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We No Fun Compilation And Festival


Brass Castle @ Lenny’s (2/22/08)

By now most of you local readers have probably heard about the upcoming Atlanta music scene documentary We Fun featuring superstars like Black Lips and Deerhunter. If not, check this out. Well, Atlanta’s music scene is too glorious and enormous to be thoroughly documented by a single movie, and many of our more under-hyped warriors have come together to highlight their pocket of the ATL. The We No Fun compilation is coming soon and here is the tracklist:

Vera Fang: “Let’s Go To Spain”
Brass Castle: “Sinister Thunderbird”
Retconned: “A Nine Ten”
The Sunglasses: “I Can Only Eat Pudding”
Judi Chicago: “Three Oh Three Bee Cee”
Hollow Stars: “Divine Extraterrestrial Origin”
Lay Down Mains: “553″
SIDS: “122 Hours Of Fear”
Skin Problems: “Hairy Hotdog”
Hawks: “Blackwater Architect”
Thy Mighty Contract: “Psychic Vampire”
Chrissakes: “Hyper White”
High Marks: “When I Drank The Wine”
Chopper: “Whole Hog”
Electrosleep Int’l: “Chip In The Head”

There will only be 500 vinyl copies avaialble of the record mastered by Carl Saff, and you can pick one up at the We No Fun release festival going down at the Drunken Unicorn next month. Here is the line-up for that:

Thursday, January 29th:

Judi Chicago
Thy Mighty Contract
Chopper
Retconned

Friday, January 30th:

Vera Fang
Lay Dow Mains
Hollow Stars
High Marks

Saturday, January 31st:

Hawks
The Sunglasses
Brass Castle
Skin Problems
Chrissakes

So check it out:

We No Fun myspace

Drunken Unicorn website

Big Ears Festival 2009

So this is very intriguing, a festival going down the first weekend in February in Knoxville, TN. Via their website:

The weekend of February 6 – 7 – 8, 2009 will see the maiden voyage of a new “boutique” music festival concept called BIG EARS in Knoxville, Tennessee. The mission of BIG EARS is to create a dynamic cross-genre music and arts festival experience. Spearheaded by Ashley Capps, president of AC Entertainment and longtime fan of cutting edge music, the BIG EARS experience will include concerts by legendary innovators along with young cutting edge visionaries and experimentalists crossing a variety of genres. The festival will also include art installations, exhibitions, performance art, seminars with artists, and interactive experiences.

Perhaps best known as a founder and producer of the acclaimed mega-festival, Bonnaroo, Capps envisions a very different experience at Big Ears, “Big Ears is conceived as a boutique festival, appealing to a very focused audience of music fans with adventurous tastes. We’re hoping to sell a thousand tickets to our inaugural event, but we intend for everyone who attends to have an extraordinary experience.”

Capps envisions BIG EARS as happening several times a year in different cities – with each festival loosely defined by a unifying thread. In keeping with its moniker – BIG EARS is a term often used to describe especially gifted and insightful listeners- the inaugural festival’s concept is about listening. “I have a compelling interest in music that demands your complete attention, that quietly insists that you slow down and listen - and that transports you into another world. It seems that there are others who long for that experience as well. And this is a quality common to the music of many of the artists performing at BIG EARS in February,” says Capps.

Ok, sounds pretty cool, here is the initial line-up:

Antony And The Johnsons
Fennesz (solo)
Fennesz/Linkous/Minor
Michael Gira (Swans, Angels of Light)
Phillip Glass
Jon Hassell & Maarifa Street
Matmos
The Necks
Negativland
Pauline Oliveros
Wendy Sutter

I wasn’t very familiar with most of the names on this list upon first glance, but after looking into these acts, I am impressed (I put links for each act and I urge you to check all of them out). Festival passes are on sale now for $195, which seems a bit high, but I have a feeling this is going to be a truly special event.

Big Ears website

Langerado 2009 Initial Line-up

The first 2009 festival announcement is official:

Death Cab For Cutie • Snoop Dogg • Thievery Corporation (Live) • Slightly Stoopid • Ryan Adams and the Cardinals • Dashboard Confessional • The Pogues • Matisyahu • Flogging Molly • Michael Franti & Spearhead • Broken Social Scene • Cafe Tacuba • Umphrey’s McGee • The Disco Biscuits • Robert Randolph & The Family Band • Pepper • The Faint • Cold War Kids • Steel Pulse • Public Enemy • Gym Class Heroes • Tricky • Girl Talk • Chromeo • Mute Math • Bad Brains • Ozomatli • Against Me! • George Clinton & Parliament / Funkadelic • Tortoise • DeVotchKa • Black Kids • Grupo Fantasma • Holy F*ck • Budos Band • Tokyo Police Club • Lotus • The Virgins • The Gaslight Anthem • King Khan and the Shrines • Lucero • Murs • Ra Ra Riot • Tortured Soul • Rebelution • K’Naan • The Egg • Zac Brown Band • Tigercity • The Aggrolites • Cloud Cult • Spam Allstars • Rachel Goodrich • Blue King Brown • The Heavy Pets • Awesome New Republic • The Postmarks • Suenalo Sound System • Live Painting by LEBO

There’s some good stuff in there, but the move to Miami’s Bicentennial Park and lack of camping sort of takes away everything special about this festival for me. Langerado 2009 is going down March 6th-8th and tickets go on sale this Friday at noon at a prices ranging from $120 to $165. Check out our coverage of Langerado 2008.

Langerado website

The Fest 7: On The Road With Sorry No Ferrari

Gainesville, FL. November 1st-2nd, 2008

The weekend before last, I rode along with Atlanta instrumental rockers Sorry No Ferrari for their performance at The Fest, a punk music festival in Gainesville, Florida. I woke up very early Saturday morning after a long Halloween night to ride along with the three fourths of the band I didn’t really know, but between naps I had plenty of conversation with them about things including music, the history of the band, and barbecue. This was actually the first show with their new drummer, Jonathan Balsamo, so there was lots of getting to know each other between the band as well. We were trying to get to The Fest in time to catch fellow ATLiens Benard, but we got there a few moments too late. So we went to the biggest venue of the fest, which was a bit smaller than Variety Playhouse, to catch Atom & His Package. It was a one-man-punk-band who seems to be a pretty big deal in the punk universe, but very much not my thing.

After that we headed to a tiny venue called 1982 to catch the local Gainesville band whose house we were staying at, Giuseppe. The venue had lots of very old gaming systems hooked up to the TVs on the bar, so I played some Dr. Mario and drink PBRs with the SNF folks for a bit. Giuseppe took the small stage and rocked the house:

After that I jumped around to different venues to see some shows, but didn’t see anything too special. So I joined SNF for some food and drinks and drunken music discussions/debates. The band I was most excited about catching down here was Pegasuses XL, an Athens outfit with ties to We Versus The Shark, and they did not disappoint. I’ve really been enjoying their album, The Antiphon, and I will have more on that in a future post, but here is some eye candy from their epic live set:

Click here to read the entire post…

Antipop Music Festival (Orlando, FL)

November 13-16, 2008 Orlando, Florida has put together a nice little line-up for Antipop. The most notable acts to me include Conor Oberst, Summerbirds In The Cellar, Black Lips, Pelican, Phosphorescent, The Aquabats, Mike Doughty, plus much more. This seems to be one of those fests that takes place across different venues all in the downtown Orlando area, and you can get a pass that gets you into every show of the 4 days for $45.

Antipop Myspace

Here is the full schedule:

Click here to read the entire post…

The Atlanta Mess-Around

Atlanta institutions such as Rob’s House Records, Die Slaughterhaus Records, Douschemaster Records, and Triple D’s are teaming up to put together a festival called Atlanta Mess-Around going down in a couple of weeks. I’m not the biggest fan of garage/punk rock in the world, but there is no denying that many of these bands are very good. Also, every event I’ve attended put on by these folks have been a ton of fun. Paste did an interview with the heads of all three labels that you should check out. The full schedule goes like this:

Click here to read the entire post…

Voodoo Music Experince 2008: Nine inch Nails, The Mars Volta, Lil Wayne

Last week we made a last minute decision to go to New Orleans and catch the Voodoo Music Experience this year. We spent most of the trip on Bourbon Street and in the casino, but we did attend Voodoo last Saturday to catch Lil Wayne, The Mars Volta, and Nine Inch Nails consecutively on the main stage, and it was a ton of fun. We arrived a bit late for Lil Wayne’s scheduled time, but luckily he was running behind too. I will say that I did enjoy hearing the songs live, but Lil Wayne was rather unimpressive in person. He seemed like he was stoned out of his gourd, it felt like most of the vocals were pre-recorded, and the set was filled with predictable events like a prayer session and a taking off of the shirt. I rarely enjoy hip-hop live, so I’ll chalk a lot of this up to that, but to sing a song sitting down holding a guitar, and then to never actually do anything with the guitar but let it sit in your lap seems pretty lame

It appeared most of the crowd was there on Saturday to see the hometown acts, and as soon Lil Wayne finally got his mic shut off, most of the crowd took off enabling us to get very close for The Mars Volta. TMV were their typical amazing selves playing mostly newer stuff, and in long, extended jam versions. Cedric seemed angry about something and was taking on-stage lights, his mic stands, and whatever else he could find and smashing them, and even tried to mess up Nine Inch Nails‘ lighting system that hung above the stage for the entire day. While that spectacle is fun to watch, I find myself being fascinated much more by Omar’s forceful conducting through the jam sections. I keep trying to decipher what all of his hand signals denote. It’s unbelievable to me that there are still so many people out there who hate this band because I can’t get enough of them:


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The Final Fests of 2008: CMJ, Voodoo, The Fest, Troika, Fun Fun Fun, Nophest

The 2008 festival season is coming to a close, so before the best-of-2008-list season begins, there are still a few fests worth looking into:

CMJ Music Marathon & Film Festival (Oct 21-26) (New York, NY)

CMJ is New York’s version of SXSW, but instead of hipsters descending into a small town for a week, It’s mostly bands and music biz folks descending upon the hipster capital. I have yet to go to this but I have heard great things about it. The quantity of quality bands you can see across New York City on an average night is mind-boggling alone, so to increase that exponentially is something that shouldn’t be missed. If you want to keep up with all of that, my two favourite New York music blogs, Brooklyn Vegan and Earfarm have you covered.

Earfarm’s Guide to CMJ

Brooklyn Vegan’s Guide to Hip-Hop at CMJ

KEXP @ CMJ live shows

CMJ Website


The Voodoo Experience (Oct 24-26) (New Orleans, LA)

Check out our coverage from last year’s Voodoo.

This year, I will be making it back for my third ever Voodoo appearance, but I will just be going on Saturday to catch The Mars Volta, Nine Inch Nails, and Lil Wayne. You can take a look at the Schedule here, but other notable artists include: Stone Temple Pilots, TV On The Radio, DevotchKa, Man Man, Wyclef Jean, Josepth Arthur, Ghostland Observatory, Thievery Corporation, Fishbone, Dead Confederate, Good Guys, R.E.M., NERD, Butthole Surfers, Ozomatli w/ Chali 2na, Tokyo Police Club, and Quintron & Miss Pussycat. Here are some photos Clint Miller took from last year:


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