Crib Notes

Last week I caught up with drummer David Prowse whom, along with guitarist David King, make up the Vancouver noise punk duo Japandroids, to discuss everything from their debut full-length Post-Nothing, to life as Canadians on the American road.

Chad Radford:  Your album is called Post-Nothing, which sounds like a loaded title.
David Prowse:  It’s like a dig at how calling something “post-this” or “post-that” has reached a level of ridiculousness. A long time ago Brian started referring to us as post-nothing, and it went up on our Myspace page and kind of stuck. It’s totally a tongue-in-cheek kind joke, so we decided to go with it for the name of the album.

Do you get a lot of post references when people write about you?
We get a million different kinds of weird references. Everybody tries to come up with an original way of labeling the band — one label that our friends like the most is “electromash.” I don’t know what that means or how it describes our band at all… We get all kinds of weird labels like that. No-Fi… Shit Gaze.

Shit Gaze is one of my favorites. It doesn’t sound like a compliment at all though, huh?
No, it certainly doesn’t.

Japandroids “Young Hearts Spark Fire” mp3

Japandroids, Real Estate and Surfer Blood play 529 tonight (Sat., Oct. 17). $8-$10. 9 p.m. 529 Flat Shoals Ave. 404-228-6769.

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Tonight, Fringe Factory Records celebrates their inaugural release at the Star Bar as they host the release party for the “In My Mind” b/w “Going Nowhere” 7-inch single from the Electric Cycles.

Like-minded locals, Atlanta’s Tiger Tiger! and Athens band the Humms open the show, and when all is said and done resident FF DJs Vikki V and Suzy Q will spin a sprawling set of ’60s rock, soul and psychedelic rock records until closing time.

“We had talked about starting a label for a while,” says Vikki. “We have lots of bands playing at our Fringe Factory events and we thought it would be cool to record some of them, put out singles, or maybe even do some reissues of some older stuff — ’60s, garage rock and psychedelic stuff. Matt from the Electric Cycles was kind of the catalyst who got it all rolling. They wanted to be affiliated with a label so we decided to do this first record together.”

“In My Mind” mp3

The Show is free and the music will kick off around 9 p.m. Star Bar, 437 Moreland Ave. 404-681-9018.

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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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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)

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Just as the masses are spilling out of the Masquerade after the Scion rock fest. another installment of Fringe Factory will be firing up at the Highland inn just up the street.

This months Fringe Factory will feature standard fair of fuzzed out vintage international psych., rock, garage, freakbeat, prog, soul, exotica, surf, R-n-B, soul and rock-n-roll from the ’60s beig spun  Djs Vikki V and Suzy Q, along with guest DJ Ty Jesso from Providence RI.

There will also be a live perfromance by the Jaguars, a newish trio that features members of the Soulphonics.

$7. 9 p.m. – 2:30 a.m. The Highland Inn Ballroom Lounge. 644 North Highland Ave. 404-874-5756.

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… and if you’re still lurking around after Ricky Powell’s DJ set at Criminal Records, the Black Lips are sitting up for a 5 o’clock in-store to celebrate the release of 200 Million Thousand.

When they’re done, Austin, Texas high-concept rockers …Trail of Dead will play an in-store at 7 p.m. Both shows are free.

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Frontman and co-founder of the legendary American horror punk band the Cramps, Lux Interior died on Wed., Feb 4th, at the Glendale Memorial Hospital in Glendale, California. Born Erick Lee Purkhiser, Lux Interior was 62 years old at the time of his death. According to a press release issued by his wife and Cramps guitarist Kristy “Poison Ivy Rorschach” Wallace, a pre-existing heart condition is attributed as the cause of death.

Lux Interior and Poison Ivy were married for over 37 years and moved the group from Los Angeles to Akron Ohio to New York City where they gained notoriety amidst the backdrop of the seminal CBGB’s punk scene of New York in the 1970s and ’80s.

The Cramps made their debut with their 1979 EP, Gravest Hits. Later albums, such as 1981’s Psychedelic Jungle, and their mid-career retrospective, Bad Music For Bad People are iconic albums in the punk rock lexicon. The group’s merger of horror and sci-fi imagery laced with punk, rockabilly and garge rock sounds is often imitated, but has never been rivaled.

The press release sent out by Poison Ivy goes on to say that “Lux was a fearless frontman who transformed every stage he stepped on into a place of passion, abandon, and true freedom. He is a rare icon who will be missed dearly.”

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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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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)

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For today’s installment of Roll Call we call out Bobby Ubangi.

Who are you?
Bobby Ubangi of the Gaye Blades and the Soft Spots

Describe yourself in three words.
Knowing, growing and showing

Who — dead or alive — would you most like to meet?
B. Kliban.

Who would you most like to slap in the face?
Sarah Palin

What song do you wish you had written?
“Little Red Book” by Love

Elvis Costello or Elvis Presley?
Fucking… the Pres.

LP, CD or MP3?
Laser disc.

If you could start one trend, what would it be?
Utilikilts

If you could end one trend, what would it be?
UtiliKilts

With whom would you most like to play a game of spin the bottle?
9 to 5-era Dolly Parton with Jane Fonda watching.

Bobby Ubangi M.C.’s the Atlanta Mess-Around Festival at The Earl this weekend (Fri., Nov. 14th-Sat., Nov. 15th). Two day passes are available for $20. Tickets are $12 at the door.

(Photo by King Khan)

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Over the last decade the ghostly garage punk band the Spooks have haunted Atlanta’s clubs, terrorizing audiences with spectral sounds, and often times dousing onlookers with gallons of blood and severed animal limbs.

The phantasmal five-piece materializes mostly around Halloween to rattle their chains and unleash an unholy cacophony of haunted house rock and roll, usually dressed in tattered white sheets. No one knows who they are or why their unquiet and spirits still linger on earth. Their connection to Atlanta bands the Black Lips, the Kiwis and Baby Dinosaurs vs. Extinction are not clear — aside from the Die Slaughterhaus Records logo that marks their debut LP, Death From beyond the Grave.

The album’s 3-D cover art seals a Pandora’s box of echo-heavy rock, disembodied moans and sinister cackles and Theremin squiggles that emanate from somewhere beyond the realm of the living. … and the songs, “Ceremonial Death March,” “California Boys” and “Now I’m Gonna Steal Your Soul” spell out the ghoulish M.O. that drives their beach blanket blood bath sound with horrific clarity.

To put it plainly, the Spooks are a band of evil spirits who roam the earth and posses the bodies of local musicians to play their songs. Rumors abound that they will materialize at the Star Bar on Halloween night to celebrate the release of Death From Beyond the Grave.

Despite warnings from all who have encountered these ghastly ghouls I sought them out. A few failed attempts to summon them on a Ouija board went by, but they made their presence known in a séance that gripped me with fear in the former New Street Gallery in Avondale. After a few ill-advised taunts the planchette darted violently from letter to letter, spelling the answers to my questions. Soon enough their earth-bound hosts materialized before me in a haze of dense smoke and reverb.

I am duty bound not to reveal the names of the bodies of the living whom they inhabit, out of fear of exorcism. But after some coaxing they agreed to an interview…

Can you tell me your names?

Spook1-2: No!
Spook3: Where we’re from there is no need for names.
Spook4: Bodies are temporal things anyway, they just come and go. A spirit is an eternal form.
Spook5: We didn’t write these songs anyway. We channeled them. Beethoven was decomposing and we stole his sheet music.

How did you die?

Spook1: In various attrocious ways.

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