Crib Notes

The venerable Buckhead nightclub Tongue & Groove is holding a grand re-opening tonight, as noted in today’s Peach Buzz. But the AJC item makes it sound as if T&G is just opening its doors. Actually, the club opened last spring in the space formerly occupied by Lotus Lounge in the Lindberg City Center complex.

As owner Michael Krohngold explains, he sold his leasehold for T&G’s original location at the corner of Peachtree Road and Buckhead Avenue earlier this year, but had planned to re-open the club within the rapidly redeveloping Buckhead Village. He considered several sites in and around the planned Streets of Buckhead retail district, but ran into zoning and licensing issues, so he instead opted to take over Lotus’ lease.

In the intervening six months, Krohngold and his decorator wife, Patti, completely renovated the interior, hiring graffiti artists to give the space an urban street art motif, and installing digital projectors, new furnishings and other design touches. They also opened a new room with a high-energy dance floor.

Tonight’s grand re-opening kicks off at 9 p.m. and will feature breakdancers, go-go girls and aerialists.

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Sex Pistols at the Great Southeast Music Hall — Jan. 5, 1978
Delayed by visa troubles, the Pistols missed their New York tour dates, so they wound up playing their first U.S. show in Atlanta. They opened with “God Save the Queen,” after which Johnny Rotten told the crowd: “You can all stop staring at us now. We’re ugly and we know it.” Nine days later, the band was history.

Iggy Pop at 688 — 1980
The post-Stooges Iggy played at 688 every night for a week a few months after the club opened, forming a meaningful relationship with the metal pole in the middle of the stage. His set list, written on the wall, remained there for years afterward.

Ramones at the Agora Ballroom — early 1980s
Joey and the boys played Atlanta many times from the late ’70s through the mid-’90s (before they died), but are most fondly remembered from their shows at the Agora.

Read more here.

(Courtesy 688 Club)

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In the early 1980s, the music world was beating a path to Athens, where bands such as the B-52’s, REM and Pylon were helping redefine underground pop. Although Atlanta produced no break-through acts like those during this same period, it was home to a rich assortment of local sounds and a tightly knit community of local bands and music fans.

Nowhere was that sense of community stronger than in the city’s active punk scene, which centered around two of Atlanta’s most celebrated music venues, 688 and the Metroplex. The two clubs offered an asylum for a generation of awkward, alienated teenagers wearing black eyeliner and studded collars who came to escape the drab reality of their suburban lives.

“The message of the music was, ‘We don’t care what people think about us,’ and that appealed to us,” recalls Jill Griffin, who haunted the clubs during the ’80s.

This Saturday, Oct. 4, the former owners of 688 and the Metroplex will throw a reunion party and concert aimed at bringing together some of the bands and fans from an era viewed now with fond nostalgia: Atlanta – the punk years.

Read the rest of this article here.

(Photo by Clark Brown)

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Were you at the Sex Pistols’ show at the Great Southeast Music Hall in 1978? Did you hang with GG Allin while he shopped for jock straps? Did you hook up with Wendy O. Williams after a show in Atlanta? Is your idea of a perfect rap song “Institutionalized” by Suicidal Tendencies?

On Oct. 4, the Masquerade Music Park will host the Metroplex/688 Reunion, an event celebrating the legacies of Atlanta’s two greatest punk music venues. In preparation for that happy day, CL would like to collect your memories of the city’s punk scene back in the day.

We invite you to send us your anecdotes, reminiscences and drug-fueled fever dreams about punk’s heyday in Atlanta. What were your favorite punk venues? Favorite local punk bands? Shows you’ll never forget? Crazy stories? Send ‘em on!

You can either comment to this posting or you can e-mail longer items to scott.henry@creativeloafing.com. I’m working on an article about Atlanta’s punk scene and would appreciate your contributions – you stinkin’ pigs!

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This coming Tuesday, the amplifiers will crank up at 551 Flat Shoals for the first time since the Echo Lounge shut its doors in January 2005.

If the permits come through in time, the space last occupied by the popular indie rock club will reopen then as East Atlanta Icehouse, so named to commemorate the building’s original use in the 1920s, which was as – wait for it… – an icehouse.

Shows have already been scheduled through the rest of the month, featuring such acts as the Subliminator, VieTNam, 50 Million Fables, the jonesplan, AMUL9, Luchagors and Lust.

But ex-Echo Lounge patrons shouldn’t expect to re-enter that club’s comfortably lived-in shabbiness. The space has experienced a total makeover, thanks to co-owners and co-brothers, Ed and Mike Murphy, who have installed new hardwood floors, repainted the lounge area light green and even gussied the place up with a granite-y bar and wood trim accents, for fuck’s sake. Suck on that, EARL!

From the online photos, we’re guessing the place doesn’t have the typical PBR vibe that folks associate with such East Atlanta joints like the Flatiron and Gravity Pub. Whether that’s good or bad will be up to customers to decide, but Icehouse GM Chip English assures us the place is real nice.

Another addition is a full-service restaurant – complete with patio – serving until 3 a.m. For now, the bar will only have beer and wine, but English says liquor will be added later on.

For bands looking for a gig, the club has kindly posted this online advice from booking manager Chet Knight:

“All music styles are welcome. However, you must be able to sell tickets. Garage bands with no following what so ever; might consider getting on with a band that does have a following. Do not become discouraged, you gotta start somewhere.”

Let the music begin.

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For some reason, it’s been all very hush-hush, but Criminal Records is planning to expand its L5P mini-empire with a satellite location dedicated to vinyl. We’re told Criminal will soon take over the Euclid Avenue storefront that recently housed R. Land’s Summerland art show, filling it with new, and possibly used, records.

Details are sketchy because, for unknown reasons, the fun-loving Criminals have been tight-lipped about their plans. What we hear is that the move will allow the original store to expand its selection of comics, magazines and toys. We don’t know where the CDs will be housed.

But we do know that vinyl is in the midst of a consumer boom as young’uns raised on mp3s are gradually discovering that the LP is the most bad-ass recorded music format God ever created!

How does neighboring Wax ‘N Facts feel about the additional competition? The ever-perky Victoria told us the folks there are looking forward to the company, the more the merrier, and all that. If anything, the new outlet will help promote the supremacy of vinyl, which may boost everyone’s business.

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At first we were confused when we saw that the 595 North nightclub had gotten the green light for a liquor license. As we recalled, the club had shut down a little more than a year ago because it couldn’t get a pouring license — or something like that.

Then we realized the club we were thinking of was 585 North. The new club is a few doors down the same strip of warehouses on North avenue, just west of Northside Drive. Partners Troy Holder and Neill Bridges have nearly finished building out a 5,274-square-foot space where they plan to offer live and recorded music four nights a week in a lounge setting.

Holder tells CL they expect to have an eclectic range of urban-oriented music, including jazz, fusion, R&B and hip-hop, depending on the night. No concert schedule has been announced yet. The club will also offer a tapas menu, he says.

The opening for 595 North is planned for about two weeks out, but the website is already up.

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Empty and silent for more than three years, the former Echo Lounge has lately served as a sad reminder of the apparent downturn of an Atlanta live-music scene suffering the loss of several notable venues.

But that may soon change when it reopens as East Atlanta Icehouse, a nightclub and restaurant that promises a wide range of musical acts.

“We’re hoping desperately to be open by the end of May,” says Chip English, who, along with partner Mike Murphy, is working to secure the remaining permits needed to reopen the venue.

English, who will manage the facility, says the musical acts will be “anything from rock-and-roll to bluegrass to zydeco. We’d like to be known for variety.”

Unlike the Echo Lounge, which was forced to close when city officials realized it was operating on a restaurant license but didn’t even have a kitchen, the Icehouse will offer a full menu and even serve lunch on a patio.

According to English, the building had sat vacant so long because a daycare had opened nearby shortly after the Echo Lounge closed, which made it impossible to renew the liquor license. Once the daycare finally closed, the partners jumped on the property.

However, the Icehouse still needs a zoning exemption because, as a music venue, it’s too close to neighboring homes. But Ed Gilgor, chairman of the local neighborhood planning unit, says that’s a small hurdle.

“The community wants this facility,” he says. “But, given its proximity to homes, we have to be certain it happens in a way that works for everybody.”

Noise shouldn’t be a problem. Originally built as a storage house for ice in the 1920s, English notes, the building has eight-inch-thick walls that are virtually soundproof.

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