Best New Atlanta Music: Tealights – “Take Us By Sea” EP

teacover

It’s a rare band that can survive, let alone thrive, after losing their primary songwriter and vocalist. But Tealights seem to be a unique case of addition by subtraction. After a not so amicable divorce from One Hand Loves The Other brainchild Lou Rodriguez last year, the remaining three members had to go back to the drawing board and start all over. Mikey Johnson, Nancy Shim, and Mary Knight all took up trading off vocal duties and built a sound around their distinct talents. They picked up local legend Brett Kelly to play drums, and now with the release of their debut record, Tealights have emerged as a much more dynamic, interesting, and just altogether better band than OHLTO ever were.

The 28 minute EP contains 6 fantastic songs that demonstrate the range and diversity of sound this band commands. The outfit manages to blend together so many different sorts of styles into one cohesive hybrid. At times its trip-hop, at times its indie rock, at times its dream pop, and it all flows together beautifully.

The record is not without its imperfections, though. I have come to find that typically an initial release from a talented young band tends to suffer in its execution, and Take Us By Sea is no exception to this. What is surprising about that here is that the production side of the equation appears stacked, including Snowden‘s Jordan Jeffares mixing. But for the most part, the technical flaws are overpowered by the sheer strength of the songwriting.

What is clear is that Tealights have an enormous amount of potential and Take Us By Sea is quite an accomplishment for a band that is still finding its identity.

Tealights : Exit

Tealights : Clouds

Buy Take Us By Sea

Tealights myspace

Tealights Tour Blog


Here is a teaser video for the EP giving a behind the scenes glimpse at the making of it:


They are currently on tour, and while they have been on the road, they did a Soldout Session with a nice stripped down version of “Passport”:

teas
photo credit: www.bartramnason.com


Tealights will be at 529 Tuesday October 20th with White Hinterland.

Atlanta Album Preview: Tealights

tea

Comprised of three quarters of the now defunct One Hand Loves The Other and one quarter of the still awesome Sorry No Ferrari, Atlanta’s Tealights are finally unleashing their debut release at the end of this month. The EP is titled Take Us By Sea, and it will be available at their release show with School Of Seven Bells September 29th at the Drunken Unicorn. The EP was recorded by themselves at their place, but it has been mixed/produced by Jordan Jeffares of Snowden and will be mastered at Glenn Schick’s Studio. The six tracks will clock in at around 29 minutes.

Track List:

1. Exit
2. Wait
3. Passport
4. Clouds
5. Wasted Fingers
6. No Sound to Hear

Here is an earlier version of the opening track to get a taste of what these guys and gals are all about:

Tealights : Exit

Tealights myspace


They are also hitting the road hard this fall:

Tealights Tour Dates:

9/29 Atlanta, GA @ Drunken Unicorn
10/7 Asheville, NC @ Bobo Gallery
10/8 Wilmington, NC @ Soapbox Laundro-Lounge
10/9 Blacksburg, Virginia @ WUVT Radiothon
10/10 Brooklyn, New York @ Matchless
10/11 New York, New York @ The Lit Lounge
10/13 Saginaw, Michigan @ White’s Bar
10/14 South Bend, Indiana @ Anchor Inn
10/15 Forest Park, Illinois @ Murphy’s
10/20 Atlanta, Georgia @ 529
10/31 Atlanta, Georgia @ Highland Ballroom
11/11 Mobile, Alabama @ Alabama Music Box
11/14 San Antonio, Texas @ G.I.G.
11/16 Phoenix, Arizona @ Modified Arts
11/17 San Diego, California @ Kava Lounge
11/18 Los Angeles, California @ Room 5 Lounge
11/20 Flagstaff, Arizona @ Mia’s
11/21 Albuquerque, New Mexico @ Burt’s Tiki Lounge
11/24 Hot Springs, Arkansas @ Maxine’s


Photo by Kevin Griggs

What Up In The ATL?

Tonight there are two big shows going on. Jay Reatard is big on the hype tip right and will be doing his thing as Lenny’s. You can find more about him at his myspace or watch videos of him fighting with his audience here. If you are in love with the Black Lips, then this is probably the show for you to catch. While I wouldn’t mind catching Jay Reatard, I am way more excited to see Destroyer tonight. Most people have been on the Destroyer-backlash bandwagon, but I absolutely love Trouble In Dreams. “Foam Hands”:

Another album I have been jamming hard is Genghis Tron’s Board Up The House. They will be at The Masquerade tomorrow with Converge. Genghis Tron at SXSW:

The other good show tomorrow night is at the Earl with Atlanta’s Envie and One Hand Loves The Other, who has gone through some inner turmoil lately. It is a bit confusing to me, so here’s Gavin from Stickfigure explaining the situation:

hey everyone,
One Hand Loves The Other are going on hiatus. Lou Rodriguez (the vocalist) is planning to reform the band but it appears at this point that he will be the only member continueing as one hand loves the other.
Mike Johnson, Mary Knight and Nancy Shim will be forming a new band. It is not 100% certain if Nancy Shim is leaving One Hand Loves The Other as well, but Mike Johnson and Mary Knight are playing their final performances with One Hand Loves The Other over the course of the next week. Of course in the age of reunion tours we can not definately say final shows @ this point now can we. but we can state that it will years before you can see this line up of the band every again.
the shows are as follows:
Tuesday April 29th @ the Earl. One Hand Loves The Other is headlining and performing with mystery palace and envie.
Saturday May 3rd @ Vinyl. Like Clockwork and When Rocky Beats The Russian are headlining since it is their cd release show. The Judies are also playing. At this time we do not know whether One Hand Loves The Other is opening or playing second.
take care,
gavin

So this week seems to be your last chance to check this out.

Other cool shows I like this week:

Friday: Behemoth, Dimmu Borgir at The Masquerade
Friday: Cracker, Dead Confederate at the Variety Playhouse
Saturday: Yeasayer, Man Man at Lenny’s

One Hand Loves The Other : One Hand Loves The Remix : Tortoise (Treasure Fingers remix)
Yeasayer : Sunrise (Hey Champ remix)

Live Videos: One Hand Loves The Other, Strezo, Antic Clay (2/23/2007) The Drunken Unicorn

Last Saturday night I went to the Stickfigure Distribution February Showcase and caught some ATLiens. First up was Antic Clay, whose double disc album Hilarious Death Blues from last year I loved. He is a bit too country for the hipsters, but if you can get over that, he makes some great music. Next up was Strezo, who I thought did an impressive set. Frontwoman Kristin Strezo combined beautiful vocals with some strange performance art that I really dug. While I’ve had trouble getting into their album, I have to say they were really good live. One Hand Loves The Other closed out the show, and did some acoustic versions of their songs and a cover, of which I got videos below. I bought their remix album after the show and it is very cool. They will be at The Star Bar tonight, so you should check it out.

Antic Clay:

Strezo:

One Hand Loves The Other:


Click here to read the entire post…

Friday Free-Style

My number one favourite musician, Jim O’Rourke, has a new album coming out this year! He is also reissuing some old stuff. We will celebrate with some Videos:

Interview:

Performing “Not Sport, Martial Art” & “Fuzzy Sun”:

Click here to read the entire post…

Live Review: Stickfigure Distribution January 2008 Showcase

Last week I caught two of the four nights in a row of Stickfigure at The Drunken Unicorn. If you are somehow unfamiliar with Stickfigure, they have been an Atlanta underground music institution since 1992 and consistently put out Atlanta’s most interesting independent releases. Wednesday night I got there just in time to catch most of Big Penguin. They were doing the power duo thrash punk thing and it was cool:

Next up was Zandosis. They were a serious noise-jam band beating on weird instruments and using lots of feedback. I thought it was decent, but as much as I like noise, I think it was a little over the top for me.

I had just recently discovered Sorry No Ferrari, so I was excited to catch them again. I’m a sucker for straight-up post-rock instrumental bands, and so far I think they are the best of this sort of thing I’ve heard in Atlanta. They really rocked out hard for this one:


Click here to read the entire post…

This Weekend I’ll See You In The A

In addition to our free beer and great music Saturday night, there is a lot of cool stuff going on in the city. Thursday night The Other Sound Festival begins at the Drunken Unicorn with Moresight, Pistolero, Mary O. Harrison, and Envie. Friday night it continues at The Earl with Allnightdrugprowlingwolves, Lay Down Mains, The Press, The Yum yum Tree, Citified, and Fernadina. The Coathangers CD release party is at The Star Bar Friday night. If you’re more hippy than hipster, Dark Star Orchestra are at the Variety Playhouse Friday night. If none of those strike your fancy there is The Pendletons, Auditioning Alice, Sonen, and The Sea Lions at Lenny’s.

Saturday night The National, The Rosebuds, and Doveman are at The Variety Playhouse. The Other Sound Festival continues at Lenny’s with Luigi, Club Awesome, One Hand Loves The Other, The Orphins, The Jupiter Watts, Novelift, Silent Kids, and Disassemble. Another big show Saturday night is The Close‘s final show at the Earl with The Liverhearts and Teen Wheat. Remember, even if you go catch one of the other great shows of the night, our party will be going late so come over for the afterparty.

Sunday The Jupiter Watts are playing the dunch at The Earl and The other Sound Festival ends at 11:11 Teahouse with Untied States, Tenth To The Moon, Jeff Evans, and Batata Doce.

The Press : Noxious Saucy Beast : Trade Blows

One Hand Loves The Other : One Hand Loves The Other : Tortoise

Untied States : Retail Detail : Immaculate

Luigi : Found On The Forest Floor : Mariposa

The Rosebuds : The Night Of The Furies : I Better Run

The Jupiter Watts : Jupiter Watts : Hello

This Weeks Shows In The A

Tommorrow night I’m really excited to check out Porturgal. The Man at the Drunken Unicorn. I’ve discovered this Alaskan band just this year and have absolutely loved their material. Go check out their myspace, go to this show, and then pickup their new album Church Mouth.

Wednesday there’s two really great shows to check out. First, if you go to the suburbs and catch Ted Leo and The Pharmacists and Birds of Avalon, a band we caught earlier this year opening for Beach House who is really great. If you want to stay ITP, three great local bands are playing at the Drunken Unicorn: Moresight, Untied States, and Elevado.

Thursday night Stickfigure Distribution has a great show at The Earl with One hand Loves The Other, Ninetynine (featuring Sleater Kinney‘s original drummer), and Strezo.

Friday night Rob’s House Records has a great show at the Earl with Deerhunter, The Spooks, and Chopper.

Here’s a few tunes to listen to:

Portugal. The Man : Church Mouth

Birds Of Avalon : Bicentential Baby

Untied States : It’s Not Goodbye

One Hand Loves The Other : Don’t Know

Deerhunter : Ponds

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