The Selmanaires are the new Atlas Sound

Clockwise from top: Tommy Chung, Mario Schambon, Jason and Herb Harris (Photo by Carl La Pan)
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Atlas Sound fires up the tour machine once again, this time Deerhunter frontman Bradford Cox has enlisted the Selmanaires to serve as his backing band for this show of ghostly pop. Stereolab-esque post-rock Brits Broadcast play in support of their latest release, Broadcast & The Focus Group Investigate. The Selmanaires pull double duty as they open the show. $15. 8:30 p.m. The Earl. 404-522-3950.-

Chad Radford: So what’s up with the Atlas Sound tour; the Selmanaires are the Atlas Sound band for the tour with Broadcast and you’re opening the shows as well?-

Tommy Chung: Yes. Bradford has been collaborating with Broadcast for a little while and we were always jealous because Broadcast has been one of our favorite bands pretty much since they became a band. Bradford asked Herb if we wanted to go too, and it was like, ‘let me think about it... Um yeah!’ A week later Bradford said he was sick of being a one-man sampler show and asked how we felt about being the backing band too. It sounded cool so we did one practice with him before a Dirty Projectors show and within the first ten minutes he asked us to play that show. We learned four songs, stretched them out and did like a 10-minute cover of “What Goes On” by the Velvet Underground.-

We’ve always had a connection with Deerhunter. Our very first show out was in 2003 with Deerhunter at MJQ before the Drunken Unicorn even existed. It was Deerhunter, Tabitha and we were the openers — back when we were still stand up bass, Wurlitzer and acoustic guitar. After that we pretty much played with Deerhunter every month at Lenny’s. It feels like things have come full-circle now that we’re playing with Atlas Sound.-

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