Last night on “The Late Show with David Letterman,” Britt Daniel and his men of Spoon chugged through “Got Nuffin’” off their latest studio LP Transference. Like any number of excellent Spoon songs, this one begins simply enough: instrumental building blocks, desperate confessions, a deeper lick, and before you know it you’re in the middle of it, teeth grit with a steady drum beat on your leg. So good.
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Want to show off your knowledge of Atlanta, wow your friends and enemies, and earn the respect of Creative Loafing’s immensely powerful staff? Here’s how: Shoot us an e-mail in which you explain the meaning of each of the photos printed on the cover of this week’s Decade in Review issue. The more photos you can describe — and the better the description — the greater your chance of admittance into an elite inner circle of immeasurable privilege. The three participants with the best responses will be announced Monday, Jan. 4, on clfreshloaf.com — and will get to choose from an array of pretty decent prizes, including tickets to the Hawks, the Thrashers, Muse, Bon Jovi and Slayer/Megadeth, as well as a theater preview or film screening with Arts Critic Curt Holman. Deadline: Monday, Jan. 4. Send your guesses to decadeinreview@creativeloafing.com.
Are you a current student with a passion for journalism? Would you like to gain real-world experience at the Southeast’s leading alternative weekly? Will you receive school credit for your internship?
If so, we want YOU.
Creative Loafing is currently seeking interns for the upcoming spring semester (mid-December through late May). CL offers internships with the News, Arts & Entertainment, Music, Food & Drink, and Events sections, as well as with our photography and video teams.
For more information about our internship program, please visit clatl.com/intern or e-mail alicia.wages@creativeloafing.com.
(Photo by Jeff Riley)
When Leonard Cohen took the stage last night at the Fox Theater, beaming the most heartfelt and humble smile, hat in hand, I thought to myself, ‘Can this really be the filthy bastard who wrote Beautiful Losers?’ But by the second song, “The Future,” it was clear as he sang in his low, soul-permeating voice, “It’s lonely here, there’s no one left to torture,” that yes, this is the artist who’s known for his ability to capture the sacred and the profane in the same, heart-stopping lyric.
Three hours later, the crowd rapturous and worn out from jumping to their feet after every song and in order to bring Cohen back to the stage for yet another encore (five in all?), it was impossible to leave wanting — rarely have I seen a show so broad in its sweep of an artist’s material. Backed by a 9-piece band, Cohen gave an incredibly generous performance, singing almost every one of his greatest and best-known songs – “Suzanne,” “Bird on a Wire,” “Hallelujah,” “Chelsea Hotel,” “Anthem,” “Everybody Knows,” “I’m Your Man,” “Sisters of Mercy,” “First we Take Manhattan,” “Ain’t No Cure For Love,” and on and on. (more…)
The Free Song of the Day at Amazon.com for Oct. 15 is an MP3 of “These Days” by REM. Originally recorded on Lifes Rich Pageant, this is a live version from the Athens, Ga. band’s new album, Live at the Olympia, recorded in 2007 and due for release on Oct. 27.
Speaking of free downloads of new live recordings, Tom Waits is offering an eight-song preview of his new live album, Glitter and Doom, including versions of the pirate-y “Singapore” from Rain Dogs and the concussive “Goin’ Out West” (which one may recall from the Fight Club soundtrack). The tunes date to the Glitter and Doom tour of 2008.
Sometimes things happen that just seem right, such as the decision to bring Rockabilly legend Wanda Jackson to Drive Invasion 2009. What better way to celebrate the Sunday before Labor Day than in a hot parking lot with over 3000 of your closest friends, a slew of fancy hot rod cars, AND the “Female Elvis”? In a recent phone interview, Jackson says, “I think I played a drive in theater a few times in the 50s, and the stage was on the roof of the concession stand.”
Jackson is always a big hit at the many rockabilly revivals she participates in around the world. She sees the continued popularity of rockabilly as a unique phenomenon. “Rockabilly takes in a whole lifestyle,” she says. “It seems to take people back to a time when the music was fresh and simple, and for some reason they desire that simpler, slow paced lifestyle.” After many years as a Gospel singer, Jackson found an audience in Europe over 20 years ago that wanted her to revive her rockabilly songs. She noticed a big difference between European audiences and American audiences back then, but the gap has since closed. “I started playing rockabilly revival events in Scandinavia in 1985, and it seemed like it never died out over there like it did in the states. The Europeans were more appreciative and loyal to the music, and would ask me very detailed questions like ‘Who played lead guitar on that track?’… things I didn’t remember!” she laughs. “Now the young Americans are catching up, and paying attention to the details.”
Your votes are coming in strong — nearly 2,000 in just over a week. Keep them coming! Vote today for Best of Atlanta 2009. You can vote for your favorites through July 31 at clatl.com/bestofatlanta, or vote through Facebook. We’ll publish the results on Sept. 23.
And don’t forget about the Filthy Rich Voting Party coming up next week — July 23, 9 p.m., at the Masquerade. Admission is only $5, with beverages and food included (while the rations last). Attractive Eighties Women and Hardy Morris of Dead Confederate are on the bill, and you can vote onsite.
By Anna Watson
1994, Fox Theater
I got a job helping the catering lady in the hopes of getting backstage access. The catering room was in the basement of the Fox, off a narrow sloped hallway with linoleum floors and cement walls. Inside there were low ceilings with corrugated ceiling tiles and collapsible round tables and chairs. It was a small room with stale air.
The encounter
Eddie Vedder walked in the room, just like a normal person. He didn’t get any food. He just went and sat down at a table in the back left corner of the room. It was a now or never moment. I don’t normally drink coffee, but I needed an excuse. So I got a cup of coffee, walked over, sat down at his table and acted like I was supposed to be there. Then I open my packet of sugar and dropped the entire packet (paper and all) in my cup. I pushed it into the coffee so he wouldn’t see and remained calm as I burnt my finger. He had a little doll figure, a boy, with movable arms and legs and clothes that were painted. He was really into it. Then I noticed that he and I were wearing matching navy corduroy — his jacket and my pants. I couldn’t resist pointing this out, and he lit up when I did — he felt the knee of my pants as if to confirm that it was indeed the same as his jacket. We bonded for a split-sec. Then he had to leave. At the end of the food table near the door there was a vase of beautiful fresh star-gazers (”Eddie Vedder flowers” forevermore). On his way out he asked me if he could take a few up to his room. I was like, “Oh, yes, please, take them. Take them all!” He took a few.
Cigarettes
I was sent to Kroger to buy cigarettes for Pearl Jam. But first I had to find them to ask what kind. I found EV in a hallway a couple floors up, surrounded by posse and bodyguards. He saw me and I tried to yell to him. The bodyguard tried to push me back (like I was dangerous or something), but EV said, “No, it’s OK.” So I asked him. I think he said Marlboro. I was only 15, but somehow Kroger sold me two big boxes of them.
The leg
Pearl Jam was on stage and everyone was distracted, so it seemed like a good opportunity to check out their dressing room and search for evidence to take home. It was on the top floor (which I knew about from a previous time when I was sent up there to deliver sugar to Meatloaf, where he was in his bathrobe). Nobody stopped me, so I went up and walked in (the door was half open, so I could have easily just been lost and wandering into the wrong room, right? Yes, I thought — a believable explanation if I get caught). The lights were off except for a couple of lamps and the bathroom light. There were all these weird psychedelic black light posters on the walls and lava lamps, which I found odd. To the left of the door was a love seat and a small coffee table with the EV stargazers and the little figure boy. I thought, OMG, I’ve found EV’s SPOT — his NEST!! I focused, got in hyper-absorption mode and looked further. And as I looked around a corner next to the coffee table, my eyes fell on something right there in front of my face. Leaning against the wall was … was EV himself — only it was just part of him. Just his LEG. Without a doubt, it was Eddie Vedder’s OWN leg — only it was FAKE. Fake as in not alive or attached to a body. (more…)
Anyone who shares the sentiments of Common’s classic “I Used to Love H.E.R.” will appreciate this piece from Dustin J. Seibert. I’ve often fretted over my love-hate relationship with undeniably addictive hip-hop beats and their often unapologetically ridiculous lyrics. I know you’ve heard it all before, but Seibert is refreshingly eloquent and real here.
(Apologies for the jacked-up cut-and-paste job. Here’s the link to the full article, courtesy BlackVibes.com: http://www.blackvibes.com/features/news/manifesto-grounds-divorce/)
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See photo via Twitpic
Update: an ummastered mp3 of Ecstatic Sunshine’s “Turned On” from Yesterday’s Work has been added to this post.
The Baltimore/Atlanta/Washington D.C.-based accessibly weird and vinyl friendly label Hoss Records has unveiled its fall release schedule. First up is the third full-length from Baltimore duo Ecstatic Sunshine, titled Yesterday’s Work. According to Hoss boss Brad Hurst the album presents “an evolved version of Papich’s post-Frippertronics guitar work married to skittering Berlin-school electronics.”
In August the LP will be preceded by Ecstatic Sunshine’s “Turned On” 7-inch, which features a non-album track and a remix by Rjyan Kidwell (A.K.A. Cex).
In the meantime the first installment of of the label’s new techno 12-inch series has also arrived with the first installment coming from San Francisco’s Mi Ami. The idea behind the series is to take bands that aren’t traditionally associated with techno music and get them to make techno music.
The Mi Ami 12-inch features two side-long and somewhat conceptual electro-riffs on the deep, dark, mutant bass and slow grooves of Shackleton’s “Blood On My Hands.”
“Blood on My Hands” is used more as a reference point for the source material at the center of the record. “Towers Fall” merges the group’s signature use of polyrhythms and massive bass to create a sustained drum and synth odyssey. “Towers Fall (Cassette Mix)” presents the previous rhythmic work out as a much slower and dirtier dub-heavy dirge that pushes the song deeper and higher into the electronic ether, and any and all vocal yelps have been boiled down to a bare-bones minimum.
Also just-released is the LP edition of Food For Animals‘ critically acclaimed Belly (200 copies are on translucent gold vinyl).
Also in the works for 2009 will be a new EP and a digital full-length from Atlanta expat and Prefuse 73 cohort Ryan Rasheed’s Leb Laze. A new Food For Animals full-length will also see the light of day as well as new releases from All The Saints, Brass Castle, Ben Lawless and more.
Ecstatic Sunshine’s “Turned On” (unmastered) mp3
Kyle Dawkins recently completed a short video clip to preview the forthcoming Exsanguinette album, which features an impressive lineup of like-minded musicians fronted by Killick (Eric Hinds) playing guitar, along with Brann Dailor of Mastodon (drums), Liz Allbee (trumpet) and Larry Ochs of Rova Saxophone Quartet (sax).
The finished product is still about a month away, but in the meantime this teaser video offers a pretty tantalizing preview of things to come.
Creative Loafing is currently on the hunt for editorial interns for the summer semester!
The best interns are assertive, ambitious and organized. Each candidate should have some journalism experience and must be working toward a degree. Additionally, candidates must be receiving credit for the internship. Do we make exceptions? NO. Students with published work preferred. We require a minimum commitment of 12-16 hours per week.
Internships are available in the following categories:
• News
• Music
• Events
• Food & Drink
• Arts & Entertainment
• Photography
• Video
To apply, please send a cover letter (explaining how the internship will fit into your course of study), a resume, two references (with e-mail and phone number), and three samples of your work to: alicia.wages@creativeloafing.com.
If you are interested in the Photography and Video internships, please contact taralynne.pixley@creativeloafing.com.
If you were planning on working on your productivity today, steer clear of this.
A programmer has put together a website were you can simulate Daft Punk’s console and using your computer keyboard, play the collection of samples that produced their hit “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” (which, of course, was then sampled by Kanye West for his joint, “Stronger”).
I just wasted an hour playing with this thing, so be warned.
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).
James Joyce, underground record keeper
A self-described librarian of rock, 33-year-old Joyce posts long-lost songs, photos, fliers and anecdotes from Atlanta’s underground music scene on his blog, Beyond Failure. He also has played with a bunch of Atlanta bands over the years — most recently with psych-funk collective Noot d’ Noot.
CL: How did you come up with the idea for Beyond Failure?
JJ: I’ve probably been in 20 bands or so. And I’m kind of by nature an archival person. I’m kind of a librarian.
That’s a rare combination for people in bands.
I think it’s because I’m a drummer. I’m just more systematic in the way I think and the way I organize myself. I’m more organized than a lot of my bandmates. Everyone has moved 100 times, and nobody has their old records, their old tapes, old flyers, old pictures. They started contacting me and asked if I had any of the old recordings, because theirs were all gone.
So I started digitizing all these old demo tapes, old records and seven-inches and stuff. And I started posting them up on this blog, rather than just emailing them to everybody.
Then I started posting stuff by bands I was friends with at that time, in the ’90s. I really like their music, and it’s really hard to find a lot of their stuff. Everything local is out of print. It’s good to just collect a lot of that stuff and make it available, for historical purposes. Because otherwise, you won’t be able to find it.
(Lots of links to long-lost recordings, after the jump.)
Creative Loafing is currently on the hunt for editorial interns for the spring semester. (Mid December through May)
The best interns are assertive, ambitious and organized. Each candidate should have some journalism experience and must be working toward a degree. Additionally, candidates must be receiving credit for the internship. Do we make exceptions? NO. Students with published work preferred. We require a minimum commitment of 12-16 hours per week.
Internships are available in the following categories:
To apply, please send a cover letter (explaining how the internship will fit into your course of study), a resume, two references (with e-mail and phone number), and three samples of your work to: alicia.wages@creativeloafing.com.
If you are interested in the Photography and Video internships, please contact taralynne.pixley@creativeloafing.com.
This week’s episode of Haveyouheard.net (this year’s Best of Atlanta Readers’ Pick for Best Locally Produced Podcast) features commentary by our very own staff music writer Chad Radford. Topics include CL’s filing for Chapter 11 financial reorganization, the new Deerhoof record and more.
Check it out here.
But then you got way too big for your baggy britches. Just over a decade ago, they lured you with money into a vapid, formulaic lifestyle, and you bit. You went from gritty rooftop videos in the boroughs to shiny suits and fishbowl cams. 