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MUSIC NEWS AND GOSSIP
New Crew Revue: Chris McKay has reformed
his Critical Darlings after a long break predi
cated by the exit of founding bandmember
Frank DeFreese. The new lineup is McKay, Ash
Miltiades (Guff), Adam West, Kate Powell
(Zaka) and Alex Grizzard. The new lineup
made its debut in late June but will next play
locally Friday, July 22 at the 40 Watt Club.
For more information, please see www.face-
book.com/thecriticaldarlings.
Green Screen King: Website developer Jay
Braver finished a new video for Timi Conley
(Kite to the Moon) and his song "Words Must
Die" a few weeks ago. In many ways (well,
most ways), it's a celebration of the green
screen and, as such, you can see Conley
involved in all sorts of impossible scenarios
and hi-jinks. Find it over at www.youtube.
com/user/ShurFynePro.
The Fabric of Your Life: The gently melancholic
Vespolina now has a deal: if you buy one of
the group's newly printed t-shirts, you get its
digital EP, Heckler, for free. If you're not the
t-shirt type, you can still get the EP, but it'll
run you $5. The shirt is S13. The EP is a six-
song collection of demos that should appear
on the group's debut LP. The t-shirt is a black
screen print of a little horse looking up at a
big horse. Self-described as "barogue American
pop/rock," this isn't too far off the mark,
but don't expect, you know, The Left Banke
or anything like that. Vespolina's sound is
much more along the lines of a more earnest
Leonard Cohen or a less pop-oriented Pernice
Brothers. One song from Heckler is available
for preview over at www.athensvespolina.
bandcamp.com, and another one, not from
the EP, is available at www.reverbnation.com/
vespolina.
Ashes to Ashes, Crust to Crust: Athens hard
core/grind pulverizers Gripe played their last
show with D.J. Pommerville as lead singer
at a local house venue last week. The band
will continue with a new singer, though,
who will be featured on its upcoming second
full-length album that is due out next year.
Pommerville is leaving Athens to travel across
the country to the West Coast before set
tling down in New Orleans. During this time,
he'll be shooting footage for his upcoming
documentary based on his often hilarious
and almost totally tongue-in-cheek website
www.latfo.com (Look at This Fucking Oogle).
Wondering what an oogle is? Well, basically,
it's a poseur (or, to be more gracious, merely
a newcomer) in the traveling kid/crusty/gut
ter punk/train-hopping scene. The term is
almost universally disparaging (except
when used among and toward friends)
and actually has a few variations in
meaning depending on its usage, but I
don't have enough space here to really
get too far into it. Click over there
and you'll see what I'm talking about.
Warning: don't look at this at work. It's
got the occasional nudity that will raise
eyebrows as much as the fact that you
can basically smell the funk from these
photos coming through your screen, and
you can vaguely hear a voice somewhere
that says "Hey, spare any change?" If
you do hear this plea, come on, have
a heart. How would they ever buy
all those Nausea and GBH patches
without your help? You can follow the
action over at the website above or
via www.facebook.com/latfo and www.
twitter.com/latfo. Gripe's latest album,
The Future Doesn't Need You, is still
available for free over at www.grind-
corekaraoke.com/album/the-future-
doesnt-need-you, and it totally rules,
so get it now
Impressive: A traveling exhibit of clas
sic and modern concert posters from
Nashville's world-famous Hatch Show
Print will open at the Georgia Museum of
Art on Aug. 27. In business since 1879 and
now owned by the Country Music Hall of Fame,
Hatch Show Print turned the normal, generally
unremarkable, letterpress poster into a real
work of art. The exhibit will stay in town until
Nov. 6, so you've got plenty of time to get rid
of any excuses you might make for not seeing
it. For more information, please see www.geor-
giamuseum.org/art/exhibitions/upcoming.
Have a Cigar: OK, this is gonna be the last
thing I'll write about Reptar for a while, but,
come on, this is the news pretty much every
one knew was coming. After several months of
speculation, it was announced late last week
that the Athens booty shakers have signed to
California's Vagrant Records, and the label,
through a special arrangement with Ben
Allen's Make Records, Not Bombs production
squad, will have a hand in releasing the band's
upcoming Oblongle Fizz. Yall EP due out Aug.
2. Vagrant was best known as the home of
The Get Up Kids, Dashboard Confessional and
Saves the Day, but has spent the last several
years really expanding its roster to include art
ists from a wide variety of styles. Reptar will
play Chicago's Lollapalooza Festival in early
August and will take off on a month-long tour
from Sept. 15-Oct. 18, with most of the dates
featuring Cults and Foster the People. The
closest this tour comes to Athens is Atlanta,
where Reptar will play the Masquerade on
Sept. 21. Congratulations, guys. Now go
make good records and be good boys. For
more information, please see www.facebook.
com/reptarmusic.
Gordon Lamb
threatsandpromises@flagpole.com
Chris McKay
T alking on the phone with the members
of Burns Like Fire while they're on
the road is strange. It's hard to imag
ine the scene on the other end of the line.
They're probably sitting outside a smelly van,
exhausted and hungry, waiting to play for the
sixth night in a row. But when you hear the
little chuckles and jabs at each other between
responses, that image is totally obscured by
another: four guys driving around the country,
playing music and genuinely enjoying life.
"I love hangin' out with these dudes," says
lead guitarist Josh Smith. "They're a pain in
my ass, but I love every single moment."
Smith and Co. have been out on the roa~
since July 1, hitting bars and small clubs
across the Southeast, in preparation for the
release of their first full-length in August.
That path is pretty well worn for the Burns
Like Fire guys. Reading the list of BLF mem
bers' previous bands—Guff, Community Chaos,
Celerity, Karbomb—is like reading a "Best
Athens Punk Bands of the 2000s" ballot. But
projects come and go, and in 2009 the soon-
to-be members of Burns Like Fire found that
their current projects were sort of stalling.
"The flame was dying on 'em," says Smith.
"So, we just found a new project." That "we,"
includes Smith, former Celerity drummer Parker
Bradshaw and Karbomb guitarist Web Couch. A
couple of months later, Guff's Charley Ferlito
joined temporarily to fill in on bass. Or, if you
fast-forward to 2011 while the guys are wan
dering around Mobile, AL, you can get Ferlito's
version: "Their bass player sucked, so I was
like, 'Hey, let me play bass,"' he says laugh
ing while his bandmates undoubtedly snicker
in the background at his smartass comment.
Ferlito quickly corrects himself. He hopped
onboard initially as a short-term member and,
as he explains, "I liked it so much I wanted
to stay, and they were nice enough to let me
stay."
While this may seem entirely too sappy for
a punk band, it's hard to ignore that these
guys really do enjoy hanging out together,
and that's why they keep playing and play so
well together. But it's not their friendship that
books shows. No, for that a punk band needs
years of experience on the road, musical chops
and a kick-ass live show. Oh, that's right,
Burns Like Fire has all that, too.
"You have to play the really crappy show,"
says Smith, speaking on something everyone
in BLF has done many times. "Get to play
that first one, then everybody knows who you
are and then you make friends, and the more
you're able to do that, the more you can get
out on the road."
With years of touring experience, each of
Burns Like Fire's members have made con
nections like that. And with their amped-up
alt-pop-punk and energetic, unpredictable
live shows, they can make the most of those
connections. That means booking shows with
bands like old-school punk rockers Sloppy
Seconds later this month and getting the
opportunity to work with big names like Roger
Manganelli (Less Than Jake), who produced
their upcoming LP, and Stephen Egerton
(Descendents, All), who mastered it.
But don't worry, they're not getting big
heads. Burns Like Fire is still a good ol' bunch
of Athens punks enjoying every show they get
to play.
"We're all smilin' at the end of the night,"
Smith says. "Or throwing up on something."
Chris Miller
r \
WHO: Burns Like Fire, Karbomb,
The Atom Age, So It Goes
WHERE: Caledonia Lounge
WHEN: Friday. July 15.10 p.m.
HOW MUCH: $5 (21+), $7(18+)
V )
JULY 13, 2011 FLAGPOLE.COM 13
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