Holy Fucking Athfest!

If it's the third week in June, it must be time to celebrate all things Athens music in one glorious weekend. Back in 1789, our town founders asked themselves two very important questions. What's better than Athens? and What's better than a festival? And they found two very important answers. A festival of music! and Having it in Athens! And with that Athfest was born.

A third question, why would I pay fifteen bucks to see the same bands that I can see play any other weekend for five?, thankfully went unasked.

(I know. It's not for the locals, it's for the out-of-towners. It's just a joke. It's cool).

So with 15 local venues all featuring music at once, and with cloning still illegal--if not scientifically impossible--how can a music lover deicde which shows to check out? Well, you can check out this week's Flagpole (Chris Hassiotis is excited about seeing Kuroma, because they sound like "Paul McCartney inviting Yes to come jam with Wings" Yowsa! Count me in!), or you can decide for yourself. Or you can keep reading. If you stay with me I'll try to make it sound more exciting than Michael Andrews talking about Curley Maple, who he describes as "a comfortable, back-porch sound that gets warmer and more inviting with each listen." Well in that case, I hope they play at least three sets, so I can get myself good and warm & invited!

Honestly, there's only one band I'm dying to see this Athfest. And that's Creepy.

No, not creepy like this.



Creepy like this.



Taking the best parts of Hopeforagoldensummer, Still Small Voice & the Joyful Noise, and sounding nothing at all like either one, Creepy is offering the one thing that no other band in Athens can guarantee this Athfest: Something Different. Saturday night at Flicker will be their first show. Judging by the songs on their website (www.myspace.com/creepyashell), Creepy sounds like Alice in Wonderland singing with Public Image Ltd. Or to put it more abstractly, a good Creepy music video would feature penquins and sunsets, with a glass cathedral held together with duct tape. Too abstract? Fine, then. The guitar is brittle & coated in layers of delay, the bass is full & textured, the vocals are non-existent and echoing.

Eno would love this.

You can walk into this show and have no idea what to expect--of Creepy, of their future, of yourself. An Athfest miracle.

The rest of the festival?

--I'll try and be in the front row for Dark Meat. So I can turn around to watch the look on the audience's faces. Later, I'll try and get Jim to autograph my copy of Superfuzz/Bigmuff.

--And it's times like this I curse my parents for not having any other kids. Because if I had a little sister, I could take her to go see the Modern Skirts and she would love me forever. I mean, look at this picture.



Otherwise, nothing I'll be seeing that I wouldn't be able to see in the next month or so.

Oh, except for the movies at Cine. Check out The B-52's at the Downtown Club in 1978. Most of the show is on youtube. Click on the link and swoon with nostalgia.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=VN8hV4AyNss&feature=related

Without them there wouldn't even be an Athfest. There would barely even be an Athens.

Incidentally, I won two free wristbands off WUOG by answering a trivia question. How many layers does a Yoo-Hoo drink settle into? I guessed three. It turns out De La Soul (and Schoolhouse Rock) was right. Three really is the magic number.