Crib Notes

CL’s Chanté LaGon and Chad Radford chat about upcoming shows around Atlanta including Adron and Madeline at the Star Bar (Thurs., Jan. 29), and Fringe Factory’s one-year anniversary party at the Highland Inn Ballroom (Sat., Jan. 31).

For a more comprehensive list of local shows check out Sound Menu.

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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Deerhunter posted a video for the song “White Ink” over the weekend. The video was directed by Justin Gaar and is a gorgeous accompaniment to the instrumental number taken from the group’s second album, Cryptograms.

Deerhunter – White Ink from justin gaar on Vimeo.

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If you lived in Chapel Hill and were part of the music scene there any time during the 1990s, there was no better time to visit than Polvo’s May show at the Cat’s Cradle. It was a reunion for more than the band itself — everyone I’ve ever known in North Carolina, from Raleigh to Greensboro, showed up for that show, including many people who had driven hours to be there. I drove hours to be there.

As Chad explained in last week’s paper, Polvo has come to represent the highpoint of North Carolina indie rock, their discordant, sometimes epic sound gaining legendary status in the ten years since they broke up. There are many bands from era that I love, but none that have stood the test of time so well in my playlist — they have never gone out of rotation, especially their 1996 double album, Exploded Drawing.

The Chapel Hill show was the most fun I’d had in months, but it wasn’t much thanks to Polvo. Apart from a couple of high points, they seemed dazed by their return to the stage. They were sloppy and muddy-sounding. Many songs weren’t quite recognizable, and not in a good, inventive way. I spent a decent portion of the show outside on the smoker’s deck catching up with old friends.

So I was excited but skeptical about last night’s show at the Earl. Apparently the six months back together playing shows has done the trick — from the second they took the stage they were focused and powerful. Old favorites such as “Fast Canoe” built a steady surge of energy that didn’t let up —by the end of the show, new material already seemed classic.

For me, it was pure rock magic — I know it’s a cliché — whatever. Aren’t the best shows when you start babbling clichés?

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For today’s Roll Call we call out Cage from Nine Inch Neils.

Who are you?
Cage of the Nine Inch Neils – Neil Diamond Tribute Band

Describe yourself in three words.
So good… So good… So good.  Hmmmm, that’s six.  Don’t hate… Participate.

Who — dead or alive — would most you like to meet?
Neil Diamond while hangin’ with David Duchovny… Without getting a “bro”ner

Who would you most like to slap in the face?
Morning people.

What song do you wish you had written?
“Picture” by Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow – then I could have torn it up and thrown it away before anyone sang it.

Elvis Costello or Elvis Presley?
I saw Costello, very cool, love “Veronica,” but I have to say Presley all the way.  It’s all about the show.

LP, CD or MP3?
LP if I can get them out of the frame on my wall

If you could start one trend, what would it be?
I’m a sucker for the robot dance (how did that ever die?) or using your “inside voice” while talking on  cell phones.

If you could end one trend, what would it be?
Monica (Kaufman) Pearson’s ever changing hairdo and survey posts on Myspace… Stop. Please stop.

With whom would you most like to play a game of spin the bottle?
My wife… Awwww.

MP3 “Girl You’ll Be A Woman Soon.”

Nine Inch Neils play Smith’s Olde Bar on Tues., Dec. 9th. $5 + 2 canned goods. 1578 Piedmont Ave. (404) 875-1522.

(Photo courtesy of Nine Inch Neils).

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On Saturday, March 14th, two titans of song, Elton John and Billy Joel will go head-to-head, song for song, tit-for-tat at Philips Arena for the Face to Face tour.

EJ and BJ will open the show with a series of duets, playing twin pianos and trading vocals. Each artist will then perform a set with their own band. When the smoke clears a grand finale will bring them together again for a closing encore running through hits from their respective catalogs as well as several other rock and roll classics.

“I love touring with Billy. I have the greatest respect for him and we’re such good friends,” Elton said.

“The great thing about performing with Elton is that he is such a good piano player and that makes me have to dig deep to keep up with him, not to mention I’ve got the best seat in the house-only one piano away from Elton John!” said Billy.

Tickets will go on sale Sat. Dec. 6 at 10 a.m. at Ticketmaster, TicketMaster.com, LiveNation.com, the Philips Arena box office or charge by phone at (404) 249-6400.

One ticket will get you a whole seat, but you only need the edge…

And although this isn’t exactly the typical Crib Notes fodder the pairing of EJ and BJ has spawned such a heated debate in the office that we’re opening the floor to our readers. Drop us a line and let us know who you like more and why, and we’ll give the best response two tickets to the King Tut Exhibit at the Atlanta Civic Center.

(Photo of Billy Joel by Myrna Suarez.)
(Photo of Elton John by Deborah Anderson.)

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Atlanta blog Cable & Tweed reported today that Ryan Adams and Co. are coming back to Atlanta, to make up for a botched performance back in October.

According to Cable & Tweed:

…it looks like Ryan and the band are going to make up for any disappointment. Atlanta Music Guide says that they will play at the Fox Theatre on March 20, and fans who attended the October 17 show can go for free. I presume other individuals can buy tickets per usual, but the show is not yet on the Fox calendar.

Head over to AMG for further details on the ticket exchange program.

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This is perhaps the best Friday this city has seen in a long time, and if you’re looking to go out and see some shows tonight, you’re in luck, but you’re going to have to make some executive decisions.

First and foremost there is the screening of Michael Tully and Matthew Robison’s documentary film, Silver Jew showing over at Eyedrum.

Robison, who is also involved with the Atlanta rock doc., We Fun (currently in production) will be in attendance. $5. 9 p.m. (doors) Film starts at 10 p.m. Money from door sales goes to B Jay Womack who was recently diagnosed with terminal cancer. 404-522-0655. www.eyedrum.org.

Over at Lenny’s Intelligence, Gentleman Jesse, Vera Fang and HOWLIES are playing a FREE show over at Lenny’s. Intelligence is at the forefront of the new no-wave junk-rock art clatter that so dominates the cutting edge of abrasive post-punk in 2008. The group’s sound is brash, damaged, alien and filled with angst and hooks. Local power-pop ambassador Gentleman Jesse brings things back to a more earthbound pop sound with a triumphant return to the stage. Vera Fang and Howlies open. 9 p.m. 404-577-7721. www.lennysbar.com.

Stereolab photo by Sabrina Tabuchi

The Variety Playhouse plays host to Stereolab’s stop in support of Chemical Chords, the group’s best album in years. Stereolab’s penchant for crafting droning rhythms, Moog jams and space-age bachelor-pad music set a precedent for experimental sounds in the ’90s. With Chemical Chords (their 4AD debut), the pop explorers churn out their catchiest songs this side of the millennium. Recent material such as “Pop Molecule,” “Cellulose Sunshine” and “Daisy Click Clack” channel the “groop’s” cosmic music into digestible bursts of short pop songs. Tonight, expect nothing less than a headlong trip into melancholia and ’60s psych pop, sans kitsch. Atlas Sound (aka Deerhunter’s Bradford Cox) also performs. Herb and Jason Harris of the Selmanaires open. $20-$22.50. 8:30 p.m. , 1099 Euclid Ave. 404-524-7354. www.variety-playhouse.com.

There’s a Hank Williams Sr. tribute show at The Star Bar, featuring Slim Chance, Dave Weil (Blacktop Rockets), Caroline Engel, Phil Anderson, Bill Fleming, Danny Pope, Craig Rafuse, Ted Weldon and several others (and just so you know, this is a non-smoking event). $10. 9 p.m. 404-681-5740. www.starbar.net.

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Editor’s Note: Pick up Creative Loafing’s 2008 Best of Atlanta issue this week to get hip to the city’s best in music and nightlife. There was too much good stuff to print in the After Dark section, so we’ll be posting some of the critics’ picks here on Crib Notes for your viewing pleasure. Stay tuned.

ADRON is a young, self-taught maestro with a nylon-stringed guitar. Her self-titled debut CD on New Street Records is a gorgeous reminder why it’s a shame that she up and left her old stomping grounds in late 2007 for the mean streets of Brooklyn. But her time away has served her well. Over the last year, her balance of quietude and quasi-Brazilian folk strumming has matured to a level that is far beyond her years. It’s due, no doubt, to her throwing herself into the mix of New York’s thriving musical environment. — Chad Radford www.adronmusic.com.

To view the complete 2008 Best of Atlanta/After Dark critics’ and readers picks, click here.

Photo by Perry Julien

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This Friday night (Sept. 26th) Eyedrum hosts the Atlanta premiere of Michael Tully and Matthew Robison’s (We Fun: ATL Inside Out) documentary film Silver Jew. The film follows Silver Jews main man David Berman on a spiritual quest to the Western Wall (A.K.A. the Wailing Wall) in the Old City of Jerusalem to embrace his Jewish roots … And play a few shows. Doors at Eyedrum open at 9 p.m. and the film starts at 10 p.m. Admission is $5.

Proceeds from door sales are being donated to B Jay Womack (a.k.a. Bobby Ubangi) of local bands the Gaye Blades and the Soft Spots, who was recently diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Chad Radford: How did you you come to be involved with making Silver Jew?

Matthew Robison: David and I met in a club where I was playing, and he humbly introduced himself and his (then) girlfriend Cassie. I had read one of his poems in Mean Magazine, but didn’t know much about Silver Jews. I always understood him as an artist, but admittedly never played his records over and over. I do know most of them very well, and for a few months put together a band to be called Walnut Falcons to play Silver Jews covers. So I like the songs very much. The attachment to the music increased when I used some studio tracks in the doc and began to associate them with the work.

(more…)

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Arguably Atlanta’s most versatile band, hip-hop/jazz heads Jaspects will unveil new music tonight at Sugarhill. Show starts at 9:30 p.m.

But get there early. You don’t want to miss opening act, Chantae Cann. Her voice sounds like butter, baby.

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One of the many charms of singer/songwriter John Prine is the stark contrast of under-stated delivery of such evocative lyrics. It’s as if Prine is almost embarrassed by the power of his poetry, like he’s let a secret out of a bag he’d promised to secure, but understands the secret’s out and should then be told properly.

And for a man who’s sung songs about those living along life’s humbler edges, Prine sings as beautifully about women as he has about men. He’s masculine yet thoughtful. Nowhere is that more apparent than in “Angel From Montgomery,” which Prine wrote in 1971 for his debut, eponymous CD. It’s a bittersweet song about yearning, from a woman who wonders if life (and her husband) has left her by …

I am an old woman named after my mother /
My old man is another child that’s grown old /
If dreams were lightning thunder was desire /
This old house would have burnt down a long time ago.

Prine explains the inspiration for the song before singing it on the edge of a river …

The song, of course, has been covered by just about everybody smart enough to recognize its power, the most famous coming from Bonnie Raitt. (I often wonder why the modern-day Raitt remains so fascinated with the power of gloss and production sheen, or artifice, in her songs since she’s at her best when she keeps it simple.) But the song also was used to great effect in Sean Penn’s film Into the Wild (reviewed here by Felicia Feaster), about the former Emory University student Christopher McCandless who checked out from civilization on an ill-fated journey of self-discovery. In the scene, McCandless (Emile Hirsch) turns an awkward attempt at seduction by a nubile teen (Kristen Stewart) into something more meaningful.

Powerful stuff. The one time I heard him perform the song live, about five years ago in New Orleans, you could tell his voice was struggling; he was probably still in the grips of the throat cancer he appears to have licked. And yet it damn near moved me to tears. You could fee the song’s impact throughout the room.

Even though Prine could be forgiven for being tired of performing this timeless tune, here’s hoping he’ll delight Atlantans — who live only a couple hours from that now-fabled city — with “Angel From Montgomery” one more time when he plays the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre on Saturday night. Not that his recent work isn’t worth listening to — including his 2005 Grammy-winning comeback album, Fair & Square, and last year’s duet album with Mac Wiseman, Average Songs for Average People. It’s just that this song never, every gets old, even if the heroine of the song believes she has.

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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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Today’s Air Loaf features CL’s Chad Radford and WMLB-AM’s Max Arbes chatting about all the great music you can hear around Atlanta this weekend.

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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Today’s Air Loaf features CL’s Chad Radford and WMLB-AM’s Max Arbes chatting about Destroyer, Jay Reatard and Earth — all playing in Atlanta this week.

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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Today’s Air Loaf features CL’s Rodney Carmichael and WMLB-AM’s Max Arbes discussing the Darfur Now College Tour. Fri., April 25. Free. Screening: 7-9 p.m. Goizueta Business School; Concert: Anthony David, DJ Drama, Janelle Monáe and Novel. 9:30 p.m. Glen Memorial, Emory Univeristy, 1300 Clifton Road. www.darfurnowtour.com/tour/atlanta.

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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Today’s Air Loaf features CL’s Chad Radford and WMLB-AM’s Max Arbes chatting about Nick Lowe who will playing at the Variety Playhouse tonight. $25. 8 p.m. Variety Playhouse, 1099 Euclid Ave. 404-524-7354. www.variety-playhouse.com.

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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Today’s Air Loaf features CL’s Chad Radford and WMLB-AM’s Max Arbes talking about the music scene for the weekend.

Air Loaf is broadcast weekdays on 1690 WMLB-AM at approximately 8:10 a.m., 12:20 p.m. and 6:20 p.m.

air loaf mp3

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Today’s Air Loaf features CL’s David Lee Simmons and WMLB-AM’s Max Arbes discussing this week’s cover story (out today) about big, the collaboration between Outkast’s Big Boi and the Atlanta Ballet.

To listen head over to PopSmart.

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Here is today’s Air Loaf featuring CL’s own Ken Edelstein and Rodney Carmichael chatting about local musician Algebra Bassett. Check her out live at Center Stage Sat., April 12. 7:00 p.m. $30. 404-885-1365. www.centerstage-atlanta.com.

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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In case you don’t understand the relevance of this post, let me explain.

Afterlife … an 18-plus party at Masquerade every Saturday with resident DJs Preston Craig (creator of KissAtlanta.com and Decatur Social Club), Rob Rowe, Captain Crunk and Treasure Fingers. It’s pretty much like a rave minus the Ecstacy. Electro remixes of your favorite songs, old and new. Colorful lights. Kids wildin’ out.

D.R.E.S. … holds it down as the ambassador of underground hip-hop in Atlanta. In the CL Best of Atlanta 2002 issue, he was said to have the “rockingest esophagus in town.” He produces and hosts Mic Club, an MC/producer battle, on Tuesdays at Apache Cafe. Every Friday, he’s on the mic at MJQ’s hip-hop night singing lyrics, shouting out folks, rocking the crowd. Anything that has to do with “real” hip-hop in the city, D.R.E.S. is a part of.

I’m always down for a clash of cultures, and this should be a good one.

Here’s a taste of both:

Afterlife

D.R.E.S.

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