What The Hell (Hottness) Am I Listening To?!?

Since rarely do I discover two albums that totally amaze me at the same time, I’ve decided to combine two of my regular segments to convince you to check these albums out:

Akron/Family

The Akron/Family show i caught at the Earl early this year blew my mind and is still one of my top 3 favourite shows of the year. Ever since catching them live, I’ve searched out as much of their material as possible. While i did find some really good stuff, none of their previous studio work felt anywhere near the intensity level their live show was at, and I had pretty much assumed that they were just a band that was much better live. Their newest release, Love Is Simple, has totally changed my mind. In addition to every song being a stand alone hit, the album takes you on a journey through every emotion and dimension this band has mastered. They are anchored in conservative musicology like The Beatles and Grateful Dead but find extremely interesting places to go with that foundation. I consider these guys the greatest jamband going right now, and i doubt most of the wooks and bro-skies have ever heard of these guys. Check them out:

Don’t Be Afraid, You’re Already Dead

Of All The Things

Buy Love Is Simple Here

Akron/Family Myspace

Thurston Moore

Thurston‘s latest solo offering might be the most accessable Sonic Youth related release ever. While the masses of SY followers are making experiment and noise more mainstream every day, Thurston and Company have spent most of this decade crafting stunning pop songs, and Trees Outside The Academy is no exception. For a huge fan like me, this album feels like a greatest hits of Moore‘s riffs and sound effects stripped down and scultped into a completely unique and original piece of work. Don’t miss this one:

Silver>Blue

Trees Outside The Academy

Buy Trees Outside The Academy Here

Sonic Youth Myspace

Atlanta Shows Say Yeaher!

I got the new Black Lips album yesterday and it is rad. Here’s an interview and song they did on 99X yesterday morning:

Black Lips Interview

Tonight there are two great shows going on. I’m going to Peter Bjorn And John and Clientele at the Variety Playhouse. Equally as cool is the Meat Puppets and Atlanta’s Morning State are at The Earl.

Thursday night you can choose between The Coathangers at the Drunken Unicorn, Dead Confederate at the Earl, or Andrew Bird at the Variety Playhouse.

Friday night the Carbonas are at the Drunken Unicorn.

Saturday night it is all about the East Atlanta Strut Fest here in the A. The after-party at the Earl features Howlies (formerly Moresight), Elevado, Anna Kramer, and The Preakness. I might be going to Athens, Ga that night to see Akron/Family at the 40 Watt.

Akron/Family : Love Is Simple : Ed Is A Portal

Carbonas : Carbonas : Count Me Out

The Meat Puppets : Meat Puppets II : Lake Of Fire

Peter Bjorn And John : Objects Of My Affections : Let’s Call It Off (Girl Talk remix)

Monday Mash-Up

Snowden is playing a show next Saturday to make up for missing Corndogorama. It is supposed to be their last Atlanta show before going and making their next record. It will also feature Psychic Hearts and Bradford Cox of Deerhunter‘s solo project Atlas Sound. Yaher!

Akron/Family has a new album coming out September 10th called Love Is Simple. Remember they will be in Athens, Ga at the 40 Watt on September 15th and I highly recommend checking them out because they were one of the best shows I’ve seen all year. Check it out:

The new season of PBS’s Austin City Limits TV show begins in October and will feature Arcade Fire, Bloc Party, The Decemberists, Wilco, Regina Spektor, Explosions In The Sky, Lucinda Williams, and others.

The new Prefuse 73 album called Preparations comes out October 23rd.

Eddie Vedder’s anti-George Bush comments during the Pearl Jam Lollapalooza show got edited out of the webcast by AT&T.

Nine Inch Nails are working on a TV show based on their latest album Year Zero.

Cat Power is doing another covers album.

Amy Winehouse has got some drama.

Remember the Black Lips are playing the Clairmont Lounge Thursday night. Here’s a video for a track from the upcoming album:

Theree other good local shows this week include Slow Motion Crash at The Masquerade Tommorrow, From Exile at Lenny’s Wednesday night, and The Orphins and Moorish Idols at ISP Thursday night..

Beach House and Grizzly Bear are touring together, but unfortunetly nowhere near Atlanta. You out of town readers need to go see this if they are playing near you. Here’s the video for Beach House‘s “Master Of None”:

Ok, Here’s some new videos. New Devendra Banhart:

Chemical Brothers:

Bjork:

Live Shows: Akron/Family

For those of you who have not really listened to Akron/Family, here’s 2 shows they did for the New York radio station WNYC that you can listen to. The first is from 2005 and features mostly songs off their self-titled release. The second is from last year and has them performing new songs that they were performing alot of at the show I saw Tuesday night. I highly recommend you check these guys out:

Click here to listen to the first show

Click here to listen to the second show

Akron/Familt Myspace Page

An ATL Adventure Featuring Akron/Family, Untied States, and Black Lips

Tuesday night (2-20-07) was one for the ages. After a long day, I headed to Little Five Points to check out the in-store Criminal Records performance of Black Lips. This was the first in-store performance I’ve ever checked out, so I got there early not knowing what to expect. After picking up the new Explosions In The Sky, the Black Lips album they were promoting, Los Valientes Del Mundo Nuveo, and the Moorish Idols EP, I discovered that Criminal Records was giving out free PBR for the show. +1 . I went to chat with a taper I saw outside and it turned out to be Rich from Cable & Tweed, who was really cool. The crowd was pretty large despite the drizzling and it looked like a mini mardi gras outside the record shop with all the PBR drinking outdoors. Black Lips came out with guitarist “Old king Cole Younger” dressed in nothing but boots, a cowboy hat, and tighty whities:

Black Lips rocked out hard and had a docile crowd transformed into a rowdy mob throwing more PBR cans at each other than hippies throwing glowsticks at a Phish show by the end. A truly great live band that certainly needed to put out a great live album (and it is a great album). The finale came with the other guitarist, “Ian St. Pe’” lighting a pack of firecrackers hanging from his mouth and swinging it around into the audience. From what i understand, this was one of their tamer performances. You should catch them at the Whirley Ball place in Roswell friday night or the 40 Watt in Athens saturday night. Thanks to Chelsea for the pics:

After meeting up with BiggieC and getting some grub at Six Feet Under, we headed to the East Atlanta Village to catch the nights’ show at the Earl. Untied States opened up and put it down as only they can. One of my favourite bands in Atlanta cuz they just balls to the wall noise rock and I love it. As far as quality progressive music goes in this town, these guys are king. Finally picked up a copy of Retail Detail, and it kicks much ass. Don’t know why it took me so long to get it considering I’ve listened to Ineffable, By Design like 200 times. BiggieC brings you the visuals:

I really didn’t know what to expect with Akron/Family. I had heard a couple of songs and had alot of people who know music suggest them to me, so I bought a ticket. It was an extremely wise decision. They started out with a sweet, beautiful sounding folk slow jam and then blasted out some in-your-face-drog-rock. This schizophrenic style-switching characterized this just simply amazing show. They went from silly 4-part vocal harmonization, to Neil Young-esque rock songs, to sugary lullabyes, to post-rock noise jams, to even pulling out a cover of I Know You Rider from nowhere.

On top of being musical wizards, they put forth one of the most entertaining stage shows i’ve ever whitnessed. These highly animated characters brought an armada of music toys ranging from strumming bells with a bow, to the drummer playing a banjo, to sqeezing stuffed animal sound affects into the mic, to not 1, not 2, but 3 plastic recorders. At one point Miles Seaton was playing his bass with a cellphone.

They engaged the crowd with sing alongs (which i usually hate but these were great) and had huge heart shaped lolly-pops for audience members to dance with. The only thing i didn’t like about the show was the audience talking, which Akron/Family had no problem calling out and rising above. Seriously, why does every person at a show at the Earl gotta talk through the whole thing? wankers.

After performing for about 2 hours straight, they invited much of the audience on stage for one last massive jam and sing along. BiggieC played the hell out of the tambourine while I even got to sing a metal rendition of “circle, triangle, square” into the mic. These guys were the coolest mofos. From my cellphone on stage:

It’s amazing what a bunch of hippies can do when they aren’t locked in the box of the jamband scene and culture. I mean these guys are essentially the greatest jamband on Earth right now. Where the Grateful Dead took folk and American music and pushed it to another planet, these guys drop-kick it into another galaxy. The Widespreads, and the String Cheeses, and the Moes of the world forget what made bands like the Dead and Phish truly great is that they pushed music to a new level, they were pioneers and experimental and progressive. Akron/Family is all of these things and more and I cannot stress to you enough that you must go see this band if you get the chance. Rarely does a band I’ve barely ever heard before become an instant favourite, but these guys are that good. What a night!

Check out Akron/Family

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