Crib Notes

The work, of Montreal visual artist Luc Paradis, is up on the walls at Vacation Gallery & Boutique as of today (Thursday October 30th).

The opening begins at 7 p.m. A new incarnation of local band the Gaye Blades, dubbed Blade2, which features the band’s normal line-up + Gentelman Jesse Smith playing guitar.

Vacation is located at 674a North Highland Ave. (404-875-4413).

Photo courtesy of Vacation Gallery & Boutique

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The Atlanta City Council has proclaimed October 30 as Donnie McCormick Day. But the AJC reports the southern rock/blues singer and leader of the band Eric Quincy Tate is too ill to make his 64th birthday celebration tonight at Northside Tavern.

Read full story here.

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Chealsea Handler gets the typically stone-faced T.I. to crack jokes and open up about his various “situations” — i.e. impending prison sentence, baby mamas, etc. Classic footage:

… And he got his vote on in Georgia yesterday. Click here for pics.

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Over the last decade the ghostly garage punk band the Spooks have haunted Atlanta’s clubs, terrorizing audiences with spectral sounds, and often times dousing onlookers with gallons of blood and severed animal limbs.

The phantasmal five-piece materializes mostly around Halloween to rattle their chains and unleash an unholy cacophony of haunted house rock and roll, usually dressed in tattered white sheets. No one knows who they are or why their unquiet and spirits still linger on earth. Their connection to Atlanta bands the Black Lips, the Kiwis and Baby Dinosaurs vs. Extinction are not clear — aside from the Die Slaughterhaus Records logo that marks their debut LP, Death From beyond the Grave.

The album’s 3-D cover art seals a Pandora’s box of echo-heavy rock, disembodied moans and sinister cackles and Theremin squiggles that emanate from somewhere beyond the realm of the living. … and the songs, “Ceremonial Death March,” “California Boys” and “Now I’m Gonna Steal Your Soul” spell out the ghoulish M.O. that drives their beach blanket blood bath sound with horrific clarity.

To put it plainly, the Spooks are a band of evil spirits who roam the earth and posses the bodies of local musicians to play their songs. Rumors abound that they will materialize at the Star Bar on Halloween night to celebrate the release of Death From Beyond the Grave.

Despite warnings from all who have encountered these ghastly ghouls I sought them out. A few failed attempts to summon them on a Ouija board went by, but they made their presence known in a séance that gripped me with fear in the former New Street Gallery in Avondale. After a few ill-advised taunts the planchette darted violently from letter to letter, spelling the answers to my questions. Soon enough their earth-bound hosts materialized before me in a haze of dense smoke and reverb.

I am duty bound not to reveal the names of the bodies of the living whom they inhabit, out of fear of exorcism. But after some coaxing they agreed to an interview…

Can you tell me your names?

Spook1-2: No!
Spook3: Where we’re from there is no need for names.
Spook4: Bodies are temporal things anyway, they just come and go. A spirit is an eternal form.
Spook5: We didn’t write these songs anyway. We channeled them. Beethoven was decomposing and we stole his sheet music.

How did you die?

Spook1: In various attrocious ways.

(more…)

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Mastodon announced today that the tile for their forthcoming full-length is Crack the Skye, which is due for an early 2009 release.

The seven-song album is the follow-up to 2006’s Blood Mountain, and will clock in at 50-minute. The songs were recorded at Southern Tracks Studios in Atlanta  with producer Brendan O’Brien (Bruce Springsteen, AC/DC) at the controls.

The group will once again join forces with artist Paul Romano for the album’s cover art which is reportedly epic and involves an eyeball. Multiple packaging formats are expected to be lavish. Details are forthcoming.

Crack the Skye track listing:

1. Oblivion
2. Divinations
3. Quintessence
4. The Czar
I. Usurper
II. Escape
III. Martyr
IV. Spiral
5. Ghost of Karelia
6. Crack The Skye
7. The Last Baron

In the meantime Mastodon is gearing up to head over to Europe to share the spotlight with Metallica for their summer 2009 tour.

Tour dates include:

6/14 - Hartwall Arena - Helsinki, FIN
6/15 - Hartwall Arena - Helsinki, FIN
6/17 - Spektrum - Oslo, NOR
6/22 - Datch Forum - Milan, ITA
6/24 - Palalottomatica - Rome, ITA
7/13 - Palacio de Deportes - Madrid, Spain
7/16 - Hallenstadion - Zurich, SWITZ
7/20 - Copenhagen Forum - Copenhagen, DEN
7/22 - Copenhagen Forum - Copenhagen, DEN
7/23 - Copenhagen Forum - Copenhagen, DEN
7/27 - Copenhagen Forum - Copenhagen, DEN

More dates to be announced soon.

Photo by Jimmy Hubbard

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For nearly three decades the Netherlands-based Legendary Pink Dots have thrived in the weird and wonderful outer reaches of psychedelic rock, weaving a dense, and often times esoteric catalogue of ethereal and experimental musings. The band, under the direction of enigmatic frontman Edward Ka-Spel, has cranked out scores of albums that wander through formless, textured atmospheres, psychedelic folk and industrial-leaning pop songs that sway from sinister to serene. Their performance at The Earl on Sat., Nov. 1 is billed as “an evening with the Legendary Pink Dots,” which will span the group’s dark, rich legacy, leading up to their latest CD, Plutonium Blonde (ROIR).

$15. 9:30 p.m. The Earl, 488 Flat Shoals Rd. 404-522-3950. www.badearl.com.

Despite the group’s far-out leanings, Ka-Spel has consistently held the reins as the mystical and prolific frontman who doesn’t fit the profile of the Songwriter with a capital “S.” But his place is stamped in history as an artist who pushed the boundaries of the craft to develop a voice and style that are distinctively his own.

The Legendary Pink Dots were born in London circa 1979 if I’m not mistaken. That’s a time and place that’s lauded as an era when punk and new wave / power pop came to a head, giving us great songwriters like Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe et. al. What was your relationship to those scenes?

Actually it was August 1980. To be honest it was a fertile time in London but I cannot say we had much connection with Elvis Costello or Nick Lowe etc. They’re fine songwriters for sure, but we tended to listen to Joy Division, This Heat and Throbbing Gristle at that time. The latter of which really showed me that you didn’t have to be a virtuoso musician in order to make vital music. That’s encouraging when you are just starting out.

Watch the video for “Rainbows Too” below

Click here to listen to “A World With No Mirrors” from Plutonium Blonde.

(more…)

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Athens’ universally lauded post-grunge, Replacemtns-style rock trio the Whigs are set to perform their songs, “Already Young” and “Like A Vibration” on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” tomorrow night (Wed., Oct. 29th).

Click below to see the Whigs forthcoming tour dates opening for Kings of Leon.

(more…)

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Hard to believe that it hasn’t even been two full years since Deerhunter unleashed Cryptograms into the world. The ensuing Pitchfork obsession, constant touring and Bradford Cox’s Atlas Sound adventure have all left indelible marks on the group.

All of these things read like an impressionist’s diary entries lingering between every note, reverberating strum, and coo heard throughout the group’s third full-length, Microcastle (Kranky). From the epic, melancholy wail and fading guitar arch that opens the album in “Cover Me (Slowly),” it’s plain to see that this is not the same Deerhunter once personified by Cox masquerading in a dress.

Whereas Cryptograms propelled the group into the blogosphere with a full and confident stride, Microcastle is a world-weary album that’s somewhat damaged but not disheartened by experience. The album finds the group shedding the shoe-gazer fuzz and aggression of the past, but that’s not to say that it doesn’t come armed with some incredibly catchy pop hooks.

“Never Stops” and “Saved by Old Times” are bound by a sense of classic pop simplicity so uncomplicated that the subtleties and repeating cyclical structures of each song become addictive. Every second of the album is shrouded in a hue of ghostly and psychedelic fog, but Microcastle is not about sensory overload. It’s about nostalgia, reflection and growing up.

With its Stereolab-esque bouts of rhythms and droning, distorted harmonies, “Nothing Ever Happened” is the catchiest song on the record. It’s also the album’s most complex chapter that bridges the gap between Cryptograms and the here and now.

Despite the simplicities, the songs on Microcastle are rhythmically complex and therefore require patience. As such, the album isn’t the best place for Deehunter newcomers to start. But Microcastle is without a doubt a five-star record, and the departure from the avant-garde pop grind of Cryptograms serves the group well.

Deerhunter plays with Jay Reatard, Times New Viking and Pylon. $16. 8 p.m. Fri., Oct. 31. Variety Playhouse, 1099 Euclid Ave. 404-524-7354.

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Tonight at The Earl Canadian lady punks Vancougar come all the way from Vancouver of all places to headline a three-band bill that’s filled-out by Atlanta bands Thee Crucials and The Long Shadows. $7. 9 p.m. Tickets can be purchased through Ticket Alternative or at the door. 488 Flat Shoals Rd. 404-522-3950. www.badearl.com

(Photo by Ryan Walter Wagner)

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JACKSON BROWNE West Coast singer/songwriters have faded from favor but Browne’s 35-year legacy has proven to be remarkably sturdy. He’s touring behind his first album of new music in six years, a set of songs that could have slotted into his 1972 debut. That’s no criticism, though, as his politically and personally driven material has always intertwined gracefully with Browne’s forever-young voice, effortlessly inviting melodies and addictive lyrics. He’ll play many of the hits that the graying boomers come to hear, but his new tunes are nearly as impressive, and his band is always top-shelf. $40-$75. 7:30 p.m. Tabernacle. 404-249-6400. www.livenation.com. — HH

WORLD/INFERNO FRIENDSHIP SOCIETY Aptly described as “cabaret punk”, World/Inferno Friendship Society blur the line between classic ska and the cultured punk of bands such as Gogol Bordello and Flogging Molly. With a list of band members long enough to intimidate the Masquerade’s stage space, two things are for certain: it will be loud and it will be upbeat. $10. 7 p.m. Masquerade. www.masq.com — SI

(Photo Credit: Henry Diltz)

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Download here: Nine Inch Naliens

Courtesy Cincinnati-based ill poetic

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With all of the pieces to Criminal Records‘ move to their new location falling into place, the store has announced a new Saturday afternoon concert series, called Beer Thirty.

Starting in November Criminal will open its stage to live bands to play in the store every Saturday at 4 p.m. The time, of course, is subject to change. There will also be DJ’s spinning records before and after bands.

The schedule thus far includes:

Babyshakes on Sat., Nov. 15th
Eagles of Death Metal on Sat., Nov. 22nd
Gringo Star on Sta., Nov. 29th

Bands or DJs interested in performing can contact Shannon@criminal.com for details and availability.

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