Crib Notes

From CL Fresh Loaf

On Saturday, July 4, 2009, 529 in East Atlanta hosted a funeral benefit for B Jay Womack, aka Bobby Ubangi. The benefit, planned while Womack was still alive, helped raise funds for his funeral. Womack died of cancer on Wednesday, July 1. This image is from the performance by Carbonas, of which B Jay was a founding member. Womack’s funeral was held this afternoon in Conyers.

More photos from B Jay Womack funeral benefit

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

Bookmark to:

The funeral for B Jay Womack will be held on Mon., July 6, at the Honeycreek Woodlands near the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers.

The funereal starts at 2 p.m. sharp and will be held on a nature preserve down the road from the monastery. Please be prepared to follow signs for parking and burial site. Parking is very limited, so carpooling is required. The burial site is a half-mile hike on a gravel path through a densely wooded area, so please wear proper attire (high heels are not a good idea), and be prepared with sunscreen and bug spray.

Memorial service to follow at Manuel’s Tavern at 6 p.m. Please check websites for details, maps, and info at Vacation, which will also be a shuttle and central meeting point for the trek out to Conyers. Be at Vacation by no later than 1 p.m. to catch a ride.

B Jay will be dearly missed and all friends are welcome to come and pay their respects.

Click below for directions to the Honeycreek Woodlands at the Monastery of the Holy Spirit.

(more…)

Bookmark to:

Last night at 9 p.m., Atlanta’s garage rock mascot and the subject of this week’s CL cover story, Benjamin Jay Womack aka Bobby Ubangi, lost his year-long battle with cancer.

A previously scheduled benefit show to cover B Jay’s funeral expenses takes place on Sat., July 4.

Anyone interested in donating to the Bobby Ubangi Funeral Fund can do so via a Paypal account set up by friend and CL music writer Chad Radford.

Link disabled. Thanks to everyone who contributed to the Bobby Ubangi Funeral Fund. All financial goals were met.

Funeral benefit for B Jay Womack with Carbonas, Predator, Customers and Barreracudas. $7. 4 p.m. Sat., July 4. 529 Flat Shoals Ave. 404-228-6769. www.529atl.com.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

Bookmark to:

This week’s CL cover story, “The Life & Times of Bobby Ubangi: How Atlanta’s garage rock mascot saved himself before dying,” chronicles local music fixture B Jay Womack’s battle with cancer. The video montage was created by We Fun director Matthew Robison and Zack Wilson.

The following mp3s cover musical output from the Lids on up to some of his most recent songs that appear on Inside the Mind of Bobby Ubangi.

The Gaye Blades “Bobby is a Lover”

The Lids “Something to do”

Bobby Ubangi “That’s Alright”

Bobby Ubangi “Not My fault”

The Soft Spots “Can’t Get her Off”

Bookmark to:

The phone call interrupts dinner around 6 p.m. on a Thursday. It’s my girlfriend’s birthday and our meals have just been served up at her favorite Italian restaurant. Normally, I wouldn’t answer at a time like this, not even for my own mother. But the picture of B Jay pops up on my phone’s screen, his arms outstretched like Mr. Bill when he’s about to get squashed. I have to answer.

For the last nine months, Benjamin Jay Womack has been soldiering through terminal lung cancer that has spread to his brain, liver and God knows where else — at the age of 34. I answer, expecting to hear his voice on the other end asking for a ride to get something to eat or a pack of cigarettes. But it’s his roommate Jessica. “I had to put B Jay into hospice care today,” she deadpans. “His hips gave out and he’s having a hard time walking. We’re filling out paperwork with a social worker right now and B Jay wants to know if he can put you down for power of attorney.” I answer yes, envisioning the worst-case scenario as a wave of denial sweeps over me.

One year ago, the man best known by his stage name Bobby Ubangi was a rebel without a pause, partying like a rock star and working as the grouchy door guy at the Drunken Unicorn off Ponce de Leon Avenue. Long considered a mascot of sorts for the Atlanta music scene that nurtured such bands as Deerhunter, Black Lips and Gentleman Jesse, B Jay was a founding member of Carbonas before he got kicked out because he didn’t like to practice. He went on to play guitar and sing in such local garage-punk outfits as the Lids, the Gaye Blades, and Bobby and the Soft Spots. “B Jay is omnipresent around here,” says Jared Swilley of the Black Lips. “He’s been around forever.”

Continue reading “The life and times of Bobby Ubangi”

(Photo by Chad Radford)

Bookmark to:

Day 1 in the Redneck Riviera (A.K.A. Destin, Florida) was a success despite the less than summery weather. At the beginning of the trip B Jay had suggested that I call these blog posts “Endless Summer,” but it was apparent upon arrival that summer had not yet begun. But why let that ruin the trip?

After checking into our hotel and scoping out the view from our room over Destin Harbor, we spied a derelict, half-sunken boat that appeared to have been abandoned. The water in the harbor was calm and an occasional dolphin fin or jumping fish flashed across the surface from time to time.

Our room was on the fourth floor of a five story building and our balcony was under constant bombardment from a flock of seagulls who were hungry and demanding. Their barking visits turned out to be among the most high-energy moments of the trip. We fed them peanuts, tortilla chips, onion rings from Burger King and bread and bagels from the hotel’s free continental breakfast stand. Everyone including the hotel concierge gave me dirty looks when they saw me cramming bagels into my pockets and heading back to the room. After the first few rounds we even started recognizing the repeat visitors by their distinctive markings and squawks.

… There is something both surreal and incredibly hilarious about looking into a seagull’s eye as it snatches an entire onion ring out of the sky and flies away with it dangling in its beak.

(more…)

Bookmark to:

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.

Bookmark to:

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…)

Bookmark to: