Crib Notes

Emory University student radio station WMRE (currently broadcasting on channel 26 on Emory’s campus) will host its annual Localsfest on Feb. 13 at 8 p.m. at the Harland Cinema.

Localsfest, known for introducing local up-and-coming Atlanta bands, is at it once again. This year Poison Arrows will be a featured band at the festival. The group walks a fine line between punk and power pop music circa ‘79 through their strutting guitars and sneering pop songwriting.

The N.E.C. takes things in a decidedly more primitive garage rock direction.

Carnivores will open the fest with their “Walls of distorted sound.”

This is an event you defintely will not want to miss. Grab a friend and come out and support the local bands. For shows times, parking and ticket information check out WMRE.

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Call it the home field advantage, but ex-Nerves drummer Paul Collins’ show at the Earl Saturday night was fantastic to say the least. Not to say that his last show at the Earl back in August wasn’t a good one, but this grand unveiling of the line-up of the Beat, featuring Jesse Smith (bass), Dave Rahn (drums) and Warren Bailey (guitar), wielded a much stronger dose of chemistry than what the prior Beat brought last time around. If ever there was a time to catch Paul Collins, it was Saturday night.

It’s interesting to note that at the same time Paul Collins’ Beat was tearing it up at the Earl, British Ska band the English Beat was playing across town at the Loft, which has to have set some sort of historical precedent. In case you aren’t familiar with the story, the English Beat has to alter their name in the states because Mr. Collins already had the name for his far superior power pop outfit. Photographer Perry Julien shot some photos at the other Beat show .

(Photos by Chad Radford)

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Paul Collins cut his teeth during a strange time in American music.

When his band, the Los Angeles power-pop trio the Nerves, released its one and only four-song 7-inch in 1976, the radio waves were dominated by Peter Frampton types riffing on 20-minute guitar solos. The hippies had come and gone and punk rock was still a few years down the road. No one knew what to make of three guys driving to gigs in a station wagon, wearing suits with skinny ties and playing three-minute pop songs.

“People thought we were from another planet,” Collins laughs. “We got kicked out of every music store in L.A. and San Francisco because people thought we were jerks and that we weren’t playing real music.”

Along with his bandmates Jack Lee and Peter Case, Collins’ one near brush with fame happened when Blondie scored a hit with a cover of the Nerves’ song “Don’t Leave Me Hanging on the Telephone” in ‘78. But to this day when Collins performs the song, people approach him after the show and say ‘Hey man, great Blondie cover.’

Since then the group has existed as little more than a footnote in the annals of pop history, but its influence on indie music culture is incalculable.

Read the rest of the story here.

The Paul Collins Beat plays The Earl tonight w/ Gentleman Jesse and Beat Beat Beat. $10-$12. 9 p.m. 488 Flat Shoals Road. 404-522-3950.

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