Crib Notes

For today’s Roll Call we call out Sam Cuadra a.k.a War, the ghastly ogre who fronts “the angriest band in America,” Apocalyptic Visions.

Who are you?
I am one of the four unspeakable names from the angriest band in America: Apocalyptic Visions.  We are known by the deaths we bring.  I am War.  My brothers are Famine, Pestilence, and Plague.

Describe yourself in three words.
Bad Mamma Jamma.

Who — dead or alive — would most you like to meet?
Bender Bending Rodriguez.  When I first heard him say “Kill All Humans”  I thought gee, this guy really gets me.

Who would you most like to slap in the face?
The Tar Baby.  Not Joel Chandler Harris’s character, there is someone in my life I call the Tar Baby.

What song do you wish you had written?
The “Theme From Hatari” by Henry Mancini.

Elvis Costello or Elvis Presley?
Oh fuck, Elvis Presley for sure.  At least the dead cannot continue to torment with their insufferable noise.

LP, CD or MP3?
You really can’t beat the authentic sound of funeral mourners in person. No recording can capture the experience of getting down to the cemetery yourself. For added fidelity I like to poke the bereaved with a stick.

If you could start one trend, what would it be?
The enslavement of mankind.

If you could end one trend, what would it be?
Reality telivision.

With whom would you most like to play a game of spin the bottle?
Tiffany Pollard, a.k.a. New York.  While she was busy staring at that bottle I’d konk her on the head.  A few weeks chained to the drain under my sink ought to soften her up enough to make a good wife.  A Wife For War.

Apocalyptic Visions plays a CD release party at the East Atlanta Icehouse tonight, Fri., Nov. 21. w/ Chopper, Burden of Vision and Son of Tonatiuh. 8:30 p.m. $6.

“Move and Appear” MP3

(Photo courtesy of Apocalyptic Visions)

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The East Atlanta Icehouse opens tonight 543 Flat Shoals Ave., or what is better known as the building that once held Echolounge. Antic Clay and the Long Holy Train headline the bill and not much else is known about the line-up tonight.

The show begins at 9 p.m. and the cover is TBD. But you can give the venue a call at 404-577-2073.

(Photo courtesy of Antic Clay)

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This coming Tuesday, the amplifiers will crank up at 551 Flat Shoals for the first time since the Echo Lounge shut its doors in January 2005.

If the permits come through in time, the space last occupied by the popular indie rock club will reopen then as East Atlanta Icehouse, so named to commemorate the building’s original use in the 1920s, which was as – wait for it… – an icehouse.

Shows have already been scheduled through the rest of the month, featuring such acts as the Subliminator, VieTNam, 50 Million Fables, the jonesplan, AMUL9, Luchagors and Lust.

But ex-Echo Lounge patrons shouldn’t expect to re-enter that club’s comfortably lived-in shabbiness. The space has experienced a total makeover, thanks to co-owners and co-brothers, Ed and Mike Murphy, who have installed new hardwood floors, repainted the lounge area light green and even gussied the place up with a granite-y bar and wood trim accents, for fuck’s sake. Suck on that, EARL!

From the online photos, we’re guessing the place doesn’t have the typical PBR vibe that folks associate with such East Atlanta joints like the Flatiron and Gravity Pub. Whether that’s good or bad will be up to customers to decide, but Icehouse GM Chip English assures us the place is real nice.

Another addition is a full-service restaurant – complete with patio – serving until 3 a.m. For now, the bar will only have beer and wine, but English says liquor will be added later on.

For bands looking for a gig, the club has kindly posted this online advice from booking manager Chet Knight:

“All music styles are welcome. However, you must be able to sell tickets. Garage bands with no following what so ever; might consider getting on with a band that does have a following. Do not become discouraged, you gotta start somewhere.”

Let the music begin.

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Empty and silent for more than three years, the former Echo Lounge has lately served as a sad reminder of the apparent downturn of an Atlanta live-music scene suffering the loss of several notable venues.

But that may soon change when it reopens as East Atlanta Icehouse, a nightclub and restaurant that promises a wide range of musical acts.

“We’re hoping desperately to be open by the end of May,” says Chip English, who, along with partner Mike Murphy, is working to secure the remaining permits needed to reopen the venue.

English, who will manage the facility, says the musical acts will be “anything from rock-and-roll to bluegrass to zydeco. We’d like to be known for variety.”

Unlike the Echo Lounge, which was forced to close when city officials realized it was operating on a restaurant license but didn’t even have a kitchen, the Icehouse will offer a full menu and even serve lunch on a patio.

According to English, the building had sat vacant so long because a daycare had opened nearby shortly after the Echo Lounge closed, which made it impossible to renew the liquor license. Once the daycare finally closed, the partners jumped on the property.

However, the Icehouse still needs a zoning exemption because, as a music venue, it’s too close to neighboring homes. But Ed Gilgor, chairman of the local neighborhood planning unit, says that’s a small hurdle.

“The community wants this facility,” he says. “But, given its proximity to homes, we have to be certain it happens in a way that works for everybody.”

Noise shouldn’t be a problem. Originally built as a storage house for ice in the 1920s, English notes, the building has eight-inch-thick walls that are virtually soundproof.

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