This blog ran into some controversy a while back when it ran a critical assessment of Allison Weiss' music. I haven't heard any of her music lately, but this video is heartfelt, sincere, and beautiful.
When I first heard this video existed, I immediately rolled my eyes and rattled off a half-dozen cynical opinions. Then I actually watched the video and choked on every single one of them. This video contains every bit of the rawness, passion, and guts that I was unable to find in her music a year ago. Much respect is due to Ms. Weiss for having the courage to put something like this out there. If this video is any indication, her next project will definitely be worth checking out.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Nuci's Space does wonderful work...
...and this is one way to help them. There's a band--although 'recording project' might be more accurate--called Emergent Heart.
They may have decided to call their new EP 'One' because it's their favorite U2 song, but they probably did it because it's their first release. It's available for download at http://www.emergentheart.com/. It's tuneful and nice in that smooth indie rock way that all the kids seem to love these days, in touch with its feelings, sincere, sensitive, etc. Kind of like The Antlers, Real Estate, Broken Social Scene, Telekenesis, that kind of thing. And it's every bit as good as the rest of that stuff is.
Still, I probably wouldn't be mentioning it at all if the proceeds weren't going to Nuci's Space. Go visit http://www.nuci.org/ if you haven't heard of it. This blog can get a little negative sometimes, what with all the fevered egos in this town competing for one's attention, but Nuci's Space is something that every Athenian should be proud of. Very few people start playing music (or writing about it for that matter) because they are socially well-adjusted and have excellent coping mechanisms for dealing with the world around them. Thank god for all of us that a place like Nuci's Space exists.
A callous attempt on the part of an unknown band to draw attention to itself by aligning itself with a music-related charity loved by thousands? That's one way to look at it, if you're feeling cynical. But I'm not, and any money that goes to Nuci's Space is money that is going to do good things.
Besdies, one of the guys in the group said I was 'smart' when he asked me to write about this. See, Athens musicians, I'm as much as a sucker for praise and attention as the rest of you! The Athens Music Express e-mail address really works! (Just be grateful I didn't take up Misfortune 500 on their request to come see them play--dry ice triggers my asthma).
(Gratuitous and unnecessary use of exclamation points at the end of the article used by kind permission of the owner, Flagpole Editor Michelle Gilzenstern).
They may have decided to call their new EP 'One' because it's their favorite U2 song, but they probably did it because it's their first release. It's available for download at http://www.emergentheart.com/. It's tuneful and nice in that smooth indie rock way that all the kids seem to love these days, in touch with its feelings, sincere, sensitive, etc. Kind of like The Antlers, Real Estate, Broken Social Scene, Telekenesis, that kind of thing. And it's every bit as good as the rest of that stuff is.
Still, I probably wouldn't be mentioning it at all if the proceeds weren't going to Nuci's Space. Go visit http://www.nuci.org/ if you haven't heard of it. This blog can get a little negative sometimes, what with all the fevered egos in this town competing for one's attention, but Nuci's Space is something that every Athenian should be proud of. Very few people start playing music (or writing about it for that matter) because they are socially well-adjusted and have excellent coping mechanisms for dealing with the world around them. Thank god for all of us that a place like Nuci's Space exists.
A callous attempt on the part of an unknown band to draw attention to itself by aligning itself with a music-related charity loved by thousands? That's one way to look at it, if you're feeling cynical. But I'm not, and any money that goes to Nuci's Space is money that is going to do good things.
Besdies, one of the guys in the group said I was 'smart' when he asked me to write about this. See, Athens musicians, I'm as much as a sucker for praise and attention as the rest of you! The Athens Music Express e-mail address really works! (Just be grateful I didn't take up Misfortune 500 on their request to come see them play--dry ice triggers my asthma).
(Gratuitous and unnecessary use of exclamation points at the end of the article used by kind permission of the owner, Flagpole Editor Michelle Gilzenstern).
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Antlered Aunt Lord @ Go Bar, Sept. 29th
There won't be any pictures with this one. No videos. No links. Even the band's name is a mystery. Antlered Aunt Lord was the first name they gave me, so that's what I'm putting in the title. But I also heard Antlered Auntlord, Antler Antlord. Antlered Antlord. Antlered Ant Lord. Antler and the Aunt Lords and so on and so forth. The only thing we know for sure is that the band is led by Jesse Stinnard, and he is supported by a cast of players that changes from show to show. Two weeks ago at Flicker they had two drummers. Last week at Go Bar they had traded one of the drummers for a keyboard player. A couple of months ago they played a party at the Landfill as a trio. I recognized one of the guitarists from Tunabunny, and the drummer was Chase Prince (of Hot & Cold, Circulatory System, and countless others).
To paraphrase Mark E. Smith of the Fall, if it's Jesse Stinnard and your grandmother on bongos, then it's Antlered Auntlord.
Asking around, I learned that Stinnard moved to Athens about ten years ago from Gainesville, Ga. He grew up on farms in different parts of the country, just him and his brother bashing out songs in the barn. Ambivalent about playing out (to the degree that you can't hear the songs anywhere unless you go to a show), Stinnard's spent most of his time here writing and recording, seldom letting anybody hear the results. In the last couple of years, he's begun to get known as "someone who records bands" (Stinnard hates the term "producer"), recording Tunabunny, Gemini Cricket, Sphinxie, and Hot & Cold, among others.
Says Antlered Auntlord (sometime) member, Brigette Herron, "I ran into Jesse a few months ago, and he told me he had written a bunch of new songs, and that he really wanted to get out there and start playing shows again."
As for the music? A little Guided by Voices. A little bit Pixies. A little Wall of Voodoo. The lyrics--the ones you can make out anyway--sound like they were assembled out of a surrealist dictionary. So maybe a little bit Pavement as well. It is undeniably powerful, and private, and pestilence, and preliminary to something or other. The musicians obviously loved playing the songs, jumping into each other, making faces throughout the set, and generally just having fun. The show at Go Bar ended with Stinnard turning all the amplifiers up to ten before ripping every string off his guitar and hanging it on the drumset right before he walked offstage and disappeared into the night.
To the outside observer, Antlered Auntlord seems to be against everything that has anything to do with self-promotion. Like a good piece of graffiti, we're only going to find them by keeping our eyes open. Even the internet can't help us. Like the Cheshire Cat, Stinnard will only be seen when he wants us to see him, on his own terms.
And if last week's show at the Go Bar was any indication, he will also be grinning.
To paraphrase Mark E. Smith of the Fall, if it's Jesse Stinnard and your grandmother on bongos, then it's Antlered Auntlord.
Asking around, I learned that Stinnard moved to Athens about ten years ago from Gainesville, Ga. He grew up on farms in different parts of the country, just him and his brother bashing out songs in the barn. Ambivalent about playing out (to the degree that you can't hear the songs anywhere unless you go to a show), Stinnard's spent most of his time here writing and recording, seldom letting anybody hear the results. In the last couple of years, he's begun to get known as "someone who records bands" (Stinnard hates the term "producer"), recording Tunabunny, Gemini Cricket, Sphinxie, and Hot & Cold, among others.
Says Antlered Auntlord (sometime) member, Brigette Herron, "I ran into Jesse a few months ago, and he told me he had written a bunch of new songs, and that he really wanted to get out there and start playing shows again."
As for the music? A little Guided by Voices. A little bit Pixies. A little Wall of Voodoo. The lyrics--the ones you can make out anyway--sound like they were assembled out of a surrealist dictionary. So maybe a little bit Pavement as well. It is undeniably powerful, and private, and pestilence, and preliminary to something or other. The musicians obviously loved playing the songs, jumping into each other, making faces throughout the set, and generally just having fun. The show at Go Bar ended with Stinnard turning all the amplifiers up to ten before ripping every string off his guitar and hanging it on the drumset right before he walked offstage and disappeared into the night.
To the outside observer, Antlered Auntlord seems to be against everything that has anything to do with self-promotion. Like a good piece of graffiti, we're only going to find them by keeping our eyes open. Even the internet can't help us. Like the Cheshire Cat, Stinnard will only be seen when he wants us to see him, on his own terms.
And if last week's show at the Go Bar was any indication, he will also be grinning.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Of Montreal Is Heading Off To See The World (Again)
Just one question: With Thayer Serrano playing keyboards on this tour, will Kevin change the lyrics of 'Sex Karma' to "You look like a playground to me, Thayer?"
The mind boggles. In fact, while we're at it, why not just change 'playground' to 'thayground'? I hear fake lisping is the new whiteface.
Here's the band's new video. To their feminist credit, there's probably fewer women getting punched in the face and dry-humped while they lie there unconscious than there will be after next week's football game.
The mind boggles. In fact, while we're at it, why not just change 'playground' to 'thayground'? I hear fake lisping is the new whiteface.
Here's the band's new video. To their feminist credit, there's probably fewer women getting punched in the face and dry-humped while they lie there unconscious than there will be after next week's football game.
The Sound of Capitalism Exhausting Itself
A music as shallow & useless, as silly & stupid, and as blinkered & desperate, as the future middle managers and CEO's who keep flocking to see them.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Live Review - Grape Soda, Titans of Filth, Eureka California, WereWolves. Live at the 40watt, Mar. 20th
Grape Soda
Let’s get this out of the way before we go any further. Grape Soda is my favorite band in Athens right now, and you owe it to yourself to see them as soon, and as often, as possible. The band is made up of local music veterans (and brothers) Mat & Ryan Lewis. They’ve been playing together (and separately) for years, but I’ve never really been moved by any of their previous projects. Yet somehow, for some reason Grape Soda takes me somewhere. And there aren’t many bands in town these days who can even get me to pay attention.
The setup is simple enough. Garage rock drums from Ryan and spaced-out keyboards from Mat. But there's something unlikely in Mat's voice, a yearning, a soulfulness that you don't notice at first. Go to their myspace and listen to "Not Mine," a song that should be ringing out of radios & ipods all over the world, and maybe someday soon it will. Grape Soda sounds like no other band on earth that I know of, and in 2010 that counts for a lot.
Titans of Filth
With a lot of bands, it seems like their songs all sound the same. With Titans of Filth, it seems like you are literally listening to the same song over and over again. The fact that 90% of the songs are in the same key (B-major in case you're wondering, which just isn't natural) doesn't help. Unless, of course, Titans of Filth is trying to pull off an elaborate conceptual art move. In which case, I enthusiastically applaud their daring and suggest that we, their future audience, attempt to one-up the band by demanding an encore at their next show. At which they point they will come out and play. . . yet another song that sounds just like the last one. Warhol would be proud.
They're lucky I just happen to like that one song. Sam's voice, a mixture of Calvin Johnson and Stephen Merritt, is so flat you could run a net across it and play yourself a regulation game of ping-pong. And I mean that as a compliment.
Eureka California
The last time I saw Eureka California they had five bandmembers and I didn't like them very much. Last Saturday, they were down to three members and I liked them a little better. Who knows, maybe they could lose another member and become downright loveable? I nominate the singer/guitarist. To be fair, the band's recordings sound a lot better than their live set, which was a rocking, indistinct mush. On record, a couple of the songs seem to actually have hooks. "Milwaukee," at least, could hold its own with any local music compilation around. And if that's good enough for EC, then it's good enough for me. As a parting compliment, Wyatt Strother may be pound-for-pound the most powerful drummer in rock.
And as a parting fact, I've been to Eureka, California the place, and "kind bud" aside, it is a total shithole. Far more of a shithole than EC the band could ever be. Even if they expanded their line-up to Dark Meat-esque quantities.
Werewolves
The evening was a record-release party for both Euereka California and Werewolves. Werewolves frontman Wyatt Strother (you may have noticed, if you've been paying attention, that he plays in both bands) is putting out both bands' albums on his own Athens Horse Party label. Werewolves has been criticized in some places for sounding a little bit too much like Neutral Milk Hotel. Which is understandable. If you move to Liverpool and start a band that sounds like The Beatles, or move to Manchester and start a band that sounds like Joy Division, or move to Boston and start a band that sounds like, uh... Boston, people there are probably going to notice.
Anyway, you judge.
Whatever. I think they sound more like The Decemberists. But Werewolves--and honestly, it's just Wyatt, I woudln't compare the rest of the band to NMH at all--does have the same wide-eyed, intense gaze of Mangum, a similar voice, and an even more frequent "ba-ba-ba"-ing when he sings.
Personally, I have no problem on earth with Werewolves sounding like NMH, or anyone else for that matter. However, I should state for the record, and for all the NMH-influenced bands out there, that my reasons for loving that band had little to do with Mr. Mangum's nasally voice, or the aforementioned "ba-ba-ba"-ing. Or for the horns and additional instruments that were used to flesh out his songs. I loved, and continue to love NMH of words as strange and compelling as this.
The movements were beautiful
All in your ovaries
All of them milking with green fleshy flowers
While powerful pistons were sugary sweet machines
And for performances like this.
I'm not disappointed because Werewolves may be influenced by NMH. I'm disappointed that they only seem to be influenced by the parts of NMH that are the easiest to replicate, i.e. the sound & the style. Unfortunately, the substance seems to be (for now) beyond Wyatt Strother's grasp.
I doubt even he would try to compare one of his own lines, "Pieces of my body made from plastic, glue and steel form the only temple without the capacity to feel," to anything by NMH (and just so you know, I tried to pick out one of the better lyrics I was able to find). But maybe he should try it sometime, because all too often his lyric writing falls back on the easy image (a vague noun like "things" seems to be a favorite), or unearned sentimentality like, "You will lay to rest inside my heart and I won't leave you alone." LuckyCharm words like "heart" pop up more than they need to. By not holding himself to a higher standard, he does a disservice to his songs, as well as his own imagination.
But the truth is, all criticism aside, the fact remains that Wyatt Strother is trying. In fact, he is trying very hard. I just hope that he keeps trying. A friend of mine once played me some recordings Jeff Mangum made circa 1992. They were, to put it mildly, underwhelming. The people we are today are not the same people we are going to be tomorrow, and that goes for Wyatt Strother as well.
Please, Wyatt, if you are reading this go and get yourself some poetry from the UGA library. Bill Knott and Frank Stanford are a good place to start. Please don't make the same mistake that so many musicians in this town make, and look solely to other musicians and their lyrics as the source of your inspiration. Try to sound like something you're not capable of sounding like. Reach beyond your grasp. I'm expecting to be blown away when I see your band a year from now.
I'm also expecting you to lose the constant self-deprecation bit. I understand where it comes from, and I'm sypathetic, but it got old pretty quick. Perhaps you could take it into shelf-deprecation? Goddamit, all my lacrosse trophies fell down! Or even elf-deprecation? These E.L. Fudge cookies taste like shit! And Will Ferrell is a shitty actor!
By the way, there's a band in New York who is also called Werewolves. www.myspace.com/amsterdam They are on a record label, which means they probably own the name. Maybe Werewolves Jr.? Or The Werewolves UK?
Let’s get this out of the way before we go any further. Grape Soda is my favorite band in Athens right now, and you owe it to yourself to see them as soon, and as often, as possible. The band is made up of local music veterans (and brothers) Mat & Ryan Lewis. They’ve been playing together (and separately) for years, but I’ve never really been moved by any of their previous projects. Yet somehow, for some reason Grape Soda takes me somewhere. And there aren’t many bands in town these days who can even get me to pay attention.
The setup is simple enough. Garage rock drums from Ryan and spaced-out keyboards from Mat. But there's something unlikely in Mat's voice, a yearning, a soulfulness that you don't notice at first. Go to their myspace and listen to "Not Mine," a song that should be ringing out of radios & ipods all over the world, and maybe someday soon it will. Grape Soda sounds like no other band on earth that I know of, and in 2010 that counts for a lot.
Titans of Filth
With a lot of bands, it seems like their songs all sound the same. With Titans of Filth, it seems like you are literally listening to the same song over and over again. The fact that 90% of the songs are in the same key (B-major in case you're wondering, which just isn't natural) doesn't help. Unless, of course, Titans of Filth is trying to pull off an elaborate conceptual art move. In which case, I enthusiastically applaud their daring and suggest that we, their future audience, attempt to one-up the band by demanding an encore at their next show. At which they point they will come out and play. . . yet another song that sounds just like the last one. Warhol would be proud.
They're lucky I just happen to like that one song. Sam's voice, a mixture of Calvin Johnson and Stephen Merritt, is so flat you could run a net across it and play yourself a regulation game of ping-pong. And I mean that as a compliment.
Eureka California
The last time I saw Eureka California they had five bandmembers and I didn't like them very much. Last Saturday, they were down to three members and I liked them a little better. Who knows, maybe they could lose another member and become downright loveable? I nominate the singer/guitarist. To be fair, the band's recordings sound a lot better than their live set, which was a rocking, indistinct mush. On record, a couple of the songs seem to actually have hooks. "Milwaukee," at least, could hold its own with any local music compilation around. And if that's good enough for EC, then it's good enough for me. As a parting compliment, Wyatt Strother may be pound-for-pound the most powerful drummer in rock.
And as a parting fact, I've been to Eureka, California the place, and "kind bud" aside, it is a total shithole. Far more of a shithole than EC the band could ever be. Even if they expanded their line-up to Dark Meat-esque quantities.
Werewolves
The evening was a record-release party for both Euereka California and Werewolves. Werewolves frontman Wyatt Strother (you may have noticed, if you've been paying attention, that he plays in both bands) is putting out both bands' albums on his own Athens Horse Party label. Werewolves has been criticized in some places for sounding a little bit too much like Neutral Milk Hotel. Which is understandable. If you move to Liverpool and start a band that sounds like The Beatles, or move to Manchester and start a band that sounds like Joy Division, or move to Boston and start a band that sounds like, uh... Boston, people there are probably going to notice.
Anyway, you judge.
Whatever. I think they sound more like The Decemberists. But Werewolves--and honestly, it's just Wyatt, I woudln't compare the rest of the band to NMH at all--does have the same wide-eyed, intense gaze of Mangum, a similar voice, and an even more frequent "ba-ba-ba"-ing when he sings.
Personally, I have no problem on earth with Werewolves sounding like NMH, or anyone else for that matter. However, I should state for the record, and for all the NMH-influenced bands out there, that my reasons for loving that band had little to do with Mr. Mangum's nasally voice, or the aforementioned "ba-ba-ba"-ing. Or for the horns and additional instruments that were used to flesh out his songs. I loved, and continue to love NMH of words as strange and compelling as this.
The movements were beautiful
All in your ovaries
All of them milking with green fleshy flowers
While powerful pistons were sugary sweet machines
And for performances like this.
I'm not disappointed because Werewolves may be influenced by NMH. I'm disappointed that they only seem to be influenced by the parts of NMH that are the easiest to replicate, i.e. the sound & the style. Unfortunately, the substance seems to be (for now) beyond Wyatt Strother's grasp.
I doubt even he would try to compare one of his own lines, "Pieces of my body made from plastic, glue and steel form the only temple without the capacity to feel," to anything by NMH (and just so you know, I tried to pick out one of the better lyrics I was able to find). But maybe he should try it sometime, because all too often his lyric writing falls back on the easy image (a vague noun like "things" seems to be a favorite), or unearned sentimentality like, "You will lay to rest inside my heart and I won't leave you alone." LuckyCharm words like "heart" pop up more than they need to. By not holding himself to a higher standard, he does a disservice to his songs, as well as his own imagination.
But the truth is, all criticism aside, the fact remains that Wyatt Strother is trying. In fact, he is trying very hard. I just hope that he keeps trying. A friend of mine once played me some recordings Jeff Mangum made circa 1992. They were, to put it mildly, underwhelming. The people we are today are not the same people we are going to be tomorrow, and that goes for Wyatt Strother as well.
Please, Wyatt, if you are reading this go and get yourself some poetry from the UGA library. Bill Knott and Frank Stanford are a good place to start. Please don't make the same mistake that so many musicians in this town make, and look solely to other musicians and their lyrics as the source of your inspiration. Try to sound like something you're not capable of sounding like. Reach beyond your grasp. I'm expecting to be blown away when I see your band a year from now.
I'm also expecting you to lose the constant self-deprecation bit. I understand where it comes from, and I'm sypathetic, but it got old pretty quick. Perhaps you could take it into shelf-deprecation? Goddamit, all my lacrosse trophies fell down! Or even elf-deprecation? These E.L. Fudge cookies taste like shit! And Will Ferrell is a shitty actor!
By the way, there's a band in New York who is also called Werewolves. www.myspace.com/amsterdam They are on a record label, which means they probably own the name. Maybe Werewolves Jr.? Or The Werewolves UK?
Alex Chilton R.I.P.
3rd/Sister Lovers is an album that has meant as much to me personally as any album ever. Alex died of a heart attack just before he was due to appear at SXSW. Fortunately, they were able to take his body over to the Philip Morris/McDonald's Embalming Tent, and then from there to the Levi's/Spin Magazine Casket Factory. Both sites are copyright of SXSW inc., all rights reserved.
I'm not sure where he was buried, but I hope he is finally at peace.
I'm not sure where he was buried, but I hope he is finally at peace.
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