Crib Notes

Tonight Athens’ orchestral rock ensemble Venice is Sinking celebrates the release of their brand new full-length AZAR on One Percent Press at Kavarna in Decatur.

Admission to the show is $5 and you get a copy of AZAR at the door.

The first song revealed “Ryan’s Song,” draws from an expanding palette of pretty and pastoral tones that thrive on a feeling of gray day melancholy. It’s a marked and somewhat wistful departure from the baroque aspects of their first album, Sorry About the Flowers.

The album comes together as a cohesive whole offering that is less of a glacial movement than their debut, but no less engaging. Maybe the name and corresponding cover art say it all, but the album captures an excellent sense of urban decay and nostalgia for things that are lost … and yes, all of the elements for a full-on concept album are there if you’re looking for them.

Kavarna. 707 E. Lake Dr. in Decatur. 404-371-1113.

“Ryan’s Song”

“Okay” (via Magnet)

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On Friday of last week, Athens band Venice is Sinking premiered the debut video for “Ryan’s Song” from their second full-length, Azar at Stereogum.

Azar is due out March 31st from One Percent Press.

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Shortly before 5 p.m. this evening (Wednesday, February 25) Pylon guitarist Randy Bewley died in the I.C.U. at Athens Regional Medical Center. He was 53 years old.

A blog post on the group’s Myspace page reads,

“Today, our bandmate and brother passed away at a little before 5 p.m. with his family and friends at his side. He will be missed, even as we celebrate his life and creativity. His guitar sound was as special as he was and always will be. Randy’s guitar work defined not only a generation of sound but Randy himself. His visual art, painting and photos, combined with his signature sound formed a loose set of boundaries that helps understand him. His quiet devotion to family and friends will become a benchmark for those he leaves behind.”

Earlier today Crib Notes reported that Bewley had suffered a heart attack while driving on Barber Street in Athens. According to an e-mail from the group’s vocalist Vanessa Brisco-Hay, “His van drifted off the road and tipped over. No other people or vehicles were involved. Rescue workers did CPR at the scene and he was taken to Athens Regional Medical Center. He is in ICU.”

This is a very sad day.

(Photo courtesy of Pylon’s Myspace page).

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Early in the evening on Mon., Feb. 23 Pylon guitarist Randy Bewley suffered a heart attack while driving on Barber Street in Athens. According to an e-mail from the group’s vocalist Vanessa Brisco-Hay, “His van drifted off the road and tipped over. No other people or vehicles were involved. Rescue workers did CPR at the scene and he was taken to Athens Regional Medical Center. He is in ICU.”

More information will be posted on Crib Notes as it develops.

(Photo courtesy of Pylon)

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Of Montreal’s “An Eluardian Instance,” from Skeletal Lamping has been given the remix treatment from producer/composer extrodanaire John Brion. The so-called “First Time High (Reconstructionist Remix)” is a sneak peak of what the forthcoming remix EP has to offer. If anything Brion’s interpretation reins the song in a bit, via some very subtle changes in the mix, and at a decidedly more logical pace.

“An Eluardian Instance First Time High (Reconstructionist Remix).”

(Photo courtesy of Polyvinyl Records)

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Athens’ orchestral rock darlings Venice is Sinking have revealed a new song from their forthcoming full-length AZAR, which is due out March 31st from One Percent Press.

For this second release the band spent nearly a year recording with the Scott Solter (Pattern is Movement, Mountain Goats, John Vanderslice).

The first track to be revealed is “Ryan’s Song,” which is actually the second number on the album. The song draws from an expanding palette of pretty and pastoral tones that thrive on a feeling of gray day melancholy. It’s a marked and somewhat wistful departure from the baroque aspects of their first album, Sorry About the Flowers.

As such AZAR comes together as a cohesive whole offering that is less of a glacial movement than their debut, but no less engaging. Maybe the name and corresponding cover art say it all, but the album captures an excellent sense of urban decay and nostalgia for things that are lost… and yes, all of the elements for a full-on concept album are there if you’re looking for them.

“Ryan’s Song”

Tour Dates
01.30.09 – Kavarna – Decatur, GA
02.07.09 – The Art Bar – Columbia, SC
02.20.09 – 40 Watt Club – CD Release Show – Athens, GA
03.07.09 – Sky City – Augusta, GA
03.17.09 – 03.21.09 – SXSW – Austin, TX

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For today’s Roll Call we call out Aimee Morris of Twin Tigers.

Who are you?
Aimee “Crazy From the Heat” Morris.

Describe yourself in three words.
hungry, sexy, giraffe.

Who — dead or alive — would you most like to meet?
Will Smith, around the time he was writing Big Willie Style.

Who would you most like to slap in the face?
Chad Radford! Or everybody who was responsible for Waco.

What song do you wish you had written?
“Ave Maria.”

Elvis Costello or Elvis Presley?
Elvis Costello.

LP, CD or MP3?
LP, bitches!

If you could start one trend, what would it be?
Side ponytail. No, no. The camel toe.

If you could end one trend, what would it be?
Global Warming.

With whom would you most like to play a game of spin the bottle?
The entire Athens roller derby team. Talk about some rough love.

“Envy”

Twin Tigers play the Earl with Les Savy Fav on Fri., Jan. 23rd.  $17 (adv). $20 (door). 9 p.m. The Earl, 488 Flat Shoals Rd. 404-522-3950.

(Photo courtesy of Twin Tigers).

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Last week Of Montreal unveiled the video for “An Eluardian Instance” on Rolling Stone’s Rock & Roll Daily blog.

At first glance it seems like the video player is stalling as it tries to keep up with the visual stream, but take a closer look and you’ll notice that the video is comprised of what appears to be hundreds of thousands of still images placed together, causing the herky jerky effect.

Of Montreal ~ An Eluardian Instance (2008) Dir: Jesse Ewles from jesse ewles on Vimeo.

We’ve seen this kind of thing before with something like No Age’s “Boy Void.”

… and closer to home with the Coathangers’ “Tanya Harding.”

The visual effect is cool and very psychedelic, and if you stare at it long enough the stop motion nature of it all feels very natural. But as with everything else, Of Montreal’s mastermind Kevin Barnes takes it one step beyond the realm of the rational with all sorts of added visual/mental stimuli, such as little crabs wandering through the frame, and all sorts of other Frankensteinian narratives and weirdo point-of-view shots that make you wonder what really is going on under the surface here.

Since the first time I listened to Skeletal lamping I have wondered about the mountian goats mentioned in the songs and if it bares any reference to the Mountian Goats’ frontman John Darnell. This video doesn’t answer anything in that department. In actuality the mountain goat that does make an appearance in the video only leaves more unanswered questions concering his symbolic significance and/or double entendre in this particular song. Make of it what you will …

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An Eluardian Instance EP

Last Thursday Of Montreal vocalist/mastermind Kevin Barnes spoke with Rolling Stone’s Rock and Roll Daily blog about what will come after Skeletal Lamping. Barnes told RS that he has something a little noisier in mind:

“It’s sort of abstract in my mind, but right now what I’ll create will be mesmeric and kind of physical music. Try to create music that you have a physical reaction to. Try to touch you on a level that’s not strictly intellectual but more physical, and that’s not to say you’ll dance to it.”

In the meantime a comprehensive Of Montreal DVD is in the works. The group filmed a show in Los Angeles during last year’s Hissing Fauna tour as well as a show at the Tabernacle in Atlanta last month. The plan is to release a DVD that compiles the group’s videos, the two live performances and some documentary material as well.

This week Of Montreal plays the Late Show with David Letterman on Thurs., Dec. 18th. After that the An Eluardian Instance EP featuring remixes from Grammy-nominated producer Jon Brion (Spoon, Kanye West, Elliott Smith, Fiona Apple) is due digitally Jan. 6th/Jan. 27th on CD and LP via Polyvinyl Records.

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This week Rob Trucks posted an interview with Pylon on the Village Voice’s Sound of the City music blog. The group is in New York to play WNYU’s 35th Anniversary Celebration’s at the Knitting Factory this Mon., Dec. 15th.

Three of Pylon’s four members–drummer Curtis Crowe, lead singer Vanessa Briscoe (now Briscoe Hay), bassist Michael Lachowski and guitarist Randy Bewley–still live [in Athens], playing in their third incarnation (seemingly final breakups in 1983 and 2001 didn’t quite take) of one of indie-rock’s most important collectives.

Pylon- 2007 from dawnbridges on Vimeo.

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Skeletal Lamping, the latest full-length from Athens’ whimsical art-pop ensemble, and CL’s Nov. 5th cover artists, Of Montreal is holding strong as the #1 record on CMJ’s Top 200 list for its forth week in a row.

Click below to see the group’s current round of U.S. and European tour dates, which include two performances at the 40 Watt in Athens on Dec. 30th and 31st.

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Athens’ universally lauded post-grunge, Replacemtns-style rock trio the Whigs are set to perform their songs, “Already Young” and “Like A Vibration” on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” tomorrow night (Wed., Oct. 29th).

Click below to see the Whigs forthcoming tour dates opening for Kings of Leon.

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The pairing of Athens stalwarts Vic Chesnutt and Elf Power yields lingering, autumnal melodies and songs that elude expectation. Dark Developments sways with a natural and stylistic drift toward the melancholy side of Chesnutt’s allegorical songwriting. But the buoyant pop rhythms and mellow psychedelic textures of each number tussle with nihilism, culminating in a gray and wintry body of songs. “We Are Mean” is the album’s Rosetta Stone, laying out the tensions that arise when these vibrant songs are brought to a point by such a dreary narrator. “The Mad Passion of the Stoic” and “Phil the Fiddler” unfold at the lumbering and difficult pace of the greatest Southern authors. As such, Dark Developments is as spectral and haunting as William Faulkner when he was on point, or Flannery O’Connor when just skirting the dark side.

Dark Developments is an album where indeed the sum is greater than its parts, and the album’s cover art bestows just as much meaning on the release as the music itself. The cover features a painting, titled Through the Garden, by sometimes Athens resident Terry Rowlett.

Rowlett’s images are lush and allegorical scenes that depict both strange and all-too-familiar characters traversing all sorts of scenarios that exist in their own time and place.

Chad Radford: How Did your painting end up on the cover of Dark Developments?

Terry Rowlett: Andrew Rieger wanted to use it for the front cover of it and I eagerly jumped at the chance to be on the cover of one of Vic’s album’s. I have always liked his music. Andrew had been thinking about the image and the music for a while and everyone agreed. The painting is seven or eight years old.

Did you go to college in Athens?

Yeah, I got a Masters in 1995. I showed up here in ‘92 and have been around town since then. I’ve spent some time in New York. I was living in Woodstock until January 1st. Right now I’m living on Orange Twin, on this little farm compound.

Who are the character in the painting?

Metaphorically speaking I think the guy in the red robe is us, you and me at the end of our lives … People going through life and then all of the sudden you’re dead. He’s everybody, generic people. I tried to put a real tranquil spin on it. It looks to me like he’s in a Purgatory moment, that kind of quasi real world moment, but not really in the real world.

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Yesterday afternoon Pitchfork posted some photos from the Stereolab / Atlas Sound show that took place at The 40 Watt Club over the weekend. Check them out here.

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Finally a band that critics would be hard-pressed to compare to Explosions in the Sky – an anomaly, wait, where?! About five miles from the Mexican border at the southern tip of Texas lies one of the Southeast’s fastest growing cities, McAllen, and one of the country’s more refreshing instrumental outputs. They Mean Us turns the violin, xylophone, and goofball song titles in to critical elements of a style that can, at times, be as discordant and angular as it can be gentle and caressing. And from what we hear, they put on quite a show.

Having just recovered from a minor lineup change, They Mean Us is beginning a scour of the bottom half of the country in support of the band’s recently released EP, Friendship Lottery. The album was mixed and mastered with help from Atlanta’s Mike Malpass; his assistance helped to flesh out the album’s defined percussion, moments of shoegazy atmospherics, and wonderfully scrappy rhythms.

They Mean Us will be playing Athens’s Caledonia Lounge on September 30th at 8 p.m. The band will be alongside the resident infallible Mouser and the Atlanta up-and-comers Ours to Alibi.

(Photo by Andy Pena)

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Pylon’s DFA associates Mogg & Naudascher have perpetrated a remix of their song, “Danger!!,” which appears on a 14-track mix by Supersoul’s Paul Mogg for Fact Magazine in the UK. You can hear this mix by downloading it at the link below.

The original version of “Danger!!” appears on DFA’s expanded reissue of Pylon’s first album, Gyrate, which is appropriately titled, Gyrate Plus. The song itself is a remix of “Danger” that the group remixed in a dub style for the B-side of a UK 10-inch vinyl release of the songs “Cool,” “Dub” and “Driving School” back in 1980.

To hear the Paul Mogg remix of “Danger!!” click here to download the comp. and jump down to track number 11.

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Today RollingStone.com’s Rock&Roll Daily Blog posted a new of Montreal MP3, titled “Nonpareil of Favor,” from the forthcoming full-length, titled Skeletal Lamping which is due for release in the US on Oct. 7 via Polyvinyl).

Follow the link to download Of Montreal’s “Nonpareil of Favor.“

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After touring extensively behind their 2005 release, Electrified the flashy and flamboyant Elephant 6 descendants Dressy Bessy took some time off. During the down time, vocalist / guitar player Tammy Ealom penned a whole new bunch of songs that bring the group’s blend of ultra-vibrant power pop tones full circle to embrace driving rhythms and organic simplicity.

For this round, Ealom began with the drums, and after banging out a few keepers at home, she built melodies around them, and constructed the completed songs from there, which culminate on Dressy Bessy’s fifth album, Holler and Stomp, due out Sept. 30^th on Transdreamer.

Dressy Bessy will be passing through town to play Smith’s Olde Bar on Tues., Oct. 7^th. Click below to read more tour dates.
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The fifth annual Athens Pop Fest kicked off this Tues. and runs until Sat., Aug. 16 in downtown Athens, GA. The independent music festival hosts bands not only from around the nation but from around the world. In previous years Pop Fest has hosted performers such as Daniel Johnston, Ted Leo & The Pharmacists, Deerhoof, Pylon and Of Montreal.

This year the festival has expanded from two venues to five venues and features something int he neighborhood of 85 bands performing throughout the week and is headlined by Roky Erickson & the Explosives, Boy Racer and the Music Tapes.

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Last month Athens’ long-standing psychedelic pop eccentrics Of Montreal began dropping hints about their forth coming album Skeletal Lamping. Now the album’s cover art, track list, some tour dates and a new member have all been announced. The album is due to arrive on October 7 via Polyvinyl Records.

Ahmed Gallab, who also goes by the name Sinkane and has appeared as an auxiliary member of Caribou in the past, is the latest addition to the OM line-up.

Skeletal Lamping track list
Nonpareil of Favor
Wicked Wisdom
For Our Elegant Caste
Touched Something’s Hollow
An Eluardian Instance
Gallery Piece
Women’s Studies Victims
St.Exquisite’s Confessions
Triphallus, to Punctuate!
And I’ve Seen a Bloody Shadow
Plastis Wafers
Death Is Not a Parallel Move
Beware Our Nubile Miscreants
Mingusings
Id Engager

Of Montreal tour dates:
08-08 Myslowice, Poland – OFF Festival
08-09 London, England – Field Day Festival
08-10 Leicester, England – Summer Sundae Weekender
10-07 Durham, NC – Carolina Theatre
10-08 Asheville, NC – Orange Peel
10-10 New York, NY – Roseland Ballroom
10-15 Paris, France – Elysee Montmarte
10-16 London, England – Koko
10-17 Barcelona, Spain – Razzmatazz
10-18 Rome, Italy – Circolo Degli Artisi
10-19 Berlin, Germany – Lido
10-20 Stockholm Sweden – Debaser Medis
10-21 Copenhagen, Denmark – Amager Bio
10-24 St. Louis, MO – The Pageant
10-25 Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue
10-26 Milwaukee, WI – Pabst Theatre
10-27 Chicago, IL – The Riviera
10-28 Toronto, Ontario – Queen Elizabeth Theatre
10-30 Boston, MA – Orpheum Theatre
10-31 Philadelphia, PA – Electric Factory
11-01 Richmond, VA – The National
11-08 Atlanta, GA – The Tabernacle
11-11 New Orleans, LA – Howlin Wolf
11-12 Houston, TX – Warehouse Liv
11-13 Austin, TX – 507 E. 6th Street
11-14 Dallas, TX – House of Blues Dallas
11-15 Lawrence, KS – Liberty Hall
11-16 Denver, CO – Ogden Theatre
11-17 Murray, UT – Murray Super Theatre
11-19 Seattle, WA – Showbox So Do
11-20 Portland, OR – Roseland
11-21 San Francisco, CA – Regency Center Grand Ballroom
11-22 Los Angeles, CA – TBA

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