[Photos] Little Five Fest 2011: Lucy Dreams, Jack Of Hearts, Jeffrey Butzer, Jack Preston & The Dojo Collective, Hawkeye Pierce

Hawkeye Pierce:

Jack Preston & The Dojo Collective:


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[Video] Jeffrey Bützer: “Case of Unspiralled Stairs”

[Video] Jeffrey Bützer and the Bicycle Eaters: “She Traded Her Leg” (Live @ The Earl)

[Video] Jeffrey Bützer & T.T. Mahony: “Linus and Lucy” (IndieATL Session)

[Free Download] Jeffrey Bützer: Wild Is The Wind Soundtrack

For a limited time, we are giving away the prolific Jeffrey Bützer‘s soundtrack to Wild Is The Wind, a film by Raymond Carr. The film will be screened at The Plaza Theater this Monday, November 15th.

WILD IS THE WIND
by Jeffrey Bützer
Music from and inspired by the Raymond Carr film:

1. “Sleepwalking Winnipeg”
2. “Stolen Light Bulbs”
3. “A Dimly Lit Balcony”
4. “There Is No Such Thing As A Secret”
5. “Portrait Of A Scuba Diver”
6. “Sleepwalking Winnipeg 2″
7. “Wild Is The Wind”

Jeffrey Bützer: piano, melodica, glockenspiel, organ, guitar, drums, autoharp
Claire Lodge: guitar (1,5,6)
Matt Jarrard (Oryx And Crake): cello (1,2,3,5)
Chad Shivers (Sorry No Ferrari): guitar (7)
Nerdkween: vocals (7)
William j. Brisby: bass (7)

All music by Jeffrey Bützer except “Wild Is The Wind” – written by Dimitri Tiomkin/Ned Washington

Jeffrey Bützer myspace

Ninja Puppet Productions

[Mp3] Jeffrey Bützer/Claire Lodge: “Hotel Explosion”

Multi-instrumentalist Jeffrey Bützer sent me a great track from a forthcoming EP called Past Wanstead Flats, a collaboration between him and local guitarist Claire Lodge. I was not previously familiar with Lodge, but her Sonic Youth-inspired guitar work on “Hotel Explosion” makes me want to hear a lot more. In addition to this record, Bützer has two more coming soon, including a solo piano CD and a collaboration with Tom Cheshire.

Jeffrey Bützer/Claire Lodge : “Hotel Explosion”

Jeffrey Bützer myspace

Claire Lodge myspace

Live Review: The Other Sound Festival 2009 (9/19/09)

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Photo by Kevin Griggs

The rain has been causing death and destruction across Atlanta for nearly two weeks now, and it tried its hardest to dampen the fun at The Other Sound Festival last Saturday. I got to Little Five Points early enough to get some grub and catch Today The Moon, Tomorrow The Sun kick off the event, but unfortunately the outdoor stage they were slated to play on got rained out for the day. It was quite unfortunate that the weather washed out so many great acts on the lineup, but there was still plenty of top notch artists left to perform. And while TTMTTS didn’t get to play a set, I did learn that they are just finishing up their next record, an EP which is set to drop next month, so that’s exciting news.

This Piano Plays Itself opened the fest inside of Criminal Records and sounded really nice on the great PA system there. They played a similar set to what they unleashed on Corndogorama, comprised of 3 new, long songs that will be on their forthcoming record. Only three months into their current 5 piece incarnation, and the band is becoming clearly more and more tight and consistent in this formation. I recently listened to some rough mixes of parts of the new album that they have been recording since returning from their summer tour, and it sounded very impressive. Look for that to drop around the beginning of next year. I know regular readers around here are painfully aware I’m squarely on this outfit’s bandwagon, but they continue to make the most of their vast potential and exceed my high expectations for them.

After that I celebrated the time honoured tradition of free PBRs at Criminal Records in-store performances. It seemed just about everyone was suffering various degrees of a hang over, including myself, and a few PBRs helped get me ready for a nice mid-afternoon Yo La Tengo set. By the time they went on, the entire store was completely packed full of people all the way back to the front door. They played a stripped down electric set that included a couple from the new record, a Beatles cover, and they finished it off with a great “Mr. Tough”. I didn’t get any of my personal faves from them, but I didn’t expect to in this setting, so it wasn’t really a disappointment at all. As always, they accompanied their wonderful music with charming banter between songs. Afterwards they signed things for people and did lots of record digging before and after their set. They are one of the rare bands that are both phenomenal musicians and extraordinarily nice people, and I hope they return to Atlanta again very soon.

A few PBRs later, The Orphins took the stage and jammed out a set full of tunes from the new record and classics from back in the day. There are not many bands in this city that want to make me dance, but these guys and gal are definitely one of them. They are able to combine punk intensity with mathy precision unlike almost anyone. Also, I can never get enough of the “steel drum” guitar sound. The Orphins are just such a consistently stellar live band, and The Other Sound was no exception for them.

The Criminal Records portion of the festival closed out with a solo set from Jeffrey Butzer, who did a typically enjoyable set. Mr. Butzer is the master of between song banter with his audience, and he had several humourous things to say this time as well. His easily likable stage presence enhances his live shows, but I have to say that there is something about a one man band setup that makes it hard to capture and hold on to the attention of an audience. While Jeffrey Butzer plays this role almost better than anyone I’ve ever seen utilizing so many instruments at the same time, it still seems to work against him a bit in tandem with music so light and minimalistic. Overall it doesn’t manage to engage me as much as I would like it to, but despite that, a Jeffrey Butzer solo live performance is still pretty damn good.

I took a brief break from the action to go back to my house and recharge a little bit and afterwards headed to the Star Bar for the second half of the fest. After more alcohol consumption, I caught Los Buenos, a new project from former members of the now defunct Batata Doce. Despite the name, this Justin Sias lead group was more reminiscent of Elevado than the world music centric Batata Doce. For a very new band, I thought they sounded great and I hope this line up sticks around for a while.

After some drunken conversations, I only caught the very end of Author’s Apology, and really didn’t hear enough to make any sort of judgment whatsoever. I went back upstairs and caught Untied States next. This was the standout set for me of the entire festival. I’m probably going to be talking about their new, yet to be released record a lot in the next few months, but obviously I think it is pretty amazing, and their live show was of the same caliber. The now 5 piece lineup behind Untied States masterminds Colin Arnstein and Skip Engelbrecht is completely different than last time I saw them, and probably the best supporting cast they have ever had. The drummer alone brings so much to this group. Colin was dressed in an army nurse uniform for this one, and it’s interesting how theatrical this band comes off just simply playing their hearts out on their instruments. These guys are criminally underrated and represent the pinnacle of serious and artful music in this city, so if you haven’t looked into them yet you are losing.

I caught a few songs of Falcon Lords downstairs, but they were a joke, literally. I then tried to wait it out to see Club Awesome next, but the steady supply of beers all day finally took its toll and I had to head back to the house.

Even though the weather tried to sabotage the fest as much as possible, it was still a very fun event overall. Getting Yo La Tengo dropped on the bill was a pretty awesome boost to help counteract the rain. I think The Other Sound was a great snapshot of what’s going on in the local indie scene right now. There is so much great music happening in this town at the moment that it would be impossible to gather it all together for one day, but they did about as good a job as they could. I have to give everyone involved with the fest mad props for assembling such a great lineup. Outside of Yo La‘s time slot, the turnout wasn’t spectacular, but there was a good crowd throughout the entire time I was there, especially considering everything else going on the city that it was competing against. I noticed a ton of ATL superstars in attendance, and I got to meet some new folks and chat it up with some cool peeps I already knew. I saw many of the different artists I like mingling together. The whole thing gave me a very positive feel on where things are heading right now in Atlanta. Between the many musicians and artists and the various people supporting the scene in a multitude of different ways, there is a lot of talent out there right now, and it feels to me like it is coalescing together into something special.

Photos: The Other Sound Festival 2009: Jeffrey Butzer, The Orphins, Yo La Tengo, This Piano Plays itself @ Criminal Records

This Piano Plays Itself:

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Yo La Tengo:

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The Other Sound Videos: Untied States, Today The Moon, Tomorrow The Sun, Jeffrey Butzer, Yo La Tengo

I finally listened to Untied States forthcoming new LP, Instant Everything, Constant Nothing, and it is a monster of a record. I don’t even really know what to say about it yet, because it is so mindbogglingly unlike anything else. All I can say so far is wow. I’ll be talking more about this one in the coming months, so for now here is a really cool new video for one the tracks from the new album, “Unsilvered Mirrors”:

Unsilvered Mirrors – from “Instant Everything, Constant Nothing” by Untied States from D.A.B. Productions on Vimeo.


Today The Moon, Tomorrow The Sun just recently unveiled a new video for the title track form last year’s The Lightning Exhibit:


I dug around and found videos for two different Jeffrey Butzer songs that I had never seen before, so here they are:

《I wanna be》- kim227,2008 from kim227 on Vimeo.


And finally, here are two videos for songs from the great new Yo La Tengo album, Popular Songs:


Pine Magazine is highlighting various Other Sound artists all week, including interviews with Untied States and Jeffrey Butzer, and even an audio series, so go check it all out.


Photos: Abby Go Go, Ghostfinger, Jeffrey Butzer, Mack Messiah, Small Reactions @ Star Bar (8/27/09)

Small Reactions:

Mack Messiah:

Jeffrey Butzer:


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An Atlanta Mp3 Trilogy: Lotus Plaza, Jeffrey Butzer, The Good Graces


Deerhunter @ Variety Playhouse (Halloween 2008)

Ever since Deerhunter‘s Lockett Pundt released his The Floodlight Collective under his Lotus Plaza moniker, I had been really hoping I would get a chance to see him do his solo thing live. So I was overjoyed yesterday when I discovered that Lotus Plaza will be opening for The Books next month. While I’m certainly a huge fan of Bradford Cox, I think Pundt’s essential contributions to the greatness that is Deerhunter cannot be overemphasized. Here is a Lotus Plaza track that actually managed to end up on Weird Era Cont in a slightly different version:

Lotus Plaza : Dot Gain
Buy The Floodlight Collective
Lotus Plaza myspace




Jeffrey Butzer @ Corndogorama 2009

Atlanta musical virtuoso Jeffrey Butzer recently released his second full-length, The Garden Of Scissors, which in addition to being a great album that I have been listening to often, is also a soundtrack to a screen play Butzer has written. Almost every instrument on the record is performed by him, which comes as no surprise to those of you familiar with his one-man-band solo live performances. His unique brand of mostly instrumental “Classical Lo-Fi” manages to sound epic and simplistic at the same time. The only element I can’t seem to get into is the guest vocalist, but luckily every song she is featured on also has an instrumental counterpart included. Here is the title track:

Jeffrey Butzer : The Garden Of Scissors
Buy The Garden Of Scissors
Jeffrey Butzer myspace





Kim Ware of The Good Graces

The Good Graces, masterminded by Eskimo Kiss Records founder Kim Ware, are releasing a new EP called Bring On The Tambourines!. They are giving away each track one by one up until the actual release of the record next month. With only two tracks released so far, Tambourines sees Ware move in a more fun and playful direction away from the heartfelt, personal and emotional tone of last year’s debut, Sunset Over Saxapahaw. Here is the first song released, and you can track down the second in the link below:

The Good Graces : Working Title
Download another mp3 from Bring On The Tambourines! EP
The Good Graces myspace

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