Corndogorama 2009: Wrap-Up And Final Thoughts


All photos by Clint Miller

Corndogorama has come and gone again, so it’s time to break down the experience. The parcel of land in the East Atlanta Village served as a nice new venue for the festival providing plenty of space to grow into. The overbearing heat in the middle of the summer in Atlanta was probably the biggest drawback to the festival grounds as there were very little options to escape the sun near the music, and this sent many festival goers into the village to take refuge during the day. Although other than that, I thought it was a great location. The field in front of the main stage sloped upwards farther back and the sound was pretty good most everywhere inside the area. I hope this place gets used for other events.

This year’s weakest element in my opinion was the lineup. That’s not to say there weren’t good bands, but recent years’ mammoth lineups eclipsed this year’s by far. It was great to have some Ohmpark favourites like Nomen Novum, Today The Moon, Tomorrow The Sun, and This Piano Plays Itself in early slots to compete against the oppressive weather, but the bottom end of the schedule was destined to fail in regards to attracting a big crowd. Dead Confederate and Abby Go Go were fine choices, but the fact they played a free show at The Earl just weeks prior significantly cut into their drawing power. Judi Chicago and Noot d’ Noot are very popular bands, but they also play more local shows than anyone, and while that is part of what make them such local favs, that also will prevent them from hauling in large crowds for a big ticket fest like this. Outside of those bands, the closing portion of each night was extremely disappointing. Also, the 3 hour Jazz Fest block in the middle of Sunday was serious overkill. It’s not that any of those bands are bad, but Corndogorama’s target audience is done a disservice to have no options outside of music styles at least half a century old for such a long portion of the day. A complete absence of hip-hop and a low representation of the metal scene were unfortunate. The experience as a whole would have greatly benefited by involvement from smaller venues in the Village providing extra stages for more variety of options and reprieve from the sun’s beating beams.

But most of the negatives from this year can be explained away by the festival’s complete retooling and scaling back for this new version of Corndog, and regardless of some missteps, there is obvious potential for this new incarnation. The festival can grow into this format, and if it can find support with day shows from The Earl or 529 or other Village venues, it could become greater than it has ever been before.

In the end, the festival was a success to me as I had a really fun weekend. The crowds were sparse (especially Sunday), but I always prefer that anyways. The vibe was very chill and everyone who was there seemed to be having a good time. I want to shout out to my fellow bloggers, it was fun hanging out with Tessa from Drive A Faster Car, who covered the fest as well, and Adam Trimble is the man. I can’t wait until next year.

Day 1 Coverage
Day 2 Coverage

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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Corndogorama 2009: Saturday (Day 1)


All photos by Clint Miller

We got a later start yesterday than I would have liked and didn’t make it to Corndogorama until The Goldest began their set. I loved their EP, but in previous occasions thought their live show was a bit lacking. This time they sounded really good.

I got some lunch at the Australian Bakery, which has served as our Corndog home base for escaping the heat and grubbing, and then caught Sonen. Their set at last year’s corndog was lackluster, but this year it was not enjoyable at all. The vocals were very loud in the mix, and these two so called “vocalists” have no business singing. It was hard to even give the music underneath much of a chance with how bad the vocals were.

Next, Nomen Novum played one of the better live sets I’ve seen them do. They started out with some guitar loop build up songs and then moved to more electronic stuff near the end. While the duo churned out the tunes, they were joined by a dancer for this set who even contributed some neat sound effects using blades of grass.


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What Up In The ATL?

This coming Saturday and Sunday, Atlanta’s Corndogorama Music Festival returns to the East Atlanta Village showcasing the best local warriors of the scene. Here is the schedule:

Saturday 6/27:

12:00 Graboids
12:25 Sickfigures
12:45 Attractive Eighties Women
1:05 Hip To Death
1:30 Can Can
2:00 The Goldest
2:25 Sonen
3:00 Nomen Novum
3:25 Electric Cyles
3:45 Ocha La Rocha
4:10 Club Awesome
4:35 Thy Mighty Contract
5:00 Sealions
5:20 Wizard Smoke (members of Maserati)
6:00 Corndog Eating Contest
6:20 Hawks
6:45 Whores
7:15 Dropsonic
7:45 The Empties
8:10 Noot d’ Noot
8:45 The Judies
9:30 Howlies
10:00 Modern Skirts

Sunday 6/28:

1:00 The Grenadines
1:25 Bouldercrest Singing Group
1:50 The Slackey Family
2:15 This Piano Plays Itself
2:35 Get Small
3:00 Niagra Mowawk
3:25 Today The Moon, Tomorrow The Sun
3:45 UKU
4:15 Grinder Nova
4:40 Jeffrey Butzer & the Midwives
5:05 A Fight To The Death
5:30 Soulphonics & Ruby Velle
5:50 Batata Doce
6:10 Cordero
6:35 Cadillac Jones
7:00 Twin Tigers
7:20 Young Antiques
7:40 Mini Destroy
8:00 Judi Chicago
8:35 Abby Go Go
9:15 Western Civ
10:00 Dead Confederate

You can find more info at the Corndogorama website.


Best shows in Atlanta June 22 – 28 that don’t involve corndogs:

Monday:

Math the Band, Die Benny, the Emotron, Tasty Beverage @ WonderRoot

Tuesday:

Telepathe, Lemonade, Living Rooms @ 529

Wednesday:

Eddie Vedder, Liam Finn @ Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre

Ben Lee, The Preakness @ The Earl

Thursday:

Adron, A Fight to the Death, Lyndsey Appel, Royal Bangs @ Star Bar

Friday:

All the Saints, Hollow Stars, Balkans @ Star Bar

It’s Elephant’s (Record Release), Whores, The Long Shadows @ The Earl

Ear Pwr, Adventure, Nomen Novum, Minidestroy, Rob Wonder @ 529

Saturday:

Patrick Wolf, Jaguar Love, Living Things, Plasticines @ The Loft At Center Stage

Sleep Creeps, Social Studies @ Highland Inn Lounge

Sunday:

Blastoids, Living Rooms, Siddhartha @ I Can Fly House 2

Mice in Cars, Royal Thunder, The Falcon Lords @ The Earl

Corndogorama 2009 Lineup

Atlanta’s Corndogorama music festival has announced their initial lineup for 2009:

A Fight to the Death
Attractive 80′s Women
Batata Doce
Bouldercrest Singing Group
Can Can
Club Awesome
Cordero
Dropsonic
Electric Cycles
Graboids
Grinder Nova
Hawks
Hip to Death
Jeffrey Butzer & the Midwives
Judi Chicago
Mini Destroy
Modern Skirts
Niagara Mohawk
Noot d’ Noot
Nomen Novum
Sealions
Sick Figures
Small
Soulphonics
This Piano Plays Itself
The Empties
The Goldest
The Grenadines
The Howlies
The Slackey Family
Today the Moon, Tomorrow the Sun
Thy Mighty Contract
UKU
Whores

Tickets are on sale now. This is going down in East Atlanta June 27-28, 2009.

Corndogorama website

Corndogorama 2009 Partial Lineup

My favourite Atlanta music festival is coming soon, and they have announced some information including a few acts on the lineup. Straight from the corndog myspace:

CORN-DOG-O-RAMA MUSIC FESTIVAL 2009: YES, WE CORN!

We’re back! A Homecoming to East Atlanta

It’s true ! This year brings what Atlanta has asked for, their very own music festival, block party carnival, county fair freak show with amazing food + refreshments to delight even the grumpiest, most sarcastic and knowledgeable indie-rocker. Hipsters welcome!

We’ve returned to our 2- All day format to bring you the best 50 bands we can find from Atlanta, Athens and the Southeast+ a performance by Atlanta’s favorite Brooklyn band Cordero, with members of the Rock*a*teens – Also bringing you Mitch Easter’s from Let’s Active, new band, Western Civ, and everyone’s top pick, electronic Gods, Judi Chicago perform, as well as, mini destroy with a new brand of experimental sounds. And announcing a reunion of the best phys-ed band ever, RUMP POSSE, more to come…

This year also brings back some silly events, like the tricycle race, the cricket crunch and flip-flop 100 yd dash, and of course, the Corn dog Eating contest sanctioned by the World League of Competitive Eating www.wloce.com – We’ve also added other events, like the watermelon toss, the one legged relay race, bobbing for beer and the soon to be legendary World’s Strongest Man contest + an art market, dunk tank and amusements for the light hearted and slightly weird.

So I did a little sleuthing and put together a list of bands that have Corndogorama listed in their tour dates and combined it with the ones from above:

Corndogorama 2009 Unofficial Partial Lineup:

Cordero
Western Civ
Judi Chicago
Rump Posse
A Fight To The Death
Sealions
This Piano Plays Itself
Today The Moon, Tomorrow The Sun
The Goldest

That looks like a great start. Feel free to tip me off to other bands on the lineup, and I will add them to this list. It all goes down June 27 & 28 in East Atlanta. Some Corndogolicious links:

Corndogorama Website
Corndogorama Myspace
Corndogorama 2008

Corndogorama 2009 Returns To East Atlanta, Sets Dates

Atlanta’s best music festival is back. Where exactly in the East Atlanta Village this year’s event will take place seems unclear right now, but obviously it won’t be going down at Lenny’s like the last two years. Also, it appears they have scaled it back a little bit from last year’s 4 day incarnation, taking place this year Saturday and Sunday, June 27 & 28. No lineup announcement yet, but typically the festival showcases the best and brightest of the local underground scene. Last year we were out in force, so check out all of our coverage while we wait to see what they have in store for us this year:

Corndogorama 2008 photos, videos, and review

Corndogorama website

Snowden @ Corndogorama 2008:

Gringo Star @ Corndogorama 2008

The NEC @ Corndogorama 2008

Corndogorama Videos: Snowden

I’ll have my Day 4 coverage and Wrap-up for you tomorrow, but until then you can re-experience Snowden putting it down Saturday night:


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