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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Click here to read the entire post…

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.


The Other Sound Festival 2009: Tentative Schedule

The Other Sound Festival going down in Little Five Points September 19th has just released a tentative schedule of events:

Star Bar:

Upstairs:
12:30am The Selmanaires
11:30pm Judi Chicago
10:30pm Club Awesome
9:30pm Fight to the Death
8:30pm Untied States
7:00pm Los Buenos

Downstairs:
12:00am All Night Drug Prowling Wolves
11:00pm Book of Colors
10:00pm Falcon Lords
9:00pm Grand Prize Winners
8:00pm Author’s Apology

Criminal Records:

6:30pm Today The Moon Tomorrow The Sun
5:30pm Jeffrey Butzer
4:30pm The Orphins
3:30pm This Piano Plays Itself

Little 5 Outdoor Stage:

7:00pm Futureshock
6:00pm Feeding Fingers
5:00pm Tom Cheshire and Ben Thrower
4:00pm 13 Day Mission
3:00pm Dare Dukes

The Outdoor Stage and Criminal Records shows will be completely free of charge to attend. Check out all of the details at their site:

The Other Sound Festival website

The Other Sound Festival

Atlanta’s The Other Sound Fest returns for the 5th year, and they have changed up the format. This year it will be a one day event taking place Saturday September 19th in Little Five Points, featuring an outdoor stage and shows at Criminal Records and Star Bar. Between the L5P setting and the fabulous lineup, I’ve got a feeling this is going to be an incredible festie.

The Other Sound 2009 Lineup:

Judi Chicago
The Selmanaires
Today The Moon, Tomorrow The Sun
All Night Drug Prowling Wolves
The Wild
Jeffrey Butzer
The Falcon Lords
A Fight To The Death
Book Of Colors
Club Awesome
Grand Prize Winners From Last Year
This Piano Plays Itself
Untied States
Author’s Apology

The ticket price is $10 for a full day of music and fun. I know I’ll be there.

The Other Sound website

What Up In The ATL?

This week the Other Sound Festival is going on Thursday through Saturday. You can purchase a $12 pass to all three nights at Criminal Records, Parkgrounds, or hit up the Other Sound myspace.

The line-up for this year is:

Thursday, Sept. 11th @ WonderRoot: Chopper, Thy Mighty Contract, 13 Day Mission, Nomen Novum and North Elementary ($5 door)

Friday, Sept. 12th @ Star Bar: Pink Police, Attractive 80′s Women, the Preakness, Warm in the Wake, Icecaps, Grand Prize Winners and Calabi Yau ($5 before 9pm, $7 after 9pm door)

Saturday, Sept. 13th @ The Earl: Dropsonic, the Booze, Missile Command, A Fight to the Death, Rev Rebel & the Sound Supreme and Yardwork ($8 door)

Those are some sweet looking shows. If you have to pick one, that WonderRoot opening night looks damn impressive. Other shows worth checking out this week:

Wednesday night The N.E.C., All The Saints, and Adventure @ Star Bar or So Many Dynamos @ The Masquerade.

Thursday night Wild Sweet Orange, What Made Milwaukee Famous, and The Goldest @ The Earl

Friday night This Piano Plays Itself, Sorry No Ferrari, and Elegant Trash @ Lenny’s

Saturday night Silver Jews @ Variety Playhouse

The Other Sound Festival 2008

A great ATL independent music fest is back again and happening September 11th-13th at three sweet Atlanta venues: WonderRoot, The Star Bar, and The Earl. So far, the line-up includes:

Warm in The Wake
The Preakness
Attractive Eighties Women
Chopper
Dropsonic
Calabi Yau
North Elementary
Thy Mighty Contract
Pink Police
Missile Command
Yardwork

You can preview some tracks from those artists at the Other Sound myspace.

The Other Sound Festival

Check this out:

Atlanta, GA, August 1, 2007 – The third-annual Other Sound Music
Festival expands this year to include four nights of live music at
Atlanta’s leading independent music venues. Festival organizers
announced the lineup for the festival featuring over 20 bands from six
Atlanta-based labels. The festival takes place September 6-9, 2007.

Headlining acts include All Night Drug Prowling Wolves, at the Earl;
Moresight, at the Drunken Unicorn; Luigi, at Lenny’s and Untied States
at the 11:11 Teahouse.

“We feel like the festival will be highlighted by live acts,” said
ISP-Music’s Eric Holder, “Club Awesome’s rock and roll pool parties
are becoming legendary as well as Moresight’s shows which end up
feeling more like a revival than a concert.”

Once again organizers opted not to include any bands that played the
previous year, hoping to focus on exposing attendees to music they may
not have heard before. “We just thought including the same bands from
last year would defeat our purpose, plus it keeps our Other Sound
sampler CDs more relevant,” noted Kim Ware, festival founder and
owner/operator of Eskimo Kiss Records and Conundrum Booking.

While only three years young, The Other Sound Festival already has a
history of exposing audiences to some of the best music in the area.
Past acts include Deerhunter and Snowden, who have catapulted into the
national scene through performances at SXSW and features on MTV.
Ultrababyfat, who garnered national success in the nineties, played
last year to promote their first release in five years (on local indie
Two Sheds Music).

Participating labels include Eskimo Kiss Records, Two Sheds Music,
ISP-Music, Goodnight Records, Passive Aggressive Network and
Containment Theory Records, along with local booking agency Conundrum
Booking. For more information visit http://theothersound.net.

The 2007 Other Sound Schedule (subject to change):

Thursday, Sept. 6 @ Drunken Unicorn
9:30 PM – Envie
10:15 – Mary O. Harrison
11:00 – Pistolero
12:00 – Moresight

Friday, Sept. 7 @ The EARL
8:45 PM – Fernandina
9:40 – Citified
10:20 – The Yum Yum Tree (side stage)
11:00 – The Press
11:40 – Lay Down Mains (side stage)
12:20 – All Night Drug Prowling Wolves

Saturday, Sept. 8 @ Lenny’s
8 PM – No Disassemble (side stage)
8:35 – Silent Kids (main stage)
9:10 – Novelift (side stage)
9:45 – The Jupiter Watts (main stage)
10:20 – The Orphins (side stage)
11:00 – One Hand Loves the Other (main stage)
11:45 – Club Awesome (side stage)
12:30 – Luigi (main stage)

Sunday, Sept. 9 @ 11:11 Teahouse
7 PM – Jeff Evans
7:45 – Batata Doce
8:30 – Tenth to the Moon
9:30 – Untied States

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