Crib Notes

BAD FLIRT, THE BLACK, RAFTER Rafter Roberts is a San Diego strummer who writes quirky, noise-afflicted indie pop tunes for college kids. Local band the Blacks churn out lo-fi Weezer-esque rock songs. Bad Flirt from Montreal QC plays catchy indie rock that evokes a classic ’90s sound. $8-$10. 9 p.m. All Ages. The Drunken Unicorn. www.thedrunkenunicorn.net. – CR

CARRIE RODRIGUEZ Folk, pop, bluegrass and country combine with Rodriguez’s lovely vocals and accomplished fiddle to yield surprisingly edgy music that skirts genre boundaries with lyrics that touch the heart, mind and soul. Romantica also appears. $15-18. 8 p.m. Eddie’s Attic. 404-377-4976. www.eddiesattic.com. – HH

(Photo Credit: Richmond Lam)

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WILLIAM ELLIOT WHITMORE is a farm boy from rural Iowa with a scratchy voice that bears the scars of a man who has experienced harder times than most folks will ever know. His death-afflicted country hymns channel a broken soul through a broken banjo and his brittle pick and stomp commune with the Grim Reaper under icy and wind-burned harmonies. But rather than dwell on the inevitable, he imbues such bleak fodder with an uplifting, existentialist embrace. Thursday’s show is the first night of Whitmore’s tour in support of his ANTI- debut, Animals in the Dark.

For this appearance at The Drunken Unicorn, he’ll perform alongside Bloomington, Ind.’s barreling country-punk crooners Murder By Death. Baltimore’s J-Roddy Walston & the Business open. $12. 9 p.m. Drunken Unicorn, 736 Ponce de Leon Place.

(Photo courtesy of Epitaph)

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HELIOS CREED was/is a seminal figure in the secret history of the ’70s/’80s post-industrial guitar-paranoia scene. As the warped mind behind the alien soundscapes of Chrome, Creed’s noisy sonic textures were too primitive to be called industrial and too sharp to be called grunge. For this retrospective “Helios Chrome” appearance, Creed exhumes the pulverized chords and distorted wails that defined his legacy as a fringe music icon of more than 30 years. Sourvein and Tenth to the Moon open. $8-$10. 9 p.m. Drunken Unicorn, 736 Ponce de Leon Place. www.thedrunkenunicorn.net.

Photo courtesy of Helios Creed

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Update:  Brontez responds here.

In the October issue of Maximum RocknRoll Brontez from the Bay Area multicultural Queercore/pop/Electroclash leftover whatever you want to call it band Gravy Train!!! writes a scathing installment of a column, called “She’s Over It” in which he points some pretty damning words at Jared Swilley from the Black Lips, painting him as a racist.

The column begins with a disclaimer, “TO ALL COLUMN READERS: I’M ABOUT TO TALK HELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLA SHIT (be warned…)“

From there he begins the column with “Fuck Jarrod [sic.] from the Black Lips.”

In his column, Brontez tells a story about hanging out at B Jay Womack’s, which is known to the locals as “The War Room,” after Gravy Train played a show at The Drunken Unicorn a few months back. He goes on to include some pretty illicit details, such as “Everyone was popping shrooms” and “…doing shitty coke…” He also adds that he got cozy with a “hot hooker boy on the couch.”

From there he describes a party that sounds like a scene lifted straight out of Gummo. A tanning gun was being passed around and Brontez claims that Klan jokes, immigration jokes, and various racial and ethnic jokes were thrown about so flippantly that afterward one member of Gravy Train!!!, keyboard player/dancer FUNX (who is of both Jewish and Latino descent) felt so alienated that she cried afterward for not speaking up.

This is perhaps the best part of Brontez’s rant:

“My homegirl had to sit down in the other room and come down on shrooms and listen to those hipster redneck motherfuckers talk all of this insane pro-Klan shit about how ‘the Mexicans’ need to ‘quit complaining’ and pull themselves out of poverty like the Irish Catholics…”

Anyone who knows or has spent any time around the Black Lips, whatsoever, knows that they like to test the limits of acceptable social behavior, but racists they are not. Brontez’s account sounds like he was having a bad trip, and because of his admitted drug use, his story seems to be a bit suspect.

(more…)

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The ETTES play a sultry and savage blend of winding power-pop and beat-punk strut that evokes everyone from Nancy Sinatra to Iggy and the Stooges, but with a fashionably fuzzed-out accent.

Each song from the Los Angeles-by-way-of-New York City trio’s latest full-length, Look at Life Again Soon, creates an infectious jitter that snakes through dark valleys and high-energy peaks of old-school rock ‘n’ roll antagonism that’s both sleazy and alluring.

For the show tonight (Tues., SEPT. 9,) like-minded locals the Long Shadows open the show.

$8. 9 p.m. Drunken Unicorn, 736 Ponce de Leon Place. www.thedrunkenunicorn.net.

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Long-standing Atlanta punk, hip-hop, indie rock and experimental music booking agent Randy Castello (aka the face of the ubiquitous Tight Bros. Network) announced this weekend that he will no longer be working as “the official talent purchaser” for The Drunken Unicorn, where he has worked as an employee and focused the brunt of his booking activities for the last three years. In his place, Stickfigure Records owner Gavin Frederick has stepped in to fill the position.

When asked why he’s not doing the job anymore, Castello replied, “What, are you looking for some dirt? Who do you think I am, Dres tha Beatnik?”

(more…)

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