Crib Notes

Note: Show info for the Davila 666 show is stated improperly in the “Air Loaf” audio. The show takes place Sat., Aug. 1, at the Earl, as written below.

CL’s Chanté LaGon and Chad Radford chat about Davila 666, a band that some people call Puerto Rico’s answer to the Black Lips. Davila 666 plays the Earl this Sat., Aug. 1.

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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Chad Radford:  There’s a singular sense of humor to what you do. I have seen the Torche T-shirts that look like the old skin head, staraight edge shirts that say “not so straight” next to the picture of the shaven-headed hardcore guy who looks like he’s about to swallow the microphone. That’s hilarious.
Steve Brooks:  We’re genius…

That’s a pretty macho scene. Have those shirts come back to bite you?
No, not at all. I don’t think that people really got the joke when we first made the shirts, but people started to get it once we stopped taking them on tour with us. People at the merch table started saying where’s your  not so straight shirt, those things are hilarious!’

It’s cleverly disguised like a real straight edge T-shirt. If you’re not paying attention you think it’s just another dumb ass Strife T-shirt, or something like that.

Yep. The Harvey Milk shirts on this tour are hilarious, too. There’s one with the Wicked Witch taking a dump on a toilet, eating a hamburger and reading the paper, and the headlines says ‘the Mc Rib is back.’ I thought that one was pretty awesome. There’s another one that and then there’s another one with a bunch of ticks doing beer bongs.

Torche “Healer” mp3

Harvey Milk and Torche play the Earl on Fri., July 31. $12 (adv.) $15 (dos). 9 p.m. 488 Flat Shoals Road. 404-522-3950.

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With over 5,000 votes already submitted, this year’s Best of Atlanta is stronger than ever. Today is the last day to submit your vote, so make sure your picks are counted for by voting at clatl.com/bestofatlanta before the end of the day. We’ll publish the results on Sept. 23.

If you missed the voting party at the Masquerade last week, shame on you! Be sure to check out our photo gallery and video from the party (after the jump), and make sure you’re there next year!

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Leonard Cohen. $49.50-$252. 8 p.m. Tues., Oct. 20. Fox Theatre, 660 Peachtree St. 404-881-2100. www.foxtheatre.org.

Tickets available via Cohen’s Ticketmaster.com page at 10 a.m. Mon., Aug. 3. VIP tickets (with memorabilia included) available for $375 and $589.

(Live in London album cover courtesy Sony, 2009)

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Goodie Mob reunion. $35-$40. Sat., Sept. 19. Masquerade Music Park, 695 North Ave. 404-577-8178. www.masq.com.

Tickets go on sale this Saturday at Ticketmaster.com.

(Flier spotted at mauricegarland.com)

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In a recent interview with Rap-Up.com, Ludacris confirmed that a recently leaked track (listen above) is indeed one of the songs he has ghostwritten for Dr. Dre’s long-delayed album, Detox.

“It was supposed to be for Detox, but I don’t know since it got leaked. I don’t know if it’s gonna get used.”

The song, “O.G.’s Theme,” showcases a husky-voiced Luda rapping under the guise of Dr. Dre: “The first nigga wit a attitude/with 30 mil sold where the fuck the gratitude?/Huh, I see all these little B.G.s/mean-muggin’ on the screen trying to be me.”

It isn’t the first rumored Detox track to leak featuring an Atlanta rapper providing the legendary producer with reference vocals. Earlier this year, a song titled “Shit Popped Off” hit the ’net with T.I. rapping over an unmistakable Dr. Dre instrumental. That track ended up in Dr. Dre’s recent Dr. Pepper commercial spot, minus T.I.’s rap. Atlanta rapper Killer Mike has also reportedly submitted work for Detox.

Perhaps, after all these years, the announced release dates for Dr. Dre’s comeback album are real. From the sound of things, he may be depending on a handful of Georgia boys to help him return with a vengeance.

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Chad Radford:  Are you guys from New York originally?
Michael Farkas: I am personally, and we all lived there for the first 5 of the 6 years we’ve been together, but this year we’ve kind of retreated to other places. Right now I currently live in Western Massachusetts. After years of living in New York I needed a change of pace.

What’s the line-up for the group?
Michael Farkas (vocals, harmonica, washboard, percussion, sound effects), Teddy Weber (vocals, table/lap steel guitars, parlor guitar, horn), Parrish Ellis (vocals, National resophonic guitar, archtop guitar, banjo, ukulele), Joe Dejarnette (upright bass, vocals). And Adam Matta does the beat boxing.

Your press release says that you cut your teeth busking and playing around New York and New Orleans…
Yep, those are two places we played a lot. In New Orleans it was mostly street busking. I think the first few years we were playing we would go down there a couple time a year and we just cut our teeth playing and working in the streets and small clubs as an old school busking band. That’s where we learned a lot about craft.

The kind of settings you’re talking about are  a far cry from the massive venues you’re playing now with Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp.
Absolutely. It’s strange, and I’m glad that we have 20-some odd shows to work on it. Personally, it’s like bringing me back to the street because there’s something to learn as you go along. With small venues and clubs you get an idea how to work it because you’ve done it all before, and assuming that the sound is okay and that people show up, you can have a good show every time, more or less. With these venues, which are a general seating environments, we’re playing to a full capacity crowd of 8-10,000 people… We’re used to playing where everyone can see us. We like intimate environments, but these shows simply are not intimate. The intimacy comes simply from the people who are pushed up against the front and really got there early. I treat that as the small club room in my mind.

How did you land this tour?
That’s the big question. Ultimately we’re not sure. Dylan’s management came to us and wanted us on this tour.

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UPDATE:  Photographer Kim Glenn submitted another photo from the Black Moth Super Rainbow show at the Drunken Unicorn. Click the jump bellow to see her rather haunting image from last night.

Black Moth Super Rainbow headlined a show at the Drunken Unicorn last night (Wed, July 29).

We’ll have a gallery of more photos from the show posted here soon.

(Photo by Perry Julien)

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There’s no denying Silent & Listen executes angst-ridden pop with ballsy aplomb, but flawlessness to a fault stymies the energy of their debut full-length, Secret Hiding Places Never Are. Guitar solos galore and gorgeous melodies guide the album, which at times sounds quite ferocious, as with the fiery riffs that erupt in “My Mistake” and “Along the Way.” Vocalist/guitarist Nathan Woody sings with confidence and control that comes across as a smooth, stylistic exercise for a voice destined for a larger, radio audience. The problem is that there aren’t many hard edges here. The gut-punch moments in “Chunky” and “Good Ideas” are powerful, but they’re few and far between, making them effective, but a bit pedestrian. (Self-released) 3 stars out of 5

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Chad Radford: Tell me about your new free Burdwurld digital EP?
Well, it was largely experimental given that it was my first time ever recording myself for serious, first time using Pro-Tools. I recorded and mixed everything by myself, which was a huge challenge and I play all of the instruments except for drums, bass and marimba on “Timid Young Ones,” so it came out very personal. It’s all pretty much pure, un-fucked with Adron inspo-tainment.

Who plays drums, bass and marimba on that song?
Drums – Jason Trammel. Bass – Jorgen Jorgensen-Briggs. Marimba – Simon Boyar.

Do you have a favorite song on the EP?
Hard to say. Maybe “You Could Be Anywhere.” But I’m also really happy about “Little Face.” Honestly, I’m really happy with the whole thing given that I really didn’t know what I was doing. It was an incredibly challenging and educational experience. I’m really proud of the electric guitar parts, especially on “Little Face.” I’m still kind of learning to wield electric guitar, it doesn’t come very naturally to me, but the sound is such a good vibe.

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The first SMKA Productions mixtape, The 808 Experiment: Vol. 1, was so big nearly every MC and his granny is clamoring to jump on the re-up.

So we partnered with SMKA, illroots.com and DOPE Couture to give artists (singers included) that opportunity.

HOW DOES THIS WORK?… very simple. Record an original song to the SMKA beat, “Back in My Younger Days” and if your song is chosen then you win free gear from DOPE Couture and a song on the 808 Experiment: Vol 2.

STEP 1: Download the Beat
“Back in My Younger Days”

STEP 2: Write a dope song

STEP 3: Record that dope song

STEP 4: Submit the recorded song in mp3 format to smkaproductions@gmail.com

STEP 5: WIN free gear from DOPE couture and a spot on the 808 Experiment: Vol 2

You may recognize the prominent vocal sample on the beat as Bootie Brown’s intro from the Pharcyde’s 1993 classic, “Passin’ Me By.”

Don’t let Oct. 1, the contest deadline, leave you in the dust. We’ll be cherry-picking some of the entries between now and then to post on Crib Notes just to give entrants some feedback and added exposure.

Stay tuned.

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Considering all the arguments heard in defense of the dying breed of traditional (music) journalism, here’s one rarely mentioned: the art of storytelling.

Here’s a pretty good story that appeared in a Kansas City-based publication, Ink, two weeks ago about a K.C. rapper I’d previously heard little about named Krizz Kaliko. His new album, Genius (Strange Music), is already a 2009 critics’ pick. Peep the intro:

Krizz Kaliko planned to kill his future wife and himself.

His tortured life had unmercifully reached a breaking point when Crystal Matthews, then 19, walked away from their three-year relationship.

The skin disease vitiligo had scarred his face, hands and upper body with blotches of pink skin since he was 2 years old and did even worse damage to his self-esteem. A criminal stepfather, neighborhood bullies and look-at-the-monster stares from confused adults and children inflicted physical and mental pain.

Cancer took his father when Krizz was 15. In the same year, his sister lay in a coma following a car accident.

His skin disease, the emotional trauma, his insecurity, his inexperience with love and lack of life purpose created a 25-year-old man ready to author a tragic ending.

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I left the boys for one night during our day of rest in Athens, GA and they got a warning from the UGA police: making a left turn out of a right turn lane, very BA.  Monday morning we headed out for Virginia.  Our soccer-mom-mobile was so weighted down that we had to turn off the AC to make it up hills.  Things were pretty quiet until the boys woke up around two, following lunch at Taco Bell.  Brett Miller took hold of the iPod and we had a sing-along that went from early Beatles– including a “Yellow Submarine” round—and “Let’s Get It On” to some ’90s favorites, mostly Pearl Jam.  Interruptions were limited to desperately rolling down the windows when Woody Shortridge’s stomach occasionally reacted to his lunch.  Woody had just put everything but the last 90 cents from the Athens gig into the car’s tank and had nothing to lose.

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Accordionist Stanley Dural never has felt shackled by the constraints of zydeco, even though he’s been acknowledged as the one who brought the genre out of the bayous of southwest Louisiana and into the mainstream. Lay Your Burden Down, which marks Buckwheat Zydeco’s 30th year on the scene, is no less innovative and is a testament to Dural’s innate, iPod-shuffle ear for other forms of roots music. Blessed with gifted guests and intriguing covers, the album almost feels like a tour de force, especially the bouncy take on Jimmy Cliff’s “Let Your Yeah Be Yeah” with Dural’s fizzy accordion riffs blending right in with the rhythm.

Fellow southwest Louisiana resident Sonny Landreth’s shredding guitar licks lend an urgency to the opener “When the Levees Break,” but listeners shouldn’t mistake the song about the 1927 Louisiana flood as a foreshadowing of Katrina angst to come. Instead, we get a bluesy groove on the JJ Grey tune “The Wrong Side,” and the gospel-blues collaboration with Warren Haynes on the title track.

In fact, Lay Your Burden Down only feels like an incidentally zydeco album, and Stanley Dural wouldn’t have it any other way. (Alligator)

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From Georgia Soul

The Peachtree Soul Club is extremely pleased to present, for the first time ever on the same bill, two Atlanta soul legends, Hermon Hitson and George Hughley. The show is Friday, July 31 at the Highland Inn Lounge and the show begins at 9pm. Additionally, PSC DJs Tim Lawrence and myself will be DJing the event as well for your further dancing pleasure. Oh, in the above picture you’ll see George on the right. Unfortunately, that’s not Hermon on the left though. There’s a little bit more about that fella to come soon enough.

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Maino’s story is an inspiring one. The Brooklyn rapper emerged from 10 years in prison for a drug-related kidnapping to start his own record label and eventually sign a deal with Atlantic. If Tomorrow Comes is his long-awaited debut, and occasionally it is inspiring, too. Assisted by gargantuan production from folks like Swizz Beatz, G.Q. Beats and Just Blaze, tracks like “Million Bucks,” “Back to Life” and “All the Above” are exhilarating chronicles of his unlikely success story. But the work quickly falls off a cliff, abandoning the inspirational tone in favor of well-trod pop-rap concepts — about how he runs with criminals (duh), how he enjoys making pornographic films (gross), and how he dreams of killing his baby mama (wait, what?). If Maino were doing anything unique with cadence or pacing this could be overlooked, but he isn’t, and so If Tomorrow Comes feels like an opportunity squandered. (Atlantic) 2 stars out of 5

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NOT SO STRAIGHT: Torche

When it comes to metal, humor is a strange thing. Unless you’re Spinal Tap, jokes make awkward bunkmates with so much aggressive behavior, but Athens’ sludge rockers Harvey Milk and the thunderously uplifting trio Torche (Atlanta/Miami) balance fiery songs with laconic humor that dovetails nicely with their respective sounds. But neither one of them are what you would call a typical metal band.

Torche’s guitarist/vocalist Steve Brooks doesn’t even like using the term “metal” when talking about his band’s sprawling, post-rock numbers. “Metal is just something different altogether, although it is the gayest music around,” he says before offering up a laundry list of what makes metal so gay: sweaty men wearing leather and long-hair, beating each other up and bro’ing down in the pit. “It’s very gay,” he adds.

Continue reading “Metal, the gayest music in town”

(Photo by Lauren Roero)

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Word spread a few weeks back that the house at 54 Moreland Ave., where directors Brendan Canty ( Fugazi) and Christoph Green filmed Burn to Shine Atlanta, had finally come down after leaving the project in limbo for two years.

But there is still much work to be done before the finished product will materialize.

Chad Radford:  Where does Burn to Shine Atlanta stand now that the house has come down?

Brendan Canty:  We still have a lot of work to do with this thing. Touch & Go went out of business so we’re trying to find a home for the project, but we think we know where it’s going to go. It won’t delay the release, but I honestly don’t think that it will come out until the Fall. That’s the best hope. November, but realistically speaking maybe even January.

Why did you pick Atlanta for this project?

There are so many factors that go into making one of these:  One of them is having a house that’s going to be torn down, but also having somebody who really wants it to happen on a local level. In Atlanta our Friend Lee Tesche was saying let’s do this, this is great. So we kind of went on his energy. In Chicago it was Bob Weston in Portland it Was Chris Funk, and in Seattle it was Ben Gibbard. Credit has to be given to these guys for being ground troop organizers. All of those guys were really into it and they had the bands together. That kind of energy carries us a long way.

On top of that there are a bunch of bands that we love Atlanta. I mean really, I love Deerhunter, I love Black Lips, I love Mastodon. Atlanta is just such a great music town. Do you feel like you were undeserving?

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This weekend, Atlanta bids farewell to one of its most unique nightclubs when Bazzaar closes its doors. After running the space for five years and hosting international DJs, drag queens, pop stars and other events that appealed to pretty much any walk of life, Bill Kaelin is ready for new adventures. The restaurant and lounge, which will reopen as a new concept called Publik in September, isn’t going to fade quietly into the night. Instead, it’s going out with a bang with closing parties throughout the week. Here’s a look at what will be happening at Bazzaar before it’s all said and done.

Drag is So Bazzaar: The cross-dressing cast of this long-running weekly gets dressed up for one last night of gender-bending fun. DJ Cody Nation spins gay-friendly house beats with Princess Charles and Rogue Nation presiding over the fabulous festivities. Other performers include Jazmin Aviance, Phoenix, Brent Star and Angelica D’Paige. “They’ll be in the middle of Peachtree, I’m sure, stopping traffic and acting like fools,” predicts Kaelin. $5. 10 p.m. Wed., July 29.

Adagio: DJs Chris Grass and Little Jen turn things down a notch for this downtempo night of relaxing vibes. “Adagio is what Bazzaar’s original concept was, which is a downtempo, quiet, conversational type of thing,” says Kaelin. “I want Thursday night to be the calm before the storm so I can actually have conversations with people and chill out.” Free. 9 p.m. Thurs., July 30.

Cleaning Up the Dirty South vs. Diagnostik: These two DJ collectives have been regulars at Bazzaar for years. Tonight they team up for a night of high-energy house, techno and electro beats. Drew Van Atten and Justin Bright of CUDS square off against Diagnostik’s Richard Evans and Mike Bradley in one last beat battle at Bazzaar. “They’re like the torchbearers to take what I was so passionate about to the next generation,” says Kaelin. “I’m too tired and too old to do it on a weekly basis.” Free. 9 p.m. Fri., July 31.

A Flux Farewell to Bazzaar: The grand finale epitomizes everything Bazzaar has come to be known and loved for, which is why Kaelin and DJ Vicki Powell plan to continue throwing Flux parties at other venues. Good dance music, a diverse crowd and positive vibes will be the perfect send-off as Powell and Brett Long spin with performances by Jason Jupiter and other guests. “Flux is everything that Bazzaar is,” says Kaelin. “It is gay, it is straight, it’s black, it’s white, it’s European and no one gives a fuck if there’s a guy dancing with a guy or a girl dancing with a girl and all lines are blurred. People are together because the music is hot, the atmosphere is great and it’s like love, so we’re ending with love.” Free. 9 p.m. Sat., Aug. 1.

Bazzaar, 654 Peachtree St. 404-885-7505, www.bazzaaratlanta.com.

(Photo courtesy C. Diesel)

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TRAILER: Waiting For Something, a Jay Reatard documentary

This coming Tues., Aug. 4, MySpace will debut Waiting For Something, a short documentary film about Jay Reatard, directed by Alex Hammond and Ian Markiewicz.

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