Atlanta Album Preview: Slushco

If I had to choose my favourite album to come out of Atlanta so far this year, I would probably go with Slushco's When I Met The Boss Of Nova. There is something so pure and beautiful about that record. So I was very excited to hear some new developments on the Slush-front. Last we checked in, Slushco had become a solo project for Brian Slusher as the rest of the band had moved on to other things. But their former synth player Mikey Ogletree has returned from Germany and will be recording a record with Mr. Slusher and Michelle Friedman (Spymagnet, The Yum Yum Tree, Mary O. Harrison). Also, The Sliver Surface, the much delayed follow-up to Clouds, looks to be coming for our ears very soon. A track off it called "Astronaut" is now available as part of a Mp3hugger compilation called Indiecater Volume One. I bought it to listen to the new song, and not only is it great, but the rest of the artists on it are worth looking into as well. So go buy it. I'm not going to post that track here, but I will give you a little something from Clouds in case you haven't checked Slushco out yet:

Slushco : Clouds : My Bravado Under Neon

Slushco Myspace

What Up In The ATL?

This is an incredible week for live shows in the A. Get it started with the trailer to the upcoming documentary on the Atlanta music scene We Fun (this looks awesome!):

Official WE FUN Trailer


The Gaye Blades (featuring Jared Swiley from the Black Lips) will be at The Drunken Unicorn tonight with Coffin Bound and Mammals.

Wednesday night RJD2 is at the Variety Playhouse. I caught him last year at about this time and I didn't really dig it. So if you're smart, you'll go local and check out The Good Moods, The Hotels and Goodnight Mush. at The Drunken Unicorn:



The Good Moods : Jericho


The Good Moods : Old Jersey Trees



Thursday night the Free ISP/Pine Magazine showcase at The Star Bar is the place to be:



Lovesick Scientist is Justin Sias (Elevado) produced by Brian Slusher (Slushco). Go Listen!

A Fight To The Death : Old Black Chains


Cassavettes : My Heart Your Beat



Friday night I'm going to the 11:11 Teahouse to catch 13 Day Mission, Beatrix Kiddo, and Miles From Pangea. I'm working on a piece about these great bands that will be out in the next couple days and I highly recommend checking this one out:




Saturday night is an ATL superstar supernight:

Enon, Howlin Rain, All Night Drug Prowling Wolves, Nomen Novem (featuring members of Moorish Idols) are at The Drunken Unicorn.

The Mourdella (Jessica Juggz's band) CD Release show with Chopper (featuring Colin Mee of Deerhunter), The Coathangers and West End Motel (featuring Brett Hinds of Mastodon and Tom Cheshire of All Night Drug Prowling Wolves) is at The Earl. Looks like Tom Cheshire is gonna have a busy night.

Mourdella : Brink Of Catastrophie


Mourdella : 'Til You Bleed


You can cap off your week with Dunch (the Sunday brunch/dinner) at The Earl featuring The Jupiter Watts doing a low-key set.

Jupiter Watts : Felix (1/4/2008 version)



Damn, the ATL is just too fun!

Underground Hottlanta: Slushco

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


Slushco : Slushco : Getting Through A Normal Day


Slushco Myspace

Buy When I Met the Boss of Nova Here

Buy other Slushco albums here

What Up In The ATL?

Atlanta's From Exile have re-released their epic 2006 debut full-length album Crushing Reality for FREE right now at their website. I highly recommend going and getting that because it really is such a great album. From Exile are currently in the studio recording their newest record which should be out later this year. Also, stop by their myspace.



Another Ohmpark favourite band, Moorish Idols, has gone on a hiatus of sorts to shift their focus on David Norbery's newest project, Nomem Novum. Nomem Novum will have a 7" called Mantis Man out in March and a full-length to follow in November. You can check out the great new tunes at the myspace. There are a handful of shows coming up that you should check out:

02/09/2008 08:00 PM - parkgrounds amphitheater w/Recompas
02/22/2008 09:00 PM - LennysWithTheOrphinsBenefitForSarahJones
03/20/2008 09:00 PM - Drunken Unicorn w/ Blitzen Trapper
04/05/2008 09:45 PM - Drunken Unicorn w/ ENON

Nomem Novum : Aunt Urn


Last week we talked about the new Slushco album, When I Met The Boss Of Nova, being released. Apparently there were some technical issues with CDBaby where it was released digitally, but you can now go purchase the new album here. While I was waiting for that, I finally bought a copy of the self-titled album and it is really awesome. I'm on a heavy Slushco kick right now, but I'll have more on that in a few days.

Tonight there a couple hippy friendly shows. The Greyboy Allstars will be at Smith's Old Bar and I'll be going to The Tabernacle to catch Ween again.

Tomorrow there a few great shows. I'm way stoked about the Super Furry Animals, Fiery Furnaces, Holy Fuck show at The Variety Playhouse. At the Earl, you can catch High On Fire and A Life Once Lost. At The Starbar you can catch Scott H Biram.

Thursday night you can go see Zoroaster at the Drunken Unicorn or Brass Castle and Undomskulen at The Earl.

Friday night you can check out many of what I call the "nu-Black Lips" Atlanta bands such as The Howlies, The NEC, and Thee Crucials.

Saturday night The Earl has yet another awesome show with Rizzudo and The Liverhearts:

What Up In The ATL?

There are some hott new local releases out this week. First, The Selmanaires's second LP, The Air Salesman, is now available:



Also, Anna Kramer & The Lost Cause's The Rustic Contemporary Sounds of comes out today:



You can stream both albums here. They are are also both doing an in-store performance at Criminal Records at 7pm tonight.

I think this has been available for a while, but I just found out out about it. The newest Slushco EP:



Info and tunes on the Slushco Myspace. Buy it here.

The Black Lips are playing a free show at GSU today at noon:



After kicking ass last Saturday night at our One Year Anniversary Party, This Piano Plays Itself will be on WREK 91.1 FM at 10pm tonight. Don't miss it!

Tonight, there's a show:



Tomorrow night, the Stickfigure 2008 Showcase begins with 4 nights in row at the Drunken Unicorn featuring some of Atlanta's greatest up and coming artists:

Tomorrow night: Music For People, Sorry No Ferrari, Bigpenguin, Zandosis
Thursday night: Entertainment, The Feeding Fingers, Tenth To The Moon, Lid Emba
Friday night: Retconned Cover Band, Fur Elise, Tree Creature, Sailor Winters
Saturday Night: One Hand Loves The Other, Envie, The Subliminator, Killick!, Nerdkween

It's $5 for each night of the showcase, and if you like good music and are not familiar with many of those names, do yourself a favour and hit up atleast one of those, because every night is a killer line-up.

Thursday night at Lenny's is a stellar show with Perestroika, Chopper (ex-Blame Game, Deerhunter), Fag Static, and maybe even The Orphins (90% sure according to the Lenny's site)

Friday night at Lenny's there is this:




Friday night The Whigs are at The Earl and there's also this band called Manchester Orchestra that is rumoured to be from Atlanta at The Loft.

For the hippies, Friday night Perpetual Groove is at The Variety Playhouse, and Saturday night Col. Bruce Hampton is at The Loft and The Machine (Pink Floyd cover band) is at the Variety Playhouse.

For the hipsters, Saturday night Anna Kramer And The Lost Cause and The Selmanaires are having their dual CD release show at The Earl.

What a great week for music in Atlanta!

A Weekend In The City

It's a great weekend for shows in the ATL. Today is all about Bloc Party. First, you can catch them for free doing a DJ set in Criminal Records at 6pm and later that night they will be at The Tabernacle with Maccabees and The Noisettes. While you are at Criminal Records, you can pick up the Whirlyball 7", which features songs from Deerhunter, Selmanaires, Carbonas, and The Coathangers. The purchase of that record will also gain you entrance to the show Friday night featuring all of those bands at the Whirlyball place in the 'burbs. I saw Mogwai there last year and it is an interesting venue. If you have a ticket to the soldout Kings Of Leon show at The Tabernacle Friday night, you will get to see the much better bands on the bill, Snowden and The Features. Another great Friday night show you could catch is Silver Lakes, Wax Fang, and Slushco at The Earl. Late night after all of the great music, Decatur Social Club is celebrating its 3-year anniversary and it looks to be really crazy.

Saturday and Sunday you should head down to The Virginia Highlands for Summerfest. The Selmanaires and Anna Kramer will be at Lenny's Saturday night while Mitch Easter, Tim Lee 3, and The Preakness will be at The Earl. I think I'll be checking oujt the Screening of the new Flight Of The Conchords HBO show sponsored by Kissatlanta at The Doo Gallery. As you might remember, I love these guys and am excited to see them at Bonnaroo. If you're interested in attending, it is free, but you must RSVP. If you're into hip-hop, you should go to The Masquerade Saturday night for Sage Francis, Buddy Wakefield, Buck 65, and Alias.

Ok, how about some tracks to preview:

• Bloc Party : The Marshalls Are Dead
• Maccabees : Latchmere
• The Selmanaires : Selmanaire Rock
• The Coathangers : Parking Lot
• The Features : Exhibit A
• Silver Lakes : Feel My Heartbeat
• Slushco : Jenny The Barfly
• Anna Kramer : I Can't Take It
• Mitch Easter : Sudden Crown Drop
• The Preakness : What They're Saying
• Flight Of The Conchords : Business Time
• Sage Francis : Mourning Aftermath