Crib Notes

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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Saturday night, the potent Atlanta heat penetrated whatever claimed to be air-conditioning at the Earl. Fiery Furnaces singer Elizabeth Friedberger patted her head and commented on the heat. From their early performances, their music has taken a decidedly jazz free form with Matt’s soulful B-3 blues licks. If the Georgia humidity had more of an opportunity to soak in would that have brought more jack to those funky grooves? She and her brother originally hail from the Chicago suburb of Oak Park Illinois. Trust me, those Chicago summers can get brutal. Regional influence may be more than a question of temperature.

My thesis advisor professed it was the mother tongue, the language actually passed down from the mother, that most affected our psychological makeup. Pam Howe of the Atlanta band Ph Balance was a devotee of Paul Weller and I got to know her on the Weekends dance floor while we all rocked out to Brit dance music. But I swore that her Southern drawl got thicker as she performed under the lights of the Echo Lounge.

Deerhunter brought its experimental sound to open the Saturday night show at the Earl. Jesus and Mary Chain is oft-cited as one of their influences, although there is certainly none of that Glasgow swagger that always accompanied the Reid brothers. Deerhunter closed the set with Fluorescent Grey described by Bradford Cox as a song about necrophilia. One only needs to hearken back to the scandal at the Walker County crematorium for local inspiration. The heat and close summer quarters might make us feel that the dead are not that far away.

In the post-electronic age, regional character may give way to other influences. Many Northern transplants would have never ventured south without vigorous doses of air-conditioning. And as the air-conditioning blasted the café dance floor at MJQ and the DJ played New Order, we might as well have been as far from an indigenous Atlanta culture as possible.

Both Deerhunter and The Black Lips extend that DIY sound that has become associated with Rob’s House and the Stickfigure label. There is a frustration borne of Atlanta suburban living, uniform and lifeless. The facelessness has encouraged hordes of kids to move to East Atlanta and Cabbagetown to soak up the ghosts that still haunt the city. There seems an almost staccato drone that emanates from the cicada and the mocking bird. It only reminds us of the summer swelter.

RECOMMENDED: As most Atlanta music fans give praises to that loveable hot dog dipped in corn batter, I will be heading to Chicago for the Pitchfork Festival. Chicago locals The Pony’s and Ken Vandemark are exciting additions to the lineup. The Atlanta-Athens area is well -represented with Of Montreal, Mastodon, Deerhunter, and Cat Power.

Not to be outdone, Corndogorama will be graced by a set by Mastodon on Sunday

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