Crib Notes

Word spread a few weeks back that the house at 54 Moreland Ave., where directors Brendan Canty ( Fugazi) and Christoph Green filmed Burn to Shine Atlanta, had finally come down after leaving the project in limbo for two years.

But there is still much work to be done before the finished product will materialize.

Chad Radford:  Where does Burn to Shine Atlanta stand now that the house has come down?

Brendan Canty:  We still have a lot of work to do with this thing. Touch & Go went out of business so we’re trying to find a home for the project, but we think we know where it’s going to go. It won’t delay the release, but I honestly don’t think that it will come out until the Fall. That’s the best hope. November, but realistically speaking maybe even January.

Why did you pick Atlanta for this project?

There are so many factors that go into making one of these:  One of them is having a house that’s going to be torn down, but also having somebody who really wants it to happen on a local level. In Atlanta our Friend Lee Tesche was saying let’s do this, this is great. So we kind of went on his energy. In Chicago it was Bob Weston in Portland it Was Chris Funk, and in Seattle it was Ben Gibbard. Credit has to be given to these guys for being ground troop organizers. All of those guys were really into it and they had the bands together. That kind of energy carries us a long way.

On top of that there are a bunch of bands that we love Atlanta. I mean really, I love Deerhunter, I love Black Lips, I love Mastodon. Atlanta is just such a great music town. Do you feel like you were undeserving?

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GG King celebrates the release of his new “Drug Zoo” b/w “Witching Hour,” “the “Letter” 7-inch on Rob’s House Records tonight at 529. In all reality the records probably won’t have arrived yet, but there’s always hope.

According to Rob’s House GG King’s new single is,

another new offshoot from members of carbonas and if you heard their first single on douchemaster you might even think it was the carbonas but this one strays pretty far from that tested sound. ‘drug zoo’ finds gg king mixing a bit of his name sake’s influence with early aussie punk, a few hints of black metal and, to really mix things up, a box tops cover!! a few people might have heard these songs on gg’s last of the night wiggers demos but here they are remixed, mastered and on vinyl! [800 pressed; black vinyl; 100 copies with numbered gg king poster.]

Wizzard Sleeve from Mobile, Alabama also performs. It should also be duly noted that the Pillow Talk DJs have declared this night to be the landlocked bikini beach party event of the summer, and they promise to be spinning records in bikinis. …

GG King’s “Drug Zoo” mp3

$5. 9 p.m. 529 Flat Shoals Ave. 404-228-6769.

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After almost two years of waiting in limbo, Burn to Shine Atlanta is back on. The house at 54 Moreland Ave., where the Atlanta installment of directors Brendan Canty (Fugazi) and Chrisoph Green’s Burn to Shine series was filmed on July 29, 2007, came crashing down at 9 o’clock this morning.

In a nutshell, Canty and Green’s Burn to Shine works like this: They find a house in a city that is on the verge of being demolished in the name of urban progress. They fill it with as many of the strongest bands from the local music scene that they can round-up, film them playing in said house, and when all is said and done they document the house’s destruction. Atlanta is number six in the series and falls on the heels of Washington D.C., Chicago, Portland, Louisville, Ky., and Seattle.

Bands who performed for the Atlanta shoot include the Liverhearts, Selmanaires, Shannon Wright, Deerhunter, Black Lips, Delia Gartrell, Mighty Hannibal, Coathangers, Carbonas, All Night Drug Prowling Wolves, Snowden and Mastodon.

A gallery of photos from the sweltering, sweat-soaked day spent in the Hepatitis factory of a house can be found at chadrad.blogspot.com

Over the two years that have passed since they filmed in Atlanta, Canty and Green have fully edited the audio and video from whole day, and now that the house has been demolished they hope to have the DVD released by the end of the summer.

(Photo by Lee Tesche)

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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)

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Atlanta five-piece the Stolen Hearts are a sultry, girly punk-rock band that revels in a damaged, Phil Spector punk vibe, churning out simple, ballad-esque rock and roll songs that hone primitive, melodies, sweet crooning and hooks that are as innocent as they are on fire. For their show tonight (Sat., June 6) at 529, the group is celebrating the release of its debut 7-inch on Douchemaster Records. $5. 9 p.m. Digital Leather opens. 529 Flat Shoals Ave. 404-228-6769.

How did the Stolen Hearts come together.
Rachel Jones: The group first started out with an all girl line-up. There were five girls, me and Michelle and three other girls. Then Ashley Salisbury joined and the other girls were really busy doing other things so it didn’t really work out. When they left we took a break and then started back up again later. We needed a guitar player and Adrian Barrera (Barreracudas) was in, which was really cool. If you ask most people if they want to join a new all girl band they laugh at you, but he was totally into trying it out.

Why will they laugh at you?
RJ: Mostly because we’ve never really been in a band before and don’t know what to expect. I would probably have the same reaction, but Adrian was willing to do it. Greg King (Carbonas, GG King) was in too. He’s a trooper for sure.

Greg and Adrian are both very competent musicians. What’s it like to come into a band with them, having no real musical experience yourselves?
MK: It pushes us to better ourselves as musicians. You can’t get better at it unless you’re actually playing music with other people. We’ve learned a lot from them, and I think we’ve pulled it off pretty well so far.

“Heart Collector” mp3

“Fire” mp3

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Chad Radford:  Your 7-inch came out a few months back. Now that you’ve had some time to ruminate, what are your thoughts on your first release after Carbonas?
Greg King:  We just laid down a bunch of new songs and they are a whole lot better.

Are you playing with the same line-up you had with the first single?
I sang and played all of the drums and the guitars and Chris Van Etten played the bass. [Gentleman] Jesse hasn’t been playing with me since we did the recording. Clay Kilbourne has been playing guitar and Mike Beavers from Predator has been playing drums.

Are you going to put out a G.G. King full-length?
Oh I don’t know. I’ve recorded six songs and they’re demo quality. It’s pretty raw and it might make a better 7-inch. I think a whole album would get kind of tiresome. I’ll probably do it with Douchemaster, but I want to send it around to a few other places to see if anyone is interested, and to see who’s going to give me a massive budget to go and record.

Are you going to stick with the name G. G. King?
I really wish that I hadn’t picked that name, but I already got a record with that name on it, so I’ll stick with it. As soon as we started getting the record covers printed I started getting all of these great ideas for names, and thought crap. It’s totally retarded. But it does kind of plays into my obsession with when cool bands and musicians shit the bed and do something terrible… And it’s an obvious reference to Dee Dee King from the Ramones doing his solo rap stuff which is pretty much unbearable.

G. G. King plays tonight, Sat., April 11 with Jay Reatard and the Stolen Hearts at Lenny’s 9 p.m. $10. 486 Decatur St. 404-577-7721.

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Last week Dry Ink Magazine posted a video piece that documents the final show at Rob’s House in East Atlanta before the label’s founder Trey Lindsay moved to New York. The video features interviews and segments of performances by Carbonas, Gentleman Jesse, the Black Lips. Drunken chatter from all of the above punctuates a marathon of interviews conducted by Tom Cheshire of All Night Drug Prowling Wolves.

The video does a good d job of capturing the mood (and the heat) of the last show there before handing the reigns over to the Danger House crew.

The video can be seen here.

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The Star Bar turned into an all-out bro-down as the two-day Fringe Binge punk fest. wrapped-up Saturday night. Carbonas, the Rubber City Rebels and the Rent Boys rocked the swarm of scenesters in attendance with drunken aplomb. The Rent Boys hadn’t played in 7 years, and every dude in the house hugged and growled in elation while a man in short shorts stalked the crowd, pouring Tequila straight from the bottle into people’s mouths. A treacherous slick of sweat, spilled drinks and broken glass coated the floor and geysers of beer foam erupted in the audience as beer cans rocketed overhead. The Rent Boys’ welcome reunion was long overdue, and the show was a testament to the timeless qualities of truly fun and debaucherous music.

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The show at Rob’s House this Saturday, July 26th was a well-kept secret… sort of. There wasn’t as much as a peep on the internet or in the local media about the Black Lips playing a free house show in East Atlanta, but word-of-mouth brought about 100 – 150 people out, which actually made it about the perfect sized crowd.

The flier that you see to your left didn’t even show up until the day of the show.

Regardless, the basement at 1318 Ormewood Ave. felt like a scene from Dante’s Infero as Predator, Gentleman Jesse and Carbonas exploded in a haze of smoke and unbearable heat. Sweat-soaked bodies packed the tiny dungeon as Gentleman Jesse played its final show before bassist Dustin Nigro moves off to NYC. This show also served as a successful test run for the group with new guitarist Adrian Barrera (also of the Hiss).

For many long-time but estranged fans, seeing the Black Lips in a basement was a refreshing reminder of the days when most local venues wouldn’t even give the group the time of day for fear of property damage. Back then the Black Lips had nowhere else to play but house shows. Seeing them tear it up in such a cramped and sweaty environment was a return to the good old days. It was also the last show at Rob’s House before the label’s founder Trey Lindsay moves off to New York as well.

Could there have been a better way to bring an end to the era? The show was a visceral return to form that literally brought it all back home.

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In keeping with last year’s music issue I’ve compiled a list of my 10 favorite local releases that came down the line between May ’07 and May ’08.

If I had to single out the best Atlanta label for this year, thus far there’s no doubt that it would be Douche Master Records. But the label’s reach has extended far beyond Atlanta over the last year. Excellent singles in the DM catalogue by groups, such as Hex Error and Cheap Time, as well as the Black & White’s self-titled full-length are all worthy of note, but they don’t fit into the category of a “local release.” The one significant local release from Douche Master this year is the reissue of Carbonas’ “Black Out” single … Is it a faux paw to list reissues in the year’s best of list? I think so … But it’s worthy of an honorable mention. The “Black Out” single is a good companion to Carbonas’ third full-length, which shows a tremendous amount of growth on the group’s part. Vocalist Greg King’s voice sounds so much more controlled than it has on previous releases and the group’s grasp on tight, manic melodies in songs, like “Phone Booth” and “Ass Vogel” are so much more refined than any of the group’s previous records that it easily eclipses anything else to come out of Atlanta this year.

I also want to make a note about including the Selmanaires 7-inch in this list and not the album, The Air Salesmen. Whenever I play the CD I catch myself skipping to the tracks from the single. As soon as they’re finished I play them again, rather than letting the rest of the songs play out. For me, the single, “Just to Get Your Love” b/w “Verdigris Intrigue” are such powerful songs that they outshine the rest of the album.

So here’s my list…

1.) Carbonas — Carbonas (Goner Records)
2.) Atlas Sound — Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See but Cannot Feel (Kranky)
3.) Zoroaster — Dog Magic (Terminal Doom Records/Battle Kommand Records)
4.) The Black Lips — Good Bad Not Evil (Vice)
5.) Baby Shakes — “Tell Me Now,” “Baby, It’s You,” “Come On, Babe” 10-inch (Rob’s House Records)
6.) Anna Kramer & the Lost Cause – The Rustic Contemporary Sounds Of… (International Hits)
7.) The Coathangers – The Coathangers (Rob’s House Records)
8.) The Selmanaires — “Just To Get Your Love” 7-inch (International Hits)
9.) Noot d’ Noot – “Jiggle City” 7-inch (Solutionist)
10.) Daniel Clay – The Protestant (Self-released)

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