Moralia that comes out Aug. 2.
Each of these releases is on Athens' HHBTM
Records. The song itself is one of the band's
most clearly executed pop songs and reminds
me very much of the
old Austin band The
Reivers, but it also
manages to somehow ^
deliver the mood and
feel of the Athens J|
music scene from way |
back when. The art- 5
o
studio/crowd-scene i
video solidifies this.
Catch the video over
at www.youtube.com/
user/TheTunabunny.
In other news,
Tunabunny will play
this Saturday night,
June 25, at Cine at
the HHBTM Records
AthFest Showcase
along with Flash to
Bang Time, Eureka California, Cars Can Be
Blue and Hug Abuse. For more information
please see www.hhbtm.com.
Beer for Breakfast: The Caledonia Lounge
will host Its first ever unofficial AthFest day
party on Saturday, June 25 from noon-8 p.m.
The free event, dubbed "Dirty Athens," will
feature Bambara, Casper & the Cookies, Co
Co Ri Co, Prizmatic Spray, White Violet,
Abby Go Go Turf War and others to be
announced. There are also "two big surprises,"
but I have absolutely no idea what these are,
so don't bother asking me. Check out the
event's Facebook page for set times. Notably,
this is Bambara's last show in Athens before
the boys make the big move to Brooklyn, NY
in August, so feel free to go by the show and
ask them exactly what their problem is.
Hull-Hounds on Your Trail: The Rick Fowler
Band has a new five-song EP titled Discordia
out now which thematically addresses "the
destruction of the economy by major corpora
tions and bankers and the resulting suffering
of the poor and middle class." The heavy blues
and classic rock band will perform most, if not
all, of the EP during its set on the AthFest
Hull Street stage at 6:30 p.m. Sunday, June
26. The EP is available at all major download
merchants and at local record shops. Fowler's
biography is pretty unimpeachable and those
unfamiliar with his work can bone up over at
www.rickfowler.com.
One More Silver Dollar: The funky dudes in
Athens' Tent City (the band, not the place)
will match their jazz with the likeminded folks
from Tuscaloosa's The Hypsys and present a
tribute show to Macon, GA's favorite sons, The
Allman Brothers Band, on Thursday, June 23
at the Melting Point. If this sounds like your
kind of thing, visit www.reverbnation.com/
tentcity and check out the folks entrusting
Duane's legacy to themselves.
Artists Only: The surprise hit around my house
this week is the new album by the strictly
rhythm-'n'-vocals group Pretty Bird. I mean,
I'm not really surprised that I like it, as I tend
to aggressively go in for projects that oper
ate via subtraction, but rather that it was a
nice surprise to be tipped to. Titled Rules,
the 15-track album is the latest release from
local psychedelic/experimental collective The
Birdhouse Collection which comprises Pretty
Bird, Cottonmouth, Muuy Biien, Green Gerry
and Kids. The whole collection plays the
Caledonia Lounge on Thursday, June 30, so
go dig 'em. Before you do, though, download
Rules and other
releases over at www.
thebirdhouse.band-
camp.com.
All the Live Long
Day: I've said before
that if you dropped a
stranger into Athens
between spring and
summer they'd think
all we did here was
host festivals. Even
though you're all in
AthFest mode this
week, keep your cal
endar open for the
Third Annual Classic
City American Music
Festival. The one-day
event happens Sunday, July 3 at the Melting
Point and is presented by that venue, Nomad
Artists and the Packway Handle Band.
Featured performers include Patterson Hood,
Yo Soybean, Mountain Heart, New Familiars,
Seven Handle Circus, Lera Lynn, The Welfare
Liners, Art Rosenbaum, Ken Will Morton,
String Theory and Border Hop 5. Doors
open at 1 p.m., music begins at 3 p.m., and
advance tickets are $15 until June 27 when
they go up to $17. Tickets at the door are
$20, and UGA students can get in for $12 with
a student ID. Children 12 and under get in
free. For more information, please see www.
meltingpointathens.com.
Welcome to AppFest: If you're wondering if
there was an official AthFest iPhone applica
tion, well, you're in luck. This year all iPersons
can have a sortable schedule, map of down
town Athens, band synopses and more all in
your pocket and ready to do your bidding at
any time. Just head to the iTunes store and
search for "AthFest" to get wired.
Let's Stay Inside: The blissed-out and newly-
back-in-Athens band Pacific UV has steadily
released one song for free each month since
February as a way of leading up to its new
album, Weekends, which is due this fall. Just
head to www.pacificuv.bandcamp.com and
hear what you've been missing.
Gordon Lamb threalsandpromises@flagpo!e.com
Tunabunny
LaughFest 2011
Celebrating Athens’
Burgeoning Comedy Scene
M usic and stand-up comedy make natu
ral allies. Stand-up possesses many of
music's key elements—a good comic
must pay close attention to cadence,
rhythm and timing, and at its best, a stand-up
routine develops into what the late George
Carlin called a "verbal ballet." In fact, spoken-
word performances might be stripped-down
enough to compete with experimental jazz
as the most avant-garde musical form—if we
count the "verbal ballet" as music, that is.
It makes perfect sense that stand-up com
edy finally claimed its rightful place as part
of AthFest last year, and this time around,
LaughFest promises to be bigger, better and,
most important, funnier. Many Athenians
surely remember Chicago comic Dan Telfer
from Patton Oswalt's
two-night stand at
the 40 Watt in March,
mainly because Telfer
put on a hell of a show.
His intellectual and
observational humor
had the audience inter
mittently unsettled and
laughing uncontrollably,
with jokes about every
day life, a bit about
16th-century astrono
mer Tycho Brahe and an
extremely memorable
scientific tirade about
dinosaurs. Telfer is
headlining LaughFest
this year, supported
by locals Chris Patton,
Natalie Glaser, Matt
Gilbert, Ed Burmila,
Drew Dickerson and TJ
Young.
Since 2006, Young
has been watching the
Athens stand-up scene
develop while playing
an active role in its
growth
"I didn't see a whole
lot of comedy going
on in Athens," says
Young. "It just didn't seem like the very little
comedy that was happening was being very
widely promoted." So, Young started running a
monthly comedy showcase out of The Loft, an
endeavor which lasted about three years.
"Over the course of that time, I definitely
saw a steady build of people who were more
and more interested in seeing comedy," says
Young. "People were almost always excited
and surprised that comedy was going on...
now that there's a variety of people doing it,
you get a lot of different circles of friends
that don't necessarily overlap, so you just
get a wider audience automatically... I think
it's just taking time for everybody to see that
comedy is a thing that happens in Athens."
Another featured performer in this year's
LaughFest lineup is New York-based comic
Dave Waite. Waite's style is self-deprecating,
drawing on his pre-stand-up career failures
and myriad misfortunes in love. He began
doing comedy after taking a stand-up class
in Newport, KY, and his career's been growing
ever since.
Young's thoughts on the efficacy of stand-
up comedy classes are largely positive. "I
don't think that's any better or any worse than
anybody just going to an open-mic and really
trying it... I was comfortable onstage already,
just having done improv performance, and I
took a class. I don't know that it taught me
much about being onstage, but it gave me
a jumping off point for how to write stand-
up, in terms of how to brainstorm an idea or
learning about word economy... which is just
making sure that you tear your joke down to
the absolute essential information that people
need in order to get the punch-line."
While local talent Luke Fields will host,
introducing the plethora of comedians gracing
the stage that evening and throwing in some
of his own jokes, comedy fans will see each
comic's "best seven minutes," followed by a
10-minute set by Waite, then a full hour from
Telfer to close out the night.
Young is excited about Athens' burgeon
ing stand-up scene, and he encourages any
Athenians with an interest in stand-up to join
in the fun.
"Just do it. I tell people this all the time.
If you have any inkling to want to try it, just
do it... no one ever dies from doing stand-up
comedy. There are plenty of places to perform
around here, and there's no time like the
present."
Kevin Craig
WHAT: LaughFest 2011
WHERE: 40 Watt Club
WHEN: Wednesday, June 22,8 p.m.
HOW MUCH: $10, $5 w/ AthFest wristband
V )
12 FLAGPOLE.COM-JUNE 22, 2011
