Fresh Loaf

GENRE: A brick-sized collection of music journalism from a decidedly Southern magazine

THE PITCH: Trendy bands and celebrity fluff pieces aren’t welcome here. OA editor and founder Mark Smirnoff wants this writing to pay “tribute to how music seeps into us.”

BLUES SISTERS: The writing is most successful when it veers far from the confines of music history, like Carol Ann Fitzgerald’s memoir-ish tale of lesbian attraction and Bessie Smith. “I slept while she rubbed my back in motel beds. Her hands clenched and declenched, just shy of hurting. We burned candles that smelled like pumpkin pie. Bessie was on repeat,” she says.

SEX PISTOLS IN ATLANTA: Mark Binelli tells the story of the Sex Pistols’ first U.S. show at a strip mall in Atlanta. Afterwards the band heads to a bar, but Sid Vicious disappears into the night. “Vicious finally turned up at Piedmont Hospital,” Binelli explains. “After scoring some heroin, he’d gotten bored and carved the words GIMME A FIX into his chest.”

STEVE MARTIN ON FAILED MUSIC ASPIRATIONS: “Obsession is a great substitute for talent.”

ALLMAN BROTHERS IN MACON: John T. Edge quotes roadie Red Dog Campbell about Mama Louise Hudson’s soul-food restaurant, “At the H&H, they didn’t care if we were black, white, or purple. Mama didn’t say anything if we were trippin’ our asses off. Now, she might tell me to come in the back door instead of the of the front when I was messed up, but really she just fed us fried chicken and loved us.” (more…)

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This week’s Time and Place photo is from the Bodies exhibit at Atlantic Station.

If you ever questioned the phrases of your mama like, “beauty is only skin deep,” or “it’s what’s inside that counts,” you need to head out to the Bodies exhibit at Atlantic Station. I ventured there Thanksgiving eve and left feeling quite nauseated and more convinced then ever that my mother was right.

Beauty really is only skin deep. We are all ugly on the inside.

The exhibit has been somewhat controversial — would you want your body exhibited like this?

Check out more photos from the exhibit at our Sideshow blog.

Suggested soundtracks for looking at photos — choose your vibe:

“Bodies” by the Sex Pistols

Or…

“I’ve Got You Under My Skin” by Frank Sinatra

(Photos by Joeff Davis)

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Sex Pistols at the Great Southeast Music Hall — Jan. 5, 1978
Delayed by visa troubles, the Pistols missed their New York tour dates, so they wound up playing their first U.S. show in Atlanta. They opened with “God Save the Queen,” after which Johnny Rotten told the crowd: “You can all stop staring at us now. We’re ugly and we know it.” Nine days later, the band was history.

Iggy Pop at 688 — 1980
The post-Stooges Iggy played at 688 every night for a week a few months after the club opened, forming a meaningful relationship with the metal pole in the middle of the stage. His set list, written on the wall, remained there for years afterward.

Ramones at the Agora Ballroom — early 1980s
Joey and the boys played Atlanta many times from the late ’70s through the mid-’90s (before they died), but are most fondly remembered from their shows at the Agora.

Read more here.

(Courtesy 688 Club)

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In the early 1980s, the music world was beating a path to Athens, where bands such as the B-52’s, REM and Pylon were helping redefine underground pop. Although Atlanta produced no break-through acts like those during this same period, it was home to a rich assortment of local sounds and a tightly knit community of local bands and music fans.

Nowhere was that sense of community stronger than in the city’s active punk scene, which centered around two of Atlanta’s most celebrated music venues, 688 and the Metroplex. The two clubs offered an asylum for a generation of awkward, alienated teenagers wearing black eyeliner and studded collars who came to escape the drab reality of their suburban lives.

“The message of the music was, ‘We don’t care what people think about us,’ and that appealed to us,” recalls Jill Griffin, who haunted the clubs during the ’80s.

This Saturday, Oct. 4, the former owners of 688 and the Metroplex will throw a reunion party and concert aimed at bringing together some of the bands and fans from an era viewed now with fond nostalgia: Atlanta – the punk years.

Read the rest of this article here.

(Photo by Clark Brown)

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