Crib Notes

And they even got her to take off her classic “uniform.”

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If the showcase at 595 North was intimate, Common’s concert at the Tabernacle on Wednesday, Oct. 8, with openers Janelle Monae and N.E.R.D., was just the opposite: loud, rowdy and packed to the rafters.

The crowd smashed in thick, angling for spots close to the stage. The look was comfortable fashion, not trying too hard but far from straight b-boy/b-girl apparel. Hardly a hoodie to be seen. In fact, birthday boy Chris Ogbuefi celebrated 25 decked in a black button down, alongside a nearby crew comparing Opi and Essie nail polish.

Janelle Monae

The interlude after Monae’s set and before N.E.R.D. seemed to go on forever, but classics from the Sugarhill Gang, Chubb Rock and Mary J. Blige kept folks content. Speaking of Monae, one guy in the crowd who’d never seen her perform had nothing but “awesome” and “hot” to say, referencing her stage diving and incredible guitarist.

N.E.R.D. blasted onto the stage, sending the crowd mad. The vibe was more rock show than hip-hop, complete with crowd surfing, and a few elbows. The makings of a pit seemed underway. The crowd sang along to just about all the songs, though I was disappointed they didn’t do more of their downtempo stuff, especially “Frontin’.” Toward the end of N.E.R.D.’s set, a few girls made their way on stage. By the end of N.E.R.D.’s performance, the stage looked like a video set, with fake money falling from the ceiling, and at least 15 ladies dancing like they hadn’t a care in the world. Nothing nasty, just good fun.

N.E.R.D.

It didn’t take nearly as long for Common to come out, which he did among a bar-like set up — selecting an “Angel” from the crowd a couple songs into his set, to sit and chill with him. By then he was sweatin’ but had all the necessary breath control, bouncing from one side of the stage to the next. Hardly the laid-back performance you might expect, Common’s energy didn’t wane from “The People” to “You Got Me” to some new tracks that were all uptempo and induced plenty of hand-clapping and dancing. Like the 595 show, he busted some freestyles with political and social references, and even some T.I. Indeed, we are all connected, from Chicago to Atlanta.

(Photos by Tara-Lynne Pixley)

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It’s easy to forget the good folks at Paste magazine are based in Atlanta since they’re so good (too good, perhaps) at avoiding hometown favoritism.

But in Paste’s September ’08 cover issue, Best of What’s Next: 26 Emerging Artists You Must Know, two local yokels actually made the cut: Janelle Monae and Andy Hull.

Both are artists we’ve talked up (and sometimes down) in the pages of CL. Hull is best known as the lead for Atlanta indie rock act Manchester Orchestra. But his solo set, Right Away, Great Captain is a stripped-down concept album about a sailor from the 1600s, with each song representing journal entries to his captain and family.

Monae, whose Metropolis: The Chase suite was re-released last week, was the topic of CL’s music feature last week, along with her Wondaland Arts Society label. Metropolis is another conceptual release that tells the story of an android from the future who must be destroyed when she falls in love with a human.

But Atlanta has no monopoly on fresh talent. Check the full list for such artists as Wale (Washington D.C.), the Everybodyfields (Tennessee), Black Kids (Jacksonville, Fla.), Mugison (Iceland) and more.

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Cee-Lo and DangerMouse certainly proved to be The Odd Couple last night on Gnarls Barkley’s return home to Atlanta for a performance at the Variety Playhouse.

For most of the show, Cee-Lo resembled a fired-up storefront preacher mixed with a little bit of a Hell’s Angel as he quickly peeled out of his shiny turquoise tuxedo jacket and black shirt to reveal a black wife-beater, tattooed arms and chest, and a thick gold chain with a cross that dangled down to his pot belly — to which I overheard Jodine of Jodine’s Corner respond, “Big Sexy’s in the building!”

Though he didn’t dance (”This floor is slippery — I was going to show y’all some of my moves.”), he’d half do a little herky jerky thing with his arms every once in awhile then throw them up in the air in a way that reminded me of the little church lady who used to catch the Holy Ghost on the front pew every Sunday.

Meanwhile, Danger Mouse looked like some crazed but concentrated concert pianist as he hunched his back over the keyboard and played ever so slightly. The only thing missing was a candelabra and a black cat.

For the encore, Cee-Lo returned to the stage wearing black shades and smoking a cigarette. Paired with his bald head and gold chain, it immediately conjured up the image of Isaac Hayes, circa his Hot Buttered Soul era. And when DangerMouse sat down at the synthesizer, he began to play two notes in a fashion that almost mimicked Hayes’ classic eight-minute monologue on his remake of “By the Time I Get to Phoenix.”

Instead, Gnarls Barkley launched into “Who’s Gonna Save My Soul” — a song Cee-Lo told CL in last week’s feature that he originally wrote to mourn James Brown’s death. The lyrics were a perfect ode to the recently deceased Isaac Hayes last night.

(more…)

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BAD BOY’S BEHIND THIS: Natural-born hype-man P. Diddy compares Janelle Monae to James Brown and Elvis during their interview with Sway on MTV. Click here to see the full footage. (Photo courtesy MTV News)

If you’ve been following local phenom Janelle Monae’s career as close as we have, you know she’s been hella busy. Besides starring in the Atlanta Ballet collaboration with Big Boi titled big — which you can read about in this week’s CL cover story — she just got back from a trip to New York last week where she performed for an industry crowd.

MTV was on-hand and Sway even sat down to interview her and P. Diddy, who has been courting Monae and her Wondaland Arts Society partners since late last year. After keeping their working relationship under wraps for months, natural born hype-man Diddy compared his new artist Monae to James Brown, Elvis, Judy Garland and Anita Baker in the same breath.

The announcement of her signing confirms the story we broke last November. In the joint venture between Wondaland and Bad Boy/Atlantic, Big Boi of OutKast will “continue to serve as a collaborator and co-executive producer,” Monae announced in a blog posted on her MySpace page yesterday.

For fans who fear what might become of Monae at a pop label like Bad Boy, she added:

I feel this movement is beyond independent or mainstream. Soul or rock. Black or white. Pompadour or perm. Saddle shoes or high heels. It’s about altering history through a great new era of music and art.

According to Mitchell Martin II of Wondaland, Diddy is so excited to be involved with an artist of Monae’s caliber — and a team with WAS’s marketing expertise — that he plans to stay out of their way as they do their thing.

So that means no “Bad Boy this, Bad Boy that” chants all over Monae’s vocals, right Diddy?

The next suite from Metropolis is scheduled to drop in June, with a full-length album containing both new and previously released material to drop in September, according to Martin.

Martin also gave some insight into a lot of conversation Wondaland has been fostering within the local music scene. Stay tuned for more on that in the upcoming CL Music Issue, which drops April 23.

Check out the MTV interview with Diddy and Monae, along with clips from her recent New York performance.

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(photo by Brian Crumb)

Georgia State University’s acclaimed college station Album 88 (WRAS-FM 88.5) caps another year of programming with the musical showcase WRASFEST. Previous editions have featured buzz bands such as the Selmanaires and Deerhunter. The 2007 installment ventures outside of Album 88’s traditional indie-rock pastures for a more eclectic lineup featuring avant-garde soul starlet Janelle Monae, funky-breaks ensemble Cadillac Jones (pictured), experimental punk trio Chopper, rap group Clan Destined and organic-electronic crew Random Rabbit, among others, Fri., DEC. 14. $8. 7 p.m. Eyedrum, 290 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, Suite 8. 404-522-0655. www.eyedrum.org.

For more See & Do, click here.

For the Sound Menu, click here.

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HERE’S LOOKIN’ AT YOU, KID: Janelle Monae does her best impression of Larry from the Three Stooges, Dec. 1 at Lenny’s.

(all photos by Alan Friedman)

I’d love to see Janelle Monae on a real stage.

Sure, the stages at Sugarhill, Lenny’s, Apache and even the Tabernacle — all of which she’s ripped in ‘07 — are cool. But I really think she needs something closer to off-Broadway to realize her vision.

Don’t get me wrong, I dig the cybergirl punk-soul role she’s portraying. Her recent show at Lenny’s was definitely out there (read the Nightcrawler write-up, here.) But imagine a full-blown musical-theater production of Metropolis, with Monae cast in the lead role of Cindi Mayweather, and a strong supporting cast backing her.

With Big Boi’s upcoming Atlanta Ballet production, big, premiering in ‘08, the Alliance Theatre would be smart to consider such a stage interpretation of Monae’s work. Her concept album already plays like a storybook.

All she needs now is a good headshot. Maybe one of the pics below will do the trick. (more…)

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When Janelle Monae first revealed that Purple Ribbon would collaborate with the Atlanta Ballet, it seemed to make sense. After all, her upcoming Metropolis (and hey, I know y’all are sick of CL gabbing about it) is a highly operatic piece.

But now it looks like the whole camp, namely Big Boi, will take part in the production. In fact, it’s called Big with Antwan “Big Boi” Patterson and choreography by Laurie Stallings. You can read the press release here.

I’m nervous as to what it will look like. Will it be Big Boi, Monae, Scar, C-Bone and others standing around on stage as ballet performers flutter around them? Or will it be a relatively straightforward piece set to music from Purple Ribbon? I hope it’s the latter. I think Big Boi is dope, but the sight of him rapping alongside ballet dancers could be kinda goofy-looking.

At any rate, Big will only last six performances from April 12-18, 2008, so you should probably purchase tickets now.

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