Crib Notes

Who are you?
Caitlin Lang from Carnivores.

Describe yourself in three words
Fun, sweet and titties.

Who – dead or alive – would you most like to meet?
Little Richard.

Who would you most like to slap in the face?
The entire Free Credit Report.com Band. I don’t think I need to explain.

What song do you wish you had written?
“Long Long Long” by George Harrison or “Physical” by Olivia Newton John.

Elvis Costello or Elvis Presley?
All the way Presley!!!

LP, CD, or MP3?
I’m going to go for LP although my record player has been out of commission for a good long while.

If you could start one trend what would it be?
Everyone walking around with yo yo’s, that would be sweet.

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

With whom would you most like to play a game of spin the bottle?
LL cool J.

“Shark Teeth” mp3

Carnivores play 529 on Sat., Aug. 15 with Predator and Roman Photos. $5. 10 p.m. 529 Flat Shoals Ave. 404-228-6769.

(Photo courtesy Carnivores)

Bookmark to:

We left New York with a feeling of success, and that the Balkans had made at least one fan out of the trip. The 7 Inches blog wrote a review of the Brooklyn show and the Balkans’ awesome 7-inches.

On the drive from New York to Ohio I stopped to buy oil for the car and instead of offering to help me, like the gentleman he is Stanley threw his empty water bottle on the ground, like he does his drumsticks. A man in a turban (we think) who was associated with the gas station and possibly the Islamic faith, ran over and cussed out the very frightened Jewish Stanley. We were scared off of the premises, but Stanley managed to capture a photo of the man on our way out. The rest of the drive was rather uneventful except for the Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat soundtrack and Russian disco that we listened to on the final stretch of the drive.

Columbus was an interesting city. It’s a college town with your typical shops and college students milling around, but there were also an unusual amount of tattoo parlors, strange looking people and rednecks. The local band the Balkans and Carnivores were playing with turned out to be fifteen year-old kids from the suburbs, so the idea of asking them for a place to stay was out of the question. Stanley got his hair cut at a salon next to the venue and his hairdresser — who happened to be from Atlanta — told him about a website where you can look find a place to stay as a touring musician. So Woody looked it up and found two reasonable looking people nearby. One guy called back and said he would come to the gig and could put them up between himself and his neighbor. The plan was to check him out and if he seemed sketchy, tell him we were driving to Lexington after the gig and run to a hotel. He showed up and it turned out that the Carnivores had met him earlier in the day at the record store where he works and invited him to the gig. He ended up being overwhelmingly hospitable and offered to help set the bands up with better places to play in the future.

(more…)

Bookmark to:

It was Woody’s birthday yesterday and the Balkans celebrated it on stage at the Littlefield performance and art space in Brooklyn. It was not the best music of the tour, but it tops my list as the most fun. You can definitely see a change in their comfort level with their stage presence and with the audience. I lost count of the number of times Frankie told the audience that it was Woody’s birthday. Most of their set was spent tuning and having fun. Stanley ran off stage after almost every song, and at one point during a song — Woody took over and played the high hat with the neck of his bass. At one point Frankie received a text message and started to read it out loud to the audience, but Stanly called Frankie from the drums and they had a conversation on stage. Frankie unsuccessfully attempted to hold his phone to the mic.

Despite their merrymaking, when they committed themselves to a song they played it wholeheartedly and it sounded great. A month ago aside from the fact that Woody is my brother, I would have seen the Balkans because I enjoy their music and they’re good musicians. After last night and the show in Richmond, I will go see the Balkans for all the above reasons and because they put on a fun show.

We’re in the home stretch now, leaving New York for Ohio. And the Balkan posse has grown to eight (the four boys and now four girls)! Check out the the Balkans’ Myspace for more.

Bookmark to:

We headed out of New York for a “short” two hour drive to Philadelphia for a gig at the Danger Danger Gallery.  Massive rain storms, again, and just plain congestion turned our 90 mile trip into a five hour drive each way. We will not have happy memories of the New Jersey Turnpike. Despite the traffic and the warnings that the venue was in a very bad neighborhood, it was overall the best gig yet.

The neighborhood was sketchy, but I found shelter in the Dock Street Brewery with some local friends while the Balkans missed out and ate vegan wraps next door. People actually turned-out for the gig. The Balkans put on a strong show and were dripping with sweat by the end. Stanley did his customary dramatic finish where he abruptly stands up and throws away his drumsticks. The basement had flooded out because of the earlier rain, but the bands were still able to play. The main room hosted three rock bands and the other room had two electronic acts, which seemed to get more of the crowd’s approval. Maybe the Balkans will make it back to the city of brotherly love someday…

(more…)

Bookmark to:

Wednesday morning we packed up and headed north of the Mason-Dixon Line.  And can you spell disaster, because I’m pretty sure Woody Shortridge can’t.  That’s what the past few days have been: a fun disaster.

We were supposed to go to New York via Hoboken, NJ for an interview and in-studio performance with Planet Verge.  As we approached New Jersey we were hit with torrential rains.  Luckily we had allotted extra travel time, but we weren’t prepared for tornadoes.  Yes, there were tornado warnings in the New York area.  Thus the Planet Verge gig was rescheduled for Thursday evening, but the studio was unavailable so the Planet Verge hosts were going to do the recording guerrilla-style.  We were unexpectedly thrown into downtown Manhattan at 6 p.m. with buckets of rain.  We made it slowly, but safely to Brooklyn to park the cars for FREE.

True, we had a lot of fun exploring the city. The Balkans took the time to check out Chinatown for some cheap stuff.  However, once again New Jersey got the best of us.  We picked the “worst time” to drive from Brooklyn through Manhattan to Hoboken: 5:30 p.m. The studio was less than 8 miles away but it took us almost 2 hours to make it. Amazingly we arrived in Hoboken on time, early actually, but one of the girls at Planet Verge was late.  We went to check out the performance space, the parking lot of the studio, but there was no outlet.   While the Planet Verge host searched for an alternative spot the parking lot proved a playground for the two bands, special thanks to some Styrofoam scraps (some of which Brett hit me over the head with).  And Stanley Vergilis proved to be the best at jumping for a hole in the wall.

(more…)

Bookmark to:

I left the boys for one night during our day of rest in Athens, GA and they got a warning from the UGA police: making a left turn out of a right turn lane, very BA.  Monday morning we headed out for Virginia.  Our soccer-mom-mobile was so weighted down that we had to turn off the AC to make it up hills.  Things were pretty quiet until the boys woke up around two, following lunch at Taco Bell.  Brett Miller took hold of the iPod and we had a sing-along that went from early Beatles– including a “Yellow Submarine” round—and “Let’s Get It On” to some ’90s favorites, mostly Pearl Jam.  Interruptions were limited to desperately rolling down the windows when Woody Shortridge’s stomach occasionally reacted to his lunch.  Woody had just put everything but the last 90 cents from the Athens gig into the car’s tank and had nothing to lose.

(more…)

Bookmark to:

The Balkans aren’t driving a fancy bus, they won’t be staying in hotels or even eating at mid-priced chain restaurants during their nine-stop tour of the east coast this summer.  But they do have complete ownership of the whole tour.  They’ve booked the shows themselves, made T-shirts, pressed records and crammed equipment into a soccer-mom-mobile plus a turtle top.  They spent months convincing concerned parents that they weren’t going to die, and after a full-band and parent meeting last Saturday they were reluctantly given the go for takeoff.  Yes, this is a tour with plan and potential.  It is also a tour with four recent high school graduate boys and a hand full of girls in tow.

The tour started sometime Saturday afternoon while I was in the shower. I emerged to find the car packed full with little room for my own bag.  We arrived in Athens to find people slightly confused as to who the Balkans were. Flagpole, Athens’ local alt-weekly, listed the band as an “Atlanta duo” while Jake, a listing’s paper, had a photo of all four members of the band, but they were labeled the “Blakans.”

(more…)

Bookmark to:

The methadone strum of Abby Go Go couldn’t be further removed from the washing-machine beats of Carnivores’ reverb-drenched pop stylings. On the A-side, Abby Go Go’s “The Lost Song” jams the senses with a faux Indian guitar melody that moves slightly faster than the bottom-end drones and vocals surrounding it. The song’s narcotic effects bleed into the ’60s groove of “Nothing All the Time,” creating tension when placed against Carnivores’ songs “There Is Evil” and “To Hell with Everything.” Both songs tumble lopsided, circular rhythms in a clutter of equal parts angst and atonal elation. More than two blasts of such a spastic, unwavering pace would wear thin. But here, it remains compelling. Both bands layer their sonic messes with disorienting, divergent angles, making them diametrically opposed bunkmates on this split EP. (Double Phantom) 4 stars out of 5

Bookmark to:

CL’s Chanté LaGon and Chad Radford chat abut upcoming shows for the weekend, including Carnivores at 529 (Fri., May 1), Herman Hitson at the Drunken Unicorn (Sat., May 2), and the Pains of Being Pure at Heart at the Earl (Sun., May 3).

Check out this week’s Sound Menu for a more comprehensive list of upcoming shows.

Air Loaf is broadcast weekdays on 1690 WMLB-AM at approximately 8:10 a.m., 12:20 p.m. and 6:20 p.m.

Download

Subscribe to the Air Loaf RSS feed to download each new episode automatically

Bookmark to:

Austin, Texas, garage-punk quartet the Strange Boys craft a primitive, lo-fi rock and roll sound that’s both dirty and addictive. At its most predictable moments, the group comes across like a Lone Star state little brother to the Black Lips. But when they’re on, they’re on. Their In the Red Records debut, The Strange Boys and Girls Club, unleashes a psychedelic post-punk jam that’s part Texas psychedelia and part slow, Southern post-punk. Carnivores and the N.E.C. also perform.

$8. 8:30 p.m. The Earl, 488 Flat Shoals Ave. 404-522-3950.

Before their proper show at the Earl the Strange Boys are playing a free acoustic show across the street at Reactionary Records at 6:30 p.m.

“Heard You Want to Beat Me Up” mp3

(Photo courtesy of In the Red Records)

Bookmark to:

Emory University student radio station WMRE (currently broadcasting on channel 26 on Emory’s campus) will host its annual Localsfest on Feb. 13 at 8 p.m. at the Harland Cinema.

Localsfest, known for introducing local up-and-coming Atlanta bands, is at it once again. This year Poison Arrows will be a featured band at the festival. The group walks a fine line between punk and power pop music circa ‘79 through their strutting guitars and sneering pop songwriting.

The N.E.C. takes things in a decidedly more primitive garage rock direction.

Carnivores will open the fest with their “Walls of distorted sound.”

This is an event you defintely will not want to miss. Grab a friend and come out and support the local bands. For shows times, parking and ticket information check out WMRE.

Bookmark to:

For today’s Roll Call we call out Tommy Chung of the Selmanaires.

Who are you?
Tommy Chung to my friends, Thomas Chung to the government and creditors.

Describe yourself in three words.
Hungry Renaissance Man.

Who — dead or alive — would most you like to meet?
Ernest Hemingway, so he can divulge his secrets to success. He did blow his brains out though, so I suppose success is relative.

Who would you most like to slap in the face?
People who infect my world with their negativity. I usually don’t let the hateful attitudes of others get to me, but there are a handful of people and personality types who really know how to get under my skin. You fuckers know who you are.

What song do you wish you had written?
“Mother Sky” by Can. Coolest song ever.

Elvis Costello or Elvis Presley?
Wow. I can’t believe you’re making me choose. I’ll go with the skinny, “Mystery Train”-era King.

LP, CD or MP3?
LPs, but only because you didn’t list cassettes as a choice.

If you could start one trend, what would it be?
Fish on Fridays for protein-deficient vegans and non-Catholics.

If you could end one trend, what would it be?
Ironic mustaches.

With whom would you most like to play a game of spin the bottle?
Anna Karina circa 1967. However, with my luck, the bottle would probably land on her husband Jean-Luc Godard. I respect him and all, but I’m only mildly interested in kissing him.

The Selmanaires play the Earl on Sat., Jan. 31st with the Features and Carnivores. $8. 9 p.m. 488 Flat Shoals Rd. 404-522-3950.

(Photo by Chad Radford)

Bookmark to:

For today’s Roll Call we call out Philip Frobos of Carnivores.

Who are you?
I’m Philip Frobos, and I play bass and sing for CARNIVORES (used to be Chainestereo). I also play bass with those Untied States kids. I like dead culture, cheese grits and David Bowie.

Describe yourself in three words.
Rambunctious, Paranoid, Blue

Who — dead or alive — would most you like to meet?
I’d like to roll with Nancy Sinatra back in her heyday, I wanna be her Lee Hazelwood. That record Nancy & Lee destroys me, if you can find it on the internet you should get the bonus track that doesn’t come on the LP called “Arkansas Coal.” I don’t know how they wrote that song, it might as well be an epic, but not like lame epic rock.

Who would you most like to slap in the face?
Dj Dj Dj Dylan. He wouldn’t get an Oh Snap picture with me. Maybe next week.

What song do you wish you had written?
It’s probably a tie between ELO’s “Showdown” and Jobim’s “The Girl from Ipanema.”

Elvis Costello or Elvis Presley?
Costello.

LP, CD or MP3?
My favorite is LP, since I moved to Atlanta I’ve been building up a decent collection. I like that its a little more engaging, I like to think of records as two parts. Although I do love my morning on Marta with my iPod. It’s a toss up, those new LPs that come with the mp3 download card are brilliant!

If you could start one trend, what would it be?
Bring the word “Rad” back up to its former dynasty in “cool” synonyms. Also bring “Game On” from Wayne’s World back, but then I probably wouldn’t want to say them anymore. How about Swatch?

If you could end one trend, what would it be?
Overly HUGE sunglasses that hide ugly girls’ faces. Those things are as good as beer goggles but you don’t even get to be drunk.

With whom would you most like to play a game of spin the bottle?
Zooey Deschanel. She seems like a pretty rad kid.

“A Crime”

Carnivores plays the Pine Magazine showcase at The Star Bar on Thurs., Dec. 4. Free. 9 p.m.

(Photo courtesy of Philip Frobos)

Bookmark to: