Crib Notes

Remember Deerhunter? Not the Deerhunter, mind you, of Brooklyn Vegan hype or Pitchfork Best New Music fame, and not the Spike Jonze/Trent Reznor-hanging Deerhunter, but Atlanta’s Deerhunter. Remember when they gigged tirelessly, I mean, all the damn time, at the Drunken Unicorn here in town, or at the sweaty, dank Caledonia Lounge over in Athens? Above all, do you remember Turn It Up Faggot? Yeah, the one with a Black Lips’ dick on the cover. Notoriously effusive frontman Bradford Cox would just as soon have you purge it from memory — he’s trashed the band’s grimy, lo-fi debut in interviews, citing, among other apparent pratfalls, the band’s musical immaturity at the time.

While it’s definitely true that the songs on Turn It Up Faggot lack a certain cohesiveness aptly displayed on Deerhunter’s following recordings (say what you will about Cox and his occasionally impish ways, the guy knows how to put an album together), there exists throughout the record a gnarled, raw sort of furor that is nowhere to be found on, say, Cryptograms. Chalk it up to artistic evolution, if you will — obviously, a band must grow, mature, change; if not, you’re Kiss. With all the best groups, though, there’s usually a good deal of intrigue, if not all-out enjoyment, to be found by examining and absorbing their earliest work. In this case, TIUF, ugly scabs and all, contains some revelatory stuff. (more…)

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Clockwise from top: Tommy Chung, Mario Schambon, Jason and Herb Harris (Photo by Carl La Pan)

Atlas Sound fires up the tour machine once again, this time Deerhunter frontman Bradford Cox has enlisted the Selmanaires to serve as his backing band for this show of ghostly pop. Stereolab-esque post-rock Brits Broadcast play in support of their latest release, Broadcast & The Focus Group Investigate. The Selmanaires pull double duty as they open the show Thursday night, Oct. 14. $15. 8:30 p.m. The Earl. 404-522-3950.

Chad Radford: So what’s up with the Atlas Sound tour; the Selmanaires are the Atlas Sound band for the tour with Broadcast and you’re opening the shows as well?
Tommy Chung: Yes. Bradford has been collaborating with Broadcast for a little while and we were always jealous because Broadcast has been one of our favorite bands pretty much since they became a band. Bradford asked Herb if we wanted to go too, and it was like, ‘let me think about it… Um yeah!’ A week later Bradford said he was sick of being a one-man sampler show and asked how we felt about being the backing band too. It sounded cool so we did one practice with him before a Dirty Projectors show and within the first ten minutes he asked us to play that show. We learned four songs, stretched them out and did like a 10-minute cover of “What Goes On” by the Velvet Underground.

We’ve always had a connection with Deerhunter. Our very first show out was in 2003 with Deerhunter at MJQ before the Drunken Unicorn even existed. It was Deerhunter, Tabitha and we were the openers — back when we were still stand up bass, Wurlitzer and acoustic guitar. After that we pretty much played with Deerhunter every month at Lenny’s. It feels like things have come full-circle now that we’re playing with Atlas Sound.

The Selmanaires “Resonance Alright” mp3

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A recording of last night’s Lotus Plaza live debut at Eyedrum is available for download via the Deerhunter blog.

It’s a soundboard recording that was captured by Eyedrum’s resident sound guys Nathan Brown and Robby Kee, and for such a quick turn-around the recording is shocking smooth.

Do yourself a favor and give it a listen.

(Photo courtesy Kranky)

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Deerhunter guitarist Lockett Pundt is making his live solo debut this Tues. night when Lotus Plaza opens for the Books at Eyedrum.

Chad Radford:  Tell me about how the Lotus Plaza album, The Floodlight Collective came together and what you had in mind as you going in to it?
Lockett Pundt: I didn’t really have a whole lot in mind when I sat down to write the songs on the album. I have a hard time getting things done when I have something specific in mind in regards to song writing. Most of them were just a simple idea that sort of blossomed into a song. They all sort of have their own environment. I would go into a song with a guitar loop or drum track and it would either take off, or nothing would come of it. I think the only song in which I had a very clear view of how I wanted it to sound was “Antoine.” I had a Joe Meek sample that I played at a few different speeds creating this crazy out of phase percussive thing and I heard the song from the beginning. Other than that, I just had fun writing songs and had enough to put together an album.

Did you write the songs on the album on your own or was it a group effort that involved anyone else?
I did everything myself. Brad [Cox] plays drums on “Different Mirrors.” He thought it might sound better adding drums over the drum loop in the song and he added it on the first take. I thought it sounded great.

How did you approach it differently from a Deerhunter record?
I write a lot more lyrics myself, which I don’t do all that much in Deerhunter. I tend to write more personal I suppose. I never really try to write a song either way, I think it just sort of happens that one is a better Deerhunter song than one I would use personally. In my songs, I definitely like the parts and instrumentation to remain as how they are, but with songs that are introduced to Deerhunter, I like the guys to write their own parts or do them how they would. That’s the main difference in the approach to me.

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Bradford Cox of Deerhunter/Atlas Sound will appear on Fox News’ Red Eye talk show tonight/tomorrow morning. The show airs at 3 a.m.

(Photo courtesy Kranky Records)

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Head over to the Deerhunter/Atlas Sound/Lotus Plaza blog where you can download Atlas Sound’s cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Walk A Thin Line” from the album Tusk. It’s a pleasant reinterpretation of the original version that takes on an even more ethereal hue than the disconnected context of the song as it originally appeared on Tusk. Here it has the trademark slow strum, reverb and Bradford Cox’s melancholy falsetto that has come to define Atlas Sound, and it sounds quite nice.

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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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Max Arbes and CL’s Chad Radford discuss upcoming music for the weekend, including Dan Sartain at the Earl (Friday, May 15) and Deerhunter’s new digital EP, Rainwater Cassette Exchange, release on Monday, May 18.

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

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Starting this Friday, director Matthew Robison’s Atlanta music documentary We Fun will be playing on Pitchfork.TV for one week and one week only. Inside sources tell us that this will be a slightly edited version from what screened last month as part of the Atlanta Film Festival.

To get specific about it, the much ballyhooed flaming vagina scene has been trimmed considerably.

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Nashville-based film maker Matthew Robison’s (Silver Jew) much ballyhooed, but yet to be released Atlanta rock documentary We Fun premieres at the Atlanta Film Festival this Saturday night (April 18.)

The film is showing on screen no. 4 at the Midtown Art Cinema on Sat., April 18 and again at 2:05 p.m. on screen no. 6 on  Wed., April 22.

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It’s official, both the Black Lips and Deerhunter are playing at 529 Thurs., April 2. Doors open at 9 p.m. Cover is $20. The show is a benefit for Bobby Ubangi, a.k.a. B Jay Womack, who was diagnosed last year with stage IV small cell lung cancer.

There will be no pre-sale tickets for this show. Admission will be granted on a first come, first serve basis. Barreracudas open the show.

Black Lips “Short Fuse”

Black Lips “Starting over”

Black Lips “I’ll Be With You”

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This Sat., March 21 Cameli’s Pizza in the Kroger plaza on Ponce de Leon Avenue is celebrating 13 years of serving gourmet pies with an anniversary show.

Such lauded local art-punk, shoegazer and otherwise experimental bands Atlas Sound, Abby and Go Go and Facehugger are all lined-up to perform.

The party takes place in the space directly underneath Cameli’s at 699 Ponce de Leon Ave., which used to be Inavox several years back.

Cover charge is $8. Music starts at 9 p.m.

… and the best part, there will be free pizza served all night long.

(Photo by Hisham Bharoocha)

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Atlanta post-hardcore, art/noise/spazz/rock weirdos Hawks play a record release party for their debut full-length, Barn Burner, tonight at Criminal Records. The show is free and the music starts at 7 p.m.

The album is being released and co-produced by Deerhunter bassist Josh Fauver for Army of Badluck Records/Vagina Flambe. Barn Burner is techinally available only as an LP, but if you buy the record a full CD of the music is tucked into the sleeve.

(Photo courtesy Hawks)

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Earlier today producer/director Matthew Robison sent Crib Notes a new cut of the trailer for the forthcoming Atlanta rock scene documentary, We Fun.

WARNING: The trailer features a few swear words, so if you are at work put on a pair of headphones.

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Deerhunter posted a video for the song “White Ink” over the weekend. The video was directed by Justin Gaar and is a gorgeous accompaniment to the instrumental number taken from the group’s second album, Cryptograms.

Deerhunter – White Ink from justin gaar on Vimeo.

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This week NylonMag.com posted a short “Mixtape” piece on Deerhunter. the post is all about a mixtape that Deerhunter drummer Moses Archuleta “made for his girlfriend, but gave to [Nylon] instead.”

Moses says…

“So, I tried really hard to come up with a mixtape, but to no avail. I’m usually pretty good at it, if I may say so myself. I had all these lofty ideas for different themed playlists (winter weather, van music, industrial, percussion favorites). I love doing it and it’s usually so easy. Maybe it was the impending mega-tour or overwhelming indecisiveness or who knows what, but I froze up and was unable to produce anything.

But I’m in DC right now on Election Day and it’s raining today and that was actually the jumping point for the last mixtape I put together. So, I leave you with a mixtape I made for my girlfriend a few weeks ago. (Ewwwww gross/Awwwww cute, etc.)”

Vague Fall 2008 theme. 60 minute cassette format. Enjoy.

Side A)
Scott Walker – “It’s Raining Today”
Dislocation Dance – “Tyrannies Of Fun”
Quickspace – “The Flat Moon Society”
Unwound – “Demons Sing Love Songs”
Crystal Stilts – “Crystal Stilts”
My Bloody Valentine – “Thorn”
The Feelies – “Let’s Go”
Billy Bragg & Wilco – “California Stars”

Side B)
Eluvium – “Area 41″
Scott Walker – “Old Man’s Back Again (Dedicated To The Neo-Stalinist Regime)”
Faust – “Jennifer”
Elvis Presley – “Blue Moon”
T. Rex – “Mystic Lady”
Electric Light Orchestra – “Livin’ Thing”
Love – “Maybe The People Would Be The Times Or Between Clark And Hilldale”
Moondog – “Maybe”
Tom Waits – “Innocent When You Dream (78)”

(Photo by Erik Ian)

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Longtime Atlanta music scene fixture Adam Bruneau has created videos for two songs from Deerhunter’s third full-length, Microcastle.

Bruneau has served in the local music community performing as an auxiliary member of dozens of local groups, including a short stint with Deerhunter, the Kiwis and Phonepunk; although it’s been a few years since Phonepunk made any appearances… Sadly.

The videos, for “Microcastle” and “Cover Me (slowly)” are posted on Adam’s blog, Rabbits Full of Magic.

Deerhunter – Cover Me Slowly from Adam Bruneau on Vimeo.

These are videos for songs from Deerhunter’s new album Microcastle, which has just come out on Kranky and 4AD records, and which is flawless and wonderful. I had talked to Bradford about doing some video and I knew this was a fall/winter record, so upon finding myself going up Borestone mountain in Maine in the middle of October at peak season for color-changing leaves, I captured the footage that ended up in these videos. Cover Me (Slowly) kept making me think of the beginning of Twin Peaks so when I found a waterfall at the foothills of the mountain I knew it was meant to be. I changed the tint to match some of the cover art, a pink picture of someone with a skull in their eye. I played with how the video synced to the audio a number of different ways before trying random alignments and finding parts in the original unedited footage that would line up with cues in the music. I find this to be a much more natural way of scoring video to audio and usually you end up with something nice you wouldn’t have thought of consciously. I really like Agoraphobia but didn’t want to make a video to that unless the band members were included in it.

Deerhunter – Microcastle from Adam Bruneau on Vimeo.

I was in the back seat of my aunt’s car going up Borestone mountain and riding to the spot where you get out before you hike up it, and playing with the video camera as it was zoomed in really far into the trees, which gave me the idea for the Microcastle video. The speed and variety of colors flying by reminded me of the rush you get at the end of this song, which is a soaring coda after a very peaceful and reserved verse section. For the beginning I wanted some kind of fall still life that shimmered with the sound of the song. The shimmering effect was pulled off by syncing the audio amplitude directly to the opacity of the image, and I ended up using footage from the top of the mountain. Climbing Mount Borestone was like a standard hike until the last couple hundred feet, which was pretty much a vertical climb up the face of the mountain and felt like an epic task. So once we got to the very top, and you could see all over Maine, everything got very still and quiet, and I found a little pool of water with a few plants growing around it. When I went through my footage to pick out what to use for Microcastle, it felt perfect; on top of that mountain on a bright fall day, it was a timeless, concrete, physical manifestation of the song.

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