Crib Notes

Meet the college dropout who got his start in music by designing T-shirts for such rappers as Ludacris, Three Six Mafia and Will Smith. No, he’s not another Kanye West. On the contrary, Sean Falyon is more likely to rap about rocking a Soupy Jones original than Louis Vuitton.

“A lot of [mainstream] music people can’t really relate to because a lot of people ain’t rich,” the Philadelphia-born rapper says. “I make stuff that the average layman can understand.”

Continue reading Sean Falyon’s show preview.

(Photo by Diwang Valdez)

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Balkans played a 7-inch release party on Sunday night (Feb. 22) at Vacation Gallery & Boutique in the Virginia Highlands, and there was one small problem: there weren’t any 7-inches to be found. The label didn’t get them from the pressing plant in time for the show, which has been an increasingly common problem as of late. Rumor has it that all of the pressing plants around the country are experiencing a huge demand for vinyl right now. As a result it’s taking longer and longer to get records.

The group played anyway, and they wore an awful lot of denim when they did (see above). There were about 25 people in attendance for the 20+ minute set. Balkans craft a jittery and fast-paced punk/surf/fuzzed-out pop grind that teems with energy while they perform.

Guitarist/bass player Brett Miller played with a broken hand, and when he dropped his pick toward the end of the show he just played the string with his fingers. A fine, red spackling, a few smears and a couple of bloody finger prints marred the otherwise colorless face of his guitar by the time he was done.

It’s a sure sign of dedication when a band literally sheds their own blood to keep a show moving along, and all of the pain and frenetic energy the group displayed paid off.

Double Phantom Records hope to have the 7-inches for sale sometime this week, and most definitely by the time they open for King Khan and the Shrines at the Masquerade on Tues., March 10.

(Photo by Chad Radford)

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Criminal Records announced this week that they have added Savannah’s Kylesa to the line-up for their pre SCION Rock Fest in-store that’s taking place on Fri., Feb. 27, the night before the festival at the Masquerade. So for anyone who’s keeping a tab, the line-up for the Criminal in-store now includes Kylesa, Skeletonwitch and Atlanta’s very own Withered.

In other news, this week Zoroaster — who will also perform at the SCION Rock Fest — released another new song from their forthcoming new album, The Voice of Saturn, through Brooklyn Vegan. The song is called “White Dwarf” and it features a searing guitar solo from Mastodon guitarist Brent Hinds.

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For today’s Roll Call we call out Paul Collins of the Beat.

Who are you?
Paul Collins, founding member of The Nerves and The Beat, proud participant of the DIY movement in the late seventies in America… Proud father and eternal rock n roller.

Describe yourself in three words.
Smart, tough, cute.

Who — dead or alive — would most you like to meet?
John Lennon, Chuck Berry, Kieth Moon, Elvis, Beethoven, Jesus Christ.

Who would you most like to slap in the face?
Hitler, Bush, Nixon, Reagen and Mussolini.

What song do you wish you had written?
“Imagine,” “Yesterday,” “Nadine,” “Louie, Louie.”

Elvis Costello or Elvis Presley?
Presley.

LP, CD or MP3?
MP3.

If you could start one trend, what would it be?
AssBook.

If you could end one trend, what would it be?
The Jonahs Brothers.

With whom would you most like to play a game of spin the bottle?
Sophia Loren or Jane Fonda when she was doing Barbarella!

The Paul Collins Beat plays the Earl on Sat., Jan. 24th with Gentleman Jesse and Poison Arrows. $10. 9 p.m. 488 Flat Shoals Rd. 404-522-3950.

(Photo courtesy of Paul Collins).

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The folks over at RecordStoreDay.com are giving away a free download of a super secret Christmas song collaboration that will only be free on Christmas Eve. and Christmas Day.

Apparently upper management wants to keep who it is a secret, but if you look at the banner ad above you can probably figure out most of the equation.

If you’re interests are piqued, go check it out.

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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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David Berman is one of the most lauded characters in the canon of indie-rock songwriters. He is also one of the hardest to understand.

Unlike his friend and sometimes bandmate Stephen Malkmus, Berman doesn’t fit the mold of an ironic hipster. Nor does he carry the weighty, country-boy mystique of Will Oldham. Berman is more like Charles Bukowski. He has the ability to write lyrics rife with symbolism and that resonate with a universal sense of truth, but are grotesque in their painful honesty.

He relegates interviews to e-mail, both in the interest of clarity and to maintain the cryptic shield that surrounds Silver Jews records, it seems. His responses simultaneously feel conversational and elusive, and getting inside his head is virtually impossible.

Like his interviews, Berman’s lyrics have their own internal sense of logic that reveals all sorts of hidden meaning. Just listen to his double-edged lyricism in “Candy Jail” from his latest release, Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea (Drag City). “Living in a candy jail/where the guards are gracious and the grounds are grand/and the warden really listens and he understands,” Berman sings.

On the surface, allusions to a cornucopia of peppermint-flavored jail bars, peanut-brittle bunk beds and marshmallow walls seem like nonsense. But upon closer examination, he’s not just singing about sweets.

Read the rest of this article here.

(Photo by Brent Stewart)

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This Saturday night Atlanta’s long-standing power pop trio the Young Antiques (A.K.A. the ‘Tiques) will head over to Savannah to play a show at The Jinx.

The Rent Boys are going along to give an encore performance of their recent reunion show at The Fringe Binge a few weeks back. So if you didn’t get the chance to see them then, here’s one more go-around, which is will worth the drive to Savannah; and after all there was an almost 8 year gap between Rent Boys’ shows. And despite much prodding these recent reunions aren’t going to lead to a proper reformation of the group, so catch them if you can.

In other Young Antiques news, the group is now taking pre-orders for their forthcoming self-released CD, titled Soundtrack to Tear Us Apart.

(Photo courtesy of the Young Antiques)

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From out of nowhere Off-Duty Cop is playing their first show tonight at Lenny’s. ODC is a new pairing of former Blame Game band mates Ian Deaton (guitar) and Alex Lambert (drums).

Deaton explains that the group is an excuse for him and Lambert to get together and jam on some punk songs and do some improvisational stuff as well. It is a project that will be ongoing, and will fire up whenever Lambert is back in town from NYC where he currently resides, or Deaton is up there.

Off-Duty Cop plays around 12:30 and the show is free. Be there or get busted…

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If you’re not stuck in gridlock or already far far away from Atlanta for the 4th of July weekend there are plenty of things going on around town to keep you entertained. In addition to the various back yard BBQ’s, block parties and shows taking place all over the city on the 4^th CL’s gives a hearty, American thumbs to the following weekend happenings.

First and foremost, there is the King Khan and the Shrines show happening over at Lenny’s. On Sat., July 5th.

Criminal Records in L5P is hosting an in-store performance with the Dutches & the Duke at 5 p.m. The show is free and there will most likely be will be beer provided.

Later that night the D&D head over to The Drunken Unicorn to play a show with Seattle’s Fleet Foxes. The show is $10 and it starts at 10 p.m.

The Star Bar in L5P is has the whole weekend covered with a spate of free and fantastic shows from local bands.

Friday, July 4th
Pink Police
the Booze
the Hiss
El Capitan & the Scallywags
the N.E.C.
Club Awesome

Saturday July 5th
Anna Kramer & The Lost Cause
Gringo Star
Ocha La Rocha
Brass Castle
All the Saints

Music at The Star Bar begins at 8 p.m. on both nights and, once again, it’s free all weekend.

And if these things aren’t your bag, than you can head over to Turner Field on Friday to catch Arrested Development’s lead female vocalist, Tasha LaRae perform the national anthem before the game starts.

Then on Saturday night Arrested Development will play a show in Fan Plaza beginning at 5:30 p.m. There will be a second show in Fan Plaza after the game as well.

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Part-time No River City players Mark Carbone (bass) and Nathan Green (keyboard) have joined forces with CJ Bargamian (formerly of Crybaby and Myssouri and various other long gone Atlanta underdogs) to spearhead a new band, called A Fight to the Death.

The group first materialized as Bargamian’s solo project, dubbed Chris Bargamian & A Fight to the Death in 2006 with the self-released album, American Literature. End of Continent Sadness followed in ‘07.

Together now with a full line-up that also features Colin Jaccino (bass) and George Wallace (pedal steel) the group crafts a rolling and dusty rumble that’s driven by heavy percussions, wafting organ and lap-steel textures and a rustic, gypsy-esque Americana traipse. AFTTD doesn’t have as much in common with the humid, country pace of No River City, but draws more to the world of Western film scores than anything else.

The group’s debut LP is in the works and scheduled for a July 19^th release party at The Highland Inn Ballroom Lounge. Songs from the forthcoming release can be heard here, and if you are so intrigued by the tunes on their Myspace page, you can can check them out for free at The Star Bar tonight (as in Thurs., July 3) with Era of the Stereograph, Falcon Lords and the Sound Supreme. Music starts at 9 p.m.

(Photo courtesy AFTTD)

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Fri., June 20

Lizz Wright with Heston. $21. 9 p.m. Center Stage, 1374 W. Peachtree St. 404-249-6400. www.centerstage-atlanta.com. — Saucy and seductive, Lizz Wright mixes jazz with contemporary R&B in her third album, The Orchard. She teams up with singer/songwriter Heston, who seasons soul with an original island flare.

Shawn Colvin with Paul Thorn. $35. 8 p.m. Atlanta Botanical Garden, 1345 Piedmont Ave. 404-876-5859. www.atlantabotanicalgarden.org. — Shawn Colvin spins her original pop-folk sound into songs like Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy.” Former pro boxer turned blues singer/songwriter Paul Thorn opens as part of SunTrust Concerts in the Garden.

Raheem DeVaughn and Chrisette Michele. $32.50-37.00 8 p.m. The Tabernacle, 152 Luckie St. 404-659-9022. www.tabernacleatl.com. With two smoking vocalists, there’s no need to wonder why its billed the Art of Love tour. DeVaughn delivers ecstatic R&B licks, while Michele puts an exquisite, contemporary twist on classic soul.

Florez, Ben Deignan, Rantings of Eva. $10. 9 p.m. Smith’s Olde Bar, 1578 Piedmont Ave. 404-875-1522. www.smithsoldebar.com. — Rock duo Florez combines driven chords with catchy lyrics for a classic sound. Heartthrob and soul junky Ben Deignan and indie rockers Rantings of Eva complete the bill at Smith’s.

Sat., June 21

moe. with Keller Williams. $33. 6:30 p.m. Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre at Encore Park, 2200 Encore Pkwy. 404-733-5010. www.vzwamp.com — The lineup says it all. Over 19 years and 17 albums, jam band quintet moe. and the quarky, one-man band Keller Williams is sure to spark metro-Atlanta’s newest outdoor venue.

Groove Stain, BPM, Suburban Soul. Free. 10 p.m. Luby’s Bar and Grill, 1098 Herrington Road. 678-442-0088. www.lubys.us. — A two-time part reggae, part rock night with Groove Stain and BPM. Alternative quartet Suburban Soul will kick off the night at Luby’s.

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Today’s Air Loaf features CL’s Chanté LaGon and Chad Radford chatting about the band Firewater, playing tomorrow night (Sat., June 14) with Bear in Heaven at the Earl.

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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Soundtracks can make a film. When done right, the result is magical, combining image, sound and emotion. Alexander Chaudhry, host of WRAS-FM’s (88.5) soundtrack show, “Nitrate88″ (Saturdays, 11 a.m.-1 p.m.), and film music connoisseur, shares his top five musical movie moments just in time for summer blockbusters.

Continue reading Real Life Top Five.

(Photo by Tina Sanderson)

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Derek Lyn Plastic is an underdog in the Atlanta punk scene. He exists in a world that’s entirely his own and catalogs his songs one self-released 7-inch at a time.

The lumbering character slurs his words and moves as if he’s suffering through a perpetual hangover. In person, his responses are slow and considered. And just when you think he’s going to say something funny or profound, he shrugs his shoulders and mutters “fuck it,” regardless of the topic in the conversation.

Continue reading Show Preview.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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As soon as the story hit the Atlanta newswire that Eric Perteet was arrested for allegedly impersonating a Piedmont Hospital doctor, Griffy2Trillion knew he had just what he needed for his morning comedy bit. “That was funny as hell, right?” the part-time Hot 107.9 (WHTA-FM) radio host/full-time crack-up asks after he and his “A-Team Morning Show” co-hosts, Rashan Ali and Emperor Searcy, place a hilarious crank call to the hospital. “Dr. Perteet! Dr. Perteet?!” Whether he’s doing improv on the radio, hosting one of his weekly stand-up gigs or talking to at-risk teens through his nonprofit, Positive Vibes (www.positivevibesinc.org), Griff is one on-air personality who doesn’t fake the funk.

Continue reading Spotlight.

(Photo courtesy Griffy2Trillion)

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Today’s Air Loaf features CL’s Chanté LaGon and Chad Radford discussing two bands who hail from Austell: Coffin Bound and Mammals.

Coffin Bound plays The Star Bar on Wed., June 11. $6. 9 p.m. Mammals play Thurs., June 12. Free. 9 p.m. 404-577-7721. www.starbar.net.

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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If you want edgy, talk to Randy Castello. He’s earned a rep for nurturing emergent sounds and scenes as the talent buyer for Drunken Unicorn and the man behind Tight Bros Network promotions company. When he announced his split from Drunken Unicorn last week (due to undisclosed, irreconcilable differences), it sounded like the perfect time to talk to him about his evolution and how he has, in turn, affected Atlanta’s.

Continue reading Spotlight.

(Photo by Megan Macksey)

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A LOCAL LEGEND: the Dexter Romweber duo (photo by Camellia Morton)

The third and final day of Bubbapalooza ‘08 features some of the finest acts to grace this year’s festival. Bands on the bill include. Rocket 350, the Psychodevilles, the Dexter Romweber Duo, Anna Kramer & The Lost Cause, Jimmy & The Teasers, Billie Joe Winghead, El Capitan & The Scallywags and the Georgia Fireflies.

None of these acts are to be missed, but this critics pics for the must see performances of the entire weekend are Anna Kramer & the Loast Cause, and of course former Flat Duo Jets main man Dexter Romweber fronting a new duo. Kramer & the Cause have just returned from a West coast tour and are sharper than ever. Romweber is straight-up a local legend. Yeah he lives in North Carloina, but he honed his chops in the golden age of Athens, GA… He’s a local. What are you gonna do?

It’s $15 at the door and the music starts at 8 p.m. For more information click here.

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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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