Crib Notes

With the ink still drying on their recently-signed, four-album deal with Virgin Records, the Constellations make a pit stop at the crib tonight before returning to their tour through the midwest and other spots on the map. A couple of people have asked me why the hell (!) the Constellations didn’t make CL’s recent Best of Atlanta issue. And it’s a valid question. The band shot out of the blocks since dropping Southern Gothic last year, and they’ve crafted a potent, unexpected indie-pop sound considering the cats that comprise the local supergroup of sorts, including members from Trances Arc and Snowden.

Expect tonight’s show to double as a homecoming celebration, featuring the premiere of the Constellations’ new video for “Perfect Day.” Special guests include Falcon Lords, Future Shock and Prince Presto. $10. 9 p.m. Sat., Oct. 10. Lenny’s, 486 Decatur St. 404-577-7721. www.lennysbar.com.

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GOODBYE GUMMY WORMS

Brittany Bosco is so fly. How fly, might you ask? So fly that her video “Black and White” won Best local music video with an elegant flair in CL’s ’09 Best of Atlanta issue.

It was like she came out of nowhere in one year to sweep Atlanta away with the strength of her debut, the recently re-released Spectrum, and that magnetic stage presence. So we weren’t surprised when she sprouted wings this week and soared off to Europe to begin a month-long overseas tour. As worldly and sophisticated as Bosco’s fusion of jazz, electro-soul and indie pop comes off, she’s a country girl at heart — born and raised in Savannah, Ga. So to help her stay grounded during her flight of fancy, we asked her to document her journey via electro-postcards from the edge.

Here’s the first episode, before liftoff from Hartsfield-Jackson International:

Day one of the first day of my life

Hello world, and all the strange people in it. To all the people who are going to be following us through this journey overseas, I am so delighted to be sharing this experience with you as I grow and learn who the real Brittany Bosco is and who I am becoming even in this very moment.
(more…)

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Remember that scene from “Chappelle’s Show” when Charlie Murphy recalls the time when the late Rick James came to his brother Eddie’s pad and started jumping up and down all over the leather sofa with his muddy platform boots on, yelling “Fuck yo’ couch, nigga!” Well, that’s HOLLYWEERD to the nth degree. Take the lineup: a self-styled savant who goes by “the Dreamer,” two full-time tat artists (Tuki Carter and Chris “the Love Crusader” McAdoo) from City of Ink, and a jazz-sax journeyman who calls himself the mythical Stagolee. That ain’t no rap group, it’s a band of gypsies. Since materializing out of thin air nearly two years ago, the four-man crew has busily crafted its own unruly narrative. The three mixtapes released in the past 12 months showcase the group’s penchant for combining sweet indie-pop incarnations with self-indulgent fantasy funk. It’s a nutty mix. Yet somehow they’ve managed to turn their wild inconsistencies — from constantly evolving musical influences including OutKast and the Doors to hit-or-miss live performances — into the main attraction. Like a traveling freak show, Hollyweerd piques our curiosity. No matter how odd, we can’t turn away for fear of missing what might happen next. www.myspace.com/hollyweerd.

See the rest of BOA After Dark

(Photo courtesy Joeff Davis)

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The future of hip-hop has a past, and her name is BOOG BROWN. Two years ago, she was just a restless Detroit native and recent college graduate who thought she’d find better opportunity and a good job Down South. So she loaded up her stuff and she moved to “Black Hollywood” — Atlanta, that is. Shopping malls. Music stars. But Brown found herself more at home within the city’s underground scene, where she met such collaborators as producer Illastrate. Already, she’s proven herself to be that rare gem of an artist who can push a genre forward by taking it back to “The Essence,” when, as she raps with a warm, detached flow on her first single, “shit used to be credible/incredible vocab/no amount of swagger hide a wack verse.” The irony, of course, is that she unleashed that salvo, from her anticipated Miss Black America mixtape, smack dab in the middle of rap’s swag capital. Despite all our fair city has to offer an up-and-coming MC, Atlanta needs Boog Brown more than she needs us. We need to remember how it feels to hang onto the edge of every lyric, to pause in the middle of a verse and rewind, to find ourselves transfixed and transformed by the renewing power of a rhyme. Atlanta should be so fortunate. www.myspace.com/bbrownfbgm.

See the rest of BOA After Dark

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Best of Atlanta goes live tomorrow out now!, but because we know you can’t wait, we’ll offer up some teasers. We’re running through a few of the most popular categories readers voted on and see if you can guess who/what won. You can also guess on what’s the best free thing to do in Atlanta,  or who has the best bar food.

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With over 5,000 votes already submitted, this year’s Best of Atlanta is stronger than ever. Today is the last day to submit your vote, so make sure your picks are counted for by voting at clatl.com/bestofatlanta before the end of the day. We’ll publish the results on Sept. 23.

If you missed the voting party at the Masquerade last week, shame on you! Be sure to check out our photo gallery and video from the party (after the jump), and make sure you’re there next year!

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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.

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Atlanta’s industry-heavy scene meets its left-of-center hip-hop movement Wednesday at Uptown for the pre-BET Awards celebration for nominee, Bangladesh.

The producer put pure alkaline in rapper Lil Wayne’s battery pack this summer with the #1 hit “A Milli.” It’s only part of the reason why we bestowed him with Best local beatmaker honors in CL’s recent 2008 Best of Atlanta issue.

The other reason — his ability to play both sides of the fence and collaborate with emerging, electro-pop tarts like Muffy, who’s scheduled to perform at the party.

The dress code says it all: “Be electric.”

Free. 10 p.m.-3 a.m. Wed., Oct. 15. Uptown Lounge, 201 Courtland St. 404-524-3151. www.uptownrestaurantandlounge.com.

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After Kate Hudson stopped being Chris Robinson’s real-life Penny Lane, Robinson retreated to the place he felt most comfortable: THE BLACK CROWES. The band’s comeback album, Warpaint, got an unexpected PR push earlier this year when Maxim magazine was put in the embarrassing position of admitting it had panned the new record without having heard it. Turns out they should have listened. Warpaint proved to be the band’s most successful album in more than a decade, and it was followed by a tour on which the Crowes reclaimed their elevated position in America’s rock ‘n’ roll hierarchy. Rock on. www.blackcrowes.com. — Scott Freeman

Click here to view CL’s complete 2008 Best of Atlanta/After Dark critics’ and readers’ picks.

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Killer Mike in Kirkwood

KILLER MIKE is a rapper with an agenda, and usually those make for the most focused MCs. In Mike’s case, it makes him one of the best – both in Atlanta and beyond. Representing for the working class, his latest release, I Pledge Allegiance to the Grind II, is a precise continuation of the street knowledge he branded on the first installment. Songs such as “Good Bye (City of Dope),” “Pressure” (featuring Ice Cube) and “God in the Building” elevate his standing in hip-hop’s lyrical hierarchy. Killer Kill from Adamsville (as he’s affectionately known) has the storytelling, nonirritating braggadocio and metaphors to make even the most noted lyricist brush up his pen game. www.myspace.com/grindtimeonline. — Jacinta Howard

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

Photo by Maurice Garland

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When Creative Loafing gave Supreeme the Critics Pick for best hip-hop act last year in our annual Best of Atlanta issue (which drops again on Sept. 24), it threw a lot of cats for a loop.

Not merely because of the convoluted title we bestowed upon the trio — “Best Local Hip-hop Act That’s Not OutKast” — but because they weren’t one of the many snappers, trappers or OutKast clones that uphold the city’s well-deserved rep as hip-hop capital of the world.

In other words, they’re original.

Too original, in fact, to be called a rap group, which has almost become a cliché in itself. I mean, starting a rap group is like a rite of passage nowadays. I actually quit my last one to take this day job. Ah, but I digress progress.

Anyway, back to Supreeme — the poster group for post-adolescent (fill in the blank, hell it’s Friday). The video above is for the song “I’m Crazy” from their new mixtape Silver Medallion, which predates their upcoming sophomore label release, Gold Medallion.

They shot it in one day using VHS, which gives it a real grainy, vintage look — like a bootleg horror flick made by a couple of film school dropouts. You’ll recognize such classic Atlanta stomping grounds as Little Five Points and the club, Drunken Unicorn. Tom Cruz, King Self and Negashi are supposed to resemble criminal-minded zombies of some sort (per the setup, which you can pause the video at the beginning to read), but mostly they just look like themselves.

Rappers without anti-perspirant. Now take that and fill in the blank up above.

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