Crib Notes

Atlanta lady punk quartet the Coathangers have set April 7th, 2009 as the release date for their sophomore full-length, titled Scramble (Suicide Squeeze Records). The album is being released on both CD and a limited edition yellow vinyl LP.

Scramble track list:

“Intro”
“Toomer Head”
“Stop Stomp Stompin’”
“Time Passing”
“Bury Me”
“Dream Boat”
“Pussy Willow”
“Gettin’ Mad & Pumpin’ Iron”
“Killdozer”
“143″
“Arthriitus Sux”
“Sonic You”
“Bobby Knows Best”
“Cheap Cheap”
“Outro”

(Photo by Bob Levett).

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For today’s Roll Call we call out Dan Scanlan of Zoroaster.

Who are you?
Dan Scanlan, drummer, noise maker for Zoroaster.

Describe yourself in three words.
Pretty Fucking Awesome.

Who — dead or alive — would most you like to meet?
Dick Wolf, Creator/ Executive Producer of Law and Order. I’d like to thank him for giving me a reason to spend every second of my spare time on the couch!!

Who would you most like to slap in the face?
Michael Vick.

What song do you wish you had written?
Happy Together by The Turtles….quite possibly the best song ever!

Elvis Costello or Elvis Presley?
Presley!!

LP, CD or MP3?
LP, but really I like 8-tracks, I’m waiting for their resurrection someday.

If you could start one trend, what would it be?
Canceling American Idol… Does that count? Well it should!!

If you could end one trend, what would it be?
Nickleback, My Chemical Romance, what’s that other really shitty band…? Yeah, that one too!!

With whom would you most like to play a game of spin the bottle?
Megan Estes. Mariska Hargitay, aka Detective Olivia Benson, I really like Law and Order… and Tom Cheshire.

“Spirit Molecule

Zoroaster plays the Clermont Lounge on New year’s Eve. Atlanta’s Withered and Athens’ doom and drone duo Subrig Destroyer also perform. 9 p.m. $10. 789 Ponce de Leon Ave. 404-874-4783.

(Photo by Kevin Griggs)

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Tonight (Tues., Dec. 30th), Atlanta-based singer Diane Durrett performs a rare and intimate gig at Blind Willies. Durrett has been around the Atlanta Blues and singer/songwriter scene for many years, and has released four well received albums.

In 1999 Durrett took the plunge most musicians only dream of and moved to Nashville, with the big plans to make it in the music industry. Several peripheral jobs later (including a rather interesting stint as a limo driver) she has written a book called Driving Music City. Basically, Durrett has compiled a collection of vignettes describing her experiences chauffeuring some major superstars around Music City. Interspersed with anecdotes from her own music career and family history, Durrett pulls back the curtain just a bit to expose a few somewhat shallow and trivial “secrets” about the stars. Scattered and tangential, this ain’t Shakespeare, folks. Hell, it ain’t even the National Enquirer for that matter.

But Durrett is a much better singer than an author, and her show at Blind Willies will be a real treat for her local fans. Hopefully she will sing more than she talks.

Diane Durrett plays Blind Willies tonight. $Call. 9 p.m. 828 N. Highland Ave. 404-873-2583.

(Photo courtesy of Diane Durrett).

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By Michael Gerber

Dead Confederate make unhappy music, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. On Sat., Dec. 20 at Variety Playhouse, the band presented its cathartic world of guitars banging away in dark corners. Right away the Nirvana comparisons the group have drawn with their latest CD, Wrecking Ball, were obvious. A clattering of moody and frustrated noise conjured up vivid memories of the grunge era. Dead Confederate have mastered the art of losing themselves in messy and hopeless dark rock. It’s a combination that has a unique power to take over the senses.

The headliners of the night were Manchester Orchestra. Right away, it was the cleanness of their sound that stood out, which was a drastic contrast to Dead Confederate. These were nice guys who opened with a joke (a tongue in cheek ode to 50 Cent) and went on to play youthful anthems primed for popular embrace.

Vocalist, guitar player and frontman Andy Hull’s bearded and flannel-clad exterior resembles a young Patterson Hood of the Drive-By Truckers, but there wasn’t too much Southern about this rock. Instead, they played something that had more of a suburban feel to it, with songs that felt dreamed up in an Alpharetta bedroom, shared for the first time with friends in a basement, and finally fleshed out as independence replaced high school and parents. I’m guessing. This is all based on the little that I know of where they’re from, their ages and the undeniable emo hand stirring their songs.

Hull reminisced about seeing Death Cab for Cutie at Variety Playhouse, and pointed to the exact spot where he was stood during their show and apparently, “shit [his] pants.” So it was something special to see the crowd singing along to his lyrics when he did the same thing with Ben Gibbard only a few years ago. Their set played like a triumphant homecoming: inspired, grateful, and it only got better as the night went on. Both bands demonstrated why they’ve become critical darlings over the last year. If this is the future of Southern rock it, the future has a lot in common with alternative rock from the ’90s.

(Photo by Shana Langfur)

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Since around Thanksgiving of this year the weekly Thursday night Kirkwood Ballers Club experimental open mic night has offered an early, online registration form to level the playing field for musicians who want to play each week, and to stimulate attendance.

This advancement in open-mic technology was hatched after a few disgruntled Ballers started balling about not being able to snag one of the eleven 15-minute slots available each week between 9 and 11:30 p.m.

“We used to have people coming out one week and singing up to come play the following week and we started getting a lot of flack for it,” says KBC founder Randy Castello.

The idea for online registration was spawned by his Tight Bros./Fifth Planet Press cohort Nisa Asokan who is using a similar means of RSVP for a group art show in Spring of 2009.

“It seemed like the right thing to do because not everyone wants to show up between 8:30 and 9 o’clock to sign up,” Randy adds. “Now they can do it from home and when they’re done they can start promoting right then and there. The response has been good and every week we only have about four or five slots left by the time we get there, and we’re seeing lots of new faces and lots of quality stuff.”

***NOTE:  The Kirkwood Ballers Club is canceled this week as it falls on New Year’s Day, but will resume next week at the Regular time and place.***

The Kirkwood Ballers Club takes place at the Highland Inn Ballroom Lounge on Thurs., nights. There’s no cover charge. Doors open 8 p.m. and the music begins at 9 p.m. 644 North Highland Ave. 404-874-5756. RSVP.

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Chris Devoe and Rachael Spiewak are spinning records tonight (Fri., Dec. 26th) at El Myr in Little 5 Points to raise funds and spread awareness after suffering a violent home invasion on Dec. 3rd in the Poncey-Highland neighborhood.

There will be no cover charge at the door but there will be a push for donations throughout the night as well as a raffle for prizes.

Word on the street has it that there will also be Jello shots served.

The benefit starts at 10p.m. El Myr. 1091 Euclid Ave. 404-588-0250.

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Going to lose it if you hear another tedious version of “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer?” Eskimo Bliss wants you to have a Christmas gift from The Ten Thousand Dollar Tattoo, a Los Angeles based folk-tronic group.

TT$T’s latest album, “The Advent Calendar,” is being offered for free on Last.FM. Even though the melancholic tunes are written as Christmas songs, you can be sure that this is a holiday gift that will still be worth listening to after the first of the year. They’ve even thrown in a couple remixes of indie superstars Fleet Foxes and Sufjan Stevens. Not bad for a last minute stocking stuffer.

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For today’s Roll Call we call out Matthew Lambert from All the Saints.

Who are you?
I am Matthew Allen Lambert.

Describe yourself in three words.
Confused. In tune

Who — dead or alive — would most you like to meet?
Neil Young and Mark Grace it’s a tie. I love them both equally.

Who would you most like to slap in the face?
Right now I would have to say the rude hourly woman at the check-in counter at Hartsfield-Jackson last night. She was so mean. That’s all I can think of. I don’t hold grudges very well.

What song do you wish you had written?
“Amazing Grace.”

Elvis Costello or Elvis Presley?
A hybrid Elvis would be cool. I would probably take Costello solely because of “Watching the Detectives,” but my mother would kill me. She would take Elvis P. over Jesus and Bear Bryant I think.

LP, CD or MP3?
I have to say vinyl. Oh the warmth and crackle. The only real way to listen to a record in its truest form, is on vinyl, through headphones. You flip the record, cue the songs, read the liner notes, smell the cover, all that. But I do love having the ability to make mixes with MP3’s.

If you could start one trend, what would it be?
A trend of people spending all of their money on records. Tuck your shirt in.

If you could end one trend, what would it be?
It’s pretty much on its way but I’ll say the whole “Indie” thing. Vomit. “Indie” is “Hair Metal” or “Emo” or something. It starts from something fresh and cool and then America torques it up to like 11 and shit. By the end it just becomes so heartless and boring.

With whom would you most like to play a game of spin the bottle?
I can’t play spin the bottle.

“Sheffield” MP3

All the Saints play the Drunken Unicorn on Wed., Dec. 31 with Atlas Sound and the Balkans. $15. 10 p.m. Drunken Unicorn, 736 Ponce de Leon Place.

(Photo by Skylar Reeves)

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Atlanta psych metal trio Zoroaster has completed its third album, Voice of Saturn, due out on Match 10th via the group-run Terminal Doom Records.

Voice of Saturn was recorded at The Living Room with Ed Rawls, and carries Zoroaster’s hallucinogenic hybrid of doom-laden metal, drone and dirge to bombastic new places, and even features a guest appearance from Mastodon guitarist Brent Hinds on the song “White Dwarf.”

Voice of Saturn track list:

1.) Intro (1:00)
2.) Spirit Molecule (6:10)
3.) Undying (13:43)
4.) White Dwarf (5:42)
5.) Voice of Saturn (5:25)
6.) Lamen of the Master Therion (7:55)
7.) Outro (14:14)

Bassist / vocalist Brent Anderson was recently featured as a guest on MTV’s Headbangers Blog.

Zoroaster will embark on a full North American tour starting in February. In the meantime you can catch them on New Year’s Eve as they headline a bill with Withered and Subrig Destroyer at the infamous Clermont Lounge.

“Spirit Molecule” (live).

(more…)

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For today’s Roll Call we call out Jeffrey Butzer.

Who are you?
My name is Jeffrey Bützer I am a musician from Atlanta.

Describe yourself in three words.
Ridiculous, accordionist and hungry.

Who — dead or alive — would most you like to meet?
Luis Bunuel. He’s probably my favorite artist of all time and I don’t drink but I think I would have a Bunueltini if he made me one.

Who would you most like to slap in the face?
Any of the three stooges (except for Curly).

What song do you wish you had written?
“Gnossiennes” by Erik Satie or “Suzanne” by Leonard Cohen

Elvis Costello or Elvis Presley?
Do you mean who would win in a fight? Or who do I like better? Either way its a toss up… but I’m going with Costello.

LP, CD or MP3?
CD’s: I don’t even own a computer so mp3’s are out. And I like to hear music in my car so no LP’s either.

If you could start one trend, what would it be?
Fax machine jokes or wearing whale parts as clothing.

If you could end one trend, what would it be?
I’m not sure what is in… Do people still ironically have mustaches? If so that would be it.

With whom would you most like to play a game of spin the bottle?
Flannery O’Connor, Audrey Tautou, Wynona Ryder, Luisel Ball, Sophia Loren and PJ Harvey … that would be a party.

(Photo by Ken Lackner).

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An Eluardian Instance EP

Last Thursday Of Montreal vocalist/mastermind Kevin Barnes spoke with Rolling Stone’s Rock and Roll Daily blog about what will come after Skeletal Lamping. Barnes told RS that he has something a little noisier in mind:

“It’s sort of abstract in my mind, but right now what I’ll create will be mesmeric and kind of physical music. Try to create music that you have a physical reaction to. Try to touch you on a level that’s not strictly intellectual but more physical, and that’s not to say you’ll dance to it.”

In the meantime a comprehensive Of Montreal DVD is in the works. The group filmed a show in Los Angeles during last year’s Hissing Fauna tour as well as a show at the Tabernacle in Atlanta last month. The plan is to release a DVD that compiles the group’s videos, the two live performances and some documentary material as well.

This week Of Montreal plays the Late Show with David Letterman on Thurs., Dec. 18th. After that the An Eluardian Instance EP featuring remixes from Grammy-nominated producer Jon Brion (Spoon, Kanye West, Elliott Smith, Fiona Apple) is due digitally Jan. 6th/Jan. 27th on CD and LP via Polyvinyl Records.

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