Photos: The Ropes @ Criminal Records / Burden Of Vision @ Lenny’s (8/3/09)

The Ropes:

More The Ropes photos




Burden Of Vision:

More Burden Of Visions photos

Live Videos: This Piano Plays Itself, Sorry No Ferrari (9/12/2008) Lenny’s Bar

Last Friday night before I headed OTP, I went down to Lenny’s to catch two Ohmpark favourites. This Piano Plays Itself unleashed two new, fantastic songs from the new album they are currently working on (the first and third video below). Also, this was the last show for Sorry No Ferrari‘s drummer David Ragsdale, and they demonstrated their brilliant musicianship yet again. Here’s some vids from two of Atlanta’s hottest:

This Piano Plays Itself:


Click here to read the entire post…

Live Review: DJ Klever, Snowden, Variac (3-31-07) Lenny’s (Plus, The Ohmpark Kenny Crucial Challenge)

Saturday night while Biggie C and Sleo went to the Ted Leo show, I decided to play the hipster and go to Lenny’s. After grabbing some food and watching the first half of the Florida v. UCLA Final Four basketball game in Little Five Points I journeyed alone to the show. When I got there the place was very empty, but was packed tight by the end of Snowden‘s set. The hipster bicycle club Faster Mustache was celebrating its second birthday and everyone who’s anyone in the Atlanta indie scene was in attendance including Bean Summer (Lenny’s booking agent), Preston Craig (KissAtlanta and Decatur Social Club), and Kenny Crucial. Ok, we’re going to stop the story here for a minute to talk about Kenny Crucial.

Last year at Bonnaroo, Sleo and I waited 6 hours to have a good spot for the Radiohead show. About midway through sitting and standing in a packed crowd, this guy is trying to squeeze past us and Sleo starts yelling at him. Apparently some other folks were holding his spot in front of us , and we eventually let him pass. Now I could go on a digression about concert attendee etiquette, but I’ll spare you. After we got back to Atlanta, we started to notice the same guy that cut in front of us at almost all of the shows we were going to. We even developed nicknames for him. Just a couple weeks ago, Creative Loafing here in Atlanta ran a cover story devoted to this same guy. He goes by the name “Kenny Crucial” and you can learn more about this “local legend” and “Philosopher” at his own site. Well, now the Atlanta scene is consumed with Kenny-Crucial-Mania. Even Atlanta Music Guide, who is always like 3 years behind the trends, has an article about him. So, I’m going to bite. We here at Ohmpark will feed into the hype and have some fun with this.

Another weird personality I met this year while hitting fests was Beatle Bob. Beatle Bob looks like a retarded Gallagher Brother( ok, a more retarded Gallagher Brother) and i first saw him at Wakarusa last year at the Camper Van Beethoven/Cracker show on stage dancing around in a really strange and ridiculous way. I later talked to him briefly at Bonnaroo and saw him go on stage and introduce both Sonic Youth and Sleater-Kinney at Lollapalooza. There are many mythical stories about Beatle Bob such as the fact that he has supposedly gone to a show every day since 1996 and disputed claims that he was a radio DJ in St. Louis (his hometown). He is known nationally , has a dance named after him, somebody is making a documentary about him and there is even a petition to have him stop being such a spectacle called Beatle Bob Sit Down.

So, here’s the deal. St. Louis can suck it. We’re going to try and make Atlanta’s own Kenny Crucial bigger than Beatle Bob. It’s going to be a difficult endeavor because Beatle Bob is very big. We are going to undertake a multi-phase plan. Phase one: We are announcing the Ohmpark Kenny Crucial Challenge. KC needs even more exposure. He needs full coverage. So, from here on out we are challenging you, the reader, to catch Kenny Crucial at shows with your camera phone. You can send your pics to icaughtkenny@ohmpark.com or just post them at Camura if you have an account. We will post the best phone logs here and keep up with the adventures of The Crucial One. After a yet-to-be-determined time, we will award the photographer of the best Kenny Crucial pic some concert tickets to a band they like. Most likely. So, be on the look-out. He is usually at the front of the most hipsterish show of the night. Here’s a pic to help you find him, but it’s not hard:

Good luck!

ok, what was i writing about? Oh yeah, the show. First I saw Variac and they were ok. Kinda sounded like a sloppy mix of Blur and the Black Crowes. They aren’t bad at what they do, it is just what they do is kind of boring and derivative. After a tri-cycle race inside the venue was held, Snowden went on. I had never seen Snowden, but they have been hyped pretty heavily lately and some believe they could be the Nirvana that breaks the Atlanta scene through. I listened to their music and I always thought it was good, but I just didn’t understand why everyone was so in love with them. Well, after seeing them live, now I know. They take that Bloc Party intensity and amplify it ten fold. They are the anti-Interpol in that way. I highly recommend you check them out live because it was amazing. I don’t know that they can single-handedly blow up the Atlanta scene, but they a great band:

Next up was DJ Klever. This was my first time seeing him as well and it was off the chain. I hadn’t seen a crowd in a club dance that hard since I was a raver. He led off with a Tomahawk Chop anthem with a beat and it then went all over the place. Just an amazing DJ. I mean, he is an international superstar and rightly so. I’ll be catching him and Snowden every chance i get:

Klever is touring with the Gza and they will be doing Atlanta on May 28th at the Loft. Snowden are playing with the Selmanaires on April 7th at Rob’s House.

Live Review and Photos: Explosions In The Sky, The Paper Chase, Eluvium (3-13-2007) Lenny’s

It seemed like forever since i had raced down to Criminal Records to scoop up the last 2 tickets for this show. I had no idea who was even opening for Explosions In The Sky until a couple days earlier. Me and Biggie C arrived one minute after the supposed door opening time and were barely able to secure a spot in the front row. Lots of kids with “X”s on their hands were already setup. After The crowd quickly grew behind us, Eluvium came through the audience and climbed on stage right next to me. With all three bands’ equipment cluttering the small stage, it seemed to be the only way to get up there. Eluvium‘s new record, Copia, is really good and I’ve been jamming it a lot over the last month or two so i was very excited when I learned he was on the bill. Eluvium is the stage name of Seattle’s Matthew Cooper. He plays really ambient and distorted music on a keyboard and guitar. His performance was much more “wall-of-sound” than I had expected from the very mellow album, and continued a trend of being way too loud to not have earplugs(I’m stupid, I know i should be wearing earplugs to shows but they are just annoying to me). Looping each instrument into massive sonic waves, it was even better than I expected. The underage kids surrounding us were not impressed but good music taste often takes a while to develop. I’ll post some Eluvium tracks next week. Biggie C with some pics of a very dark stage: (click to enlarge)

Shortly after that, The Paper Chase took the stage. i didn’t really know anything about these guys, but they were great, and very very loud. I heard one of the kids around me describe them as “jagged noise-pop”(which they obviously found on Wikipedia), and that’s them exactly. Front man John Congleton was extremely entertaining between singing great, Jamming some amazing, piercing guitar lines, and dancing around in a really awkward way. The rest of the band was going at it like machines and it was well worth the damage it did to my eardrum. I’ll have some songs from these guys next week too: (click to enlarge)

So, for those who don’t know, Lenny’s has just recently moved to a new building down the street from the old one. I was not a big fan of the move at first because I liked the old, crappy, tiny place and that building has a lot of history (like this DVD I have of Cat Power with Steve Shelley drumming there back in 1995 when it was called Dottie’s) But the new place is pretty cool, especially the murals across the wall. That said, it was a very unfavorable location for an Explosions In The Sky show. First, the stage is very short and the EITS dudes are often on the ground playing with their pedal gear so most could not see what was going on. The sound setup and “shotgun” building shape combined with the thick sea of people made for greatly different volumes depending on how far away from the stage. Being lucky enough to be in the very front, my concert experience was quite different than most people I’ve talked to who also attended the show.

While EITS was setting up, all three of the axe wielders came on stage with an old suitcase containing about 7 pedals each. After setting up, they then laid down the rock. The entire set was pretty much one big crescendo. I really can’t remember a show where the music had such a steady building momentum. I remember seeing Mogwai twice last year and thinking it was rather “underwhelming” and kid of wondered if post-rock could really grab you in a live setting and EITS proved that i could. The venue exploded in cheers at the Set’s conclusion and after the crowd roared for what i thought was an impressive plea for an encore, One of the guys came out and said they didn’t have anything else. Encores sometimes seem so cheesy to me that it doesn’t bother me when a band comes and just puts forth the show with no bells or whistles and just kicks ass with pure sound. The way the entire show built up and let loose, I can understand why it would be hard to just throw another song in afterwards. Overall, a great show and i highly recommend you check out EITS when they come back (they said they’d be back in the fall). Hopefully they will play in a venue better suited to them. Just make sure to bring some protection for your ears because all I could hear afterwards was ringing until I passed out.

(click on image to see the full size)