Crib Notes

Howlies with producer Kim Fowley

7 p.m. It’s Monday night and it feels like the calm before the storm. As I type these words I’m sitting in the back of a van with the four members of Atlanta rock and roll, power pop, whatever you want to call it band, Howlies, and we’re speeding toward Austin, Texas. I think we’re in the Central time zone; as good a time as any to test out the action on this laptop that I borrowed from CL’s marketing director, Leigh Anne Rehkopf — mine was stolen out of the trunk of my car during a smash-and-grab job perpetrated by thieves in Virginia-Highland last month.

Midnight. We didn’t get out of Atlanta until 8 p.m. I’m zapped of energy already. I woke up this morning with a fever, a nagging sniffle and a red raw nose, but the steady intake of DayQuil has me in a pleasant, though hazy head space. GZA’s Liquid Swords is creeping out of my headphones and the he dull thud of every beat and the hiss that smothers every kung-fu chop matches the wheeze in my chest and slurred thoughts in my head. Is it the cold or the cold medicine that’s making it so difficult to concentrate right now? At any rate, it’s all coming together to get my mind off of the fact that I still don’t really have a place to stay once we get there.

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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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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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Mika Miko’s last proper album, C.Y.S.L.A.B.F., earned the L.A. lady punks props by merging spastic hooks and focused amateurism. We Be Xuxa is a superior album, due largely to the addition of drummer Seth Densham, whose motorik beats refine the group’s visceral, art-punk kick. “Blues Not Speed” encapsulates their growth and opens the palette for what is perhaps the group’s catchiest Dada manifesto, “Turkey Sandwich.” A cover of the Urinals’ “Sex” pays homage to their southern California punk roots. And with “Sex Jazz,” the subtle no wave leanings of their past aren’t so subtle anymore. We Be Xuxa kicks the group’s infectious grooves up a notch, by fine-tuning the art of what happens when primitivism and high-energy grooves collide.

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 the Lone Star state’s 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.

The band that rolls together holds together, and the Coathangers make the perfect gang. The band’s second full-length, Scramble (Suicide Squeeze), highlights marked growth for Atlanta’s premiere punk banshees. When Julia Kugel (guitar/vocals), Stephanie Luke (drums/vocals), Candice Jones (keyboard/vocals) and Meredith Franco (bass/vocals) dropped their self-titled debut in 2007, they caught both heat and praise for penning such juvenile party-punk anthems as “Tonya Harding” and “Nestle in My Boobies.” Scramble finds the group in a darker, more poetic mood, but they’re still not about to get all serious on us.

Mika Miko “I Got A Lot” mp3

Strange Boys’ “Heard You Want to Beat Me Up” mp3

the Coathangers “Stop Stomp Stompin’” mp3

Mika Miko, the Strange Boys and the Coathangers play the Drunken Unicorn. $10. 9 p.m. Tues., June 9.

(Mika Miko photo courtesy 230 Publicity)

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The Creative Loafing team survived the brutal drive to and from Austin for this year’s South By Southwest festival, kept alive only by gallons of gas station coffee and truck stop tacos.

While we chased down every free meal and drink ticket we could find, we also managed to see a tiny fraction of the 1,900 bands that played this year. Sure, everyone is talking about it today, but we didn’t see Kanye or Metallica. We’re OK with that. Check out a rundown of our favorite moments from the festival after the jump.

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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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Tomorrow — Saturday, Oct. 13 — the Coathangers are filming a music video at the infamous Rob’s House, and the band is inviting its fans to participate. Here’s the bulletin sent ’round on MySpace:

on Saturday October 13, we’re shooting a video for The Coathangers at Rob’s House (1318 Ormewood Avenue). we would like to invite all who would like to see a free show and be in a music video. we need folks as extras at the show so if you’re interested in acting, please contact me (www.myspace.com/robshouserecords). time for the show is 4 – 7.

this is not a real real show – its a music video shoot but its supposed to be like a house show. the director has asked for people to dress like you’re going to a show; the more over the top, the better. anyway, we’ll have a keg too so it’ll be fun – we’d love if a few folks could stick around past the 7pm time to be featured extras.

love,
Rob’s House Records

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I spent last Tuesday night (Aug. 28) at El Bar, and by doing so, simultaneously paid homage to rock music, alcohol and the Coathangers. (You can read more about them in Chad Radford’s CL story, “Boobie trapped,” this week.) The new Triple D’s Rock Night (occurring Sept. 11, Sept. 25, then every Tuesday beginning in October at El Bar) features Damon Hare, Drennen Quinn and Dustan Nigro spinning rock favorites — a rare and pleasant break from the normal (and sometimes tired) DJ routines.

The Triple D’s hosted a Coathangers listening party for the release of their upcoming debut CD. And though there were no miniature horses, as rumored to be in attendance at the upcoming release party at Criminal Records Sept. 4, the club was packed by midnight with the Coathangers, their label managers Trey and Travis at Rob’s House Records, and a crew of friends squeezed into the small club in the basement of El Azteca.

Everyone was in good spirits as the booze flowed and the DJs spun old rock favorites mixed with the sounds of the Coathangers’ new album. The girls were all smiles — giddy, confident and grateful. Their new album drops Sept. 4 on Rob’s House Records, with an album release show that day at Criminal Records at 7 p.m. It’s free, and there’s beer. Go, and pay your own respects to beer and fun local music.

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I’m mystified by the Coathangers. Not because I don’t like them, but because they seemed to come out of nowhere this winter and were suddenly, like, everywhere, playing at all the nightclubs and being seen with all the “cool” Atlanta bands.

Perhaps that’s why the four ladies draw polarized reactions. I’ve heard people call the Coathangers a great band, and heard others dismiss it as a bunch of scenester savants. I find this last criticism ironic because the Atlanta underground rock scene is mostly a man’s club filled with twentysomething musicians who pride themselves on being idiot savants. Now you have four women doing the same thing, so what’s the difference?

When I hear about a band that gets as popular as the Coathangers, I usually run in the other direction. I know this is antithetical to my job as a journalist, but I can’t stand hype. And that isn’t a dis: I haven’t heard nor seen the Coathangers before, so I can’t give an opinion. Maybe the Coathangers are worth all the attention.

Anyway, the real reason for this post is to announce the Coathangers are dropping a self-titled album on Rob’s House Records Sept. 1. The group is celebrating the occasion with a Sept. 4 CD-release party at Star Bar. Who knows … maybe you’ll even see me in the crowd, singing along to “Nestle in My Boobies.” The track listing, which you’ll find below, comes courtesy of Fanatic Promotion publicist (and former Atlanta nightlife promoter) Kasey Price.

Finally, if you don’t know what the hell I’m talking about, read Ellis Jones’ April 4 profile of the Coathangers here.

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