Deerhunter does a few dates over the next week and then begins opening for Nine Inch Nails shows. As soon as that is over, Atlas Sound will be touring with Stereolab. Bradford is hitching to some sweet tours:
Deerhunter Tour Dates:
Thu 07/31 - The Village Tavern Mt. Pleasant SC % Fri 08/01 - The Boot Norfolk VA % Sun 08/03 - McCarren Park Pool Brooklyn NY Tue 08/05 - Air Canada Centre Toronto ON ^ Wed 08/06 - Big Orbit's Soundlab Buffalo NY Thu 08/07 - Mohegan Sun Arena Uncasville CT ^ Fri 08/08 - DCU Center Worcester MA ^ Sat 08/09 - The Sugar Tank Lancaster PA Sun 08/10 - Garfield Artworks Pittsburgh PA Mon 08/11 - 123 Pleasant Street Morgantown WV Tue 08/12 - Knoxville Civic Coliseum Knoxville TN ^ Wed 08/13 - Gwinnett Arena Atlanta GA ^ Tue 09/02 - Red Rock Pavillion Morrison CO ^ Wed 09/03 - E Center Salt Lake City UT ^ Fri 09/05 - Oracle Arena Oakland CA ^ Sat 09/06 - The Forum Inglewood CA ^
% w/ All The Saints ^ w/ Nine inch Nails
Atlas Sound Tour Dates:
Sat 09/20 - Detroit Bar Costa Mesa CA * Sun 09/21 - The Glass House Pomona CA * Wed 09/24 - La Zona Rosa Austin TX * Fri 09/26 - Variety Playhouse Atlanta GA * Sat 09/27 - 40 Watt Club Athens GA * Mon 09/29 - Cats Cradle Carrboro NC * Tue 09/30 - 9:30 Club Washington DC * Wed 10/01 - The Trocadero Theater Philadelphia PA * Thu 10/02 - The Fillmore New York at Irving Plaza New York NY *
Radiohead!!! I am all pumped up about catching them in Atlanta on Thursday and I even decided to ball out and catch them again in Charlotte Friday night. I've been wanting to see a Liars show for forever, so I'm excited about that too. Here is the entire Radiohead Glastonbury 2003 set to get you hyped up for this week's biggest event:
Before I get into the rest of what is going on this week, I'm gonna hit you with a bit of last week. Here is Genghis Tron from last Tuesday night:
Last Thursday our crew hit up the Fuck Yesss Le Castle Vania birthday bash at The Drunken Unicorn and had a blast:
Saturday night everyone in my neighborhood was partying with all the college kids graduating and getting ready for summer. I caught an impromptu, late night jam session between members of two of Atlanta's hottest metal bands,DaathandFrom Exile. Both are working on new albums currently that should be out this year. In this video, they start out on an FE lick, and end up in a total blues jam (The cops showed up shortly after this):
Eskimo Bliss got some photos of the Yeasayer show last Saturday night here.
Have You Heard did some recordings with Atlanta's Today The Moon, Tomorrow The Sun, and they sound really cool.
In this week's edition of our obligatory Bradford Cox update, he has dropped another great, thematic Atlas Sound EP on his blog. I'm jamming it now, and I love this song:
Tonight there is a big show at The Earl. Atlanta's Morning State is having their album release party for You Know People, I Know People. The album comes out tomorrow everywhere, and it is great. I'll have a full review later this week. Also joining them for this one is Brooklyn's The XYZ Affair and Washington, DC's Jukebox The Ghost.
Let's get your weekend started with some local flavour. Atlas Soundwill be remixing a Sian Alice Group song for a forthcoming EP. Here's a video for one of my favourite Atlas Sound songs, "Recent Bedroom":
Mastodon have a massive tour schedule between their Bonnaroo appearance and their Rockstar Mayhem Tour:
Jun 14 - Manchester, Tennessee @ Bonnaroo (2:00P) Jul 9 - Seattle, Washington @ White River Amphitheatre Jul 11 - Sacramento, California @ Sleep Train Amphitheatre Jul 12 - San Francisco, California @ Shoreline Amphitheatre Jul 13 - San Bernardino, California @ Glen Helen Pavilion Jul 15 - Fresno, California @ Save Mart Center Jul 16 - San Diego, California @ Coors Amphitheatre Jul 18 - Phoenix, Arizona @ Cricket Pavilion Jul 19 - Albuquerque, New Mexico @ Journal Pavilion Jul 20 - Denver, Colorado @ Coors Amphitheatre Jul 22 - Kansas City, Kansas @ Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre Jul 23 - St. Louis, Missouri @ Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre Jul 25 - Dallas, Texas @ Smirnoff Music Centre Jul 26 - San Antonio, Texas @ Verizon Amphitheatre Jul 27 - Houston, Texas @ Sam Houston Race Track Jul 29 - Tampa, Florida @ Ford Amphitheatre Jul 30 - Miami, Florida @ Sound Advice Amphitheatre Aug 1 - Virginia Beach, Virginia @ Verizon Amphitheatre Aug 2 - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania @ Post Gazette Pavilion Aug 3 - Scranton, Pennsylvania @ Toyota Pavilion Aug 5 - Boston, Massachusetts @ Tweeter Center for the Performing Arts Aug 6 - Uniondale, New York @ Nassau Coliseum Aug 8 - Toronto, Ontario @ Downsview Park Aug 9 - Detroit, Michigan @ DTE Energy Music Theatre Aug 10 - Chicago, Illinois @ First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre Aug 12 - Atlanta, Georgia @ Lakewood Amphitheatre Aug 13 - Indianapolis, Indiana @ Verizon Wireless Music Center Aug 15 - Camden, New Jersey @ Tweeter Center at The Waterfront Aug 16 - Hartford, Connecticut @ New England Dodge Music Center Aug 17 - Washington DC @ Nissan Pavilion Aug 19 - Buffalo, New York @ Darien Lake Performing Arts Center
"Sleeping Giant":
Long time friends of Ohmpark, Parade, have announced their show tonight at Lenny's is going to be their last. They still have a new forthcoming album in June, but are not planning to do any shows in support of it apparently. This is very sad news for us, so here's some Parade tracks to jam and if you never caught them, go see them tonight while you still have a chance.
The AthFest line-up is out, and notables include Dark Meat, Cinemehanica, We Vs. The Shark, Elf Power, Twin Tigers, Venice Is Sinking, and Dubconscious. The fest is going down June 18-22 in Athens, Ga.
Rock The Bells tour is back and looking good, but the closest it is coming to us is Miami, FL:
Tegan And Saraare coming back to Atlanta for two dates at Chastain June 16 & 17.
Ok, I promise this is our last SXSW post. Most Likely. Anyways, the last day of the fest started with us sleeping in a bit later than normal, but we made it in time to catch Plants And Animals at an Urban Outfitters next to UT campus. They rocked it out:
After a long hike back to the main strip, Biggie C and I split up. He went to catch Dead Confederate, who ended up using almost all of their set doing cover of Sonic Youth's "Diamond Sea". I went and caught Sea Wolf:
After that we met back up and went down to Waterloo Park where they had a free concert with three stages packed full of the big names at SXSW. It was like a mini festival in itself. We caught a bit of Yeasayer's set:
After that we sort of chilled out on 6th Street and did some resting and people watching. Fatigue finally caught up to me on my last day of the fest, so we balled out on a nice steak to get my mojo back and then went to one of the Emo's joints and caught Maps And Atlases. They brought a full finger tapping assault:
By the end of that set, everything on the main strip was packed out like crazy, and we weren't really feeling the vibe, so we headed down the street to catch the last Todd P event of the weekend. Todd P is a party thrower from Brooklyn, New York that is a champion of DIY shows and had put togther the acoustic show on campus we caught the first night, so we figured it would be cool. Here' a little vid about him:
The party was at a tiny dive bar called Ms. Bea's. Behind the building, a huge crowd of folks were chatting about, drinking, and catching good music on some make-shift stages. A band I discovered at the show who put on a really cool set was Sian Alice Group. At the end of the night we were waiting at the merch table for someone to sell us a CD, and we totally busted some dude trying to steal the bands' merch. It was a funny and surreal occurence, but we ended up meeting the Social Registry folks because of it, and they were really nice.
The last act we caught of SXSW was Atlanta's Atlas Sound. I tried not to see too many local acts I could catch here while in Austin, but as we are Bradford Cox super-fans around here, we couldn't resist. I thought he was at his best for the perfect way to end a great week:
All in all, SXSW was one of the most enjoyable fests I have ever been to in my life, and if you have been seeing all the ludicrous amount of coverage over the Internet for the last month and feeling jealous, just remember that when tickets go on sale next year and know that the huge price tag is well worth it in my opinion. Especially considering the big time fests like Bonnaroo and Coachella have upped their prices significantly now. Taking into account the enormous amount of free and unofficial events going on all weekend, you could have a stellar time without dropping a cent for tickets.
Also, The weekend in Austin was the greatest physical incarnation of the music revolution going on that I have ever seen. There were enormous choices. There were super exclusive industry parties and the best DIY shows in the US all within walking distance of one another. If there was one theme I took from the weekend, it is that art is alive and well in our culture and becoming more prevalent every day. It is rare a festival really inspires me, but SXSW turned to be a rather transcendental experience for myself. I'll have some long-winded discourses about various items the fest made me ponder about soon, but here's a final best-of-guide to SXSW 2008:
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:
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!
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.
Gringo Star's newest video got up on the 'fork this week:
Back when they used to be called A Fir-Ju Well, they lived over in my 'hood and have been one of the very first ATL bands I really got into. Their 2005 Absolutely is truly an amazing album that is an essential for ITP folks. I can't wait for the first proper Gringo Star record which should finally be out this year because these guys deserve to blow up. March 6th be sure to check out their 7" release party at The Earl.
Tonight the big show is Liars and No Age at The Earl (two bands whose albums made our top 50 2007 lists).
Tomorrow The Earl has another great show with this year's blog bands, Black Mountain and Blood on The Wall. I've been enjoying the Black Mountain album and didn't really like the new Blood On The Wall upon my first listen.
Also Friday night is The Howlies at Star Bar and Victor Wooten at The Variety Playhouse.
Saturday seem to offer some great house parties I plan on hitting up. Early in the afternoon you can go to East Atlanta and hit up Rob's House. The festivities:
keg taping - 3pm westend motel - 330pm bobby and the soft spots - 430pm subsonics - 530pm
Then there is this with Dirty Projector's Nat Baldwin:
Then on Tuesday is the Atlas Sound show at the Drunken Unicorn on the day his first proper album drops. I'm pretty stoked about it. And next Wednesday The Selmanaires and The Coathangers are doing a 7" release show at The Earl before they each head out in separate directions on tour and meet back up at SXSW.
If you haven't already heard, Deerhunter are going to be on hiatus for an undisclosed amount of time. This is all according to a post by Bradford Cox on their blog. I'll repost the letter below for you:
Goodbye 21st Century
So we have one show left tomorrow night in Leipzig, Germany. Then we drive through the night to Prague where we fly home from early in the morning. This tour has been really insane. We met a lot of amazing people and finally got to play the UK, making our debut at the forum even. We are totally grateful for the opportunity to play everywhere we did. When we started this band years ago we never imagined playing outside of Atlanta, so this has all been like a hallucination. We are all exhausted now and ready to be home. I would like to announce that the show we are playing at Primavera in Barcelona (I hope to god i spelled that right) will be our last for quite some time. It will also be the last time we are ever playing the Cryptograms set we have been playing for the last two years. After that the band are going on hiatus. We all need some time to organize our lives. Thanks to everyone who has helped us out. This has been a crazy year that I will always remember.
Love, Bradford
P.S. we will still post stuff on here but probably not just as regularly and you can pretty much rest assured it will be solo stuff and not deerhunter, so if you are one of those people who are like, "why doesn't bradford start his own blog", delete your bookmark. deerhunter is sleeping now.
P.P.S. I miss my mom and dad making me go to church when i was a kid.
P.P.P.S. everyone should absolutley check out adam and greg's amazing ambient new age blog.
**More Deerhunter News**
The guys just had a set posted on Daytrotter.com mostly full of songs that I am not familiar with except for Heatherwood off of the Flourescent Grey EP and Dr. Glass from Cryptograms. If you aren't already familiar with Daytrotter, all of the tracks are available for free download right off that page.
Also... Below is some video coverage that Bradford did for MTV while at CMJ Music Marathon last month in NYC:
It's rare that one album turns me into a die-hard fan of a band, but Grizzly Bear's Yellow House from last year is one of those albums. The easiest tell-tale sign of how good music is to me is how many times I can listen to something without it getting stale, and when it is really great, it gets better with more listens. I'm still not sick of Yellow House, but now with their newest release, the Friend EP, i have even more to obsess about. As much as i love this new release, it would be hard for me to suggest it to someone who hasn't listened to Yellow House or seen them live, because Friend is all about re-interpreting themselves, both by Grizzly Bear and a cast of other great young musicians, and so the coolest things on here are best in the context of knowing them well. My advice to you is go listen to Yellow House about ten times if you haven't, and if you can stop listening to it, then go get Friend.
A great album I just discovered recently is Beartrap Island. This first full-length release from California's Division Day, who have been a band since 2001, is one of those albums that are wholly accessible (I wouldn't be surprised if 99X was playing it in their rotation right now) but also contains a vast amount of lyrical and musical depth. The sound kind of reminds me of The Stills' Logic Will Break Your Heart but with much more sonic diversity. Taking pessimistic and dark ideas and applying those to upbeat and pretty music is a flavor i'm very fond of and Division Day do it well.
Between their massive touring schedule, Atlanta's children of the hype will be in town this week. Monday night at the Drunken Unicorn you can catch Bradford's solo project, Atlas Sound, opening up for The Dirty Projectors. I've just started jamming The Dirty Projector's new album, Rise Above, and it is really cool. The album is a weird attempt to cover Black Flag's Damaged. I don't know much Black Flag (although I'm about to educate myself) so I can't judge how cool their take on them is, but the music itself is really good stuff. Thursday night Deerhunter, now a 4-piece, will also be performing at the Drunken Unicorn with No Age, a band David has been really into, so I'm excited to check them out. Make sure to have your homecoming ribbons ready.
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