Crib Notes

Jon Spencer of Pussy Galore, Boss Hog and Blues Explosion fame rolls through town fronting a new duo, dubbed Heavy Trash, to play the Earl this Thurs., Nov. 19 at 9 p.m. Tickets are $10 (adv). $12 (door).

… and if that’s past your bedtime, you can catch an early free show at Criminal Records the same day at 6:30 p.m.

Jon Spencer and Matt Verta-Ray are… Heavy Trash! On stage and in the studio, Jon Spencer has destroyed and rebuilt American roots music with such ferocity and wild abandon it is hard to believe that there is anything left. The trail of musical destruction in the wake of his groovy hate-fuck combo Pussy Galore still smolders with the stench of avant punk trash and nasty garage ooze and grind, while his towering work with the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion remains an indelible totem to his enormous mojo spirit and red-hot power of deliverance. He is Daddy Boss Hog! He is the Blues Exploder and Microphone Destroyer! A Gibson Brother! The man who shared a Chicken Dog with Rufus Thomas, got Soul with R.L. Burnside, and enjoyed a greasy Lap Dance with Andre Williams! He is The Man Who Loved too Much!!! Now, with his pal Matt Verta-Ray, he has become Heavy Trash, and is inviting you to a Midnight Soul Serenade.

“Gee, I Really Love You” mp3

(Photo courtesy Press Here Publicity)

Video for Heavy Trash’s “(Sometime You Gotta Be) Gentle” below.

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Who are you?

“Josh” “Tillman”

Describe yourself in three words.

No, thank you.

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

The person with my sandwich.

Who would you most like to slap in the face?

Whoever invented that stupid “Spin-The-Bottle” game.

What song do you wish you had written?

America’s National Anthem

Crosby, Stills and Nash or Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young?

Ugh.

LP, CD or MP3?

Kindle.

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

Thoughtful questions.

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

Slap-bracelets.

With whom would you most like to play a game of spin the bottle?

Don’t you need several people to play that game?

J. Tillman -Though I Have Wronged You

J. Tillman plays the Earl with Pearly Gates and the Meeks Family Sat., Nov. 21. $12. 9 p.m.

(Photo by David Belisle)

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Of all the superstar DJs that come and go like transient memories of summer breezes, David Guetta has the closest connection to Atlanta. One of his main production partners and collaborators is Atlanta-based singer Chris Willis, who’s laced vocals over some of the bigger tracks this Parisian DJ has put forth (think “Every time we touch,” or ” Just a little more Love”).

Willis returns for Guetta’s fourth studio record, One Love, but his name gets lost among a laundry list of a-list collaborators like Akon, Kelly Rowland, Estelle, Kid Kudi, and Will.i.am. Despite the pop credentials, Guetta’s focus remains on the DJ booth, telling DJ Times Magazine:

Being a DJ is my life! This whole thing right now around me, I see stadium shows, I do concert halls, and my management and my record company people are like, “David, you need to go live and to come with that huge live show!” But I really don’t like that. What makes me happy is to DJ in clubs.

Lest you forget, Guetta is known for putting together quite a party (the name “Fuck me, I’m famous” ought to ring a bell), and having produced big name tracks (Black Eyed Peas’ “I got a feeling”) and remixes (Bob Sinclair’s “World, hold on”), dude’s got an extensive track list to choose from.

Sexy Bitch (Feat. Akon)

David Guetta $40-$75. 9 p.m. Opera. 404-874-0428. www.operaatlanta.com.

(Photo courtesy EMI)

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Bob Weston Self-portrait

Mastering Engineer at Chicago Mastering Service Bob Weston (Shellac, Mission of Burma) discusses what made the reissues of the Jesus Lizard’s Touch & Go records, Pure, Head, Goat and Liar sound better and louder.

Chad Radford: Did you have any reservations about whether or not the Jesus Lizard’s records should be touched-up?

Bob Weston:  Well, “no” is the simple answer. But the question is wrong. We didn’t “touch them up.” That implies that we took the mastered versions from the original mastering jobs and made some changes to those. Instead, we did an entirely new mastering job from scratch… Like the records had just been recorded and mixed the week before we started.

There have been major improvements in analog to digital conversion quality, and in digital audio level metering in the years since these records were first mastered. Simply playing the stereo master tapes back through modern mastering-grade analog to digital converters will immediately make the CDs sound a lot better. And then the ability to properly meter the digital audio as it is being converted allows us to take advantage of all the headroom allowed in the digital audio domain. Whereas in the past, engineers needed to be more conservative with digital audio levels in order to prevent any digital “overs” (which would cause the Master CD to be rejected by the pressing plant).

Even if we had done nothing different from the original mastering sessions in terms of processing the sound with equalization and compression, these new masters would immediately sound better and louder.

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Metalocalypse creator Brendon Small

The almighty MASTODON returns to its old stomping grounds to cap off a lineup of extreme metal mayhem. Converge and High on Fire also play blistering sets of soul-crushing riffs. But these are all paltry mortals who have been summoned to simply clear the stage for DETHKLOK, stars of Adult Swim’s “Metalocalypse.” Animated metal madmen William Murderface (bass), Nathan Explosion (frontman), Skwisgaar Skwigelf (lead guitar), Toki Wartooth (rhythm guitar), and Pickles (drums) will appear live, in the flesh — led by creator Brendon Small — to shred through such classic originals as “Bloodrocuted,” “Murmaider,” and “Hatredcopter,” as well as some new cuts from their latest, Dethalbum II. $34.50. 6:30 p.m. Tabernacle, 152 Luckie St. 404-659-9022. www.livenation.com.

For the purposes of this interview Brendon Small did most of the talking, but I was allowed one question with each member of the band.

Chad Radford: What goes in to putting on a live Dethklok show?

Brendon Small: We have a gigantic LCD screen behind us and we play to an hour-long animated show, and that’s the real star of the live show. Me and the musicians are kind of like the pit orchestra. The drummer has a click track running through his headset and he counts us in to all the tracks. The end result is that we’re supposed to sound like Dethklok, but we’re not supposed to look like Dethklok. We’re pretty much in the shadows so you can’t really see our faces, but there’s a really cool light show going on at the same time and we’re playing to picture. It’s almost like live scoring but every single downbeat is coinciding with a cut. It’s very systematic and very integrated.

You’re playing with real metal bands; Mastodon, Converge and High on Fire. I imagine that most metal heads have a good sense of humor, but have you encountered anyone who just doesn’t think that the show is cool or funny?

They usually don’t get as far as me — they usually don’t show up. If metal heads don’t get it, that’s cool and I’m fine with it. But honestly there’s nothing much to get, because we’re not making fun of metal with the show, that’s the big thing. If they don’t get that then I’m just confused. If they just don’t like the show that’s something that I can understand. If they don’t understand the joke than they probably don’t have much of a sense of humor at all — not that I’m saying our show is funny. We’re trying to be funny, and if it isn’t, I get why people don’t like it.

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Please note that the Wilke Family will be performing tonight at Eddie’s Attic.

Maverick string band the Wilkie Family singers (lead by King Wilkie) are playing at Eddie’s Attic tonight (Wed., Nov. 4).

According to the Wilkie Family’s Boston-based label, Casa Nueva:

The disk is a beguiling concept album, purportedly written and recorded by the dysfunctional Wilkie family as part of a music therapy program spearheaded by the mysterious Dr. Art… musically, it mixes early American stringband styles (from parlour ballads to old-time and bluegrass) with more contemporary influences — chamber-pop, brass-band music, and much more. Special guests on the disk include Robyn Hitchcock, Peter Rowan, David Bromberg, John McEuen, Abigail Washburn and Sam Parton (of Be Good Tanyas)… Their music has slowly evolved from hardcore traditional bluegrass to something quite undefinable.

“Videotape” (feat. Robyn Hitchcock) mp3

For more information contact Eddies Attic. 515 N. McDonough St. in Decatur. 404-377-4976

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Athens’ psychedelic indie rock outfit Twin Tigers have made their latest release, titled the Automatic EP, available as a free download.

In the meantime the band recently completed work on its debut full-length, Gray Waves, which is due out on the Brooklyn-based Old Flame Records in 2010.

Grey Waves‘ first single, “Automatic”

Click below to see their remaining November tour dates.

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Atlanta gospel preacher Rev. Johnny L. “Hurricane” Jones, has assembled a band of young musicians from the Atlanta rock community including Bradley Bailey (drums), Cameron Stuart (guitar) and Dan Beauregard (stand-up bass) to play a free show at Park Grounds in Reynoldstown on Thurs., Nov. 5 at 8 p.m. Those Kids (DJs Jacob Blaisdell and Josh Feigert) will be spinning rare gospel records before and after the show.

Jones has been the minister at The Second Mt. Olive Baptist Church for 53 years and hosts a radio show on WYZE-AM (1480) on the first and third Saturdays each month.

Jones has been recording his sermons every week since 1960, and on Dec. 8  Dust-to-Digital will release the first of two projected LPs of Jones’ sermons, called Jesus Christ from A to Z.

Rev. Johnny L. “Hurricane” Jones “One More Time” mp3

Park Grounds is located at 142 Flat Shoals Ave. 678-528-9901.

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Much like ’07’s North Star Deserter, Vic Chesnutt’s At the Cut finds Athens’ grim folkie still soaring beyond the devices of a traditional singer/songwriter. Many of the players who made North Star Deserter so bold and beautiful, including members of Godspeed You! Black Emperor and former Fugazi vocalist/guitarist Guy Picciotto, have returned. But whereas North Star crystallized Chesnutt’s stark visions into swirls of strings, rhythms and dissonance, here the expansive sound feels natural. “Coward” opens with epic drama, and Picciotto’s guitar adds terse immediacy to “Phillip Guston,” while “Granny” wilts with somber remembrance. Riding these peaks and valleys is emotionally exhausting, but if you’re a fan you already know the kind of pain you’re in for. At the Cut doesn’t hold North Star’s surprises, but it’s a stunning companion album. (Constellation Records) 4 stars out of 5

“Flirted With You All My Life”

“Philip Guston”

“Chain”

(Photo Courtesy Constellation Records)

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Allen Taylor (sampler, synth, percussion), Drew Haddon (effects), Chris Daresta (bass, vocals) and David Mansfield (drums, vocals) are the four fresh faces that make up the dance punk outfit, Roman Photos. Last month they began passing around a limited number of hand-made live demo CDs as their introduction to the world. The recordings contained within capture two of their earliest live performances at 529, and document the jump-off point for their spacey, bass and drum-heavy grooves.

Chad Radford:  Tell me about the live demo that you just gave me.
David Mansfield:  The demo compiles excerpts from a couple of shows that we did at 529. It was Drew’s idea to put it together.

These were some of your first shows, correct?
DM:  Yeah. Originally we were all part of a similar band that sounded different back in May, but the lineup didn’t work out and we reformed as Roman Photos. We went for more of a dance sound, and added Allen to the line-up to do miscellaneous things with the songs. I dropped the guitar and started playing drums and it became something different altogether.

Drew Haddon: We didn’t have a name until the week before our first show. Before this we really sounded more like the Rapture or Gang of Four because of the guitar, but Mansfiled is a really solid disco kind of drummer and when he dropped the guitar things started sounding really dancey, really fast.

Roman Photos play 529 tonight (Thurs., Oct. 22) with Thy Mighty Contract and Club Awesome. $3. 9 p.m.

The plays a free show at Vacation Gallery & Boutique on Fri., Oct. 30. 9 p.m.

“Ribcage” mp3

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Tealights’ six-song debut is a sweeping marriage of laptop textures and bold strings sculpting dramatic moods that are very pretty but brittle. Take Us By Sea is the backbone of a musical vernacular driven by dark romanticism set adrift in modern classical and experimental arrangements. Like Claude Debussy on a date with Björk, surrealism and impressionism mingle in the dramatic male/female wailing in “Wait.” The lingering string melodies heard over front lady Nancy Shim’s cool voice provide the weeping heart of the CD. The grand finale “No Sound to Hear” layers a procession of live and electronic instruments alongside a reluctant new age croon in a short, delicate burst of chaos. With so much swelling emotion, these songs err on being too precious for rock ‘n’ roll ears. But the accomplished musicianship and elegant bent of Take Us By Sea will melt the hardest of hearts. (self-released) 4 stars out of 5

“Clouds” mp3

(Photo Courtesy Tealights)

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Earlier this week Andy Hopkins of long-defunct acoustic/indie rock/experimental duo FLAP, who is reuniting to play this Friday night (Oct. 23) at 529, checked-in to give us a run down on the band’s history.

-This will be the first FLAP show in over 11 years, so it’s fair to call it a reunion. The band pretty much went dormant when I moved to Chicago in the Fall of 1998.

-FLAP was active between 1989 and 1998, so it would also be fair to call our show the “20th anniversary show.”

-In the early period, between 1989 and 1993, FLAP was primarily just me and Matt Miller, performing as an acoustic duo. We released two cassette albums in this format, Honkey Donkey, and Guitarded.

-In the period between 1993 and 1998 we primarily played as a rock trio, with our drummer Jason Gillis. We released three CDs during this period: PAL, Buldugs Or The Kid Is Hot Tonite, and Flap Am In The House.

-During all periods of FLAP we reserved the right to break away into all kinds of experimental formats, including cheap electronics, and full rock bands with guest singers.

-The reunion show at 529 will focus mostly on the early two-guitar instrumental period of intense jazz-math-grass compositions.

-”Walkin’ The Bug” is from our very first release Honkey Donkey in 1990. Honkey Donkey was recorded quite well by David ‘Zod’ Watkins, and was only (to date) ever released on cassette, the preferred format of the era.

“Walkin’ the Bug” mp3

(Photo courtesy FLAP)

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For those of you that have been to a Los Amigos Invisibles concert, you will know that there is little room to chitchat. “It was sort of a running joke,” Jose Luis Pardo, the band’s lead guitarist tells me over the phone. “We play continuously, so that people wouldn’t talk in between songs. Now it became a trademark of the band.”

And as such, the six guys that make up this Venezuelan-born, New York-based Latin/dance band have mastered the ability to keep the crowd moving by varying the pace according to the energy and feedback in the room.

They can start by playing a set of up-tempo dance tracks, then transitioning to a more paced interlude of salsa songs, and end with a half-dozen of the signature funk numbers the band has come to be known for. Or they can do it the other way around.

The band’s style on stage certainly draws from the way their studio albums are produced and edited, and without necessarily characterizing either as the inspiration of the other this trademark aesthetic is something the band cherishes. “We like the fact that our records sound like a DJ set,” says Pardo.  “Ever record tells a story from beginning to end.” (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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When not singing and playing guitar for critical darlings TV on the Radio, Kyp Malone is a perennial songwriter whose work – as a solo artist and with the band Iran – has remained a sleeper. Malone’s latest, self-titled offering under the name RAIN MACHINE finds him spilling a mixed bag of jazz, bluegrass, funk and sometimes subdued, sometimes blistering guitar excursions. Naturally, this swan dive into free-form musical strumming lands on the personal, self-indulgent, humdrum side, but if you’re patient, his eclectic palette and sobering voice and rhythms are rich with anti-pop depth. Neo-folk songstress Sharon Van Etten opens the show.

“Smiling Black Faces” mp3

$15-$17. Tues., Oct. 13. 8:30 p.m. The Earl, 488 Flat Shoals Ave. 404-522-3950.

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It’s obvious that a collaboration featuring Black Lips, King Khan and BBQ would yield muddy forays into ’60s garage rock rhythms and gospel soul. When Black Lips were chased out of India for indecency, they holed up in Khan’s Berlin-based Moon Studios, and these 11 songs document the decadence of their eight days together. The field hollers of “All My Loving” and haunted moans of “Ghost with the Most” flow with urgency and echo. “30 Second Air Blast” is catchy but a little too juvenile, and BBQ’s Bill Haley wail in “Cone of Light” is the album’s shining star. “Bow Down and Die” rattles with beautifully busted fidelity, and “I’m Comin’ Home” resurrects the Mighty Hannibal’s war-torn Vietnam anthem, drenched in reverb. The album feels hastily assembled, like an excuse to jam, but isn’t the ongoing love affair with Black Lips built upon the band’s sense of spontaneity and abandon? Churning out fiery songs by the seat of their pants is what these guys do best. (Vice) 4 stars out of 5

“Cone of Light”

“Bow Down and Die”

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THIEVERY CORPORATION: $36. 8 p.m. Sun., Oct. 11. Tabernacle, 152 Luckie St. 404-659-9022. www.livenation.com.

The current global economic climate serves as the perfect backdrop to Thievery Corporation’s evolution from a DJ/production outfit into a world-music collective with a loud voice of dissent, capped by the release of last year’s Radio Retaliation.

“Vampires,” the group’s collaboration with Afrobeat singer and band leader Femi Kuti, is a metaphorical indictment of the bête noire of international activists, the International Monetary Fund. “You live on the blood of my people/Everyone knows you’ve come to steal/You come like the thieves in the night/The whole world is ready to fight.”

The rest of the album furthers Thievery Corporation’s affinity for world musicians, continuing what has become its signature production style of incorporating non-Western instruments and composing in distinct, non-Western harmonies, laced over head-nodding, boom-bap beats.

Continue reading “Thievery Corporation emerges as a strong, independent voice of dissent”

Download “The Shining Path” – from Radio Retaliation.

(Photo courtesy Fresh Clean media)

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Mission of Burma has nothing left to prove. The group’s first two post-reformation albums, 2004’s OnOffOn and ’06’s brilliant The Obliterati, trump their already timeless ’80s output in terms of production, songwriting and girth. The Sound, The Speed, The Light finds the original Boston post-punks playing in top form, but from the onset of “1, 2, 3, Partyy!” it’s clear that Burma isn’t throwing any surprise punches. “Possession” finds the formula of mangled tapes interfering with the group’s signature pop geometry, which perfectly disrupts the song’s cognitive flow. “Slow Faucet” and the album’s centerpiece “SSL 83” are classic Burma rockers, carrying the post-punk aesthetics and discordant/angelic harmonies to the nth degree. But the album holds no tension whatsoever. MoB has reached cruising altitude and is sailing smoothly, but a little more turbulence might make the ride more exciting. (Matador) 3 stars out of 5

“1, 2, 3, Partyy!” mp3

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Yes men!

… Well if you want to get technical about it, Zoroaster has signed on with E1 Music (formerly Koch), which is one of the largest (if not the largest) indie labels in the country, and is distributed the world over. So it’s just as good as a “major.”

And it’s about damn time, too. The so-called loudest band in Atlanta has been working its tail off by touring relentlessly and self-releasing gorgeously packaged LPs on the group-run Terminal Doom Records for a good long while now.

“As much as we love and want to keep doing things ourselves we keep running into road blocks that signing on with a label might help us overcome,” says vocalist/guitarist Will Fiore. “So we figured fuck it. Let’s do it.”

In the meantime whether or not the vinyl version of their latest album, The Voice of Saturn, will materialize on Terminal Doom Records or somewhere else remains to be determined.

The trio of Fiore, Brent Anderson (bass/vocals) and Dan Scanlan (percussion) is currently on the road with Gojira. The group is slated to enter the studio in early 2010 with producer Sanford Parker (The Gates of Slumber, Pelican) to record their label debut which will most likely hit the streets in the summer of 2010.

“White Dwarf” mp3

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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Who are you?
I’m a living thing (Joe Duplantier).

Describe yourself in three words.
Poor – Rich – Free.

Who — dead or alive — would you most like to meet?
The Dalai Lama.

Who would you most like to slap in the face?
Nobody.

What song do you wish you had written?
“Norwegian Wood” (Beatles).

Elvis Costello or Elvis Presley?
Presley.

LP, CD or MP3?
CD.

If you could start one trend, what would it be?
Walk on hands.

If you could end one trend, what would it be?
Walk on feet.

With whom would you most like to play a game of spin the bottle?
With my girl.

“Vacuity” mp3

Gojira plays Philips Arena with Metallica. Sat. Oct. 4 . $53.50 — $73.50. 7 p.m.

(Photo courtesy rthenadey@yahoo.fr)

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