The Other Sound Schedule

The Other Sound Festival returns this Saturday to Little Five Points. Here’s an updated schedule:

STAR BAR MAIN STAGE
6pm What Happened to Your Fire, Tiger
7pm Book of Colors
8pm Little Tybee
9pm West End Motel
9:40pm Author’s Apology
10:15pm The Charges
11:15pm Abby GoGo
12:15am Skin Jobs

STAR BAR DUNGEON
6:30pm Walk from the Gallows
7:30pm Starfighter
8:30pm Buffalo Bangers
9:30pm King Congregation
10:30pm Tornado Town
11:30pm Odist

FIVE SPOT
7pm Meut
8pm Jeremy Ray & The Gonzo Orchestra
9pm Weapons of Audio
10pm Oryx and Crake
11pm GPWFLY
12am Omelet

CRIMINAL RECORDS
2:30pm Back Pockets
3:30pm The Wild
4:30pm A Fight to the Death
5:30pm Mermaids

JAVA LORDS
1:00pm Wes Ables
2:00pm Hawkeye Pierce
4:00pm Platonic Sex
5:00pm The Falcon Lords

The Other Sound website


Little Tybee : “Dear Emily”
A Fight To The Death : “The Gesture”
Abby GoGo : “Louder Than Dreams”

[Video] A Fight To The Death: “Grant Park” IndieATL Session

The new A Fight To The Death record, Gesture Of A Gentleman, is the most impressive release yet from a very talented Atlanta outfit. Their world-spanning collection of antique aesthetics is a bit far out of my taste range, but the music is so good that I can still thoroughly enjoy it. They will be at The Earl Saturday, and here is a video of them performing at Georgia State’s Digital Arts Entertainment Lab:

A Fight To The Death
“Grant Park” IndieATL Session
Song from Gesture Of A Gentleman
Produced by Matt Rowles

Photos: The Other Sound Festival 2009: Selmanaires, Book Of Colors, A Fight To The Death, Grand Prize Winners, Club Awesome, Falcon Lords, Untied States, Author’s Apology, Los Buenos @ Star Bar

Los Buenos:

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Author’s Apology:

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Untied States:

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Falcon Lords:

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Atlanta Music Genome

I noticed this last week on Noot d’ Noot‘s blog and thought that it was very cool:

Jah Scorp has been working on an ATL Genome for some time now, and Mark from Quadiliacha has realized his vision with this fully interactive graph. See how it all ties together HERE.

Make sure to go to fullscreen mode, it’s much easier to use. It’s scope is a bit limited, but it also has way too many bands I had never heard of before. I did a little google research and found the blog of the person who made this genome. You should check it out. You can see an earlier version of the genome here.

I’m sure this isn’t a phenomenon unique to Atlanta, but we sure do have a ton of musicians who were in a ton of different bands with each other. It’s great to see someone putting all that data together. Right before Have You Heard stopped operating, Cj from A Fight To The Death had begun working on his own Atlanta music genome. He did a good podcast breaking down the family tree of The Goldest that you should listen to here. All of this makes me realize I need to have much more content digging into the history of Atlanta’s music scene, so I need to go do some research.

Corndogorama 2009: Sunday (Day 2)


All photos by Clint Miller

I made my way into the festival to grab some breakfast, and then caught the end of The Slackey Family, who weren’t very memorable. As soon as that ended, This Piano Plays Itself unleashed a sonic assault that brought most of the sparse festival crowd over to witness. Their set was only comprised of two newer songs, but they were probably each about ten minutes long. This was the first show with Doug from the now defunct Athens band Kebert Xela in the lineup, and this new 5-piece incarnation was blissful controlled chaos.

Next up were two bands that would broadly fit in the genre of 90′s Frat Rock. I would guess these bands would kill it in Buckhead, but totally weak sauce for Corndogorama.

Get Small:

Niagra Mohawk:

Then Today The Moon, Tomorrow The Sun (someone needs to coin a short, catchy nickname for this band) took the main stage and played a stunningly compelling set, as they always do. It is hard for me to think of another young band in this city that combines accessibility with more talent than these guys and gals. I definitely wish this set would have been longer.


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Photos: Adron, A Fight to the Death, Lindsay Appel, Royal Bangs @ Star Bar (6/25/09)

Royal Bangs:

Lindsay Appel:

A Fight To The Death:


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Photos: I Was A King, A Fight To The Death @ The Earl (6/3/09)

A Fight To The Death:

More AFTTD photos here

I Was A King:


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What Up In The ATL?

Best Shows In Atlanta April 20 – 26:

Monday:

Thao and the Get Down Stay Down, Sister Suvi, Samantha Crain & the Midnight Shivers @ The Earl

Tuesday:

Lazer/Wulf, McClane + dudecity DJ’s @ 529

Wednesday:

Acid Mothers Temple, Sonic Suicide Squad @ The Earl

Nigredo, The Bronzed Chorus, Bambara @ Drunken Unicorn

Thursday:

A Fight to the Death, Sea Lions @ 529

Casper & the Cookies, Last November, Pleasure Cruise, Misfortune 500 @ Star Bar

Friday:

Peelander-Z, Attractive Eighties Women, Excalibrah @ The Earl

Attention System, SlowEarth, Spy For Hire, The Julia Dream @ Lenny’s

Saturday:

Starfucker, Guidance Counselor, Tealights @ Drunken Unicorn

Jamie Stewart (of Xiu Xiu), Imagination Head, Nerdkween @ WonderRoot

Pistolero (CD release), North Elementary, Thee Crucials @ Star Bar

Pistolero, Starfucker @ Criminal Records

Sunday:

Richard Lloyd & the Sufi Monkey Trio (of Television), The Seventh Ring of Saturn @ The Earl

George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic @ Variety Playhouse




Mp3 Previews:

Thao and the Get Down Stay Down : Beat (Health, Life And Fire)
Lazer/Wulf : Lagarto
Acid Mothers Temple : Milky Way Star
A Fight to the Death : Killdeer
Starfucker : Isabella Of Castile

What The Hell Am I Listening To?!?

While I tend to keep the conversation around here on progressive, forward looking artists, I can still appreciate a more conservative, retro approach when it’s done well. Here are three local examples that can dig into older styles and still keep me more than interested:

Dead Confederate


Dead Confederate @ The Earl (6/7/08)

Dead Confederate‘s debut LP Wrecking Ball sees the band really define their sound. They have developed an interesting hybrid that seamlessly combines Nirvana-style ’90s with the jamminess and Rock ‘n’ Roll ethics of a band like My Morning Jacket. When you ponder the mass appeal of this mixture, it’s surprising no one has been as successful at blending the two as this until now. The only possible knock on this thing is that Dead Confederate may not be departing far enough away from their influences, but I think when you take a deeper listen, they are achieving a rather unique sound, and the album itself is an epic one. Here’s the beginning and the end of it:

Dead Confederate : Heavy Petting

Dead Confederate : Wrecking Ball

Buy Wrecking Ball here

Dead Confederate Myspace


A Fight To The Death

I’m not sure exactly when I got turned on to A Fight To The Death, but I had got a copy of songwriter CJ Bargamian’s (ex-Crybaby, ex-Myssouri) EP under the moniker of A Fight To The Death called End Of Continent Sadness some time ago. Written while he was in San Francicsco in 2006, I thought the album had a lot of potential but sounded more like a demo, and in fact, it sort of was. Many of the tracks from it show up reworked and improved on the full band incarnation of A Fight To The Death‘s new self-titled debut LP. AFTTD sees Bargamain’s gorgeous songwriting surrounded by a very talented band that seems to compliment him perfectly and results in a tasty flavour of nu-Americana. Although, going back and listening to the stripped down versions on End Of Continent Sadness is even more enjoyable now that I know these songs so intimately.

A Fight To The Death : Killdeer

A Fight To The Death : Old Black Chains

Buy AFTTD here

A Fight To The Death myspace


Long Knives

Long Knives are another local band that has been on my radar for sometime, but I just never got around to giving them a deep look until now, and I found I was missing out big time. While I wouldn’t make much of a direct comparison to Wilco, Long Knives has the same sort of depth and innate ability to get me to bite hard into a genre I would usually be uninterested in. Another reason i think this album is so good is because it is so dynamic. It hits every end of the spectrum from a beautiful, downbeat ballad song like “Fuckwit” to the unbelievably stunning jammout of the second part of “Headlong Into The Abyss”. If you have been missing out on these guys too, it’s time to give them a try:

Long Knives : ELM

Long Knives : Pale Blue Walls

Buy Long Knives here

Long Knives 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!