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lkaht-ur-mahs}
Independent Release -
Kater Mass is in a weird position.
If foe/d existed 16 years ago, they'd
have been just one of what seemed like
hundreds of bands playing multi-vocal,
pcst-Embrace emo. Stiii. they do it so
damn well they might have risen above
a lot of others. Existing now, though,
RS very difficult to take the band simply
as a foing of its own. The temptation
is to immediately toss out easy com
parisons to 8arfy Hot Water Music and
Unfutbm Jawbreaker. Those are the
two major touchstones here. That said,
nothing on (kaht-ur-mahs] feeis stolen,
no matter the influences in play. And in
the smaifer world of Athens punk, Kater
Mass really does staid out
Even so, the music is really a
vehicle for the lyrics. Everyone knows
that feeling of regret when you read
a lyric sheet and realize that the band
you Just rocked out with are a bunch of
dutnbasses. Therms none of that with
[kaht-ur-mahs}. The songs are some
times painfully persona!, but nearly
always somewhat universal.
The whole afopm is full of doubt
regret resignation and love, but it
stets oh with a song so full of all of
foisfoat it reaiiy stands alone. Opening
back "Pipefttter' says, “Your father
spent 35 years in tie same place/Then
you spent 30 more years there/1 know
you never wanted John or I to do it/But
now, I’ve been just willing/ Better tan
living In tits shit-hole I've dug here/
Better than praising fucking assholes
all day/1 know you never wanted John
or I to do it/1 was just willing to team
your hand.’ And just like that, like the
very music the band plays, generations
pass torches and the world goes on
and on and on.
\ * • Gordon Lamb
:J§ mmmm
->.;I there Was a Hob Hare. |
Its GoneNm^ V
;K Independent Release
*v Lazer/Wutf can play foeir insfru-
merits. This much has always been
dear. From the tense, finger-tapped w
opening bars ofWe Will Meet Again/
the First track on the group's ambitious
new EP reaffirms their status as mania-
at prog-obsessed pcectetonfets. But
this only toils half the story. The foing
that has characterized the Afbens-cum-
ABanta acts music from the start, toe
<jua$y that has always served to ssre
if from the hardiearted tech-rock dol
drums to which so many IfktHninded
acts fall prey, is a manifest humanness;
a fleshy counterpart to the harsh and
unyielding sled. L/Ws music is often
macbineiite, true, but it isn't, in fad.
the sound of machines as much as the
subiimatrve and unpredictable sound of
the mad scientists operating them.
And L/W are madmen, look above.
I described this EP as “ambitious.’
Weird, right? For an extended play (this
one docks in at a laughably terse 12
minutes), There Was a Hole Hem. ft$
Gone Howls ridiculously tor-reaching,
a psychotic compendium of tour
interwoven movements that induce •
exhaustion and exhilaration in equal
measure. TWAHHIGN \s toe sod ot
record thatS almost too much total®.
Listening to it over and over. I veered
back and forth between wanting to term
it the best thing ever and a distended,
unendurable mess. But the reality is,
its neither. Its untamable, unknowable:
the sound of a band that can sure play
its instruments but also retoses, to its
everlasting credit, to play by the rules.
GabeVodicka
ATTORNEYS
Stowtwmer
This is American Music
The path between Athens and
Atlanta is filled with the blood, sweat
aid tears of exhausted musicians who
spend their precious days off traveling
betwixt the two cities for band practices
and weekend gigs. Eventually the cul
mination of these efforts materializes in
toe form of their first fuli-tength album.
This week, self-proclaimed ’Athens/
Atlanta indie-rock sweethearts,* The
District Attorneys have reached that
moment. After releasing two EPs,
Orders From... and Waiting on the
Calm Down: The Basement Sessions,
the five-piece is reieasir; its att-$ouli>-
em paragon Slowbumer. This record
draws noticeable inspiration firm fel
low Southern indie rockers Deerhunter
and My Morning Jacket—save for a
few hundred layers of reverb. However,
the inspiration of catchy and poppy
mid-century rock and roll & to The
Beach Boys is audible in foe dreamlike
harmonies and uptempo keyboard in
tracks such as’Boomtown.’A much
more pensive side to SJowhurm is
evident to backs sytfi as “Cherry
Glow,’ which showcases Elliott Smith-
esque crisp, emotionally stirring
vocals, and in the simple heartrending
bluegrass and early country western
sound of TheEnd" and "Marmalade.’
Having only been in action a little over
two years, foe guya of The District - %
Attorneys arestill relatively new to /.
the local scene. However, the support
and energy surrounding this group is
reminiscent of early Drhre-By Truckers
fanfare—a good sign for their future. .
In fact after a debut full length like
Skmtmer. H would be hard to fade
? r i 4 fa Aikjk W If, lllfft f fli .rt J
into me background.
Carrie Dagenhard
Write a New Song
Slo Pro
Emotional management strategies
vary, and in the wake of a failed rela
tionship ift suggested tog suffering
parties attempt things like screening
into pillows or writing angry letters,
then throwing them out. Of course,
amplified electric guitars and liters
of sour-mash whiskey have proven
equally cathartic, informed by (tie
dissolution of frontman Scott Low's
marriage, Write a New Song finds Efren
wallowing in the mire—bitter and
breaking at the seams.
Tracked live at Full Moon Studios
during two six-hour sessions, there
was never an opportunity to second
guess the venomous vehemence. Hurt
permeates. Voices are raised and power
chords hit. * : ^ ';
While Bren wears pain and holds
grudges quite well, the album has
moments of countrified nostalgia (*Old
Mountein Road') and group-therapy
honkytonk punk rock (“Family Tree
of Recovery") foat suggest Low still
knows you can drink whiskey for fun
and not just for forgetting, or getting
ferrous.
K i ; • : • David Eduardo
The Diamond Rugs
Partisan Records
In their eponymous debut The
Diamond Rugs—John McCauley and
Robbie Crowell (Deer Tick), local hero
Hardy Morris.(Dead Confederate), tan
St Pe (The Black Lips), Steve Berlin
(Los Lobos, not a misprint) and Bryan
Dufresne (Six Finger Satellite)—
shoulder the tattered ’supergroup’
banner for indie bands everywhere.
They’re good enough to handle it The
resuft fc a punchy collection of post-
hardcore power pop that diverges from
the artists' historical work just enough
to keep things interesting. Morris
reports that the album came togefoer
naturally. It shows. - • . ^ - l "
Any mystery about toe sound is r
answered to toe first 145 seconds
with the superb $t Pe country punk, i
’HightaT—think Buddy Hotly after
listening to The Ramonas for two days.
No time is wasted from foere. The lon
gest of toe 14 tracks (the chaotic pedal
steeMnfused buzz of Morris' “Country
Mitel clocks In at 4:33, and half the
songs are under three minutes. Its a
concise piece of work.
£ McCauley carries foe majority of
toe vocal waist DeerTlck fere con
fused by the recent Divine Pmdence
will be comforted to hear him in a
more-iistenable pop incarnation here.
His propensity for lyrical laziness
is present, with an overly repetitive
focus on beer, women or both (*i’m
a kinda feeling, like a lion, or a tiger,
listening to my baby purrrr" from the
unfortunately tilled ’Gimme a Beer,"
along with toe even more unfortunately
fitted ’Hungover and Homy’). But
when he's on—foe irresistible brass-
drenched Springstcen-esque romp,
’Call Girt Blues’ or toe verse-verse-
Verse coming-of-age mediation 1 Took
Note’—you're smiling... .«
Morris adds focused muscie to
foe proceedings. The taut march of his;,
menacing 'Motherland/ complete with
ethereal harmonica details, is an album
highlight He steers the new punk gal
lop of 'Big God' like he's (rate a living
in foe genre. Most listeners will find
this more accessible than his work with
Dead Confederate.
The presence of Berlin and
Dufresne brings flourishes of instru
mentation into foe mix Berlins brass
accents add authority to foe biting
Tell Me Why,’ and a plaintive tone
to (album fowfight) ’Christmas in a
Chinese Restaurant" Even an accor
dion shows up In foe Gene Auby high-
plains drone of Totally Lonefy" (foe
albums endearing oddity).
Who knows if foersS a future here?
For now, viva la ‘indie supergroup!*
Spence Johnson
Life Inside the Body
Mazarino
For the past decade. Hope for
AgoWensummer has operated as one
of foe dear voices cutting through the
amplified noise of our music scene. Its
not often that a folk band commands
as much attention as foe guitar boys,
but thatS due to the crystalline vocals
of lead sister singers Claire and Page
Campbell. Their band started out as
a five-piece junkyard chorus replete
with drums and cello, noisy enough in
its own way at times, but lineup shifts
have pared things down over the years
to a trio, or sometimes just a duo,
and on Life Inside the Body foe focus
is direct: two voices, complementing
one another, harmonizing, at times in
synch and at other swirling around one
another. Otters playing.
Most rA Lite Inside the Body, the
bands third full-length, documents
songs the Campbell sisters have been
playing five for years—tracks like
’Come Sack.” “Daniel Bloom’ and
Tucson/ Heartache, fust emotion and
longing characterize toe substance of
most oTem, and the stripped-down
lake puts both foe lyrics themselves
and fodr voed delivery system from v /
and center. Lite Inside the Body plays
to the bands strengths by eliminat
ing much of what has enhanced aid
complemented toe vocals In toe
past—whether thatS by design or
by circumstance doesn't matter too
much, and white a handy of foe
songs could handle the weight of more
dynamic arrangements or exciting
accoutrements, maybe a little like most
of us, they don't need anything else.
Chris Hassiotis
'A HopBforAgofdstmrmeris S
playing at Whole: Mind. Body. Art on
Saturday, May 5.
LHFIY mnMMY
Shacks
Plough Lane
“I didnl know you liked Norah
Jooes/ my roommate said without
looking up from lunch—a frying pan
filled with bacon, egg and cheese
biscuits. Because he was right and
because i realty wanted at least one of
, those biscuits I forgave tha sarcastic
and hasty assessment of “Coins in the
’ufater/ opening track on Shacks, the
debut LP from Lefty Hathaway.
We never spoke of Norah again '
after that intro, but names like Randy
Newman, Van Morrison and Dr. John
run through your head as Shacks
brings a soulful biend of Southern-fried
funk and greasy grooves to the table on
these eight tracks.
. Timbales rumble. The lounge
comes alive. Hathaway* voice cuts
forough fob tension on foe album's title
track: “Beating of your heart banging
like a drum / Next wave sail right over
amber waves / They tumble on and on
and on and on and on and on and on
and on and on and on and on and on/
and Athens has found the soundtrack
to playing Frisbee in grassy fields ail /
summer long. There's Tin Pan Alley
piano (*tfs Alright”) and speaking in
tongues (“Mama Shake’) and a return
to exotic Caribbean jazz rhythms
(“Baby Roux*) that showcases foe per
cussion prowess of Jonathan Solomon.
Here's hoping Hathaway scores a lucra
tive long-term performance contract
at a high-end island resort near the
equator that gets several hundred days
of sunshine every year.
David Eduardo
MAMA'S LOVE
The Great Divide '
independent Release
The Great Divide has reinforced my
iess-than-casually-researched theory
about Widespread Panic being the
luckiest band in foe world. They make
a very comfortable living perform
ing Southern-tinged mote-rock to a
multitude of fans, white never again
having to tote their gear. Its as if a bar
band chanced into all-access laminates
and embraced arena-rock grandiosity
In stride. Sure there was plenty of hard
work—an the mood, swea and «8fs
you'll find in any family tree—but even
they may agree that a portion of foe
good fortune Is inexplicable.
20 FlAGPOLE.COM • APRIL 25,2012
k.
Mama's love probably weren't
contemplating their position within toe
jammy bar band circuit while recording
at John Keane Studios in Athens, but
don't hold it against them if they do. All
the doors fog opened for WSP an route
to hippy-festival headlining slots and a
healthy tot scene should remain ajar for
tote local quintet trafficking in a similar
Southern-fried sound.
You’ll find 12 polished rock
backs showcasing five good buddies
immortalizing to tape the soundtrack
of their lives—greenly aware of the
tod that these are their good of days.
“Suzanna’ is the song The Doobie
Brothers need to release now to remain
relevant as the Mayan calendar braces
for reset Funky, cowbell friendly,
■Windy City Blues" (featuring warm
sax fills and a fine solo from Randall
Brambiett) is yet another track that
would fit nicely in the catalog of many
70s-era rock luminaries. Any bar
band, with or without bong dreams of
Bonnaroo, would agree that's a nice
start.
David Eduardo
KHG OF PRUSSIA
Transmissions from
the Grand Stand
IndependeuP.Jease
King of Prussia debuted as an
Athens band, but frontman Brandon
Hanick kicked off to Barcelona for a
white before settling in Chicago. But
you'd be forgiven for thinking heS a
Brit upon hearing Transmissions from
the Grandstand There is a dignified •
air to his carefully enunciated and
crisp delivery—the kind of voice you’d
expect to narrate the adventures of
some alliterative woodland creatures
(like, Harry the Hedgehog, or some
thing) in an English childrens cartoon,
its enough to make a Anglophiles hear;
melt, thatS for sure. HanickS honeyed
tone is at once pointed and romantic,
serving as a graceful complement to
the swelling soundtrack.
Transmissions is pop music at its
most sophisticated. EadUrack offers
unique, crafted arrangements that are
rich in detail and texture. The band
certainly borrows heavily from the
‘60s, but Hanick foregoes any sappy
choruses or psychedelic flower power
in favor of thoughtful, nuanced narra
tives. Even if love is often on his lips,
HanickS poetic phrasing is never trite,
sometimes even venturing into darker
or politically charged themes that belie
toe buoyant harmonies.
Having recorded in foe States and
abroad, with players from all over foe
world, King of Prussia has managed
to put! together a delightful collection
of mini epics. Maybe we can thank
Athens* own Jesse Mangum for foe
albums pristine and cohesive feel—he
mixed toe record locally at The Glow
Studio. But between the shimmering
< guitars, flirtatious strings and insightful
lyrics, Transmissions demands repeat
listens and reveals more with every
spin.
Michelle Gilzenrat
Alto released Otis month: Betsy
Fmck-This Far* Futurebrrds-Serwy-
Stovail • Boomfox- Taste the Words
• Chris beHe-Summertime Bleeding
• —t
Mem