About Flagpole. (Athens, Ga.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (July 13, 2011)
PAGE WHITE 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 TYLER CAPEHART
