Crib Notes

For today’s Roll Call we call out Elijah Jones from The Constellations.

Describe yourself in 3 words?
Anti American Idol (but pro Velvet Teddy Bear).

Who — dead or alive — would you most like to meet?
George W. Bush so I could give him a purple nurple, or at least a wet willy.

Who would you most like to slap in the face?
Pete Wentz, and any man, not living in Alaska, who wears furry boots.

What song do you wish you had written?
“I Don’t Want to Grow Up” by Tom Waits.

Elvis Costello, or Elvis Presley?
In a fight to the death, the King obviously, he knows Kung Fu.

LP, CD or MP3?
Cassettes don’t scratch or skip, and you can’t illegally download them.

If you could start one trend what would it be?
Bring back the bar room sing-a-long, but not “O Danny Boy” more like “Love in Your Mouth” by Kilo Ali.

If you could end one trend what would it be?
The recession.

With whom would you like to play spin the bottle with?
Penelope Cruz, Scarlett Johansson, and that chick from Hanson. MmmBop.

“Felicia mp3″

The Constellations play Sloppy Seconds at MJQ/the Drunken Unicorn on Sat., April 11. Free. 9 p.m. 736 Ponce de leon Ave.

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Merriweather Post Pavilion

This week Criminal Records announced that the store will host a New Year’s Day listening party for Animal Collective’s forthcoming album, Merriweather Post Pavilion, due Jan. 6th on vinyl and Jan. 20th on CD. The album was recorded at Oxford, Mississippi’s Sweet Tea Recording Studio with Atlanta’s very own Ben Allen (Gnarls Barkley, All the Saints, Constellations) at the helm and is being released by Domino.

The listening party starts at 4 p.m. on Thurs., Jan. 1st. According to Criminal’s website the store will be open from noon ’til 6 p.m. or so on New Year’s Day and will be offering greens, black-eyed peas and hopefully a few other good luck foods to foster high hopes for the upcoming year.

in the meantime Criminal’s free weekly Beer Thirty concerts continue every Saturday afternoon. Thus far the schedule includes:

Dec. 13th — The Features at 4 p.m.
Jan. 3rd @ — Electric Cycles (formerly El Capitan) at 4 p.m.
Jan. 17th — Batata Doce at 4 p.m.
Feb. 7th — Young Antiques at 4 p.m.

Bands or DJs interested in performing can contact Shannon@criminal.com for details and availability.

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Thursday night (Aug. 28th) wasn’t quite business usual at Kirkwood Ballers Club. The regular cast and crew of local yokels twiddled knobs, bowed cymbals and plugged away to the sounds of vintage videogame consoles on stage.

Headlining act Hungry Bodies from Baltimore ended with a show of hypnotically amorphous beats and textures that melted-down the bass elements of hip-hop, drone and maximized minimalism into pools of liquid noise.

Sam Garner from Baltimore’s Lexie Mountain Boys wailed a muffled banshee howl into the microphone, adding a haunted, human layer to the mix of sloshing sounds and resonance. The group also featured members of Washington D.C.’s hip-hop experimentalists Food For Animals, alongside ATL expat. and Hoss Records owner Brad Hurst. It was a happy homecoming for Hurst who was a KBC fixture when the weekly open mic Ballers Club nights were held at the old Lenny’s. Hungry Bodies’ set was surreal, short and sweet, which is one of the greatest things about the Ballers Club. Be it a weird indie rock dude beating violin strings with a turkey baster, a lonely young gal strumming on an acoustic guitar or a spontaneously formed ensemble of noise rockers lost in a moment of teeth-gnashing Sonic youth-style feedback, you take the good with the bad. After all, KBC is ground zero for the most adventurous and unorthodox music in the city. So if one particular performer is absolutely unbearable, you can take solace in the fact that it won’t last for much longer. If a band puts on a fantastic performance you’ll be left wanting more and you can talk them up when they’re finished and maybe walk away with a CDR of some stuff they’ve been working on.

All night long the audience was buzzing with word that Geologist from Animal Collective was in the house and hanging out, if only for a brief while. Animal Collective is in town mastering their forthcoming album produced by Ben Allen (Gnarls Barkley, All the Saints, Constellations). Sadly there was no impromptu AC performances, but for the scene of anything-goes musicianship that KBC has cultivated, a visit from Animal Collective is like a nod from royalty, and a sign that experimental music is on the up swing in Atlanta.

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