So back in November, I had the pleasure of getting to do an interview with the band Morning State for the college radio station Album 88.5 WRAS, here in Atlanta. While doing the interview, we recorded a couple of acoustic versions of some tracks from their upcoming new album that has been in some label limbo for a while.
Their infectious sound in this stripped down avenue of approach is really reminiscent of Britt Daniel and Spoon. These acoustic renditions are a online EXCLUSIVE here at Ohmpark and I really hope you guys enjoy them!
Last week we caught the Atlas Sound show at The Drunken Unicorn (2/19/08). For those who don't know yet, Atlas Sound is the solo project of Deerhunter's Bradford Cox. He just released his first full-length album, Let The Blind Lead those Who Can See But Cannot Feel, but it is far from the first material he has put out under the Atlas Sound name. On his blog, Cox regularly puts out material he makes over a weekend, or old stuff he did when he was a kid, or all sorts of interesting music available to everyone for free. To me, his blog is a revolutionary medium for musicians. While there certainly have been plenty of extremely prolific artists before him, Bradford is able to have a much more intimate experience with his audience, regularly giving away his material to his fans directly, and so far, there is no one else who is pulling this off so successfully. As the Internet continues to steer the world of music into interesting directions, Mr. Cox has embraced these trends and utilized them to enhance his art.
What's even better is that almost all of his material that I have listened to in this way is good. I'm still jamming out the Orange Ohms Glow EP constantly that he put on his site weeks ago. The new proper LP is stunning too, a very different beast than Cryptograms.
For the live shows, Bradford has put together a nice collection of musicians to form the Atlas Sound Music Group. He came on stage repping a No Age T-shirt. Another thing I love about him is how he manages to team up with and support many of the other great new musicians in their prime right now. The Atlas Sound performance struck me very differently than the many Deerhunter shows I caught last year. When writers talk about Bradford, they aways bring up things like the dress wearing and all of the supposedly obscene blogging he was doing last year. He is always billed as a spectacle because of this and he sort of became a polarizing figure. While I'm sure that many of the things he did also functioned as attention grabbers, it always felt like they were more about forming a barrier of inaccessibility between him and the audience. As if it were more a distraction from the fear of putting himself and his work out their in an honest and naked way for all to see. Even at the end of the year when he ditched most of the stage act, he would always feel distant on stage, and this Atlas Sound show was the first time to me that he seemed to have a very inviting demeanor and open up. He seems to be more comfortable with putting all of his being on display and for a fan like me, it was pretty amazing to see.
Biggie C got some photos:
I got some videos, "Recent Bedroom" (I love this song so much):
"Quarantined":
"Scraping Past":
"Winter Vacation":
"Requiem For All The Lonely Teenagers With Passed Out Moms":
Sloan Simpson taped the entire show and you can find that here at Southern Shelter.
White Rainbow is is on tour with Atlas Sound, in fact the one man loop-fest badass is in the Atlas Sound Music Group. His set was really cool too, you can listen to it at Southern Shelter also. A couple pics from Biggie C:
There are a ton of good shows this weekend, so we will list them:
Tonight:
The Drunken Unicorn: Slow Motion Crash, Ringo Deathstar, Siberia My Sweet I Can Fly House: The Gunshy, Mustangs And Madras, Thy Mighty Contract, Hawks The Earl: The Preakness, Dylan Kight And The Nigtbirds, Long Knives The Star Bar: The Carbonas, The NEC (Free show)
Friday:
The Drunken Unicorn: Morning State, De Novo Dahl, Sleep Therapy Star Bar: Dead Confederate, Ski Club, Ocha La Rocha, Twin Tigers The Tabernacle: Regina Spektor 141 Moreland Ave: Young Livers, Benard, 40 Hells Lenny's: Sonen, Judi Chicago, The Modern Society Decatur Social Club: The Rare Form DJ Crew
Saturday:
The Earl: Beach House, Papercuts, The Meeks Family Variety Playhouse: Dark Star Orchestra Drunken Unicorn: Joe Lally (Fugazi), Edie Sedgwick, Martyr & Pistol Under The Couch: The Ataris
Sunday:
Variety Playhouse: Jose Gonzalez 141 Moreland Ave: Ghost Mice, Wrister, The Riot Before, Witt Wisebram The Five Spot: Rev Rebel, The Ropes (featuring former drummer of The Mars Volta Blake Fleming), Hawkeye Pierce
That's a hell of a line-up and now I'm really considering going to this. The Gorge is considered by many as the coolest venue in the US. Tickets are reasonably priced and go on sale Saturday March 8th. More details on their website.
Sonic Youth is headlining an Arkansas festival called Dickson Street Fest in April with Charlie Daniels, 38 Special, Shooter Jennings, Michael Franti and Spearhead, and Little Feat. Weird line-up.
North Korea has invitedEric Clapton to play a concert there confirming that he indeed sold his soul to play guitar.
Track down a Velvet Underground 1967 vinyl bootleg to download here.
Have You Heard did a session with Atlanta's Trances Arc. I had been hearing some noise about this band, but now that I've looked into them, they are so not our style.
Club Awesome will be performing live on Georgia Tech campus in the student center tonight from 10pm to 11pm. The performance will be broadcasted live over Georgia Tech's radio station WREK 91.1. If you are not in the Atlanta area and want to catch a little ATL flavour, you can still stream the show at the radio station website. If you don't catch this post in time for the show, they will have the performance up at their website for a week afterwards.
I think right now if I had to pick my favourite album to come out this year, it would probably be Evangelicals' second album, The Evening Descends. It is so psychedelic and so operatic. This is one of those albums where I get excited as each new song begins. The kaleidoscopic sonic journey certainly gives a nod to fellow Oklahomans The Flaming Lips as well as many other folks, but the last thing you could accuse this band of is being unoriginal with its mix of influences. If you haven't rocked this one yet, don't delay any longer:
Beck is one of my favourite musicians and every time I return to one of his albums, I fall in love with what he does all over again. I recently picked up a copy of the Deluxe Odelay, and have been partying like its 1996. I have really enjoyed the Deluxe reissues I have picked up over the years as they are always full of fun extras, but I have to say this may be the best Deluxe album version I've got yet in terms of bonus material. Very much worth purchasing:
At The Drive In - Live In Tokyo Japan, January 18 2001 (Lost Horse Records, catalog #LH-2010, price 2,500 Yen) bootleg vinyl 12" lp (butterscotch/cream swirl pattern) >Technics SL-B350 turntable (refurbished but not modified)>Edirol R-09 (via analog line in)>16 bit stereo WAV>CEP2 (fades,trims,remove most pops/clicks,join/merge side A&B,volume adjustments)>CDWAVE (track splits on sector boundaries)>FLAC via Traders Little Helper (level 8)>bit torrent
Record was cleaned before transfer but some low level vinyl noise is still audible.The recording is taken from the circulating Japanese pro shot video (Shibuya ON AIR EAST), and was just a tad hot at the start of Arcarsenal, but the levels were quickly adjusted by the filming crew. Any edits made by the manufacturer of this lp were left intact.
The album and jacket are very nicely presented, with awesome artwork on the front cover, and as stated above, the vinyl is a butterscotch and cream swirl pattern.
Tracklist (as listed on back of album jacket).
Side A: 1.Arcarsenal 2.Pattern Against User 3.Invalid Litter Dept. 4.Cosmonaut
Side B: 1.Raschuache 2.Sleepwalk Capsules 3.Enfilade 4.Extracurricular
Live Review: Dead Meadow, All The Saints, Untied States (2/18/2008) The Earl
Last Monday night I caught one of the best shows in Atlanta so far this year. Three seriously kickass bands played some amazing sets. First up was one of my favourites from Atlanta, Untied States. They are currently working on a new album and I really like the new stuff. Also, I think new(ish) drummer Erin Santini's style blends very well with their sound. If I had to pick the most underrated band in all of this city, it is these guys.
The second band was another A-town outfit, All The Saints. This was my first time seeing them, and I was blown away. They felt sort of like if Deerhunter was a classic rock power-trio. Their drog-rock jamouts were ridiculous. I'm looking forward to catching them again at SXSW and you can catch them in Atlanta St. Patrick's Day night opening for A Place To Bury Strangers and Holy Fuck.
California's Dead Meadow closed out the show and it was a total stoner-rock jam session as one would expect from these guys. I luckily just got turned on to them a few weeks before this show and have been thoroughly enjoying their newest album, Old Growth. I think this is the first time I saw someone drinking a Black and Tan on stage. They aren't exactly the most progressive band in the world, but what they do, they do extremely well, and I thought they really rocked out hard.
Before I get started, I just want to shout out to Lern for fixing my Internet. It feels good to be blogging from my own house again. Anyways, let's get started with festivals as there were some big announcements this week. The biggest would be All Points West (Coachella East). The festival will include two nights of Radiohead, which is ridiculous. Here's the line-up so far:
Radiohead, Jack Johnson, Underworld, Kings of Leon, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Cat Power, The Roots, The New Pornographers, Youssou N'Dour, Animal Collective, Andrew Bird, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Metric, CSS, Girl Talk, Chromeo, The Go! Team, Amadou & Mariam, The Black Angels, Sia, The Felice Brothers, K'Naan, Jason Isbell, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, Alberta Cross, The Virgins, Black Kids, Mates of State, Duffy, Forro in the Dark, Nicole Atkins, Juana Molina, Little Brother, Rogue Wave, Neil Halstead and Your Vegas.
Outside of Radiohead the line-up seems a bit weak to be charging $258 for a weekend pass, but I guess with Coachella selling out last year so fast, they have decided to really push the price limits this year. Regardless, though, I may still go to this on the strength of seeing Radiohead in such a cool location and hanging out in New York City. Tickets go on sale this Friday. The fest goes down August 8th-10th. Get all the info at the website.
Other Festivals that made some noise this week:
All Good Fest (July 11th-13th in West Virginia) announces line-up:
Michael Franti & Spearhead Keller Williams and the WMD'S Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi Soul Stew Revival Medeski, Martin & Wood Railroad Earth Tea Leaf Green The Bridge Hot Buttered Rum RAQ Bonerama Pnuma Trio The Wood Brothers Bassnectar Outformation Telepath deSol Basshound Plus many more artists still to be announced
10,000 Lakes Fest (July 23th-26th in Minnesota) announces line-up:
Phil Lesh & Friends The Flaming Lips Michael Franti & Spearhead George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic Mickey Hart Band (featuring Steve Kimock & George Porter Jr.) Medeski Scofield Martin & Wood Slightly Stoopid Dark Star Orchestra Panjea with Michael Kang JJ Grey & MOFRO New Mastersounds Everyone Orchestra The Wood Brothers Cornmeal WBPN The Hue With over forty additional acts still to be announced
Next week is officially Beach House week as their new album Devotion comes out on Tuesday and they will be playing at The Earl on Saturday with The Papercuts. I am pretty stoked about both as I loved their self-titled album and both times I saw them live they were awesome. You can win all sorts of prizes including tickets to the show, check it out:
02/28 Baltimore, MD Gspot 02/29 Chapel Hill, NC Local 506 03/01 Atlanta, GA The Earl 03/02 Birmingham, AL BottleTree Cafe 03/03 Memphis, TN The Hi Tone Cafe 03/04 Hattiesburg, MS The Thirsty Hippo 03/05 Baton Rouge, LA Spanish Moon 03/06 Houston, TX Walter's on Washington 03/07 Austin, TX Emo's 03/08 Denton, TX Hailey's 03/10 Tucson, AZ Solar Culture 03/11 Phoenix, AZ Modified 03/12 San Diego, CA The Casbah 03/13 Los Angeles, CA The Echo 03/14 San Luis Obispo, CA Steynberg Gallery 03/15 San Francisco, CA Bottom of the Hill 03/17 Portland, OR Holocene 03/18 Seattle, WA Chop Suey 03/19 Vancouver, BC Media Club 03/21 Salt Lake City, UT Kilby Court 03/22 Denver, CO Hi-Dive 03/24 Omaha, NE The Slowdown 03/25 Minneapolis, MN 7th Street Entry 03/26 Chicago, IL Schubas 03/27 Cleveland, OH The Grog Shop 03/28 Toronto, ON El Mocambo 03/29 Montreal, PQ Casa del Popolo 03/31 Cambridge, MA The Middle East 04/01 Middleton, CT. Wesleyan University 04/02 New York, NY Bowery Ballroom 04/03 Philadelphia, PA The Barbery 04/04 Washington, DC Rock and Roll Hotel Video action in case you missed it:
Since taking up this Ohmpark project, it never ceases to amaze me how many great bands from Atlanta that I continue to discover. The deeper I dig, the more talented artists I find. Slushco was another of the plethora of bands I had heard of, but never really looked into hard until recently, upon hearing about the new album, When I Met The Boss of Nova. Showing up late to this party, I've found that Slushco is no longer a band and is now a solo project of Brian Slusher. I contacted Brian via Myspace so he could tell a noob like me what the dilly is: "As far as Slushco, it is strictly a one man studio project now. The band fell apart when Mikey the synth player left for Germany. We toyed with the idea of replacing him but, band morale was collectively down. Aaron the drummer also wanted to concentrate on his other interests. While all of this was happening, I was quietly making the Nova album."
Brian stressed that the band's demise was an amicable one. "It was actually better for all of us. We wanted different things and that's ok. We're all still friends." He went on to talk about the new album that was originally planned to be a solo album for him. "At first, the goal was to prove that you can make a record with a $24 casio keyboard that I bought off Ebay. One of my friends was complaining that he couldn't get his stuff sounding like mine in his home studio. I was trying to encourage him to try anything. Then I actually started making really fun songs with the casio. The first song I wrote for the album was Photograph. I would take it into my kitchen and play around while I was waiting for my pasta to boil. Voila! Being that it keeps tempo very well, it was easy to play notes with my right hand and switch beat settings simultaneously with my left hand. Casio's are great. You should get one if you don't already have one. So eventually, the casio became a one trick pony. I quickly started programming beats with the same plastic feel. It would have been very boring if I hadn't used other drum sounds."
Mr. Slusher is not stopping there as he has some more releases planned for this year: "I am also putting out The Silver Surface for sure. This was going to be the album after Clouds but, we just didn't get around to recording it while all of the breakups and replacements were going on. The recordings are my original demos that I made for the bandmates. There are lots of blemishes and harsh sounds but at the same time, it's really honest. I didn't want to rerecord it without the original members and I also don't want it to go unheard. I guess I'm setting myself up for criticism. It's a very dynamic and flashy album. Our last few shows were based around it. There's also one called The Softer Side of Synchronicity that I am currently working on. As always, they will be my standard 7 song format. I think people get bored with the same topic if it's too long."
I think this 7 song structure is a very interesting way to format an album and I think he is on to something about being able to make a thematic album more effective in a shorter span of time. Another thing I've learned since doing this blog thing is that EPs are really underrated. As for seeing Sluscho in a live capacity anytime soon, it may only be wishful thinking. "I don't know if I will play any shows for a while. It's really hard to get all of the people together and actually do well. I love being in my studio. I feel like I'm actually being more honest with the music listener on record rather than playing a bad show and pretending to enjoy myself. Good shows are great. Bad shows are devastating."
Since downloading a copy of Nova (to cut down on distribution costs, so far he is only releasing it digitally), I've been jamming it out relentlessly and I can't recommend it enough. It is easily one of the best albums to come out so far this year. Here's a little Slushco to try:
Slushco : When I Met The Boss Of Nova : Photograph
Last Saturday I spent my afternoon at Rob's House in East Atlanta. Rob's House Records is an Atlanta music label that puts out 7" vinyl records of ATL bands such as Deerhunter and Black Lips. Some cool articles to read up can be found here, here, and here. Last Saturday they had another of the many free parties that they do. We arrived just in time to grab a beer off of the keg and listen to Bobby And The Soft Spots do a short set in the tiny basement. I'm not the biggest fan of this trend of local bands trying to copycat the Black Lips, because they always seem to come off as a cheap ripoff to me, and this was a particularly uninspired attempt. After that we chilled out with the guys from Elevado and Missile Command and watched some pyromaniac build a huge fire. When the keg died, the other band, The Subsonics, performed. They have apparently been around for a very long time (their first album came out in 1992) and while I had heard of them before this, I really didn't know anything about them. The chick drummer played the entire time standing up, and was pretty good. The frontman just ruled his guitar. They slashed through a ton of short surf-punk-rock jams off one of the largest setlists I've ever seen a band write out. Here's a few videos:
Overall, my second time at Rob's House was very fun again. They know good music, they throw good parties, and they are just another example of how the ATL underground music scene kicks major ass.
Gentleman Jesse / Joseph Plunket - Split 7" Baby Shakes - Tell Me Now 10" (heart-shaped) The Weakends 7" Demon's Claws - Fucked on Ketamine 7" Slab City - Friday Nite Boy 7" Hipshakes - Live at Rob's House 7" + represses: Carbonas, Cheveu, SIDS, Fe Fi Fo Fums
I noticed that at the Atlas Sound Myspace you can listen to every song on the new album. If you've yet to come to the dark side, go give it a jam session and I think you'll be convinced. For you OTP readers that are ready for Bradford to come to you, here's the tourdates: Feb 19 2008 9:45P Drunken Unicorn Atlanta, Georgia Feb 20 2008 8:00P Local 506 Chapel Hill Feb 21 2008 9:00P Black Cat Backstage WASHINGTON Feb 22 2008 8:00P Johnny Brendas PHILADELPHIA Feb 23 2008 8:00P Mercury Lounge New York, New York Feb 24 2008 8:00P Music Hall Of Williamsburg Brooklyn, New York Feb 26 2008 9:00P Middle East Upstairs CAMBRIDGE Feb 27 2008 8:00P Casa Del Popolo Montreal, Quebec Feb 28 2008 8:00P Legendary Horseshoe Tavern Toronto, Ontario Feb 29 2008 8:00P Magic Stick Detroit, Michigan Mar 1 2008 8:00P Empty Bottle Chicago Mar 2 2008 8:00P Triple Rock Club Minneapolis, Minnesota Mar 5 2008 8:00P Pats Pub Vancouver, British Columbia Mar 6 2008 8:00P High Dive Seattle, Washington Mar 7 2008 8:00P Holocene Portland, Oregon Mar 8 2008 8:00P Bottom of the Hill San Francisco, California Mar 11 2008 8:00P Echo Los Angeles
Tomorrow night there is another ATL Superstar extravaganza:
Here is a little something from Colin "The Great Deserter" Mee's non-Deerhunter project:
Friday night the ATL Superstar-mania continues with too many Superstars for one show:
or
Oh, and it don't stop there. Saturday night is The Stickfigure Distribution February Showcase at The Drunken Unicorn featuring One Hand Loves The Other, Strezo, Antic Clay, and Sick Figures.
Just another great week to be a music fan in the A. Get out and see some shows!
Thanks to Tiny Mix Tapes for the heads up. Wilco has been doing a residency in their home town of Chicago, and tonight 93XRT will be broadcasting the performance. It starts at 7:30pm central time (8:30pm for us East Coasters).
Video of The Day: Flight Of The Conchords: A Texan Odyssey
While I've been killing time at work, I came across this post on Brooklyn Vegan. They posted the 45 minute documentary below that The Flight Of The Conchords made when they traveled to SXSW in 2006. The post also included this photo:
What is especially hilarious about the photo is that those two folks that FOTC are pointing to are actually ex-ATLiens, and the one on the right was my roommate a few years ago. Right before this happened, we had all become obsessed with the FOTC HBO special and it was a big deal when they sent us this photo after SXSW. Anyway, that randomness gave me a laugh. You should really watch this doc, though, because it will make you laugh also:
Live Show: Atlas Sound (2/16/2008) The 40 Watt, Athens, Ga
Atlas Sound will be at The Drunken Unicorn tonight. I bought his new solo album, Let The Blind Lead those Who Can See But Cannot Feel, over the weekend and it is pretty awesome. Badass taper Sloan Simpson recorded the Atlas Sound show in Athens, Ga a few days ago, so here it is to get you ready to catch Bradford tonight:
Shortly after posting this I discovered that Sloan Simpson is more awesome than I realized and has this posted on his site. I highly recommend going and checking out Southern Shelter because it has a bajillion awesome shows up.
I think this line-up has been out for a while, but I've heard very little noise about it. Ultra Music Festival is The US's premiere electronic music festival that takes place in Miami, Florida each spring at the same time as Winter Music Conference, the SXSW of electronic music. This year Ultra is taking place March 28th & 29th. Here's the line-up:
