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Blog Is Back On Tuesday

The 2009 Official Ohmpark Blogging Season begins on Tuesday of next week. I’m just putting the finishing touches on my best albums of 2008 list and will post that tonight/early tomorrow. Then I’m going to spend the weekend catching up on my Battlestar Galactica before sorting through the mountain of emails and blog related stuff that has accumulated over the holidays and so far this year. Also, mark down your calendars for January 24th, as we will be celebrating our 2 year anniversary of bloggishness at WonderRoot with a killer line-up (to be announced soon). We will be moving to a new server over the weekend because our current server can’t handle all of the love you have been giving us, so if some sort of disaster occurs and the site is down, don’t panic, it should only be brief if at all. Thanks so much to all you readers, and this forthcoming novella sized best of list should provide plenty of reading for you until I return in all my glory next week.

Photos: Year In Review 2008

Here are my favorite photos that I took this year.

#10- Jeffrey Lewis and the Jitters

See more photos from this set here.

#9- Jason Collett

See more photos from this set here.

#8- Evangelicals

See more photos from this set here.

#7- Fuck Buttons

See more photos from this set here.

#6-Phosphorescent

See more photos from this set here.

#5- A.Armada

See more photos from this set here.

#4- All The Saints

See more photos from this set here.

#3- Built to Spill

See more photos from this set here.

#2- Deerhunter

See more photos from this set here.

#1- Of Montreal

See more photos from this set here.

On The Road: 2008 Is Ending Soon

It’s been a little quiet around here because I’m OTP at the beach for the week, but I’ve got some holiday posts coming soon. As 2008 draws to a close, it is time to put together my end of year lists. From the beginning, Ohmpark was primarily a music research project for myself, and these lists are the final culmination of that research. I strongly urge all of my readers to tell me the albums from this year that you love that I might not have covered because I want my lists to be as comprehensive as possible. Feel free to hit the comments of this post with your suggestions.

Much like I did last year when I headed to the beach for Turkey Day, I listened to a bunch of new albums on my way down here, so I’m going to go through them and talk about my first impressions of each. Before I started listening to new albums, though, I jammed some Deerhunter to get rolling. While Microcastle is certainly getting plenty of good hype around the web, I think the bonus disk, Weird Era, is getting a bit overlooked, because I like it as much, if not more, than Microcastle. It is great that on top of making such a perfect pop album they still gave a little something weirder for us Cryptograms fans. Here is a couple tracks from it I heart:

Deerhunter : Operation

Deerhunter : Vox Celeste

Next up I popped in the new Anathallo album called Canopy Glow, and it was so good I listened to twice in a row. I’m not sure how I overlooked this band up into now, but luckily the guys from Sorry No Ferrari turned me on to them when I went to Fest earlier this month. I’ll gush about Canopy Glow more later, but right this second I’d rather respond to Pitchfork’s lame review of it they posted yesterday. First, it is quite amusing to me that The Mars Volta has become the Anti-Christ to Pitchfork, and anytime they talk about a band they don’t like that can play more than 3 chords they invoke a TMV comparison. I really don’t hear much of a parallel except that both of these bands are clearly great. Also, they whine over and over how the singer from Anathallo sounds too much like Sufjan Stevens. Yes, their voices are a bit similar, but the vocalists from Fleet Foxes and Band Of Horses sound way more like Jim James than the guy from Anathallo sounds like Sufjan, and they sure love those cheap ripoff bands to death, so either get consistent or shut up and stop being a hater. Enjoy the new hottness:

Anathallo : Noni’s Field

Anathallo : The River

Next up I listened to Final Fantasy’s Plays To Please EP, which is a tribute to some Canadian musician I’ve never heard. It was a nice listen, but nothing that wowed me like Owen Pallett normally does.

Final Fantasy : Ultimatum

After that I listened to the latest album from The Notwist, The Devil, You + Me. It came out early this summer, but I never got around to it until now. This German band sounds really good and chill, and this album will be in my heavy rotation for a while:

The Notwist : Where In This World

The Notwist : Boneless

The next two albums I tried were the newest from Ruby Isle and The Streets respectively. I didn’t like either one. I’ve never loved The Streets, but Mike Skinner’s lyrics have been pretty interesting most of the time. Unfortunately Eveything Is Borrowed seemed so boring and cliche. Ruby Isle seemed like music for 15 year old pre-ravers, and totally annoyed me. It sucks because I truly love all of the cover songs I’ve heard them do, but I just can’t get into their originals.

Finally, I finished my journey listening to the new Wilderness album, (k)no(w)here. At first I didn’t think I liked it, but by the time I finished the album I was fairly intrigued and then listened to it a few more times since. The vocalist is certainly an acquired taste, but once you can get beyond that, this album is pretty stellar. If you’re like me and you enjoy a challenging listen, this album will provide a just reward.

Wilderness : (p)ablum

Ok, hit me up with your 2008 hottness!

Vote! Then Go See Jeffrey Lewis At WonderRoot Tonight!

Ok, the Jeffrey Lewis show that Drunken Unicorn canceled for tonight has been moved to WonderRoot. See you there.

Jeffrey Lewis : Together We Form Jeff

Jeffrey Lewis : Flippity Floppity

WonderRoot website

So Many Records To Buy

Yesterday was a massive record release date. Here’s the list of the interesting ones, and while I’m only halfway through this list currently, I’ve yet to find one that isn’t good:

Marnie Stern: This Is It…
Deerhoof: Offend Maggie
Department Of Eagles: In Ear Park
Antony And the Johnsons: Another World EP
Lambchop: OH (Ohio)
Land Of Talk: Some Are Lakes
Castanets: City OF Refuge
Annuals: Such Fun
El Guincho: Alegranza
Rosebuds: Life Like

if you’re looking for a physical place to walk into and buy records like these, you could go to my favourite shop, Criminal Records in Little Five Points. From Tomorrow to Sunday they will be having a 25% sale on most items to get ready for the move next week to their new location. Criminal Records will still be in Little Five Points, just in a place 3 times the size of the old store over at 1154-A Euclid Avenue NE, Atlanta, GA 30307 between Bang-On and The Porter Bar. It’s even going to have a full stage inside for in-store performances. It’s unclear what’s going on with the old location, as before i had heard rumours they were going to keep that for comics and games, but it now seems like they are taking everything to the new place.

That’s not the only record store that moved, as Ella Guru, a joint I had heard about but never seen, is now in a new location as well near Inman Park/L5P. I really haven’t been to too many Atlanta record store outside of Criminal, Wax ‘n’ Facts, and Vacation. And all of those old rave/techno record stores that don’t exist anymore. I hear Decatur CD is cool, but I rarely go to Decatur. Are there any other cool record shops in Atlanta I’m missing?

Anyways, here’s some classic performances at the old Criminal Records store:

Mastodon:

Black Lips:

Dungen:

Click here to read the entire post…

Welcome To Ohmpark 2.0

After about 6 months of working on things, we’ve finally launched our new site. First, yes we do have ads now, but don’t expect our content to suffer because of that. In fact, the less I have to work at jobs in “the real world”, the more time I can put into this. I will still be going on and on about the most obscure, inaccessible, experimental music that I enjoy as always. I intend to continue to keep this blog very personal in its tone. While I am totally into DIY, and indie, underground stuff, I also don’t see anything wrong with making a living doing what you love.

We have a bunch of new features for you to check out. Most notably, we now have a “News & Updates” and a “Featured Video” page. Instead of wasting an entire post citing a somewhat interesting news bit or a new video that is jumping around every blog, these sections will keep you informed and up-to-date without clogging up our original content. For those of you who use our RSS feed, the main Ohmpark feed will not include these sorts of items, but both of them have their own feeds you can subscribe to if want the information overload.

We will continue to expand our content and features in the future, so any feedback or suggestions from you, our readers, is greatly appreciated. We want to give you the best experience possible as we bring you total coverage of Atlanta’s music scene, and the best artists here in the city and all over the world.

I want to give some shout outs to Clint, Jesse, and Loren for helping put this new site together, and to everyone who has contributed to Ohmpark since we started. Lastly, thank you so much for checking us out and digging us, you have made this thing wildly more successful than I ever could have imagined when I started this personal music research project less than 2 years ago.

Blogging with love,

-Davy

Goodbye Summer ‘08

First, I want to thank everyone who came out last night, and a special thanks to All The Saints, Summerirds In The Cellar, and This Piano Plays Itself for putting down some really spectacular performances. It was a pretty perfect evening.

I haven’t been posting as much as I like to lately, as I’ve been trying to take a little bit of a break to avoid getting burned out after almost 2 years of blogging hard. But don’t worry, with the summer over, I’ll be getting down to business like usual. Also, a little side note from the “real world”, I’m changing jobs in two weeks so that I can spend more of my time on this and other various projects, so I’ll be back guns blazing real soon. In addition, the fabled newly designed website we’ve been working on since like April is about to drop, and I think you will like it. I want to thank everyone who reads this blog, we really appreciate your support!

The crew and I are heading to the beach for a debauchery-filled weekend to close out what has been a really fabulous summer for me, so it will be quiet around here until next week. If you are sticking around ITP, I highly recommend checking out The Orphins, Club Awesome, Hollow Stars show at The Earl Sunday night and the Tromapalooza Saturday night at Lenny’s:

So, here’s some highlights from the summer here at Ohmpark:

Indian Jewelry, Tree Creature, Gold Painted Nails @ Eyedrum

All The Saints, Dead Confederate @ The Earl

Bonnaroo:

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4 & Wrap-up

Athfest

Corndogorama:

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4 & Wrap-up

On The Road w/ This Piano Plays Itself & Kebert Xela:

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4, 5, and Wrap-up

Club Awesome, Brass Castle @ Lenny’s

Deerhunter @ Vacation

What Up In The ATL?

This Thursday night you are invited to come down to our neighborhood and check out three bands we really love around these parts. First, our friends This Piano Plays Itself will open up with a short set. Then Orlando’s Summerbirds in The Cellar return to Atlanta after dazzling everyone at Corndogorama. Finally, we will cap things off with the incredible All The Saints. Three of the Dirty South’s greatest upstart bands all for you, for free! If you have yet to experience one of our house party shows, now is the time.

Tonight you should check out the Titty Titty Bang Bang breast cancer benefit at The Earl with Snowden, The Danny Family, The Bandettes (featuring Corrine from Snowden, Deb Davis from Hope For AgoldenSummer, and Buffy from Tiger! Tiger!), The Preakness, and Valentina (featuring Corrine from Snowden). What a Snowden-filled night!

Tomorrow night, Ohmpark favs Royal Bangs will be at The Drunken Unicorn

Tuesday night Lazer/Wulf will be at Smith’s Old Bar.

Wednesday night they are filming a documentary called “Slow Southern Steele” at the Drunken Unicorn about the heavy underground scene in the south featuring Withered, Doomsayer, Music Hates You, and Royal Thunder.

Then this upcoming weekend you should check out the Grant Park Summer Shade Festival, here’s the line-up:

Saturday, August 30, 2008

Festival Stage
11:30 - 12:00 Phenix for Saints
12:00 - 12:45 East Ponce Soul Faction
1:00 - 1:45 Get Small
2:00 - 2:45 Jeremy Thornton
3:00 - 3:45 Antic Clay and the Long Slow Train
4:00 - 4:45 Mary O Harrison
5:00 - 5:45 The Preakness
6:00 - 6:45 Evan McHugh
7:00 - 9:00 House of Fools

Stage 125
11:30 - 12:15 Fisheye
12:30 - 1:15 Brent Lawson
1:30 - 2:15 Gene Owens
2:30 - 3:15 John McNicholas
3:30 - 4:15 Julia Carroll
4:30 - 5:15 Batata Doce
5:30 - 6:15 Matt Howard
6:30 - 7:15 Anderson & The Would Be Thieves

Stage in the Shade
11:30 - 12:15 The Radio Ramblers
12:30 - 1:15 Jimmy Galloway
1:30 - 2:15 Stephanie Scarlet
2:30 - 3:15 Lindsay Appel
3:30 - 4:15 The Mudflapjacks
4:30 - 5:15 Ian Schumacher
5:30- 6:15 Liz Brown and the Big River Riders
6:30 - 7:15 Thomas Oliver and the Usual Suspects
7:30 - 8:15 John Kelly Jam
8:15 - 9:00 Brian Luckett

Sunday, August 31, 2008

Festival Stage
11:30 - 12:00 Leadcar Holiday
12:00 - 12:45 The Summer Dare
1:00 - 1:45 What the…?
2:00 - 2:45 Caroline Monroe
3:00 - 3:45 Chickens and Pigs
4:00 - 4:45 It’s Elephant’s
5:00 - 5:45 Warm in the Wake
6:00 - 7:30 Anna Kramer and the Lost Cause

Stage 125
11:00 - 11:45 Grace Buford
12:00 - 12:45 Kerry Wentworth
1:00 - 1:45 Roxie Watson
2:00 - 2:45 Octave
3:00 - 3:45 Sean Kagalis
4:00 - 4:45 Warren Gray
5:00 - 5:45 Bouldercrest Singing Group

Stage in the Shade
11:00 - 11-45 Calo’ Gitano
12:00 - 12:45 SLABB
1:00 - 1:45 Brian Luckett
2:00 - 2:45 John Kelly Jam
3:00 - 3:45 Amy Lashley
4:00 - 4:45 Liz Brown Band and the Big River Riders
5:00 - 5:45 Geoff Achison

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