Ohmpark Mixtape #11: An Autumn Mix

Myasoedov_Autumn_Morning

Yo La Tengo : Here To Fall
No Age : Losing Feeling
Sian Alice Group : Through Air Over Water
Health : We Are Water
Neon Indian : Terminally Chill
Bear In Heaven : Dust Cloud
Sea Wolf : White Water, White Bloom
Baroness : Swollen And Halo
Porcupine Tree : Time Flies
Karen O and The Kids : All Is Love

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.


All Tomorrow’s Parties NY Day 3 (Sunday & Wrap-Up): I Think I’m Gonna Need A Bigger Set Of Earplugs

All Photos by Abbey Braden courtesy of ATP.

Saturday night we got back very late to our hotel so I proceeded to order vodka and cranberries by the handful and shoot as many as possible before the looming last call at the bar. I clearly overshot my target and ended up waking up Sunday with a ludicrously painful hangover to start off the day. Most of the afternoon consisted of me trying recover. It finally subsided and I was able to make it to the very end of the Mercury Rev show. As soon a I walked in the backdoor of the venue, there was like a sonic boom blast of sound from a particularly epic part of their set, and you could tell they had this soundsystem at full blast in anticipation of My Bloody Valentine. I wish I could have seen more of Mercury Rev, because the last few minutes I caught were amazing. I’m about to dig deep into their new CD and their old stuff because i wasn’t familiar with them until now.

We stuck around up front to wait for Yo La Tengo, a favourite for all of our ATP crew. The guards or somebody decided starting on Sunday that they would make everyone leave the venue between each performance and have everyone wait outside, which really seemed rather purposeless. At one point a security guard unsuccessfully tried to get the massive crowd filling an entire room to form two lines to go in and it was hilarious. The guards never cleared out the venue area again after that.

We still managed to get front row, and enjoy their top notch set. I was hoping for a full on noise jam set from Ira Kaplan, and while it ended up being a rather balanced sort of set, full of soft, pretty parts and loud, psychedelic stuff, Ira still shredded plenty enough for me. Yo La Tengo is just one of the best bands of alltime in my opinion, to still be writing relevant, amazing music and playing such impressive live shows after 24 years. Here’s video from their set:

After that, we literally ran across Kutcher’s to the second stage to catch …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead. We missed only a little bit of their great set, and I’m glad I finally caught these guys. In comparison to the rest of the mindblowing shows of Sunday, Trail Of Dead might have seemed a bit less enjoyable, but still could have been the highlight of lesser festival.


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Photos and Video: Yo La Tengo, Kurt Wagner- 1-12-08 at The Variety Playhouse in Atlanta, GA

Yo La Tengo

“Tom Courtenay”

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Albums I Love: I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One

I’m getting really excited about seeing Yo La Tengo this Saturday. Last year’s show was my favourite of the year. Somehow, it hasn’t sold out yet, but it most likely will, so buy your tickets now. I first saw Yo La live at Bonnaroo in 2003. I only caught the last half of the set, but I was blown away by what I heard. I had possessed a few albums that others had given me from them that I hadn’t listened to yet, so when I got back, I jammed this one. This is easily one of my favourite all-time records. At nearly 70 minutes, I Can Hear… showcases their enormous range and contains some of my favourite songs on it. If for some reason you read this blog and aren’t very familiar with this band, you have been missing out, as they are a major foundation in the indie-rock world and this album is a classic:

“Stockholm Syndrome”
“Autumn Sweater”
“Sugarcube”:

“Shadows”:

“Little Honda”:

Buy I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One Here

Yo La Tengo Website

What Up in The ATL?

Another year of shows begin! This Friday night i highly suggest going to Lenny’s and checking out Graboids and Sleep Therapy.

The Graboids : Infinite Delay : Tremolo

Monday night I’m going to this:

Dan Deacon : Spiderman Of The Rings : Okie Dokie

Wednesday night there is a great show right here in my neighborhood:

I CAN FLY HOUSE: fag static,benard,sorry no ferrari,worn in red all ages 9pm/Donation


Next Friday night Club Awesome and Envie are at The Earl:

Next Saturday night is all about Yo La Tengo!

Yo La Tengo : I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass : Pass The Hatchet, I think I’m Goodkind

Also, there is another Whirlyball 7″/concert where if you buy the record at Criminal Records, it is your ticket to see the bands on it play at this interesting OTP venue:

Other great January Shows:

1/18/08 Yeasayer, MGMT at The Earl
1/19/08 The Jupiter Watts, Luigi at The Earl
1/21/08 Cut Chemist and DJ Shadow at The Loft
1/24/08 Feeding Fingers, Tenth To The Moon, Lid Emba at The Drunken Unicorn
1/24/08 Chopper, Fag Static at The Drunken Unicorn
1/26/08 The Selmanaires, Anna Kramer at The Earl (Dual CD release show)
1/29/08 Ween at The Tabernacle
1/30/08 High On Fire, A Life Once Lost at the Earl
1/30/08 Super Furry Animals, The Fiery Furnaces, Holy Fuck at The Variety Playhouse

Post-Monday Mash-Up

Yo La Tengo have added some southern dates to their freewheeling tour where they play acoustic versions of songs and tell stories of the band’s long history. They will be at the Variety Playhouse on January 12th and Lambchop‘s Kurt Wagner will be opening. That show is gonna be so awesome!:

The Black Lips are involved with two different movies. First, they are playing a fictional band in a movie called Let It Be, that is about the story of the movement in underground American music that was known as D.I.Y. Also, they will be featured in Chris Dortch II’s upcoming documentary on Atlanta’s underground music scene, We Fun, featuring other ATL superstars such as Deerhunter, Mastodon, The Selmanaires, The Coathangers, Anna Kramer and Jessica Juggs.

A great local show to check out this week:

Liars and No Age will be at The Earl on Valentine’s Day.

The Selmanaires an Anna Kramer And The Lost Cause are having a dual CD release party at The Earl on January 26th. The Selmanaires:

Silversun Pickups have a remix EP coming out in a couple of weeks.

Marco Benevento of The Benevento-Russo Duo has a solo album called Invisible Baby dropping February 12th.

Ween will be returning to The Tabernacle on January 29th.

The Breeders have a new album coming out in April.

Gnarls Barkley have a new album due out in spring of 2008.

Super Furry Animals will be at The Variety Playhouse on January 30th.

Tom Petty is playing the Super Bowl.

Read up about Atlanta’s Battery 5.

Remember the Regins Spektor re-scheduled show is tomorrow at The Tabernacle.

Friday Free-Style

Sigur Ros are releasing a movie and accompanying album. Here’s the trailer:

The Decemberists have a a remix EP coming out and are doing a tour where they day two shows each day, one with all of their short pop songs and one with all of their long, epic songs. The tour happens nowhere near the ATL, but I may travel for this one. Here’s raved out version of “The Perfect Crime #2″ remixed by Junior Boys:

Yo La Tengo are doing a “Freewheeling Storytelling Tour”. Using their latest (amazing) album, I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass, as a starting point, they will chronicle their 23-year history with stories and music. No Atlanta date yet, but they are still booking shows, so I suggest you email them and tell them to come here. Here’s some low quality videos of them at the Variety Playhouse earlier this year:


Check out the new Rilo Kiley video:

New Foo Fighters video is cool:


Eddie Vedder just did a soundtrack to a movie. Listen to a track here.

Ben Harper will be at The Fox on November 2nd.

Porcupine Tree have a new EP coming out featuring songs that didn’t make Fear Of A Blank Planet. Track down a 5 minute sample here.

Creative Loafing recounts the awesome Black Lips shows I caught last week here.

Read about Tiger! Tiger! here.

Deerhoof have scored the soundtrack to a romantic comedy starring Mandy Moore and directed by Justin Theroux, who has worked with David Lynch and on HBO’s Six Feet Under, called Dedication. Weird. It comes out today and if you’re interested, here’s the trailer:

The New Pornographers on Letterman:

Neil Young has a new album coming out this year. Here’s some vids:

And Neil Young with Eddie Vedder:

Yo La Tengo : Live Review

Last Saturday night I went to see Yo La Tengo and it was one the best concert experiences of my life. This was the third time I had technically seen them, but the first was at Bonnaroo and I only caught the last half of the set, and the second time I got so drunk that I had to go sleep on the sidewalk outside the venue halfway through the show. This time though, I arrived exactly at ticket time clean and sober. Well, mostly. I was able to easily secure a spot on the stage right in front of the guitar setup as pretty much everyone there already was sitting in the seats. It ended up being literally the best spot in the house. My view:

Tenement Halls opened and I was not very impressed. It wasn’t so much bad, but too conventional poppy and boring for me. Had it been a 5 song set, I think it would have been fine, but 10+ songs from these guys were a little too much for me. After that, though, Yo La Tengo took the stage with Ira Kaplan on the keys and James McNew on guitar for the first two songs and a second, primitive drum set for the third. After that, McNew moved over to bass and Kaplan took the guitar and went into Pass The Hatchet, I Think I’m Good Kind, the opener on Yo La’s newest LP, I Am Not Afraid Of You and I Will Beat Your Ass. Before the show, we decided to makeup the term “drogging” for the psychedelic drone-prog-rock jamming that artists such as Kaplan and Thurston Moore employ (someone needs to make a wikipedia page for that), and much drogging was to be had from this point on. They were on top of their game for this show and had alot of funny moments such as McNew telling the story of meeting a bum in LP5, or Georgia Hubley distracting Kaplan while he was talking, or them declaring their love for The Masquerade, or Kaplan stopping Sugarcube about 30 seconds in to tell us about a Jethro Tull show they had just watched where Ian Anderson kept stopping a song. I have to say that seeing Ira convulsing and shaking in the groove while playing like a madman on guitar is a transcending experience:



Pretty much still in shock from the pure awesomeness of the main set, I didn’t notice Ira starring at my t-shirt at the beginning of the first set until he addressed me by “hey you with the Built To Spill shirt” and went on to say that I could make a request for all the Built To Spill fans here tonight. I thought he was getting crazy and wanted to do a cover so I requested Carry the Zero, My favourite BTS song. “No, I meant one of our songs” Much laughter ensued and then they played a spectacular version of Stockholm Syndrome (my favourite YTL song) for me with a very Doug Martsch-esque take on the solo. I don’t think I’ve ever felt more of a connection with a band on so many different levels at a show ever before. But that wasn’t it. After taking a request from a chick, and playing another great song I didn’t recognize, they came out for a second, 3 song encore including a really cool version of Autumn Sweater that had Georgia pounding out beats, James hitting a groove, and Ira singing and hitting a few piano notes here and there. Oh yeah, then they came out for a 3rd encore.





Basically, if you have never seen these guys, you’re missing out. The new album is incredible and they are amazing musicians. I’m hearing rumors that they may be at Bonnaroo this year. I sure hope so.


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