Crib Notes

By Chris Hassiotis

In a studio in Athens in March, Liz Durrett sat still on a couch. She held a notebook and listened. Musicians recording on her new album clattered, spoke, joked and cooed over a friend’s baby attending the recording session. Violins looped and curlicued from the other room. Durrett’s voice came clear through the speakers, while she sat on the couch and paid attention.

“It sounds really clean,” she said. Eric Bachmann, the former Archers of Loaf frontman in town from North Carolina to produce Durrett’s new album, leaned back from his computer, turned around and said, “Oh, don’t worry, we’re gonna dirty this up.”

That’s one of the main appeals of Durrett’s music – its balance between the ethereal and the terrestrial, drawing from both the sacred and the profane and firmly rooted in Southern Gothic traditions.

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Liz Durrett plays with Hope For Agoldensummer and Tin Cup Prophette at the Earl  tomorrow (Thurs., Sept. 18) at 9 p.m.

(Photo by Bill McCormick)

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This Saturday the East Atlanta Strut returns for its 11th year as a community organized, one-day festival that’s all about supporting the neighborhood.

The Strut comes complete with all of the amenities of a neighborhood fest, including a bunch of people who feel compelled to embark on a 5K run.

There’s also a lot of music this year from bands and artists, including Chickens & Pigs, Grinder Nova and a Battle of the Marching Bands that pits Seed and Feed Marching Abominables against Maynard Jackson High School Marching Band; which is not to be missed.

The schedule of music and other events, including an artist market, booths and everything else that you need can be found here.

The festivities begin at 10 a.m. and go on until 10 p.m.

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The currently Asheville-based Atlanta expat., singer Amy Pike of the Lost Continentals, the Last Cold Beer and most recently the Bonaventure Quartet fame will return to her old stomping ground for a show at The Earl on Thur., Sept. 4. Also appearing on the bill will be Atlanta’s resident Americana outfit Stovall, who will be recording their performance for a CD to be released later this year.

(Photo courtesy of the Bonaventure Quartet)

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There are two shows worth checking out tonight. First up at The Earl:FAUN FABLES, JEFFREY BÜTZER Singer/frontwoman Dawn McCarthy, although raised in Washington, tends to favor a musical (and artistic) palette that veers toward British folk with avant-garde leanings. While not exactly like labelmate Joanna Newsom, she attracts a similar audience with her chirping, innocent vocals and acoustic, fairyish approach. Sweet, challenging, occasionally weird but always intriguing, she is still very much an acquired taste. Welcome local opener Butzer back from France, where his cabaret art-pop reportedly was well-received. $10. 9 p.m. The Earl. 404-522-3950. www.badearl.com. — Hal Horowitz

And if that’s not your thing, you can head over to the Drunken Unicorn for…

MARGOT & THE NUCLEAR SO AND SO’S The Indianapolis octet’s debut, The Dust of Retreat, balances careening, string- and horn-fueled arrangements with sweet, melodious broken-hearted odes, lightened by a bit of playfulness, as on “Paper Kitten Nightmare,” where Richard Edwards meows the chorus like an old Meow Mix commercial. Unlike many chamber-pop-oriented acts, Margot rocks convincingly (”Barfight Revolution, Power Violence”) despite their preference for ringing, folk-tinged melodies. In September they make their Epic debut with two different albums, Animal and Not Animal, with varying song selections, one of the label’s choosing and one of their own. $10. 10 p.m. Drunken Unicorn. 404-870-0575. www.thedrunkenunicorn.net.
– Chris Parker

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This coming Tuesday, the amplifiers will crank up at 551 Flat Shoals for the first time since the Echo Lounge shut its doors in January 2005.

If the permits come through in time, the space last occupied by the popular indie rock club will reopen then as East Atlanta Icehouse, so named to commemorate the building’s original use in the 1920s, which was as – wait for it… – an icehouse.

Shows have already been scheduled through the rest of the month, featuring such acts as the Subliminator, VieTNam, 50 Million Fables, the jonesplan, AMUL9, Luchagors and Lust.

But ex-Echo Lounge patrons shouldn’t expect to re-enter that club’s comfortably lived-in shabbiness. The space has experienced a total makeover, thanks to co-owners and co-brothers, Ed and Mike Murphy, who have installed new hardwood floors, repainted the lounge area light green and even gussied the place up with a granite-y bar and wood trim accents, for fuck’s sake. Suck on that, EARL!

From the online photos, we’re guessing the place doesn’t have the typical PBR vibe that folks associate with such East Atlanta joints like the Flatiron and Gravity Pub. Whether that’s good or bad will be up to customers to decide, but Icehouse GM Chip English assures us the place is real nice.

Another addition is a full-service restaurant – complete with patio – serving until 3 a.m. For now, the bar will only have beer and wine, but English says liquor will be added later on.

For bands looking for a gig, the club has kindly posted this online advice from booking manager Chet Knight:

“All music styles are welcome. However, you must be able to sell tickets. Garage bands with no following what so ever; might consider getting on with a band that does have a following. Do not become discouraged, you gotta start somewhere.”

Let the music begin.

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Tomorrow night (as in Wed., July 30th) at 7 p.m. Adorn is playing a free, in-store performance at Criminal Records in L5P before she heads over the The Earl for the CD release party of her New Street Records debut.

(Photo courtesy of Adron)

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Decatur native Adrienne McCann left Georgia in August 2007 on the eve of her 20th birthday. The burgeoning singer/songwriter of fairy-tale folk songs, who is better known as Adron, knew that New York was the place for a young, ambitious musician looking to move up in the world. So she packed her bags and went north. A year later she is returning to play a CD-release show for her self-titled debut on the Atlanta/Brooklyn-based indie label New Street Records.

Though the only major-label interest in her work has come via a MySpace message from a Capital Records A&R guy, her escape to New York has brought her one step closer to her dream. “No one comes to New York to be half-assed about music,” she says. “I feel like I’m in the right place at the right time.”

When she was still living in Atlanta, Adron made a name for herself as a rising local underdog. Her guitar playing possessed a certain charm and skill level that surpassed her teenage years. No matter where she played, she wrapped the entire room around her finger.

During shows at the Star Bar, A Cappella Books and the Earl in the summer of 2007, Adron would appear onstage, often wearing what looked like pajamas. Her fingers moved across the fret board of her guitar with messy precision, though there was not a hint of nervousness in her performances. Waves of tropicalia dripped from her hands as she played and cooed, interspersing her singing with clicks of her tongue, bird chirps and mouth pops.

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Adron plays with Benji Hughes, Telenovela, Molotov Pipedream and DJ Chris Devoe at the Earl on Wed., July 30.

(Image courtesy Adron)

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Is it unfair to subject a cover band to the same kind of criticism that a real band would receive? Probably. Cover bands aren’t really putting any artistic girth on the line, so why should I point my poison pen at them for jamming on some of their favorite tunes just for the fun of it.

It’s a strange dilemma, and one that the Fading Captains, a Guided By Voices cover band from Atlanta, and the Placemats, a Replacements cover band from Columbia, SC outlined with their show at The Earl on Thursday, July 17^th.

Up first, the Placemats have a rather disturbing presence. If you turn your back to the stage it sounds like the Replacements… Dead on. It’s phenomenal. But if you turn around and look at them, it’s like being a parallel universe where a bunch of frat guys are phoning in your favorite Replacements songs, like “Alex Chilton” and “Waitress in the Sky.”

It was just to weird to watch them, and as much of a proponent of anti-fashion becoming fashion as I tend to be, this is one instance where I have to say that sometimes, image does matter.

If you’re going to be in a Ramones cover band, you should dress like the Ramones. If you’re going to be in a Beatles cover band, you need the wigs. And if you’re going to be in a Replacements cover band, you need to get drunk and swagger around with much more stumbling energy than these guys portrayed.

What’s more, Paul Westerberg at least held onto a guitar on stage. This guy just held onto his drink and kept begging the pretty girls in the crowd to bring him more, and he didn’t even do that as well as Westerberg used to.

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Mourdella lead Jessica Juggz turned her last “pussy flambe” trick Saturday night at the Earl.

Could her retirement signal the end of Atlanta’s We Fun heydaze before the hype begins?

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RIDERS ON THE STORM: Lenny’s Bar sustained damage but reopened the next night. (photo provided by Bean Summer.)

It takes more than a tornado to silence this town.

Rumors of Lenny’s death have been greatly exaggerated. Although the seamy local punk and indie rock club at 486 Decatur St. in Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward stood directly in the path of the tornado that struck downtown, Cabbagetown and East Atlanta on Friday, March 14 around 10 p.m., the club was open less than 24 hours later.

In the wake of the storm rumors spread that Lenny’s roof had been torn off and the club was closed. But according to Lenny’s booking agent Bean Summer the rumors were unfounded.

The Friday night line-up was to feature performances by local bands the Preakness and Sleep Therapy, as well as the St. Louis, Mo. psychedelic rock band, Wormwood Scrubs.

The first band had just started when the storm hit.

“I was in the office checking my e-mail and I thought a bomb had gone off downtown,” Summer recalls. “The air was sucked out of the room and I could hear a bunch of loud pops from things hitting the building.”

Some roof tiles were blown off of the building, air conditioning units were knocked over, windows were broken, and a gas line ruptured but was repaired within a few hours.

The most damage was done to dozens of cars in the parking lot that were bombarded with debris, including a roof from of a nearby house.

Lenny’s security staff spent the night in the building fending off looters who raided the complex. “It sounds like something from a science fiction movie, but they were there and they were organized,” Summer adds.

The club’s imposing doorman, Jamie Karns spent much of the night scaring away the approaching bandits. Some looters challenged him but ultimately went away.

“I guess they didn’t want to a get into it with a 400-pound Samoan guy with a mowhawk,” Summer laughs.

After Squeegeeing water off of the floor and patching-up windows, the club was open the next night, despite the mayors warning that the neighborhood was a disaster area.

Summer estimates that the club’s damage, coupled with lost revenue from the weekend amounts to approximately $10,000. But it’s an amount that he says is minimal compared to the damage in neighboring Cabbagetown.

He adds that many of Cabbagetown’s residents are in bands or are entrenched in the local music scene; many of whom make up Lenny’s regular clientele. To help them, he is organizing a benefit show at Lenny’s on Sat., Apr. 19.

All proceeds from the benefit will go to those affected by the tornado.

No bands are booked yet, but he encourages anyone who’s interested in playing to contact him at beansummer@gmail.com.

Across town at The Earl, the weekend was just as dark. The Earl didn’t receive nearly as much damage as Lenny’s, but the Everybody Fields show on Friday night as well as the Prick magazine party on Saturday were canceled because the power was out.

The only substantial damage the property received was to the fence in the back parking lot that was mangled by two uprooted trees.

The Earl’s booking agent Patrick Hill is organizing a separate benefit for those affected by the storm, but details are to be determined.

The Prick party is rescheduled for Sun., April 20, and all proceeds from the show will be donated to tornado victims as well.

“We feel pretty fortunate in terms of what happened,” says Hill. “I was shocked to hear that Lenny’s was open the next night, but was happy to hear that the damage wasn’t as bad as everyone had feared. We lost two nights worth of revenue, but we consider ourselves lucky.”

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ALIVE AND WELL: Dead Meadow at the Earl on Monday, Feb. 18.

(All photos by Perry Julien)

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(Photo by Alexander Wagner)

Yeasayer, who is playing tonight at the Earl, is the first indie-rock band I’ve gotten excited about in a long time. (OK, the first one in a few months.) I’ve been down on indie-rock recently — like many music fans, I’ve gotten sick of the “emperor’s new clothes” mentality that seems to elevate mediocre bands to unparalleled heights of blog buzz. Yeasayer’s All Hour Cymbals isn’t stunningly original, and when you hear it you’ll immediately think of Animal Collective’s avant-folk-pop cataclysm. But Yeasayer has a strong sense of melody and songwriting that its peers often lack.

There are a handful of songs on All Hour Cymbals that I’ve played over and over again, like “Sunrise” and “2080.” You can download MP3s for both from Yeasayer’s website, and then try to cram into the Earl tonight before the show sells out (if it hasn’t already).

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(Photo by Charlie Finch)

Though sometimes lumped in with the New Weird America/avant-folk crowd, the CHARALAMBIDES predate that scene by many years. The Austin, Texas, couple began recording in the early ’90s, and issued several albums before gaining national exposure. The duo’s music can be difficult stuff – it experiments with tonal extremes, from chanting to atonal rhythmic guitar. Scottish singer Alasdair Roberts headlines the Thurs., NOV. 29, show. $8. 9 p.m. The Earl, 488 Flat Shoals Road. 404-522-3950. www.badearl.com.

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