Crib Notes

Unfortunately, I will have bolted town for a much-needed vacation and will miss Saturday’s SoCo Music Experience at Olympic Centennial Olympic Park. I’m not overly wowed by the lineup or anything, but I need to kill my unforgivable dry spell of never having seen the Supersuckers. They’ve rocked hard the past decade or so, and if they break up before I get to see them, it is to my shame.

You just have to love a band that can serve up a pretty decent cover of Andre 3000’s classic, “Hey Ya!,” as we see from the clip above. Or, for you “Peanuts” sentimentalists out there, here’s an alternate version below. Though it does ask the question: Since Andre 3000 owns the song, doesn’t it really mean that HE rocks the hardest? Just sayin’ …

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In this week’s Summer Guide, we did something a little sneaky to make your summer a fairly cool one. Embedded in 11 of the “111 things to do” is a little sentence that reads: “Wanna attend this event for free?”
If you click on that sentence, you will be whisked away to a magical place, where you can enter our contest for tickets to those 11 fun things. Within that link is a link to a form to fill out all 11 events once you’ve found them. Then email that form to: summerguide@cln.com.
You’ll be glad you did.
Oh, and that photo? Take it as a very nice, very broad hint about one of the 11.
Start clicking …

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In this week’s issue, we offer our readers our 2008 Summer Guide, with the theme “111 Things to Do This Summer.” But really, we lied. There are tons of things to do this summer. This was just the tip of the iceberg.When I sat down to edit it, I had well more than 111 to choose from (which was the idea), so there was some serious whittling down. But that shouldn’t stop us from providing the ones that didn’t make it into print, should it? So here are the rest of the blurbs. We should also note that with the comprehensive work done on the Summer Guide often means an even healthier updating of all of our listings, which I strongly recommend checking out for further summer planning.

Continue reading Pop Smart post.

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Narm

HAPPY RECORD STORE OWNER: Erik Levin (Photo courtesy of Criminal Records)

Atlanta’s very own Criminal Records, received its first Retailer of the Year award during the National Association of Recording Merchandisers’ (NARM) 50th Anniversary Gala Dinner on Wednesday, May 7 at the San Francisco Marriott. The award was presented to Eric Levin, owner of Criminal Records and Aurora Coffee.

NARM is the trade association for music retailers, wholesalers, distributors, record labels, suppliers of multimedia and various other related products and services in the music business. Its members account for almost 90% of the music sold in the U.S. music market.

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Tom Waits “Glitter and Doom” Tour comes to the Fox Theatre in Atlanta, Sat., July 5. 8 p.m.

Here’s the Ticketmaster info:

Tickets are $67 and $87, plus applicable service fees, on sale starting Friday, May 16, 10 a.m. Eastern time. Tickets are available from Ticketmaster.com and by phone at 404.249.6400 only. Tickets are not available at retail locations or the box office. All tickets sold through Ticketmaster will be delivered via Paperless Ticket. Buyers will not receive paper tickets for these events. At the time of entry, buyers must present the credit card used to purchase tickets as well as a valid government-issued photo ID. The entire party must enter the venue at the same time. Tickets are non-transferable. Limit of 2 tickets per order per household. Duplicate orders will be cancelled. For more information visit Ticketmaster.com/tomwaits.

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Title: Fables of the Reconstruction
Released on: June 10, 1985
Favorite tracks: “Feeling Gravitys Pull,” “Old Man Kensey,” “Can’t Get There From Here”

Supposedly Fables of the Reconstruction (or would that be Reconstruction of the Fables?) is about the American South. The term “Reconstruction” harks back to Dixie following the Civil War, and there are little references to Southern geography in the songs. Rumor has it that “Maps and Legends” is allegedly dedicated to outsider artist Howard Finster of Summerville, Ga., who did the Reckoning cover. Stipe’s lyrics always pepper in bits of Southern vernacular, although I’m not sure that “Can’t Get There From Here” counts as a “Southern” expression. The song does refer to Philomath, Georgia, though. And the soft banjo in the album-closing “Wendell Gee” delicately evokes bluegrass.

I have a hard time interpreting Fables as some kind of alt-rock equivalent to a William Faulkner novel, though. (“Swan Swan H” on R.E.M.’s subsequent album, Lifes Rich Pageant, does have more of a Southern “literary” theme, however.) To me, its “Southern” mostly in the ways that Chronic Town feels Southern, and generally seems like a continuation of some of Chronic Town’s ideas. Someone could probably make a case that R.E.M., who helped turn Athens, Ga., into an alt-rock mecca, influenced Southern rock and roll more than Southern music influenced it.

(more…)

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I’m a creep. You’ll probably think I’m a weirdo, too, when you hear what I’m about to say.

I think Radiohead can be kinda boring live.

There, I said it. Unleash the hounds. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love Radiohead, and I’m not disputing the fact that Radiohead is one of the greatest bands of all time. But I’ve seen the band before and it’s been fairly unmemorable — except for the fact that I can recall not even being able to give away an extra ticket we had the last time they came through Atlanta. So this time my friends and I hit Lakewood ticketless, all scored lawn seats for $20, and then snuck into the covered seating for the show. Lakewood can be a very cheap date.

The stage setup was incredible, with its blazing light show reflecting off of stalactite-like rods dripping down from the roof. Cameras filmed individual bandmembers throughout the show, and all of the black-and-white footage played simultaneously in separate blocks on a long, wide screen backdrop.

Radiohead did sound incredible. They played from just about every album except Pablo Honey, and highlights included “Idioteque”, “Bangers & Mash”, “Just” and “Paranoid Android” into “House of Cards” for the final encore.”Just” alone was worth the price of admission (if you paid what I did). As one of my friends who was there put it, “Few bands can completely recreate live, the sounds on their records like Radiohead can.” He’s right and it’s an impressive feat, given the music’s complexity. Still, some of the slower songs can be taxing live, and I find myself itching for songs such as “Just.”

The show was simple, tight and definitely more memorable than the last time. I’d certainly see them again, but I wouldn’t pay more than $20.

Check out the photo slideshow below for shots of Thom Yorke thrashing about on stage in his dancing fits, among other highlights.

[iframe]atlanta.creativeloafing.com/slideshows/RadioheadSlideshow/[/iframe]

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Today’s Air Loaf features CL’s Rodney Carmichael chatting with local hip-hop artist Spree Wilson.

Air Loaf is broadcast weekdays on 1690 WMLB-AM at approximately 8:10 a.m., 12:20 p.m. and 6:20 p.m.

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When DJ Rasta Root isn’t busy hosting his own satellite radio show on XM 65 The Rhyme (”Classic Example,” 11 p.m.-midnight, Fridays) or killing sets every second Friday at MJQ (Face/Off Fridays), you might find him ripping turntables in clubs across the globe, from Japan to Canada. No matter where he spins, at the end of the night one thing is inevitable: He must clear the dance floor. Here are his favorite ways to git ‘er done.

Continue reading Real Life Top Five.

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Like most artists, jazz pianist Bradford must contend with constrictive labels. Though he competed in the nu-jazz category at the Atlanta Jazz Festival’s recent Future of Jazz competition, he found a way to break free from definition. In the end, his band’s hip-hop version of Miles Davis’ “All Blues” struck a winning chord.

So what exactly does his music sound like?

Continue reading Spotlight.

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