Doubting the doubts with Deleted Scenes
Deleted Scenes’ cynical poetic lyrics blend triumphantly with a musical style that is surprisingly symphonic for a four-piece rock band. The band’s popularity continues its upward slope with a recent article in Spin and an 8.0 rating in Pitchfork. Deleted Scenes returns to Atlanta for a show at 529 on Wednesday, July 6th, playing with Baby Baby, Howlies and Low Five All Stars.
If you are familiar with this band’s output, It is not surprising to you when you find the latest Deleted Scenes single stuck in your head. “Bed Bed Bed Bed Bed Bed Bed” is slightly absurd and yet very catchy and musically infectious. The three-letter word repeats itself over and over, lulling the listener into a musical dream where sleep is it’s own hypnosis. Waking up might mean the end of a great moment in time, or maybe the beginning of a new hope. Either way, we’re addicted and once you hear it, chances are that it will get stuck in your head, and before you know it you’ll be rhyming in your waking to the word bed, as it repeats. Listen for yourself.
We had the chance to catch up with Deleted Scenes frontman and songwriter Dan Scheuerman to find out more about this touring band.
Interview by Justin Sias
JS: How has preparing for this tour been different than in the past?
DS: We’ve been incredibly busy leading up to this tour. We are releasing a 12″ EP, which we have been cutting and gluing the sleeves for all week. It’s a ton of work, but pretty fun. The decision was inspired partly by the fact that we’re too broke to afford professional sleeves, and partly by stories about the old Dischord days when they would hand-assemble the packaging for their early 7″s and mail them all over the world.
JS: That’s cool. So now you are going to take it on the road. Anything in particular you are looking forward to about this tour?
DS: We’re doing a live one-take video in Omaha with this great new video collective called Love Drunk that I am super excited about. I highly recommend their videos on www.lovedrunkstudio.com. The quality of sound they manage to get out of single live take is really hard to believe, so I’m looking forward to learning a lot by being part of that process.
JS: What are the pros and cons of being a band in DC?
DS: DC is expensive, and hard to find practice space in. However, it’s really unpretentious and homey. If you go to a few DIY shows, you pretty much know everyone making music in town, so there’s a community vibe that we really appreciate.
JS: I really like in the new song how when it gets to the final bed bed bed part, how there feels like a shift, taking the mood to a new level. Did you do that intentionally? Is it a key change?
DS: I think it’s called a re-harm—where you take the same melody and put it over a different set of chords. Matt came up with the new chords for the ending part as a way to sort of uplift the song. It’s one of the benefits of working with a songwriting partner. I will often feel like the song is totally complete, and he’ll add another layer that boosts the whole thing.
JS: How is the upcoming album release Young People’s Church of the Air different from your last – Birdseed Shirt?
DS: This album was done in a professional studio in a more condensed period of time. We still spent a lot of time exploring sounds and re-imagining the songs, but this time it was more concentrated and orderly. As a result, it was also a lot more intense and pressurized, which I think might have added a kind of doomed energy to the mixes. The songwriting on this album is more rhythmically adventurous. We are working with some more exciting feels than the Americana vibe we explored on Birdseed Shirt. There’s a song that’s inspired by DC’s native dance beat, “Go-Go,” a song that’s inspired by UK garage music, and a kind of R. Kelly club banger.
Some of the textures are a bit difficult. I was inspired by Burmese pop from the seventies, and by Elliott Smiths’ last album From the Basement on a Hill to put distortion in some places where you wouldn’t normally expect it, and leave it the process open to accidents and strangeness whenever possible. I think it’s a more confident work, more cohesive — more the work of a band digging in and discovering itself. We also started employing some double-kick grooves. Most people associate double-kick with cheesier music, which was part of the appeal for us. We wanted to see if we could find a hidden artfulness in it.
JS: Your lyrics have a poetic and almost literary quality to them. What writers are you influenced by?
DS: Well, thanks! It’s hard to say. I mean, I like a lot of writers. David Foster Wallace and Flannery O’Connor are probably my two favorites. They are both hilarious and deeply serious at the same time.
JS: What comes first, the lyrics or the music?
DS: On this album, it was mostly the music. Most of the songs started out with a fruity loops drum pattern and developed from there. The lyrics for those came last. There are a few songs I wrote by myself, where the music and lyrics came simultaneously in a sort of lightning bolt. There’s always a few of those.
JS: Musically, what kind of a tone are you going for?
DS: I think there’s an attempt in the new songs to take happiness seriously, and to cultivate a state of mind that guards itself against cynicism. At the same time, there are a lot of troubling and heavy themes on the album, which aren’t brushed over, but rather looked at without defaulting on negativity. Doubting the doubts. Tenuous hope.
A Whiff of Old Cabbagetown
I moved to Cabbagetown nine years ago. Those were different times. Back then you could still buy any drug at any hour on any street corner you wanted. Sure, the gentrification was well underway, but there was still something untamed and slightly dangerous about the place. And there were lots of ‘characters’. Now it’s all the boring kinds of crimes, and lots of yuppies in BMWs road-raging against each other on Carroll Street.
The REAL Kristofferson
this street.
When he noticed me, he called, “Hey boy, you look like James Dean!
Anybody ever told you that?”
“Nope,” I replied. “Never heard that one.”
“Oh yeah. You got the curl an’ everything. My momma used to do me like
this,” he continued, pulling a comb from his pocket and combing his hair
back in the reflection in a car window. “She used-ta slick it back with
homogenized butter.”
He got a pretty good quaff going, I must admit. Even without the butter. Said he liked to think of himself as a cross between James Dean and Jerry Lee Lewis. He assured me, several times, that he was not a bum, then he went on to give me his life story. Moved to Cabbagetown with his mother in ‘57, worked the factory when he was seven years old, used to “run dogs all up and down these streets” (whatever that means), and once, allegedly, replaced several missing stones in the Oakland Cemetery wall. Said he left Cabbagetown in ‘68, when he went to ‘Nam.
“I’m the oldest living veteran with seven Congressional medals of honor
and two purple hearts,” he yelled, “and I can’t even spell my own name.”
He walked away, teary-eyed and apologetic. I called back “It was nice
talking to you,” and I meant it.
Still, I didn’t catch his name.
Sat June 04.
Bon and Jon . Matt McCalvin . Ronney Danger . Louise Le Hir
Howlies: St. Louis to Memphis
We get to St. Louis Wednesday afternoon, and of course it’s raining. The venue is down the street from Vintage Vinyl, one of my all-time favorite record stores. I go in and drool on their records for a while, but I have zero money to spend. I almost buy a $3 Billy Squire record just to be dumb, but I reign myself in.
Cicero’s is a sports bar with a divey music room in the back. The bartender is a mean, no-nonsense blonde girl who we have to practically beg for our drink tickets and band pizza, but eventually Matt Forsee wins her over with his easy Southern charm.
The first band (who shall remain nameless) are hands down the worst band we’ve ever shared a bill with. Their lead guitarist was unable to make it tonight, so the singer’s dad is filling in – a spent metal-head in his fifties with a Marshall amp and one of those lime green Steve Vai guitars with the hand grip cut into the body. he kid plays a red Jackson, and his GF plays the drums. It’s a family affair. They play their ridiculously shitty funk-metal to the kid’s mom, who dances all serpentine up front. The other twenty people in the room look on, pained. They are friends or family members, forced to be here out of obligation. As much as our music might have the power to cleanse their aural pallette, they will obviously not be staying for our show.
As predicted, the first band’s crowd files out immediately following their set, and Dad is so busy shmoozing them outside he forgets to move his shit off the stage. Off my side of the stage. Finally, after we are all set up, line-checked, and ready to play, he figures it out, and loads his stuff out of my way with not so much as a ‘sorry, bro’. Amateur.
We play to the third band, their GFs, and about six die-hard Howlies fans. Inexplicably, we sell almost $100 in merch to this microscopic crowd.
We drive to Memphis, the last show of the tour. Today is the first day we’ve had in a week. Blue skies and sunshine. But there are signs of last night’s severe weather. Flooded farmlands, interstate signs and billboards bent into weird angles. The Mississippi River looks ready to burst.
We’re very early, so we load into Hi Tone and walk across the street to the park. There is an ultimate Frisbee game going on, and lots of dogs running around. One dog races across the park flying a kite tied to his collar. He makes it all the way across, then crashes the kite into a tree. We stay here until dusk then walk back to Hi Tone for our band pizza and beer.
There are sometimes more people backstage at Hi Tone than out front, and this is the case tonight. All the people who might like our show are in the back room smoking and playing foosball. Maybe they come out front to watch us play, but I have my glasses off so I can’t tell. We have a good show, but the crowd is pretty fratty. Our usual Memphis fan base is mysteriously absent, but we’re all just ready to go home so we don’t really care. We load out and drive straight back to Atlanta. Matt takes the first shift and I catch a few hours of sleep. I am woken up at dawn outside Birmingham. It’s my turn to drive. We are right in the path of the now-infamous tornadoes. Everything, everywhere, as far as the eye can see, is destroyed. Houses and cars in ruins, trees like splintered toothpicks. The radio stations are all in emergency mode. I drive through these ruins, still half-asleep, as if in some nightmare. I keep my eyes open til Atlanta (by listening to a modern country station at top volume), and soon I’m home in my bed, where I will remain for a day and a half.
June 3 – Chris Wright Presents Morbid Anatomy
Chris Wright’s Morbid Anatomy is interactive wooden sculpture… Lots of puppet like things. There will be show cards, popsicle stick puppets, 3 kinetic masks, one pulley system, and a system of winches. This is going to be art interaction and it will be a lot of fun!
Howlies: Columbus to Chicago
part 3: Columbus to Chicago
by Justin Brooke
Saturday night, Columbus Ohio. We head straight to Carabar. This is where we always play, but we’re not playing here tonight. We just stopped in to drink a few shots of Powers whiskey with Ron, who is the man. It’s only 6 pm, so things are still tame. Ron just got a new Colt 45 Slushie machine and he lets me try one. It’s grape-flavored Colt 45. For the record, malt liquor + grape saccharine flavor = disgusting.
The venue we’re playing is called Treehouse, because there’s a massive oak tree in the middle of the room, growing up through the roof. This was no accident. The whole building has been constructed around this tree. Somebody saw the tree and said ‘I love this tree so much I have to build a dive bar around it’. It’s been raining all day, and the rain has trickled down the tree, and now the inside of the venue is sopping wet and mildewy. I get the impression it’s always this way, but clearly it’s worse when it rains. We play to the tree and about fifty people. I stand in a pool of rainwater, getting electrocuted by my microphone every time my lips touch it. Not a little shocked, mind you. Electrocuted. The tree is six feet in front of me and it soaks up all the sound. No matter how loud we play, the music sounds dead and distant, like an outdoor show at some county fair. It’s weird. But the crowd seems into it.
We make it back to Carabar at around 2:45 a.m. They are closed. I call Ron and he lets us in. I drink five Colt 45 grape drinks and three Colt 45 margaritas (slightly better than the grape but still disgusting).
Sunday is Easter so we drive halfway to Chicago and get a hotel in Lafayette. Nothing much to report here, except several drug deals seem to be going down in the parking lot. We stick to the vending machines, and only venture out to eat across the street at IHOP, where the waitresses are all wearing rabbit ears.
It’s a cold and rainy Monday in Chicago. Everything is obscured by fog. Only the lower floors of the Sears tower are visible. It is definitely not springtime here. We eat breakfast in an amazing Polish diner then spend all day sitting in our parallel-parked van, watching movies on the laptop. We watch the Lemmy documentary. I have a new respect for the man, but the film makes Matt sad.
Pancho’s is a Cuban restaurant and bar, which has apparently taken over the ‘Official Wicker Park Dive Bar’ torch from Ronnie’s, which is down the street. Pancho himself tends the bar, and simultaneously plays very loud maracas along with the first band. This is vaguely annoying, and I hope he won’t do it when we play. But Pancho’s excitement is aroused by the second band. He pulls an alto saxophone out from under the bar and begins wailing along with them. He does this for a few songs, while still serving drinks, until the singer invites him on stage. Now it will be impossible to get a drink. Pancho stands on stage, squealing up and down the scales, searching for the key of the song. The band stops cold and he keeps glissando-ing out of control. He trades a few awkward licks with the guitar player, and then goes back to bartending. For our show, he keeps quiet. I’m not sure if it’s because he hates our music, or because he respects it.
Next morning we feast on a breakfast of Pequod’s pizza. This is the greasiest, most delicious deep-dish pizza I have ever eaten. I save a piece and eat it a few hours later. It’s like biting into a sopping wet sponge.
Howlies: When in Kentucky
by Justin Brooke
Part 2: Lexington to Toledo
It is a beautiful spring morning, and we’re driving from Knoxville to Lexington, through the majestic Daniel Boone National Forest.
We arrive in town early, so we hit up a park. I trek out across a hilly expanse of grass, looking for a place to sleep. I find it, and drift into a very calm, meditative state. This probably lasts about ten minutes. Then a distant but persistent buzzing noise grows louder until it’s right on top of me. A remote-controlled airplane. It mocks me with loopy-loops. I spot the top of a bald head peeking over a hill, and the remote control antenna, protruding like some penile substitute. This creep can fly, but he’s ruining my nap. Is he intentionally fucking with me? Is he the cops? Is there a tiny camera on his plane, recording my every move? No, no stop that. That’s just paranoid. Then his plane takes a dive bomb straight at me. He pulls it up just in time, but I decide to get out of there. I grab my stuff and walk toward the lake. I half-expect to be chased down by the plane like in North by Northwest, but the creep keeps his distance.
It’s windy down by the lake, but it’s quiet. I play guitars with Aaron for a while, then we head toward the venue.
Cosmic Charlie’s shares a strip mall with a sports bar, a laundromat, and a liquor store. We’ve never played here, and I’m skeptical, but they tell me this is where you play in Lexington, and the college is right down the street, so maybe the kids will show up.
Because we’re in Kentucky, and because our advance sheets say nothing of free beer tonight, we decide to invest in some Kentucky bourbon. Brandon and I opt for a brand called Very Old Barton.
As we feared, there’s no hospitality to be had at Cosmic Charlie’s, so we order soda waters and add our VOB right in front of them, really just daring them to say something about it {our behavior here might seem strange to some people, so let me explain: when a band comes from out of town to play your venue, a modicum of free beer is expected, and those establishments/people who, as a policy, refuse to come across with the free beer are, as a policy, dicks}.
Brandon and I sit at the bar watching the Hawks/Magic game. Hawks win. A gaggle of college girls appear. This is promising. Usually, where there is a gaggle of girls, others will follow. And yet, nobody does. These girls are definitely here for the other band, and I can tell they’re all going to leave before we play, so I do what I never ever do: I approach two of them and beg them not to go. I say ‘just give it one song’. They politely explain they’ve gotta go blah blah blah, and then they all leave. I must say I detected a heavy religious vibe from them, and I think I scared them a little. The crowd is now reduced to the first band plus one girlfriend, two random dudes, and a seven foot tall guy we know from Asheville who just moved here and is blindly drunk.
I hit my VOB bottle pretty hard, order another soda water, and get on stage. I take the glasses off again. As we get into the first song, I see a vague ruckus on the dance floor – someone is whirling around the empty void, and it’s our boy from Asheville. I put my glasses back on. He is beautiful, flinging his giant limbs around, falling all over the other six people in the room, spilling drinks everywhere, screaming FUCKIN HOWLIES! over and over.
After the show, he insists that we stay with him, but we have decided to take our chances with Random Dude #1, whose real name is Roy. Roy lives twenty minutes outside town, in a smaller town whose name I will never know. His apartment building shares a parking lot with an IGA straight out of 1952. Apparently, the soda machine in front of the IGA is the town’s biggest teenage hang-out spot. Tonight it’s deserted, but a bunch of kids are standing around across the street at the bus stop (the second biggest hang-out spot in town). Roy’s power is shut off, but there’s an extention cord running from the basement of the building, and the TV, Xbox, microwave, and christmas lights are all plugged into a lone surge protector. Brandon and I stand on Roy’s back deck, smoking and admiring the old-timey surroundings. Brandon informs me that he just drank the majority of his VOB in the van, on the way here. I say ‘wow, you don’t even seem that drunk.’ And he says ‘I know!’ Then he tries to trade me a granola bar for the rest of my VOB. Ten minutes later, he’s doing an impression of Jimmy Page hawking up a loogie, his head practically buried in the lap of Random Dude #2, who has definitely chosen the wrong place to sit. Somebody says ‘Brandon, stop simulating fellatio. You’re freaking this guy out!’
Eventually, Brandon passes out with his arms around the toilet. I pass out on my army cot near the back door. An hour later some kids hop the A/C unit, climb up on Roy’s back deck, and waltz in through the back door. They stand over me yelling ‘Hey Roy! Where you at?’ Roy is asleep in his loft. They climb over my helpless body, drunkenly and awkwardly. I want to knee them in the balls, but I keep my cool. Roy wakes up and tells them to take their drunk asses home. Moments later they climb back over me and exit.
It is a long, rainy, dreary drive to Toledo, which (I’m sorry) is looking pretty bleak. Maybe it’s just the weather. Then again, it’s raining every time we come here. We sell some vinyl to Rama-lama Records then drive around the city several times looking for a Little Caesar’s (because you can get two large pizzas for $10, and we are that broke). We load into Frankie’s downtown. Brandon and I watch another Hawks/Magic game. Hawks win again. Not that I really care, but being this far from home, it feels good that Atlanta is winning. It’s Friday night and Atlanta is winning, baby.
The crowd is pretty decent. I drink the rest of my VOB and too much free PBR (it’s the bare minimum of hospitality, but I will take it). Up there, Howlies get loose. It’s the loosest show we’ve played in ages. It feels good.
We stay with the other band’s bass player, who lives twenty miles away in Bowling Green, Ohio. His apartment has a very shagadelic vibe. About 375 people sit around smoking cigarettes in the living room. Dozens of ashtrays made from melted 12″ vinyl, all overflowing with butts.
Next morning, I wake with heavy lungs. I must have inhaled a pack of second-hand smoke in my sleep. And now it’s on to our old friend Columbus.
On to Chicago
Howlies: Mid By Midwest
by Justin Brooke
Part 1. Nashville to Knoxville
Backstage at the Mercy Lounge, I stand behind giant windows, gazing out at downtown Nashville, and mentally preparing myself for the first night of an eight-show Howlies tour – and Howlies plan to kick this thing off right, with a show so teenage, so stupid, so loud, so drunk, and so fuckin… fuckin… well… okay, to be honest, I’m a little worried about the turnout here, because my eyes cannot help peeking down at the empty parking lot, and it is a Tuesday night, and it is raining, and yeah, Lady Gaga is playing down the street, and okay I admit Howlies and Gaga share a fan base (pretty much demographically identical), but I have faith in the rock n roll spirit of Nashville – no – I have faith in the people of Nashville, and I know how to make their little ears bleed.
Moments later, Howlies take the stage to less-than-roaring applause. Okay, the room is pretty much empty. Maybe fifteen people out there. Fuck it. I take off my glasses, and give it to the blur.
After the show, we repair to a very hip East Nashville bar full of Big Howlies Fans who couldn’t quite make it to the show earlier. Nashville is full of these people. They are called musicians. I sneak in some beers that the Mercy Lounge’s bartender gave me, as a pittance (let it never be said that the Mercy Lounge has no Mercy). I commence getting drunk. Fade to black.
We arrive in downtown Knoxville at dusk. It’s been raining all day and the city is sodden. There is nothing to do, except wait for this venue to open. Well, there’s a shop next door with old records and vintage guitars, and it makes me want to cream myself, but I’m broke so I walk out after five minutes. I wander around downtown. I am accosted by a gang of teenage Christians who pretend to be my pals before trying to sell me useless trinkets. I tell them ‘good luck raising money for your trip to Peru, but I am a bum and I have nothing for you’. I go into a pizza place. The leader of the Christian gang follows me in. He asks me if I’m with the table of kids across the room. I say no. He goes over and tries to sell them his trinkets. They are immediately turned off by his fake-niceness. They ask him to fuck off. I eat my pizza on the walk back to the Pilot Light.
I appreciate this venue. It’s an unpretentious dive with a stage and a record player behind the bar. What more do you need? And there’s a decent crowd here, too, for a Wednesday night. This will only be the second show we’ve done in Knoxville, but it looks like we’ve got some repeat customers. And we need that, because last night kinda sucked. We proceed to rock the fuck out, as they say. You can tell how much a crowd likes you by how much merch they buy afterward. I think we did $7000 in merch. But it could’ve been like $40. I don’t remember. I was pretty drunk.
We spend the night with a friend. He lives in his aunt’s house in a retirement community. As we’re getting our sleeping bags out of the van, some old guy walks past in short shorts and no shirt. He gives us a suspicious glance, then walks on down the street and straight into the woods. We’re thinking that’s kind of weird, but apparently, this guy decided to call the cops on us – because ten minutes later, I’m jammin the fuck out on our host’s VOX acoustic guitar (I know, I’ve never seen one before either), and suddenly the Knoxville Pigs are ringing the doorbell. Our host has to explain that we are guests not burglars, but I want to know why the shirtless guy gets to walk around like a character from a David Lynch movie without having to ever explain his deal to anyone. That’s America, I guess. Crucify the long-hairs.
Book Review: Life by Keith Richards
by Justin Brooke
If there is a living archetype for rock ‘n’ roll, it is Keith Effing Richards. And now, The Man Who Drugs Could Not Kill has given us a manual for living.
Life (co-written by James Fox) could just as easily have been titled Keith’s Little Instruction Book; hidden between anecdotes about supermodels and controlled substances, there are nuggets of sagely wisdom. Example: if you ever find yourself in a knife fight, the best move is no move – the knife is meant to distract your opponent while you kick him in the balls. However, if you must use the blade, a quick cut above the eyebrow does the trick – you won’t cause any real damage, and your opponent will be blinded by their own blood.
Keith chalks up his own survival to 1. pharmaceutical-grade dope, and 2. never overdoing it (though if you’ve seen Cocksucker Blues, it’s kind of hard to believe that last one). I get the impression that his longevity comes more from an unstoppable creative drive. He may not be the front man of the Rolling Stones, but he’s clearly the bandleader.
The casual Stones fan might be surprised to learn what a born leader Keith Richards really is. From the early days in the London club scene, up through the stadium-filling present, he’s been the glue holding the World’s Greatest Band together. In the early chapters, we see him honing his leadership skills as Patrol Leader of the Beaver Patrol, Seventh Dartford Scouts. There, Keith learned how to use a knife, and more importantly, how to hold a group of guys together (though he admits, “discipline was a little lax”).
Along the way, we get guest commentary from luminaries such as long-time Stones saxophonist (and Keith’s best friend) Bobby Keys, a wild Texan who made the perfect outlaw sidekick. Upon learning that the two shared the exact same birthday, Richards told Keys: “We’re half men and half horse, and we got a license to shit in the streets.” And shit in the streets they did.
Keith is unflinching in his description of his long, tumultuous relationship with Mick Jagger (un-affectionately referred to as ‘Brenda’). Yet, for all their differences, something (money?) continues to hold them together after all these years.
I’ve read plenty of ghostwritten musician bios in my day, but Life takes the cake. Not even the Miles Davis autobiography comes close to the all-out hedonism described in these pages. There are lots of pro tips for guitar nerds, too. I give Life five ‘bumps’ out of five.
Daikaiju attacks Picaflor Studio – Fri March 11
Spy Huntress Presents
World famous Daikaiju at Picaflor Studio March 11!
SXSW Celebration
with special guests
Ampline and Starfighter
Spy Huntress: I heard great things about Daikaiju and from many. Now I want to see for myself. So we’re going to throw a SXSW party in Atlanta, celebrate the upcoming voyage to Austin, Texas and our favorite music festival. We’ll send Daikaiju, friends Starfighter and Ampline to Austin with some finesse. Unfortunately, the interview was confusing and there seems to be a language barrier. Daikaiju is instrumental so no problem if you do not listen for words. This is our interview.
Spy Huntress: Bon Jour. You guys live in Alabama? What is the band’s fascination with Japanese culture?
Daikaiju: Daikaiju not in possession of this answer. Many different band have many different fascination. What band you ask about?
SH: uh, Daikaiju. That is the name of your band, no? (awkward silence)
Have you guys played Japan before and can you tell us any interesting stories?
DK: Daikaiju play Japan many time!!! Quiet Life is most favorite!!! David Sylvian once make nice salad to whole Daikaiju!!!
SH: Ha ha! Not exactly what I was expecting you to say! You’re funny.
What is your favorite movie?
DK: This make to create difficult choice between King Kong Lightning Force and Gamera Soup Kitchen- both most high rocket drama!!!
If you are wondering what a gamera is
Who can forget our friend King Kong?
SH: How did Daikaiju come to form? Who’s in the band?
A: Daikaiju form from many intercourse with no forcefield. What band you ask about again?
Q: What can we expect from a live Daikaiju show?
A: Expect only BEST Golden Shower of SONIC BOOM!!!
Boom!
Justin Sias interviews Casey Lynch about March 12 art show at Picaflor
1) Can you tell us about the upcoming show you are curating at Picaflor?
What inspired you to put it together?
Boom! is a show that focuses its attention on what it means to make art (or better yet, exist) in contemporary society; a situation that I posit as being a result of a history of economic bubbles that inevitably bust. By framing culture and society (the arts/entertainment and politics) in a dialectical relationship, the show examines the effects of capitalism on popular culture and vice-versa. I wanted to put together a show that addressed this relationship through a variety of styles, so the show includes video, painting, drawing, “conceptual” work, and performance. It includes artists from Atlanta, Brooklyn, L.A. and the U.K. with various cultural backgrounds and with various takes on the concept of the show.
Here are two examples from the exhibit. How do they relate to the theme?
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Lance Turner’s HHHHeather as Base 36 Triangulated Parallelogram Cat Matrix (2011) This piece is a hyperrealist portrait of one of the artist’s friends. He used triangular “pixels” made from small images of cat faces to create the larger image of Heather. Turner sees the work as a reaction to the boom of digital photography, and I see the work as relating to online identity formation (avatars, Facebook profiles, etc.,) because I happen to know that the subject, Heather, has a kind of obsession with the blog “I Can Has A Cheezburger.” The work gives us at least two impressions of its subject, a physical likeness and a glimpse of her personality. |
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Jeanne Jo’s My First Punch to the Face (2008) This is a video of the artist being punched in the face by another woman’s fist. The work obviously talks about violence towards women, but because of its intentionally low resolution, it causes us to think about the cult of Youtube, and why shocking video imagery attracts our viewing. |
Both works bring to light the issues of our obsession with “expressing” ourselves, and how corporations capitalize on that desire, (Facebook and Youtube make a killing off of people’s ‘expressive’ and ‘creative’ ventures.)
What in your opinion are the notable booms and busts we’ve had here in our culture?
In the essay I composed for the show, I place the Industrial Revolution as the likely beginning of the bubble and bust cycle we experience. In the United States, I think the most obvious ones that come to mind are the Real Estate Boom, the Dot-Com Boom and the Gold Rush. Each of these situations are a result of large scale action built on individuals trying to get rich easily. I think it is also easy to pick apart our culture as a result of the mostly failed idealism of the Baby Boomers.
What do you think the next boom will be?
That is a gargantuan question, one I am not really qualified to answer, but will anyways. I think that at least one of the most traumatic booms to come in the 21st Century will be a Genetic Boom. As science furthers our understanding of the human genome, and more experimentation happens as far as intentionally altering evolution, there will be a rush to buy into the technology both as investors and participants.
I guess on a more current popular trend, I see the Apple/iPod/iPad/iPhone bubble happening. There are rumors that Apple/Mac computers are about to go ‘open-architecture’ which could influence the trend in either direction.
I think the ‘Green Revolution’ has a lot of work in order to be successful – right now it seems too decentralized to be able to quantify – which could be good or bad. Its one of those thinks that I hope booms, but doesn’t go bust.
Yeah, I hear ya. So, what relationship do you think popular culture and society have on capitalism? and vice versa?
I see them in a kind of dance, mutually influential. I think that freedom (and leisure as a marker of freedom) are the major selling points for goods these days. At least ever since Woodstock (1969), it seems like there has been an increasingly hypocritical relationship of people to commodities, with people literally buying into lifestyles in order to distance themselves from popular culture. Looking at Hipster culture can give insight into what I mean. It has become popular culture to reject popular culture. When it is necessary to admit to liking something populist, it is best to do it out of irony, cynicism, or ‘revolt’. Everyone has an iPod/Pad/Phone and Facebook in order to have his/her own, personal experience; it’s an irony we just seem to embrace.
Awesome! We are looking forward to it. Can you give our readers an idea about your work here in the Atlanta?
I am currently Part-time Faculty for the Sculpture Faculty at SCAD Atlanta. Besides teaching studio classes, one of my main duties is teaching the graduate level “Theories and Processes” classes – which are reading heavy interactions with studio practice. I am also an artist, and my work has always been conceptually based – so critical theory has always been near the forefront of my thinking.
In December of 2010, I had an essay on copy-and-paste culture published in an anthology called 20UNDER40: Re-Inventing the Arts and Arts Education for the 21st Century, put out by Harvard University doctoral candidate Edward Clapp.
I also still work as an independent contractor in fabrication – so I also (sometimes) get my hands dirty and do physical labor, often right next to people with completely different backgrounds and cares than me. I feel like this gives me a decent insight into how on many levels people are all the same; other than what we do to get beer money for the weekend, we’re all looking for a lottery ticket to the top.
An interview about a plane ride with Jimmy Page
by Justin Brooke
In the spring of 2003, my bandmate Brandon Morrison spent an hour with legendary Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page. I have often wondered why Brandon forgot to ask Page the really important questions: What’s the meaning of life? What’s the best way to mic a drum kit? And, most importantly, what’s up with all the occult stuff? This epic meeting of guitarists has never been documented… until now.
Justin Brooke: How did you happen to find yourself sitting next to Jimmy Page on an airplane?
Brandon Morrison: Through some sort of fuck-up by either my father or the airline, I was given a first class ticket.
JB: And when you got on the plane, there was Jimmy Page, sitting in the seat next to yours.
BM: Yes.
JB: Was this your first encounter with Page?
BM: No. I had seen him three days earlier, when I flew from Atlanta to Fort Walton Beach, Florida. I noticed him at the baggage claim, and tried to spark a conversation. He completely shrugged me off and said ‘No, not right now’, even though I didn’t actually ask him anything.
JB: Were there other people trying to get his autograph, too?
BM: No, just me. And I wasn’t trying to get his autograph, so much as I was trying to get my dad to see me talking to Jimmy Page.
JB: Your dad’s a Zeppelin Fan?
BM: He had a couple records. I don’t know how much of a fan he was, but he had [Led Zeppelin] III.
JB: Fast-forward to three days later. You are sitting next to Page in first class. Did he recognize you from before?
BM: Yes.
JB: What happened next?
MB: He immediately went to sleep, or feigned sleep, against the window.
JB: Describe Page physically. What was he wearing?
BM: ZOSO T-shirt… maybe a sports jacket.
JB: Hair?
BM: Long and completely white.
JB: Flowing, or in a ponytail?
BM: Flowing.
JB: Orthopedic shoes? Cane? Walking device?
BM: No, but he was quite phlegmy.
JB: Phlegmy, huh? Did he reek of cigarettes?
BM: No.
JB: Okay, so Page was faking sleep. What happened next?
BM: A flight attendant comes in to try to get his autograph.
JB: Did he give her the autograph?
BM: Yes, begrudgingly.
JB: And then?
BM: She asked us if we wanted drinks. And I’m thinking it’s 11 o’clock in the morning, but it’s the first and probably only time I’ll be in first class, so I’m getting a buzz on. So I look over at Jimmy and say ‘Hey, Jimmy, lemme buy you a drink’, to which he replies, ‘It’s a little early in the morning for me’, and asks for a coffee – which they bring him first. He puts it in the only drink holder, on the armrest between us, and says ‘hmm… looks like I got top billing!’
JB: At this point, did he know you were a fellow musician?
BM: No.
JB: So did you tell him you’re a guitar-player?
BM: Eventually. I didn’t jump right out with the ‘hey I’m in a band’.
JB: How did the conversation start?
BM: I politely said I knew who he was and I liked some of his records.
JB: Some of the records?
BM: Yeah, you know, I’m not a superfan. I told him that I really liked Immigrant Song, and that I used to try to scratch it on my Fisher-Price record player, back when I was into Yo, MTV Raps.
JB: And then?
BM: He bragged about his [audio] mastering capabilities. He’d just finished mastering that Zeppelin: Live DVD.
JB: Were you pulling this information out of him, or was he freely bragging about how awesome he was?
BM: He freely talked about how awesome he was.
JB: What else did he say?
BM: He talked a lot about how he had just helped Gibson design a new Les Paul guitar that was gonna be the Jimmy Page model and how superior it was to every other Les Paul they’d ever made.
JB: What ever happened with that?
BM: I dunno. Never saw it. I don’t think it ever came out on the market.
JB: Do you think Page was blowing smoke up your ass?
BM: Maybe so. I talked to him about the time he played the Parker Fly. I told him I thought that was a bitch guitar.
JB: Classic.
BM: He said he agreed, but they play really well, and they paid him to play it. Then I asked him about the picture of Bonham holding the mud shark.
JB: Right, as seen in VH1 Behind the Music, where Zeppelin are in Seattle or wherever, fishing out of their hotel window.
BM: He said he knew the cleaning ladies would come in after they left and look for things to sell as memorabilia, so they’d gotten into locking naked girls up in the cabinetry, for the cleaning ladies to find. I guess they just threw the dead mud sharks in there with the groupies.
JB: Did Page talk to you at all about worshipping the Devil, or occult practices? Aleister Crowley?
BM: Nah.
JB: Did he seem Luciferian to you?
BM: No. Besides the phlegm, he was rather polite… soft spoken… I talked to him about Robert Plant a little. Only in as much as he said Robert Plant was a bitch.
JB: He likes to make that point whenever he can.
BM: I guess so. He only called him by the name Plant. He never said Robert.
JB: Did you ask him for any musician-type advice?
BM: No, I don’t think so. I didn’t even ask for his autograph.
JB: And the plane landed, and that was it?
BM: Yeah. We shook hands and parted ways. He said ‘Good luck’ to me and I said the same to him.
JB: Anything you thought of later you wish you would have asked him?
BM: No. I feel good about it. If we’d had more time, I might’ve asked him about miking techniques, those sorts of things. But he was actually kinda gross, with the phlegm.
JB: Was he coughing in your face?
BM: No, not in my face, but he just kinda had this wheezy thing going on.
JB: Did he remind you of your future-self, as a cigarette-smoking guitarist? I mean, were you looking at Page and seeing yourself as an old man, like that part in The Song Remains the Same, where Page climbs up the mountain and sees that old guy with the lantern, whose face regresses, younger and younger, revealing that he’s really Page?
BM: Uh… I don’t recall thinking that.
Our Little Secret (part 2)
by Jeffrey Butzer
12 Jan 2011
If you missed it, read part one of the journal
I woke up to the sound of bacon cooking…and another didgeridoo solo. (or had they played it all night?) Bacon, eggs, orange juice? I was sure at this point this guy was slipping us something and we were all going to wake up in three days tied to chairs while he made a body cast of Brent. But surprisingly he was just a really nice guy. Sure, he insisted we all leave him urine samples and that he give each of us a haircut… but hey, he let us stay at his place, what are you going to do?
After we all bought new hats at a truck stop, we were stopped at another border check. This time we had to get out and wait while they performed a “Mexican check”, of course they don’t call it that, but that’s what it was. Brent was given a prescription bottle filled with mints that was prescribed by Dr. Dre to Snoop Dogg as a joke, and I had a plastic bag full of vitamin C in my pocket for my cold. They accepted all of those sentences without any more questions. (Great job border patrol!)
San Diego, California
Hours later we arrive at a stinky old part of San Diego. The area we were in smelled like medicine cigarettes and wet dogs. We parked near some places to eat and a bar. One of the “locals” told us about a “much cooler bar” fifteen blocks away, we walked to it and it looked exactly like the last one. Full of guys who looked like they would brag to you about the amount of buffalo wings they could eat and knew where to buy roofies, and girls who looked like they had built up an immunity to the said drug.
Fiend without a Face
Stiff and I headed back to the hotel and I took a gamble on which room would be the “loud” room and which would be the “sleep” room. Hours later the gang returns and choose my room to party in. I removed my sleep mask and asked if they could smoke outside, and one of my band mates drunkenly explained to me that I was being really rude and inconsiderate. I packed up and went to the other room and slept in the bed with Mike Shina.
13 Jan 2011
I woke up and walked around to some of the local hippie stores, then ate some disgusting hippie pizza across the street from a hippie back packing hostel. We met up near the beach and all “jammed” with some homeless guys named “Rough and Toothless” and “Oak tree” Great, we’ve been here for less than 24 hours and were already acting like damn hippies.
I think they could tell from my facial expression and from me saying “I feel like a hippie” over and over that I was not “feeling” the jam. “Just go with it” said Mike Shina, with his eyes closed strumming his acoustic guitar, wearing his newly acquired studded scarf a fan had given him the night before for “rocking out on the keyboard.” We did earn $5.50 busking … but it turned out $3.50 of that was put in by Tom to give the appearance we were making money. Vanity will be our downfall.
We went to drop our stuff off at the house we were going to be staying at. It was a clown’s house… that is not a joke, he was a real clown with clown parents and his last name was Tiltwheel. He had a hundred or so couches and he was a really funny guy. But not funny like you’d expect a clown to be, funny in a different way. I’m not kidding about the couches either. There were three of them on the porch, a couple on the roof, one going up his staircase, one on the kitchen table, one in the pool… they were everywhere. He even had a fold out couch that folded out into two smaller couches!
Is it the real Scarlett Johansson?
I thought it was really nice earlier in the day when the person in charge of money gave us each $10 for food. Well, it would have been nice had that same person not asked to borrow $15 from me later that night.
The next morning was a little dark, there was a music conference that Brent had to go sign autographs at with the other Mastodon guys. And it turned out he had to choose two people to take with him because passes were hard to come by. This led to someone quitting the band and a small scrap.
Los Angeles, California
We drove three hours to L.A. (and when I say “we” I mean Stephanie drove and we all rode). By the time we got there our abandoned band mate decided he wanted to return, So Ben and Steph headed straight back to get him. Orange Amps gave us two swanky hotel rooms at the conference.
The rest of us hung out at the hotel bar and Mr. Randy Jackson (of Journey or American Idol fame) thought he knew Tom and came up to him- “what’s up dog?” Cheshire played along. From what we overheard Jackson thought Zach Galifianakis had lost weight, grew several inches and looked pretty different except for the hair and beard.
My friend Joshua picked me up, as I was staying at his place for a few days. The other guys ate ribs in a hot tub with members of Slayer and Pantera. I also missed Brent sitting in with the Melvins. But hey, I did get to watch a re-run of Buffy The Vampire Slayer and go to bed at 10PM.
15 Jan 2011
I had a couple days off, so Joshua and I went to see Andrew Bird play solo. He was trying out new material from his album he is recording. The show was a little sloppy, Bird seemed grumpy about it after the show. I said “Cheer up Andrew, you are popular, people forgive you when you mess up.”
Right before Bird went on I went to use the little boy’s room, and Patrick Stewart was in line to go as well. He was turned around and talking to everyone about what a big fan he is of Andrew’s. A stall freed up and he was still talking. I yelled out “hey Captain Kirk (then pointed to the urinal) engage!” No one thought it was funny. His bodyguard pulled me aside and explained how there were several things incorrect about my little heckle, and that I needed to apologize to Mr. Stewart. I told him “not unless he apologizes for Deep Space Nine” then I smugly chuckled to myself. He then asked if I had ever seen Deep space Nine, I told him “no, but I heard on the internet that it wasn’t very good.” He explained how I needed to learn more about Star Trek if I am going to go around hurling insults, no matter how half-assed they are.
So later on I waited outside for Stewart to leave the club and yelled to him “Hey Patrick Hewes Stewart, birth year 1940 who is best know for his starring role as Capt. Jean-Luc Picard on the long running series Star Trek: The Next Generation…” He turned and said “yes?” I shouted back “Star Trek: Nemesis was the weakest of the franchise!” Thanks internet!
16 Jan 2011
Long Beach, California
8AM
I was woken up by the sound of my phone ringing- It was Tom Cheshire.
“Hey Bütz, can you play drums tonight?”
“Sure, what happened?”"Long story, Troy is flying home.”
“Will he mind if I play his drums?”
“Maybe.. I wouldn’t mention it in the journal, I would make up a story about you using someone else’s drums.”
“Ooooooh, ok. gotcha.”
“But Bütz… make it believable, ok?”
So that night the guys in the Melvins pitched in and made me a drum set hand carved out of wood from the Titanic with my name written in crazy heavy metal letters on the front. Trouble was I didn’t have any thing to strike the drums with. Out of nowhere the drummer from Def Leopard showed up and let me use his sticks, well…his stick. I had to find a second one. I ended up using a bunch of tubes of chap stick tapped together.
…Also Rod Stewart was there, and he had just bought a pair of Gene Krupa’s pants at a celebrity drummer auction, and he let me wear them for good luck. In the pocket I found a piece of paper with all these great drumming secrets I never knew before. After the show The women’s volley ball team that took up the front row told me they couldn’t believe all the great drum tricks I pulled off and invited me to be their new manager.
So as it ended up I didn’t even need to worry about using Troy’s drums… leave it to me to worry over nothing.
18 Jan 2011
Los Angeles, California
Final Show of my leg of the tour. Wiggins had been learning the drums for both bands on the days off and the gang got to stay at Frances Conroy (Six Feet Under) and Jan Munroe’s house. Jan was in Oingo Boingo in the 70′s and he is an actor and a mime. So the band stayed with a clown and a mime. They told me it was cool at first but then Frances Conroy made them help her out in the garden for a few hours.
We also spotted Ron Perlman at a bar across the street from the club. There had been a lot of rumors that Tom Waits was coming to see us. I felt like Ron Perlman being across the street is pretty close to that happening.
19 Jan 2011
On my flight home I sat next to a man who was a retired sports crime investigator who now drives large vehicles such as fire trucks and school buses from state to state.
All and all it was a pretty good tour. I came home with a million good stories and several pleasant memories. Some of those I couldn’t fit into this, others I choose to omit for one reason or another. The biggest surprise was how well everyone got along. With the exception of a couple squabbles, there wasn’t really any tension on the road that one might expect from this large/diverse/strange of a group.
Sure, there were times I would have rather been a ninja whose day job was trying out new reclining chairs to see if they are comfortable than be away from my wife and son for two weeks and sleep on a stranger’s couch or floor.
Now, I know you are thinking that is a terrible analogy… why didn’t I say something like; “I would have rather worked in a salt mine?” or something that sounded like a really hard job. But think about it… you are out all night working as a ninja to put shoes on your ninja children’s feet, and not just any shoes! You have to buy those special shoes that ninja’s wear with the divider between the big toe and the other toes. Then you sleep for an hour or two (on a good night) and have to go to another job! And you probably only get to sit in each reclining chair for a couple of minutes tops before trying out the next one.
Oh wait, I just remembered one more story I can tell.
At one of our stops at Arby’s the cashier seemed really happy to see a large group of guys come in and was a little flirty with all of us. Mike Shina ordered a Jamocha shake – “$2.68″ she said, He explained that the small ones were on sale for one dollar as he had seen it on a sign on the way in. She told him she needed a manager to do a refund so Mike said “forget it, bring on the large one.” She came back a few moments later with a tiny, little milkshake. Shina spoke up “I thought I paid for the large, remember?” She slowly put her finger over her lips, winked at him and whispered “our little secret.”
Our Little Secret (part 1)
by Jeffrey Bützer
West End Motel/Fiend Without a Face/Jeffrey Bützer
Starring…
Andrew Wiggins: sound engineer (Hawks)
Ben Thrower: guitar (Tornado Town)
Brent Hinds: guitar, vocals (Mastodon)
Jeffrey Bützer: piano, accordion, melodica, bells (Jeffrey Bützer, The Compartmentalizationalists)
Mike Shina: keys, guitar (Rent Boys)
Stephanie Luke: tour manager/driver (The Coathangers)
Stiff Penalty: bass
Tom Cheshire: vox (All Night Drug Prowling Wolves)
Troy King: drums
5 Jan 2011
We met at the thunder box practice space and loaded up for the trip at 9AM. Quickly realizing we bought the wrong sized lock for the trailer, we made a detour to a hardware store. On the way in, we stopped to pick up three day laborers. Tom and Brent kept asking them “can the three of you run sound, play organ and drive a van?, You are cheaper than Stephanie, Wiggins and Bützer.” They asked to be dropped off and we never heard from them again… the fattest one swore he’d come to my birthday party, but I will believe that when I see it.
After eight hours and three stops at Love’s Gas Station/Arby’s we made it to the Big Easy. I should take a minute to tell you how well Rain X actually works. I always assumed it was like Snake Oil or Midol… a windshield placebo if you will. We played at a club called One Eyed Jacks, and ate the worst food New Orleans had to offer, served by the surliest woman I’ve ever met. “How is the jambalaya?” asked Mike Shina “How bout you look at the menu, and we can ask questions later, ok?” was her reply. With an added “and we don’t have any jambalaya here!” She didn’t even bother to pepper her sentences with a “hun” or “sweetie” here and there like we are used to.
West End Motel played a set an hour later, then it was time for Fiend Without a Face. Brent (with the help of Wiggins acting as a translator) showed me the songs on the drive up, I had pages and pages of notes. Before we went on I said “ok Brent, I just need a set list and I will try to get through this.” “I don’t care for set lists, you’ll do fine” he assured me. “Can you call out the name of the song we are playing so I can find my papers before each song?” I asked. Then he laughed for a few minutes.
T Cheshire and The Bütz
I should digress here and explain that life “on the road” was new to me. So…you know, it was a little tough at first. My tours in the past have consisted of me flying with my wife out of the country, sleeping for two days, then playing several shows. A sort of half vacation half tour. I don’t mean to imply that I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth, I’ve just been lucky enough to be allowed to eat off of one a few times…but normally all I was eating was plain oatmeal, or generic ice cream. I should also note that I don’t even drink alcohol. You will understand why this is important information later on in this tale, or figure out why by yourself before I get to that part. I can also offer this advise: never try and read notes you wrote in pen while wearing black pantyhose over your face, it doesn’t work.
The show ends and I assume everyone is as tired as me. I am wrong. Some dude with an eagle tattooed on his forehead and dreadlocks down to his rear end has kindly offered us couches and floors to sleep on. Stiff, Wiggins and myself went to sleep in the van while the others went to a bar. I layed awake as the other two snored the night away. At one point Stiff coughed in his sleep and woke himself up. He lit and smoked an entire cigarette and fell right back asleep… this guy is a pro.
3AM The guys pile into the van and we are off to eagle tattoo guy’s place. His house looked like a Masquerade employee decorated it in 1995, only using purchases made from The Junkman’s Daughter; Motorhead posters, skulls, owl rugs, occult books, a picture of the last supper with all of Jesus’ friends replaced by serial killers (how subversive!) I ended up in a room by myself in a sleeping bag, I stepped on dog poo on my way in.
The gang were rocking out to WASP records in the living room for a few hours then the homeowner came into the room I was in and flipped on the light to find a Pink Floyd record. At this point I began to pray: “Please grant me the superpower of tolerance, or at least reward my patience.”
9AM rolls around and I finally get some sleep.
6 Jan 2011
I awake to find out Ben Thrower cannot find one of his $300 boots and he is furious about it. I have a vague memory of Brent kicking them out of the van, then Troy throwing them back in, then Troy throwing them out of the van, then Brent putting them back in. This seemed funny to all of us at 3AM. We drive around, first looking back where we were originally parked the night before, then we came to the conclusion that someone must’ve found and stolen Ben’s one boot ($150 value), so we take another thirty minutes looking for a man walking in a circle. We went into a nearby pawn shop and asked the owner if he had bought a nice boot that day. He said we should try the pawn shop across the street because the owner loves monocles, fake arms and making other asymmetrical purchases, so he might have bought just one boot.
But there wasn’t a pawn shop across the street, he must have been confused. At this point I pitch a idea for a song called “We Went Looking for Thrower’s Boot”- this idea was quickly shot down by eight of the nine people in the van… too soon, I guess. Later on West End’s lawyer made me sign a piece of paper stating that I had no part in the writing of the song “The Search for Ben Thrower’s Footwear.”
Next stop… Houston, Texas.
Mike Shina chillin' backstage
On the trip there I stopped and bought some items to help me sleep and enjoy the tour a little more; Tylenol PM, earplugs, an allergy mask, a knife and one of those eye masks they give you on airplanes. The mask combined with me paying for my own hotel room that night earned me the nick name “Bette Midler” for the rest of the tour.
Do you remember Blues Hammer from the movie Ghost World? The really bad white blues band?
That is exactly what the opening band sounded like this night. The show went fine, Brent came up on stage during my set and sang “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and I opened the night by saying “we were told Houston had really sexy homeless people…boy were we misinformed!” I couldn’t tell if Houston liked the joke.
7 Jan 2011
Denton, Texas
We pulled over some old train tracks and there was a huge pile of salt behind a chain fence, a strange little pink building with a twiggy tree in front of it, a construction site, another pile of salt next to that and a brick building. someone jokingly said “we’re here!’ and we all had a good laugh. However, the laughing stopped when Stephanie said “No, we really are here!” Brent woke up and said “I’ve played some crappy clubs in my day…and this is one of them.”
Hours later I play my set, then I play with West End, then I walk around the bar hoping someone will pat me on the back and tell me I did a good job. After circling the bar a few times I finally get stopped by a couple and the girl said “nice socks” then the guy said “hey, maybe work on your jokes less and practice the piano more” My mind started working on a great comeback, but I realized it was taking too long to answer, so I said “what?” then when he started talking again I looked at my watch and said “I have got to go get ready for the next set, thanks for coming out” and I slapped him on the arm.
The Fiend set was going pretty well, until a young man came up on stage and grabbed Brent’s fez off his head – “oh, dear” I thought to myself. Brent chased him, wrestled with him, then forced something from his pocket in to the guy’s mouth… it might have been an aspirin or a breath mint or maybe LSD… I really can’t remember everything perfectly, but the kid freaked out, spit it out and went home… he must hate having fresh breath or something.
But I guess Ben had a headache or wanted to kiss a girl or something because he picked up and whatever it was and put it in his mouth.
Show’s over, time to leave, right? Wrong…we had a flat tire on the trailer. We were broken down in front of a factory that made some kind of snack cakes. One of the workers came out to check on us and we asked him what exactly they made in there, he told us with a stone face that he was not at liberty to say, but we could probably figure it out ourselves. We finally got the tire fixed four hours later and Steph drove us to Austin. I started calling her Steph, not out of familiarity but to save energy, in times like these, every syllable counts. It was getting late. We all slept while she drove. Wiggins couldn’t take the snoring so he slept on the roof of the trailer… I let him use my blanket, and wear my helmet.
8 Jan 2011
Austin, Texas
We arrive at a guy named Gary’s house the next morning, and Tom starts telling me all about Gary, how he plays with Hank III and that he knows Tom Waits and all these other cool things. Normally I would have really liked to talk to Gary, he did indeed sound very interesting, but when you’ve been awake for what feels like two days, a futon and a blanket suddenly seem way cooler than any musician’s accomplishments.
After a hefty sleep my friends Patrick and Anna pick me up and we ate at a really great pizza place called “Home Slice” then off to the next show. This night was not the best memory from the tour. In fact, the words “Don’t put any of this in the tour journal” were said to me frequently on this particular night. My set got bumped, And I still had not learned the Fiend songs on organ… the show was a bit of a mess for a few reasons. and there was talk of a couple people quitting the tour including myself, but after a while, everyone except myself had decided to stay. I packed my things into Patrick and Anna’s car and was looking for a flight home.
9 Jan 2011
The next day I ate really good BBQ at Ruby’s, then went to Gary’s house to tell the gang goodbye and good luck. I swore before I went in that they would not talk me into staying. Moments later I was back in the band. (I either said to someone or thought to myself “I’m going to carry on with the tour.. but there are going to be some changes!”)
I talked to Brent and told him I would finish the tour but I was quitting Fiend Without a Face. He agreed that this was a good idea. I’m a professional and this is serious business, so I turned in my pantyhose mask and fez hat. (I wasn’t in the band long enough to earn a cape)
10 Jan 2011
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Unlike Bugs Bunny, we made a right turn at Albuquerque, and found a nice hotel. Once again I opted for paying for own room. The man at the counter said he would give me a double room for the same price as a single since I was with all my friends. “No, please, NO!” I begged him, but he insisted. I quietly offered my second bed to the two quietest people, but explained they had to come in quietly after 1AM. I think they both forgot about my offer by the end of the night. The show was our best thus far. Everyone was rested and back to normal. And I can honestly say that New Mexican food is way better than used Mexican food.
11 Jan 2011
We were told we would go through some sort of border patrol type of deal soon, So a couple of the guys needed to finish off their “medicine cigarettes” before we got there, as they explained to me that they had forgotten or lost their prescriptions. They said I had my first “contact high” when I started playing “air organ” in the van for long periods of time, and found this sign that read: “fresh water” extremely funny …and I suddenly really liked Thin Lizzy.
When we hit the border patrol, Troy suggested that we tell them that we were a Christian rock band. I came up with what I thought was a much better plan, and said that if the drug dogs bark we should tell them we were traveling dog toy salesmen. (Maybe I was high?) The dog never barked. As we pulled away Stiff said “Man…that dog must’ve been broken” We all laughed really hard, especially me …then I got really hungry.
Scottsdale, Arizona
Later we stopped at a gas station and Brent was recognized by a touring hardcore band called…something, I can’t remember. They kept calling him Troy. (Troy is another member of Mastodon) I liked these guys because they used the word “legit” over and over. “You play with Troy from Mastodon? you’re legit!” – “you’re on tour too, you guys are legit!” – “Have you tried the slushies here? they are legit!”
We played in Scottsdale this night and the “legit” guys showed up. Also in the crowd was this guy that really wanted Brent to come out to his car and drink Wild Turkey and “jam” with him, Brent kept saying “No, man…we are playing inside tonight.” There was also this guy who was telling me how great his friend was “awe man, he is a great writer and a comedian. Funniest dude I know, you will crack up at this guy, he kills me!” When I met his friend I said “I hear you’re quite the comedian” and he just nodded. I paused, he still said nothing, so I went to get a drink. I came back a minute later and he had just finished saying something, and everyone was rolling on the floor. I asked if I missed his joke and he nodded again. I stood there for a minute, then left again.
I guess whoever picked the first opening band (a one man metal band) thought to himself -you know, Brent is in a metal band…and Jeffrey has his sort of one man band thing, lets find a guy who combines these two things in the worst possible way imaginable… and who is super loud. Following that fellow was a band called Janis Joplin Crap and Vomit… You know how it gets annoying being around someone who thinks they are really funny? there were three of them in this band. Each member had on a funny hat, shirt or wig, or some combination of “funny” things. Once again I felt like it was 1995.
The promoter let us stay at his house and he kept talking about grilled chicken all night. He dropped us off at his house and then he headed right back out to get chicken. While he was gone I found a small shrine to Mastodon in his room and assumed I would never see my family again. I fell asleep on a nice couch to the sound of a didgeridoo and Casio keyboards courtesy of Mike and Brent.
Five Eight hits Atlanta
by Justin Sias
I spent most of the 90′s in Athens, Georgia. The classic city was full of numerous notable bands. Bands like: The Glands, Neutral Milk Hotel, Pylon, Azure Ray, Vic Chestnutt, Olivia Tremor Control, Japancakes, Macha, Drive By Truckers, The Martians, National Anthem, Cinemechanica, Of Montreal, Maserati, Guided by Voices, Now It’s Overhead, Harvey Milk, Widespread Panic, oh and what’s that one band… R.E.M.? The list of bands is endless and nonetheless, Five Eight weighs in heavy as one of the most incredible bands ever to come from Athens.
Legend has it that the lead singer went crazy and returned from episodes of insanity with the ability to bring the beast back from the other side within his music. Mike Mantione has a certain enigmatic quality that may only be experienced at a Five Eight concert. Their upcoming show at 529, should it be crowded at all, seems too small a room to hold them in the event that Mantione loses control and thrashes around, which is almost inevitable. With the possibility of a guitar smashing ever-present, Five Eight also never slacks on the music. Lyrics are as catchy as they are troubled and insightful and melodies uncontrollably plant themselves them into your head.
My friend Eric Holder from ISP lived in Athens when I did and was also a fan. He offered up his thoughts.
“Five Eight was the first band I saw in Athens, literally …. playing at the Tate Center the first day of class. That was back in their 3-piece days, right after Tigger joined…. The next year I grabbed I learned Shut Up on cassette and was blown away at a sold out 40 Watt Halloween show. Mantione was possessed .. If it weren’t for The Angriest Man and Weirdo, I might have left town but Five Eight was THE band, period, paragraph, hard carriage return.”
Bassist Dan Horowitz holds a certain legendary status of his own. Along with always dropping heavy hitting bass lines, he is notorious for saying the weirdest, most off-the wall, ridiculous shit onstage. If he ever lost the music bug, he could be a stand-up comedian. Through it all, the band has endured many lineup shifts in its 20+ year career, but Patrick Ferguson (Tigger) has been the drummer throughout a large portion of it and with Sean Dunn back in the fold, this Five Eight lineup is guaranteed to rock your face off. If you don’t believe me, watch this documentary.
Five Eight plays at 529 on Saturday, Feb 5 with Baby Baby, The Charges, and Starfighter.
boom! coming to Picaflor March 12
boom! is a collection of art by young artists whose work represents what it means to live in a culture created and dominated by multiple “bubble and bust” cycles. All of the work in this show has been made since the latest bust, that of the Real Estate Boom, by artists who are children of the Baby Boomers.
Prospective Artists include: Jeanie Jo (LA), Quint Stevenson(Bkyln), Joseph Karg(Atl), Lance Turner(Atl), Damien Hirst(UK), The Art Officials(Atl), Nimer Aleck(Atl), and Maria Raquel Cochez(Atl), and Cooper Holoweski(Bklyn).
Introducing Imagination Head
Imagination Head are interesting people playing interesting music.
Interview by Jeffrey Butzer
They have a fun take on pop, incorporating male and female voices often in call and response, revealing a lighthearted mood with the occasional guitar crunch juxtaposed with a dreamy synth. And they are all about having a good time. The first time I shared a bill with them, they brought back memories of the first time I heard REM, Pylon and even Modern Lovers. They have a splendid new album called On/Off that they are releasing at the Highland Inn Ballroom this weekend. For fans of the mentioned bands, as well as Oryx and Crake and Venice is Sinking. Get more information on their CD release, visit the facebook invite
Listen to Imagination Head on MYSPACE
I interviewed two of the band’s members J.R. Wicker and P.I. Navarro.
Jeffrey Butzer: Can you give us a little history about Imagination Head?
P.I. Navarro: The band started out as a solo project for J. R. in Memphis. This guy here, J. R. Wicker is the founder of the band and plays acoustic guitar and lead vocals on almost all of the songs. His wife Erin Wicker-baker-basket plays keys and xylophone and does much of the background vocals and lead on a few songs. Vincent Gray plays a mean electric axe and Nick Belafonte handles bass duties.
JR: “Puma time red pants” (PI Navarro) plays the drums and Kara Strauss, our newest member, plays flute, sings backup, and carries around a back of various noisemakers and instruments.
JB: So, how do you like the scene here?
What are your favorite and least favorite qualities you think this city has?
JR: When I first arrived to Atlanta I felt like a country mouse in the big city. I remember the skyscrapers and the interstate and the traffic- it’s all so impersonal, you know. When you move to a new city it’s full of mystery. For me, I pictured Atlanta as a sort of Southern clone of New York. Just endless lights and cars and people. But like any place, there’s obviously more to it than the postcard view. The goat farm and the wonderroot are great places. But also the scene is more elusive here… more difficult to break into. You put a flyer up and it just looks ridiculous next to the ten-thousand flyers already hanging.
JB: Are there any local bands you like?
JR: Adron. She has a beautiful voice, and is always doing these interesting things with it. Plus the energy of the group is so good. You can go into a show feeling all heavy from a bad day at work or something and the music is so light, it just makes you feel better.
JB: Do you have any good stories about meeting a famous person(s)?
I met Jay Reatard once because he was a roommate of a friend of mine. He was really drunk, and we were giving him a ride for some reason. At the time I was in college, and way too serious about things, and I was young, and I saw everything through the lens of academia. I remember thinking the guy was a loser, going nowhere with his life. A few years later he’s playing on stage with Beck, and touring with the Pixies. Bands I was obsessed with… so it goes.
JB: Can you tell us what style of music the band plays?
PI: I guess you could describe our music as psychedelic folk-rock. Many of the songs sound upbeat and cheerful but then when you pay attention to the lyrics there are usually some dark overtones. We’ve been compared to The Flaming Lips, and Built to Spill, as well as local bands Oryx and Crake and Little Tybee.
JB: You have a new album coming out. What was the recording process like?, Did the record take a long time?
JR: It was chaotic. We tried to do it ourselves at wonderRoot, but it was taking too long. We started hiring engineers and still doing some on our own and after several moons we came up with something that we are excited to share
with you!
JB: Any up and coming plans for the band?
PI: After our album release show we plan to get out of town as often as possible. First the Southeast and then the world. We’re already about halfway to having a whole new album’s worth of songs to record. Whatever happens, we just want to keep creating new music and keep having fun.
JB: How many members of Imagination Head does it take to change a light bulb?
JR: Erin could do it. Can’t account for the others, or myself.
JB: What is the story behind your band name?
JR: I used to be really into Andy Kauffman. I liked the open-mindedness, and it prompted me to try to break the idea of “a show” just being a ten song set. That is, I wanted to do poetry, or humor. Or show a movie. Or interview someone on stage, late-night style. I wanted the name to have that kind of space. My first idea was “weird beard” which was really stupid. Erin hated it. People would say “but you don’t have a beard” and I’d say “that’s what’s weird about it.”
JB: Tell us about the CD release show.
Jan 29th at Highland Ballroom. Do you want to play with us? Oh, and Erin says to tell you we’re going to have some nice surprises.
Jeffrey Butzer interviews Matt McCalvin of Mermaids
Mermaids are a new-ish Atlanta band anchored by ex-Gringo Starr guitarist Matt McCalvin. Echoes of early rock and roll, Phil Spector, beach music, and snotty punk-rock can be heard in their music. But, vague descriptions aside, if you look beneath the wall of reverb and golden tone, you will find a set of sharply written, fun and engaging songs that twist and swerve down unexpected roads. They are one of the best live rock bands working in this town at the moment and I’ve been a fan ever since Matt sent me some demos he recorded a while back. I had a sit down with the dryly funny Mr. McCalvin, and this is what happened…
Jeffrey Bützer : Hello!, tell us who you are and what you do.
Mathew McCalvin: Hi!, I’m Matt McCalvin. I play guitar/sing/drink/smoke/eat/sleep/fart/laugh/cry/.. not all at once
JB: Can you tell us about your decision to leave Gringo Starr?
M: Well, we had been playing for so long and it seemed to reach this pinnacle for me. Don’t get me wrong, I have lots of respect for those guys. They’re great players and great people, but I had stockpiled tons of songs that needed a separate outlet and it seemed like the right time to stake my claim and make sure these songs got heard. I tried to incorporate them into the band but it seemed like they existed in this world of their own and I decided I needed to make the split. It was completely and totally amicable.
JB: What have you been listening to lately?
M: I’m always and forever dedicated to the classics that I grew up listening to i.e. (harry nilsson, beatles, troggs, buddy holly, beethoven, crass, del shannon, buzzcocks, ramones, the coasters, trex, the addicts, ) but newer/newer to me stuff I’ve been into.. smith westerns, box elders, girls, nobunny, vermillion sands, spits, jay reatard (rip), bare wires, arcade fire, ariel pink, moondog and pointed sticks,
JB: What local bands are you into right now?
M: backpockets, abby gogo, knaves grave and a new band that just moved here from Augusta called turf war
JB: Where did the name idea come from? It is one of those great names that seems like it should’ve been taken already.
M: well… its been used in a few different ways. I’ve yet to see a band called MERMAIDS. There’s a band called The Murmaids who had a hit single in 1964 called “Popsicles and Icicles”, this really creepy obscure doo wop single, one of my favorite songs, but the name was chosen over the other names which were jokingly serious.. they were Regal Leather, Cactus, Moon Spoon and Deuxrag.. haha, I think we made a good decision.
JB: Are you the primary songwriter or do you guys write as a band?
M: At the beginning I brought a few riffs along and started showing them to the guys. I think two of the songs were complete when I brought them but everyone filled them in and those songs would not be what they are without the influence of everyone else. After a few practices, Josh started writing a few songs and it brought another voice to the group, I think it rounds out the sound so everything doesn’t sound the same and adds depth and variety. We mostly write them together and jam on a riff till we like the structure. Its a communal effort. It was hard to imagine the band without any of us in it. After Joey left (ex bassist) I started feeling it wouldn’t be the same because it is always weird to lose the original members of any band, but alas we weren’t gonna stop playing just because he left. It felt like losing a family member, it felt awful. Then luckily Noah stepped in, learned the songs and quickly solidified the line up. We were really fortunate to have such a good friend join the band.
JB: Will you tell us about the record?
M: Yes! we spent three weeks in July 2010 recording with Ian McDonald (abby gogo) at his home studio in L5P. It’s due out in October via Pretty Ambitious Records and is titled “TROPSICLE”. It’s got 11 songs and we’re releasing it on vinyl with a limited run of 50 cassettes that will have extra songs and a few surprises included.
JB: You better mention the other band members…
M: Of course! Josh Hughes – guitar/vocals, Noah Adams – bass, Ryan Fetter – drums/vocals, Sam Wagstaff – piano, organ, accordion, little guy – inspiration/roadie
JB: Do you have a really bad album in your collection you love to listen to but are ashamed of?… please share.
M: Not really ashamed just amazed, I had a bad hoarding problem at some point and would collect tons of religious records/parody/country/bizarre records. I have several thrift store finds that I’m very proud of, the absolute weirdest is the album by The Hellers its a “theatre art troupe” with “singers, talkers, players, swingers and doers” (actual quote from the front album cover) from who knows where?canada?, nebraska?.. who made this psychedelic collage album, it has weird paranoid new age/government conspiracy rants, disco beats, moogs, flutes, freaky electronic noise, mellotrons and they dubbed it “helexotic sound.” I have no idea what they mean by that but it s amazing, I’m working on sampling it soon.. its got the coolest album art ever.
JB: Who’s side are you on? Mel Gibson’s or Danny Glover’s?
M: Bruce Willis all day.. Mel’s a wife beating racist.. which is cool if your a total bigot! I bet he’s secretly a scientologist. Mad max is an excellent movie as is Braveheart, but seriously, he can go throw another shrimp on the barbe or what it is those dirty aussies do! (jokingly racist sarcasm implied) I know he was American born.. but you know what, fuck it, that joke stands!
JB: What is your least favorite band name? Mine is Hoobastank. I can’t believe a few guys agreed on that.
M: hmmm. hah ok, oh man there some bad ones.. I think of Hootie and the Blowfish, LimpBizkit, Korn, Phish, oooohh and Gringo Star (just kidding! although I never did like that name) all band names/titles are so silly anyways..everything things been done to some degree. You just gotta be clever enough to not look stupid and have some dumb ass name.. I was once in anarcho crust punk band called Days of Chaos. We had a skateboarding gang and terrorized tourists, We were sooo tuff.
JB: How many members of Mermaids does it actually take to change a light bulb?
M: Five! one to do it, one to procrastinate, one to smoke weed, one to drink beer and one to do this interview then we all say fuck it and drop acid.
JB: Has anyone ever quoted Back to the Future at band practice, I mean specifically that line about “Hey, you know that new sound we’ve been looking for?”
M: Not yet, but I wouldn’t rule that out. I’m a big fan. I’ve seen that movie 12 times and since I’m sick today I’m gonna watch it again. But seriously though, those Libyan nationalist are still looking for their plutonium!, better make a tree and get outta here! 88 mph!! aah!
JB: Are you going to do a song for our Rock*A*Teens tribute cd?
M: haha, yes eventually I really wanted to do “Ether Sunday” but Gentleman Jesse called it, so we’re doing “Teen Hustle Teen Muscle.” Actually were just gonna talk about it till you keep on bugging us to do it.. that’s the whole light bulb synopsis sans acid
JB: Haha.. And finally… tell us a decent joke, or a really bad one, or both.
M: How about a limerick?, I didn’t know what that was till I went to England, where this beast of man who was our driver/roadie/ named Roger Humphries told me the dirtiest limericks!! Ok enough reminenscing, here we go. “There once was a man named Dave who found a dead whore in cave, he said what the hell.. fuck the smell, think of the money I’ll save!”
JB: Thanks for talking with us, keep on rockin in the free world.
M: Thanks!! No problemo
Jan 29 – Sarah and Harrison Keys – Sibling Revelries – Art Opening
Sarah and Harrison Keys are artists and siblings showing their work at Picaflor Jan 29
Sarah Keys is an artist who uses unconventional methods with conventional materials. Her medium is part painting, part embroidery, and part collage. This method is one she invented while working towards a BFA in textile design at Georgia State University. Sarah has been drawing, painting, making jewelry and crafting since childhood and gets her influences mostly from books, nature, life experiences, and anything funny, bizarre, or both.
Harrison takes his background in graffiti and a love for drawing to create an unusual look inside his world. The work ranges from minimal line portraiture to the psychedelic and surreal.
Harrison Keys at Get This! Gallery
Spread the word on facebook
Feb 4 – Romeo Spike, Pink Pompeii, The Sneaky Hand at Picaflor, presented by Rock Science Records
Rock Science Records is proud to do a series of shows at Picaflor Studio. The first installment is on Feb 4th with Romeo Spike, Pink Pompeii and The Sneaky Hand on Feb 4 and more coming soon.
View the event on facebook
Getting to know Team Luis
Interview by Justin Sias
You may have seen Luis Sandoval at shows in Atlanta. He’s a giant teddy bear of a man, the most huggable promoter in town and an avid lover of local music. Luis has shifted from Pop Death Squad publicist into a solo role as one of Underground Atlanta’s premiere promoters, usually throwing events at the Star Bar in Little Five Points. He’s anything but a typical concert promoter. He’s a nice down to earth guy. Luis has spent almost equal time growing up in the states and El Salvador and has a unique perspective on music. I recently had a chance to chat it up with Luis.
JS: We’re here to talk to Luis Sandoval about Team Luis. I love the name. What spawned it and how did this all come about?
LS: You know its funny, Team Luis started as a joke, I made a silly Tshirt for a friend, and then later saw on some show, maybe Twilight, that all the actors had their own teams, but I didn’t rip them off! But anyway, everyone in Pop Death Squad couldn’t be part of every show, and Brian at the Star Bar asked me to put together a show and I already had this Tshirt logo made up , so I just went with it.
JS: So, what was Pop Death Squad?
LS: Pop Death Squad started with Jonathan Baker, Wesley Hoffman and myself. They had both been in a band called Second Shift and we put together a 2 day event at Ten High, which was still a rock venue at the time, not just a karioke bar (both laugh), and I was the event publicist and it went very well, and we got a lot of press, and then Second Shift broke up but they wanted to do a series of shows, so we asked around a few venues if we could do free shows, because we all knew a lot of bands and we had enough friends that would come out and Jonathan Baker had been to a similar setup somewhere in LA where they were doing a series of free shows and it had spread word of mouth, and Star Bar was the only venue in Atlanta that said they would give us a night a month to do a free show, and would give us a cut of the bar
JS: So, when did you guys decide, Let’s do this?
LS: Spring of ’07, and our first show was July 7. You guys (Pine Magazine) started doing the free monthly shows in 08, right?
JS: yeah, it seemed like you guys were the only other group throwing consistently solid shows at that point.
LS: From July 07 to Dec 07 I think we were the only free show for those 6 months, and then Star Bar started asking other people if they wanted to do the Free Thursdays
JS: yeah, Stephen (Hudnall – Star Bar’s owner) asked me if I wanted to do free 1st Thursdays, and after teaming up on some shows with ISP and Soundlab 84, Holly at Pine Magazine jumped on board all the way and we did 18 free first thursdays. You guys had a brilliant idea with the free Thursdays
LS: Yeah, but at first I didn’t make posters, I didn’t book the bands, I didn’t even do any of the payouts then, I was just the promoter because I had a day job and I could be on the computer all the time and could switch back and forth and that was a lot of help, we started booking shows and people knew I was part of this team and started making friends with bands, and bands they were friends with were now my friends, and I guess a year into POP DEATH SQUAD, the a girl doing our posters moved to Chicago, and she was like, I can’t do this anymore, I’m too busy, and so I taught myself Photoshop
JS: Nice. Now how did you do that? Were you watching youtube videos and how-to’s, or was it more like search forums?
LS: I worked for a graphic designer at the time and someone gave me a copy of photoshop and I taught myself. I do wish that I knew how to do more things and if I had a scanner or some other tools, I might be able to do a better poster, but for now, I like what I’m doing
JS: Well, the good news is, the posters look good already, and Teal Luis keeps growing as a household name and before you know it, maybe you’ll have tons of interns or even a paid staff to take photos or help do your posters…
LS: I get offered. People say they want to do my posters, and say they want to do it for free and they work for a design firm, I have this problem that Team Luis has always been all me, and I like to drink a lot (both laugh), and so I’m just not sure if I might be hard to work with, I might just not be focused on trying to track down a graphic designer who doesn’t send me the poster in a timely fashion.
JS: I hear that. What are your thoughts on that you’re obviously a music lover, not like some promoters who are music haters?
LS: that’s the thing, when I was a publicist, I never wanted to be a publicist because everyone else was a sleezeball, and that’s why it didn’t work for me, because they wanted me to be like that, and I didn’t want to. I was like, fuck you, I don’t want to be just like you guys.
JS: Right. Good call.
LS: And as a promoter it’s the same thing. Before I became a promoter, I knew two promoters and I didn’t want to be like them at all, and I thought, how can they be the biggst assholes and bands do what they want? I figured why not be nice to bands, treat them nice and you know, pay them some money! I had a job at the time that was 40 hours a week, so I didn’t need the extra $50 a week or whatever, I’d rather pay the bands instead. But I think that’s how it started, I made friends with these bands, and I still go to see bands I’ve never seen, like tonight, I’m going to see a band I’ve never seen, Transvestite. I know people in the band and I respect them as musicians, and I want to see if they are someone I might want to book . I do both booking and management, and the bands I manage are Weapons of Audio, Young Orchids, and I do booking for The Soulphonics and Ruby Velle.
JS: I always wanted to manage a band, but then I remember that I have to manage my own band, and then I think of people like you that would probably be more suited for that
LS: Yeah, its funny though, when I book a show, I always make it a point to be in the front row for at least one whole song, and watch every person in the group, and I find that I get envious a lot of musicians, you know, how do your fingers know where to go? I do get jealous of being in a band. i cant sing, and I can’t write.
JS: You probably can. You got frontman charisma. You just gotta come up with someothing and go for it.
Yeah, maybe I can, you never know, I’m shy though, I get nerrvous whenever I intro a band, I’m like you all looking at me, fuck. you know?
JS: yeah its nerve-racking. Its cool to do it right. I’ve seen it done horribly wrong.
LS: Yeah, Hoffman does it really good, Wes Hoffman.
JS: Yeah, he is good, and you know, you can do anything with an afro like that. People love that hairdo. (awkward silence) umm, so where are you from? El Salvador?
LS: yeah, I was born there but we moved to Milwakee, Wisconsin and I grew up the only Latino in my school, me and my sister, and so that immediately made me eliminate the race differences, the white kids had a skin color, the African American kids had different color, Asians too, but I thought we were all the same because we all like the same stuff, I remember being a ten year old and liking the Chili Peppers, and then my I moved back to El Salvador in 93, I got into a lot of Spanish music because that is what was available
JS: So you moved you back to El Salvador?
LS: We moved back. The war was over and my parents moved back. I remember thinking I don’t want to go back you know, I dont want to leave.
JS: So how did you feel about it?
LS: I hated it!
(both laugh)
JS: It was bad? What was wrong?
LS: I was now an 11 year old, I didn’t have any friends…
JS: How was you Spanish?
LS: I understood it. i didn’t speak it very well. had an accent. and I didn;t know any slang or bad words..
JS: Did they gave you shit for being an American or a yuppie or something?
LS: Totally, Yeah the first year was the worst, but the whole time I was there, and I went to a private school the whole time I was there, but they were like you’re a gringo the whole time, and I was like, no, I promise, but I don’t know if it was typical 12 year olds, or what
JS: That’s for sure. I moved to Georgia from Florida, and my style was really weird to them, and everyone made fun of me being a surfer boy, and the real southern kids were brutal cause I didn’t have a southern accent…
LS: But, early on, yeah in Santa Ana, I was in a Beatles fanclub with 2 of my classmates, we went to a club with a bunch of 40 year old music enthusiasts who would get together and listen to the Beatles, but then in 2000, my parents were like, let’s move back to the states,
JS: and you were happy to move back?
LS:No, I had a girlfriend, I was 18 years old, finally comfortable with myself, high school awkwardness was over
JS: maybe all this moving around actually helped you make friends on the fly and adjust to new situations, like hablo español, no es problema (both laugh)
LS: Definitely. But I really hated yuppies when I moved back.
JS: Do you still hate them?
LS: Yeah, definitely. My brother is turning into a yuppie and I’m like, what are you doing?!?
(lots of laughing)
In El Salvador I learned a lot of different types of music. Salsa music is pretty popular. There’s a genre called Banda, its just accordions, and the vocals are not very good, its like a polka, but that’s more like the rural folks, and you would hear it at the beach a lot. But even the police had a good beachy vibe and Nirvana , even though Kurt Cobain killed himself right be fore I moved there was big and Metallica was huge.
JS: Did you guys know of Neutral Milk Hotel?
LS: No way. I didn’t even know who Sonic Youth was. By the way, I really like this photo you have here, what is that?
JS: Holly actually got that from Alana Goldstein at the Pine Magazine art show at Picaflor in January 2010. This is a series, and that is another one that is part of it, and it is a kid’s boxing league, and these are the adults at the kid boxing league, but I think a lot of them are parents..
LS: or they’re betting money? Is it in Atlanta?
JS: yeah, its in Midtown. Check this guy out.
LS: It looks like it was back in the 80′s..
JS: yeah, but it was taken very recently..
LS: and you see the haircuts and they’re totally not in style and that’s why you love it, when you see
JS: no, except the guy wearing pink shorts,
LS: yeah but that guy, he can get away with anything, he’s gonna talk loud, and then this guy looks like a bald David Duchovny in a striped shirt
JS: a bald, Mulato David Duchovny..
LS: Shit, hope he doesn’t read this, and is a boxer
lots of laughing
Notes from the Welfare Line
It was a long six mile drive down MLK, past the splendor of the West End and into a sparse ghetto wasteland. I drove right past the strip mall at first, half-abandoned as it was, never suspecting that the Georgia Department of Labor Career Center would be nestled in between an indie cell phone shop and a Chinese takeout restaurant. The parking lot was packed.
I gripped the greasiest door handle in South Metro Atlanta, stepped inside, and filed immediately into a line. I didn’t know where the line was leading to, but I assumed the hippie senior citizen in front of me knew the score. Eventually, it was my turn in line. I told the DOL lady I was there to file for U.I.–apparently that’s what they’re calling it these days. I typed my SSN on a keypad and suddenly she knew everything about me. She grilled me on long gaps of jobless time. I shrugged. Sometimes I have a job, sometimes I don’t. She gave me a stack of paperwork. Not the paperwork I had come for, but a pile of preliminary questions. She told me to fill it all out and wait for the next group meeting, where I would be taught how to file for unemployment. Once educated, I would return to the front lobby and wait to file electronically on one of the computers scattered about. Then I would wait for my name to be called by a DOL caseworker, for the one-on-one interview.
Finding a seat at one of the large round tables in the lobby, I read over the pile of preliminary paperwork. There was the MISSING WAGE FORM, The U.I. CLAIM FORM, the INCOME TAX WITHHOLDING OPTION leaflet. Beneath these were pamphlets such as the CLAIMANT HANDBOOK and the EQUAL OPPORTUNITY IS THE LAW brochure. Deeper down, paperwork pertaining to my upcoming job search, like the RECORD OF WORK SEARCH worksheet and the dreaded RETURN TO WORK NOTICE. Finally, at the bottom of the pile, a veritable dossier of information designed to help me, the claimant, including the GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF LABOR NOTICE TO CLAIMANTS, the WORKFORCE INVESTMENT ACT CONTACT INFO SHEET, and of course the SERVICES AVAILABLE TO YOU AT NO CHARGE leaflet. After careful review of this information, I muttered ‘fuck it’ and drove back home.
by Justin Brooke
The Back Pockets
Here in Atlanta, as well as in many other parts of the country, trendy music scenes see a lot of bands falling into the same formula; guitars, bass, drums, a singer or two, and maybe keyboards or a horn of some type. This is Rock & Roll and that is what we expect. The masses always flock to something safe and familiar. Then, along comes a band like The Back Pockets; armed with the visual savvy of a skilled choreographer and costume designer, an anything goes approach to live music, and a general nonchalance about the fact that all this is happening at a venue that normally would house just another 4-piece rock band. There is one consistent element at Back Pockets shows. The audience’s expression is usually a surprised smile and a look of disblelief, one that can’t believe what it is witnessing.
People who have seen The Back Pockets only once often have conflicting conversations about what the band is like. At one recent performance, one might think lead singer/songwriter Emily Kempf always plays the piano behind the shadow as pianist/singer, the female version of Ryan Gosling in his haunting role as composer for Dead Man’s Bones, all the while, placing the background singers front and center, making you wonder who’s voice is making which sound. One week later at the next performance, she won’t be on the keyboard at all, but rather standing at front of the stage, reminding you that she is the frontperson, egging the crowd into a pseudo-riot that, other than the fact that the audience is scantily clad hipsters, one might think would take place in the mosh pit of a Jesus Lizard show.
Occasionally accompanied by a circus, an early David Lynch style visual art installation or show, the revolving cast of The Back Pockets have an entourage of fans and cohorts that like to shed their clothes in the front of the crowd. Lately, the band has been handing out drumsticks to the audience and encouraging them to drum along with the set in what resembles the crowd participation in a Gospel church sing-a-long, but with an audience often resembling more of a tribal scene from a Dionysus ritual. The only band that comes to mind utilizing this much theatrics in a live setting is Of Montreal.
I caught up with Emily briefly in Little Five Points and she explained that the spontaneous nature of their live shows has been somewhat the foundation from the beginning. It is the very core of the band’s existence.
 Emily explains how the band spontaneously formed. photo by Henry Detweiler, also a member of the band |
Emily – ‘It all started August 2008…I wanted to be a director of a crazy play. I ran around asking folks if they wanted to join me in my impulsive creative wonderful efforts, and many did. Many dropped off as well, it was a constant revolving door of characters. We booked a show at WonderRoot per the encouragement of Kristy Breneman and started to create something with 4 weeks to prepare. so a bunch of us were literally sitting around and someone said we need a plan to pull out of our back pockets just in case this all falls apart the night of the show. So we formed a band to hold this crazy “play” together with songs. The band stuck, the band name stuck, and here we are today!’ |
Here they are indeed. While all the theatrics make for a very interesting live show, even if your inner snob wants to cringe at the idea of such shenanigans being acceptable, the strength of the songwriting seals the deal. The songs stick in your head, force you to listen, and you may even sing along as if cheering at a Braves game. The recorded music holds its own and doesn’t come across as a play at all. Kempf’s voice has a timeless scratchy quality to it revealing a wisdom beyond her years. The music has a campy currentness, at times soft and melodic like Hope for a Golden Summer, but with a bangin’ rhythm section, the occasional electronic drumloop and rapid-fire vocals. Other moments have Kempf rivalling the ferocity of PJ Harvey on Rid of Me.
Watch their video for ‘Leave Me Alone’, directed by Andy Deloach and produced by Kristy Brenemen.
Interview with Patrick Hill of The Earl
Ten years as a rock club and southern cuisine dive bar and The Earl has become the anchor for East Atlanta’s continuously shifting restaurant and bar scene. It has also become the holy grail of Atlanta independent non-commercial venues to house popular, but slightly under the radar national acts. Patrick Hill (Word Productions) is the venue’s booking agent and he has witnessed from behind the scenes, and is largely responsible for, The Earl’s transformation into this role. I got to hang out with Patrick and chat about The Earl and his take on how all of this came to be.
Justin Sias – The Earl, Patrick Hill.
Patrick Hill – Yep, that’s me.
J – When did you start working at The Earl and how did you become the booking agent of that place?
P – Started there in 2001, so I’ve been employed by The Earl for ten years, which is probably about 80 in, you know real life or whatever, working in a rock club that long. I always knew I wanted to work in the live music business in some capacity and knew my calling was not to be a musician. I interned at The 40 Watt Club in 1999. That’s the first time I worked at a rock club and (I) kind of fell in love with the live music portion of the music industry. I worked at The Point for a minute before it closed and the girl I worked with there knew Donnie (Parmer – one of The Earl’s owners). Later, when I was working at Creative Loafing, the position came open, she recommended me and it worked out.
J – So, you weren’t the first booking agent there?.
P – No, Brian Halloran was the original guy. He played in Smoke and now Smoke That City. I think he really got them off to a good step cause he was so instrumental in the local scene at that time. He obviously cast his net to get all the local musicians playing there when they first opened, but a year and a half into it, February 2001, I took over.
J – It was mostly local bands then?
P – For the most part. They had Henry (Owings) doing some sort of national stuff, and Shane (Pringle – also, one of the Earl’s owners) was doing some national booking at that time.
J – Was Echo Lounge going on at that time?
P – Echo was going on, but at first we were competing more with the old Eyedrum on Trinity. That was the hot spot. Don Caballero coming through, the first Ted Leo shows in town, that sort of thing. The smaller more up and coming indie stuff that we were vibing with and fighting for at that time. But yeah, back then our bread and butter was being a local club.
J – Because at this point, you guys are more of a national venue, no?
P – I would agree with that. That was sort of the evolution we took over the course of ten years. When I started working there, it had a radically different feel; all the 20 something musicians would be hanging out drinking. Obviously that is a cyclical thing, and there have been four or five spots that have taken that throne from us at one time or other. But we made the realization that it’s not a long-term plan to work, trying to be the place where 21-year-olds think is the place to be at any one given time.
So we made the choice a couple years into to sort of approach things differently from the venue side of it and it coincided with the Echo closing down. We were starting to compete with them for shows but they had the advantage of being bigger and doing 18+, which appealed to some bands. When they closed, we were able to take advantage of the fact that all these bands were looking for a place to play on these tours. We knew we’d get our shot, but it was up to us to get them to come back a second and third time, and that is something we were able to do successfully.
J – Absolutely! Now, in the present after all the shifting, how is the venue holding up?
P – The last three years the economy has taken a hit across the board and live music is not any different. People will always want to go out and drink their PBR, and for that we’re grateful, (laughs) but in terms of people wanting to go and spend money on shows, that varies. The way Atlanta works, it’s a very seasonal thing. You end up asking everyone for all their money at one time. For example – the month of October. Right before the last election when the oil shortage happened was probably the hardest time, but then after Obama was elected everyone seemed to be optimistic again, and started coming out. Now people realize the economy hasn’t recovered as much as we would have liked, but you know, we’re susceptible to that like any business.
J – Did you notice any difference in the types of touring bands that came through since the economy plumetted?
P – Part of the equation that changed slightly, with gas prices going up, it becomes prohibitive for a band without an audience to tour to some extent. So there’s been a slight shift in the business model there where it’s “let’s create the demand before we go on the road,” as opposed to “let’s go on the road to create the demand.” So now, you have everybody putting energy into creating whatever internet buzz sells records and gets people to come out these days. I wish I could understand how you are able to manipulate that but its beyond my realm of knowledge.
J – Any labels popping up that catch your attention lately?
P – A lot of people are into that Hozac label in Chicago doing Woven Bones and bands like that. It’s not garage; its sorta experimental, low fi, energetic. But a bunch of bands that go in that Triple D circuit. And obviously locally, Double Phantom is doing a bunch of work
J – Yeah, they just kind of popped out of nowhere.
P – Yeah totally. They sort of took the reigns of where Rob’s House was and now Rob’s House isn’t as active. You know, it goes in cycles. It’s not a straight line, but you can definitely see the Atlanta progression between a label like Moodswing who was the hot shit when I started booking shows, and was sort of meandering. You had Die Slaughterhaus doing the real underground stuff, and that led to Rob’s House, and now Double Phantom, just little scenes amalgamating together and putting their own little stamp on what’s happening in Atlanta
J – So, what are your favorite bands to have booked at The Earl?
P – That’s an impossible question, but in terms of bands that always put on great show – the Rock-a-Teens. Whenever they would play The Earl, it was such a huge deal for the club and for me as a fan. Then you had people like Mike Watt coming in and it was just awesome. You know Shannon Wright always put on amazing shows, and more recently, Les Savy Five and Hold Steady, Band of Horses, we’ve had such a wide cast of characters to play the club, but those are ones that consistently put on shows where you would mark the calendar and you would make sure there that night, no matter what.
J – The classics, Earl Classic Bands?
P – Yeah, exactly, something about them and the way they approach music and art fit very well into the vibe The Earl was doing. There was a synergy with the space and the way they were playing that made for some epic moments. Hot Saints would be another one.
J – When I first moved to Atlanta in The Early 2000s, coming from Athens, I was very happy to discover The Earl because there was this stigma elsewhere that music making its way out of Atlanta was overly commercial, like the Black Crowes or John Mayer, or…
P – Collective Soul?
J- Exactly, but you told me back then that we had a good scene here and to look a little closer, and you were right.
P – Yeah and I think that scene was Moodswing like we were talking about earlier, and there were a lot of math rock and heavier bands at that time. I think Atlanta had a bit of a chip on its shoulder because the Athens bands were recognized nationally and the ones in Atlanta weren’t. The bands coming out of the Elephant 6 scene, Neutral Milk Hotel, Of Montreal, and these were awesome bands, and then there was Kindercore, and then they started doing Mazerati and Paper Lions and all that kind of stuff. But, I feel there is a natural rivalry behind the two music scenes which is pretty stupid but also awesome in some sort a way. A little bit of elbowing each other and jockeying for position is always healthy.
J- Well, it does seem like things have shifted some and Atlanta has so many underground bands doing well in the last few years. When you go out of town, everyone says, ‘you’re from Atlanta, wow that’s where all the cool music is. You guys really throw down!’
P – (laughs) Yeah, here in Atlanta, I feel like we’re just doing what we always have. It’s just that now, everyone else has finally started noticing, which is awesome.
Photo Recap of Halloween 2010 at The Earl
We were on hand for Halloween at The Earl 2010. West End Motel played an unforgettable and shockingly amazing set with the addition of singer Karen Cheshire and various other additional/occasional band members. Unfortunately, we did not get any pictures of the evening’s headliner, but as seen above, we did capture Marlo dressing up like a Fiend without a Face. Walk from the Gallows and Daikaiju can also be seen performing, but the true stars of the evening were the audience members and their costumes.
The Pros & Cons of the Music Business
by Justin Brooke
I started playing in bands when I was a fifteen, and almost immediately decided that this would be my life. I was hungry then, and I haven’t lost my appetite. I’ve had a taste of success in the ensuing fifteen years–none of it monetary, mind you. In fact, my best estimate is a total gross of around fifteen thousand dollars; in fifteen years, I’ve made fifteen thousand dollars playing guitar. According to my Social Security Statement, this is three thousand dollars less than I made in the year 2004, when I schlepped plywood at the Home Depot lumber department. As they say, money isn’t everything.
Justin Brooke and Aaron Wood of Howlies
In 2007, we formed the band Howlies, and for the first time in my musical career, I found a modicum of success. We toured the country, performed in every major US city, and received accolades by some of our biggest musical heroes. We had tens of thousands of dollars of investment money thrown at us, made our debut album with a legendary producer, and got press in magazines like SPIN and Paste. Our music has been licensed for network television multiple times, and our album artwork was featured in the book FIVE HUNDRED 45s, published by Harper-Collins. A quick Google search will reveal about twelve thousand Howlies-related blog posts, album reviews, interviews, fan videos, etc. Yet I still wait tables part-time to pay my rent.
Older, wiser, and more pragmatic people sometimes ask why I soldier on in this business, given such apparent financial failure. I have no good answer. I could try to explain the pure freedom and adrenaline of performing, or the feeling of hearing your song on the radio, or the absurd highs and lows of touring the ‘shitlin circuit’ (I just invented that term), but the truth is: I have zero backup plan. Sure, I could dust off my English degree and teach High School, but how do you go from rocking the shit out of seventeen year old girls to fostering an appropriate learning environment for them?
Back at home, the daily grind of the touring musician to pay the bills means weekday shifts
See, at a certain point in the game, most touring musicians stop feeling like normal people–like the kind of people who can have a career and a family and a stable home. And it’s not just the cheap sex & drugs that do it. It’s the traveling around like some hybrid celebrity/hobo. It weirdens you (weirdens being another word I’ve had to invent to convey my message). I remember when I had the epiphany. It was about two years ago, in the dead of winter, driving through an ice storm somewhere between no-paying gigs in Vermont or Maine or some such foreign land. It was four p.m. and the sky was black. Matt the bass player drove a white-knuckled twenty miles-per-hour down the interstate, a concentrated look of terror on his face. He was determined to make that load-in. He never questioned the absurdity or the futility of the situation. None of us questioned it. It had become our normal. Just another Tuesday. It was masochistic, sure, but that’s the music business: a collision-course with greatness. You either arrive in a glorious explosion or disintegrate in flames somewhere along the way, out in space, far from the strictures of earth.
In college, a professor told me: “Try to treat this like a hobby, not a career. And if you absolutely cannot stop yourself from making it a career, prepare to starve.” He was talking about writing, but this applies to any artistic lifestyle. Those of you who can keep it down to a hobby probably should. You can go on to live satiated lives, with cars, houses, functional families. And the rest of us? Starving.
New Deerhunter video, album and recent show at Variety Playhouse
Deerhunter - ahh, the good ole days - photo by Kasey Price
At the end of 2006, Deerhunter was just another band around town. Often playing to almost no audience with overly loud amps and technical difficulties, there were only a few people who could have guessed at the phenomenon that was brewing right here in our back yard. I remember seeing a show at Drunken Unicorn where not even the other bands on the bill were in the room. I was literally the only attendee. Then, out of nowhere, it happened. They exploded across the world. It didn’t make sense! Or did it?
My first clue came when some friends talked me into going to Bonnaroo because I had a tour bus. I was excited to see Sonic Youth and maybe a little Elvis Costello and figured I could see what the hippy festival thing was all about. When else would I get to see Tom Petty live? During Sonic Youth’s set, one of my all time heroes, Thurston Moore asked if anyone was from Atlanta and the crowd responded with a resounding YEAH!! Then he said his new favorite band was from there, and asked if anyone had heard of Deerhunter. Of course, no one there had.
Well, within a few months, everyone was talking about Deerhunter and Bradford Cox was the mischievous guilty pleasure of, like every music blog on the planet. Now, the band is a household name, and the new album ‘Halcyon Digest’ is one of the most highly anticipated releases ever to come out of our city.
Watch new video for Helicoptor off ‘Halcyon Digest’
Deerhunter played The Variety Playhouse October 1 with Hollow Stars, Dust Bunnies and Henry Barbe
by Justin Sias
Tom Cheshire and Dry Ink has ‘Drinks with The Gallows’
This article originally ran in Dry Ink Magazine
This week we do a drinks with Joseph Lazzari from Walk From The Gallows and talk music and beats. I hope you enjoy. He is a really special songwriter and just a flat out sweetheart. I am a big fan. Please go and check him out. We’ll talk about it later.
Dry Ink (Tom Cheshire): Let me just start off by saying, I really like your songs. Thank you for doing this.
Joseph Lazzari: Thanks so much. I’m a huge fan of yours and I thank you for having me.
DI: How long have you been writing songs under the name “Walk From The Gallows?”
JL: Hard to say really. Its a name I drummed up a couple years ago after leaving my previous band. I really wanted to use it for something, but the name comes off as kind of epic to me and I was working on an acoustic solo project. I couldn’t really picture myself walking out on stage, just me and a guitar, and saying “Hey, I’m Walk From the Gallows!!!” That just seemed ridiculous. It seemed like it would be followed by beer bottles flying at me. My solo project became a trio last October and that’s when the name was used formally for the first time.
DI: What does it mean? How did you come up with it?
JL: To me, the name sums up this idea, that I’m always thinking about and wrestling with, of moving forward no matter what happens. It’s what you have to do after the hard times and failures. You stand back up, dust yourself off, pick your teeth up off the floor and keep walking. “Walk from the gallows” was actually a lyric to a song that I never finished. At the time I was really wrapped up in reading about this Installation artist named Christian Boltanski. His family survived the Holocaust and his work was primarily about death. He believed that people die several times within their lives. He believed that the tough times kill us and we move forward as someone changed and new. That guy had a big impact on me and the lyrics from that unfinished song were definitely me tipping my hat to him. I also wanted a moniker that had a sort of bad-ass-southern-gothic ring that was, to me at least, a reminder to keep fucking going.
DI: That is a deep meaning and I love it. Do you have any songs recorded? Do you plan on putting out a record of some sort?
JL: We recorded two songs with Peter Furgiuele of Gringo Star. We’ve considered putting those out on a 7 inch. Those songs have since changed and improved, I think, but those recordings have character and he was awesome to work with. We recorded them in his basement last winter and froze our assess off doing it. We had to warm our fingers with our coffees between takes. I hate being cold. Good times though. We’ll hopefully be recording a new batch of songs early this fall and figuring out what to do with them then.
DI: Do you have a regular backing band or does it change from time to time?
JL: We have a steady five piece lineup, though I don’t really consider them being my back up band. I just consider the five of us as being in a band together. I write simple songs that wouldn’t be anywhere near what they’ve become without the influence of my band mates.
DI: Who does the band consist of currently?
JL: Troy King (drums), Will Raines (accordian, lead guitar), Craig Johnson (bass), my fiance Kathryn Humphrey (vocals, tambo, and pretty much every bit of the leg work that results in us playing shows and people seeing them), and myself (vocals, guitar)
DI: What would you say or who would you say have been influences on you as a songwriter?
JL: Neil Young, Johnny Cash, all three Hanks, Bob Dylan (he’s probably why I feel like its OK to write a song without a chorus), Tom Petty, Hot Water Music, Avail, Leatherface, Against Me! (early stuff), Jimi Hendrix, This Bike Is a Pipe Bomb, The Wednesdays, The Temptations, and William Elliot Whitmore to name several.
DI: What have you been listening to lately?
JL: I’ve had ANDPW- Make It Right playing constantly lately. I hope that doesn’t come off as a lame plug or something. I love it. Other than that I’ve been revisiting some older stuff : Drive-By Truckers – Southern Rock Opera, Hot Water Music – No Division, William Elliot Whitmore – Hymns for the Hopeless, various tracks by Johnny Cash, Misfits, Temptations, and whatever my ipod is shufflin’ at me while I’m at work.
DI: I know you have done a few out of town dates. Are there any plans of touring?
JL: Definitely. Once we get some new recordings squared away. We plan to start venturing out more often.
DI: Are you a native of Atlanta?
JL: Nope. I moved to Atlanta in late 2007. I was born and raised in south Alabama.
DI: What is your day job?
JL: I’m a carpenter and a welder, and I recently started working as a scenic artist. I make fake trees that look like real trees, giant vegetables, Indian teepees, and a lot of other random stuff. It’s been pretty rad.
DI: Where can we go to listen to some of your music? Is there a my-space site?
JL: You can go to Myspace.com/walkfromthegallows We have a player on our facebook page as well.
DI: When is your next show so we can let the kids know about it?
JL: We’re playing September 11th at Wonderroot. It’s an all-day festival. After that is the Other Sound Festival in L5P on October 2nd. We’ll be playing in the dungeon of the Star Bar at 6:30. You can also hear us at reverbnation.com/walkfromthegallows
There is also a show October 15th in the square in L5P for the L5P Halloween Festival and the October 31st show with West End Motel and Fiend Without A Face.
DI: Thank you so much for your time. It was a pleasure speaking with you.
JL: Thank you. I’d like to also thank Justin Sias from the Other Sound Fest and Jennifer belgard from the L5P Halloween Fest for having us.
Interview with Nick Furgiuele of Gringo Star
Every once in a while a band comes along with staying power. Not just a one hit wonder or the latest new flash in the pan, but solid steps forward, steadily building up a loyal fanbase and name recognition. Gringo Star is a band that continues to grow in popularity around the world, independently touring and putting out albums about as fast and thoroughly as anyone could imagine over the past decade, and where many groups would have given up, the Gringos have pressed forward, letting nothing stand in their way, from sleeping on dirty floors and waking up for long drives to get the next gig around the US to maneuvering themselves into the European market with sheer determination. All the hard work is starting to pay off and their music continues to improve.
The band has now received solid recognition from, among many other publications and online sources, Spin, Pitchfork, MTV. They’ve recently played Lollapalooza along with countless other European and US festivals, have a documentary about them coming out soon and are quickly gaining speed as a force to be reckoned with in the UK. They also were featured in a Tommy Hilfiger commercial.
I caught up with Gringo Star’s Nick Furgiuele for a chat about the band.
Justin Sias: Can you tell us a little about any upcoming releases?
Nick Furgiuele: We just recorded our new album with Ben Allen and James Salter, again, at Glow in the Dark Studios over behind the Dollhouse on Chesire Bridge Rd. I’d say it’s different from what we’ve done in the past, in that, it’s been 2 years more of touring, playing shows, getting tighter as a band, and the songs themselves are far catchier than older stuff and will appeal to 4 yr olds to 90 yr olds of all sorts. We made an Uber-pop album.
JS: Is it true, the rumors that you guys are the most touring band in Atlanta?
NF: It’s hard to keep up with all the Atlanta bands that are out there in the thick of it, because we are traveling a great deal lately. But I know a lot of Atlanta bands that are working hard. We did about 170 or so shows last year, and are prolly gonna hit close to that or a little more this year. So far this year we did a bunch of southeastern shows at the start of the year, then 6 weeks from end of Feb til we got back in early April. That was all US shows out to SxSW and then the Midwest and East Coast.
Then we were home for a few weeks, played some festival one-offs in florida, tennessee, louisiana, alabama, and georgia, and then went and did some shows and festivals in the UK for 2 weeks, left the UK and met up with Best Coast, whom we supported for all of mainland Europe for about 3-4 weeks. Got back to the US and did some more weekends in the south/midwest…a mixture of festivals and clubs. Now we are almost to the end of a US tour where we went out to California, at the start of august, played a festival in LA and bunch of other shows out there, looped our way back around to the east and met up with the toadies to support their tour on the east and midwest.
JS: Wow! So, what different countries have you played in?
NF: I’d say in the last 3 years we’ve been all over the US, to Mexico, England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Germany, Italy, Holland, Belgium, France, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Czech Republic, and Switzerland. It’s really the only way we can spread our music to people without a label here.
JS: What are your favorite shows to have played?
NF: The show we did in Zurich last year supporting the Trail of Dead was definitely up there. Actually most of that tour was awesome. It was our first time to mainland europe and all the shows were amazing. Really nice, bigger venues…like 1000-1500 people a night. So much fun…
Also we got to play this Sun Fest earlier this year before Weezer, which was a lot of fun. We’ve had tons of really interesting/fun shows. Just played the Gramercy Theatre in NYC last week, and that was totally amazing. We played with a side project of Arcade Fire folks at Paradiso in Amsterdam. That place is so beautiful. Summer Fest in Milwaukee last year was pretty cool, and maybe the most we’ve played too…like 5000.
JS: There is a rumor that you guys hung out with Ringo Starr’s family members. Can you tell us anything more about that?
Well, the woman that does our press, Jo, is friends with Zak Starkey [Ringo's son] and Jo came over to Europe with us last year for a couple weeks while we were on tour, and Zak threw her a little home-coming party. So we ended up meeting him, and his daughter, Tatia, and a bunch of really nice folks. We’ve just stayed in touch and she has a band, and we’ve played 2-3 times with them the last few visits over to the UK. They are awesome, and called Belakiss.
Nick and brother Pete from Gringo Star started a renegade baseball league in Atlanta
JS: What are your thoughts on the Atlanta music scene when compared to other cities, like NY, Chicago, etc . .
NF: Atlanta is the best… hands down.
JS: What about the UK music scene? How is it compared to the one in US?
NF: Atlanta is the best…no contest.
Not to mention the renegade baseball scene in Atlanta. No one can touch that…..and the grits.
The Gringos play Star Bar on Oct 8 with A Fight to the Death
article by Justin Sias
Hurry Up and Wait – A Film About Gringo Star “All Yall” from Hurry Up and Wait on Vimeo.
Picaflor’s Picks for The Other Sound Festival- Little Five Points – Oct 2
We are very excited to be a part of this year’s Other Sound Festival! In it’s sixth year, the event continues to dig deep into Atlanta’s music scene, beyond Atlanta’s own underground mainstream to find diamonds in the rough, the sweet local gems you may otherwise not have been exposed to. The festival also appeals to many different styles of music and people, from hipster to hip-hop, southern folk-punk to space rock. We looked at the list and compiled some of our favorites. View the event on facebook.
| Wes Ables plays Java Lords at 2pm |
 Wes Ables - Atlanta songwriter, originally from Nashville One of Picaflor’s favorite songwriters, Wes Ables kicks off the event at Java Lords (in the Seven Stages lobby). Wes never fails to deliver a fun performance and his high spirits can be felt in his earnest and light-hearted Nashville delivery. Read more at www.theothersound.com |
| The Back Pockets open the event at Criminal Records at 2:30pm |
 The Back Pockets - Atlanta band to watch Andy Warhol couldn’t have conceived a more appropriate live show for Studio 54 than Back Pockets. Fronted by Emily Kempf, this revolving cast of musicians, performance artists and all out, with balls to the wall showmanship, is THE band to watch in Atlanta right now. For their show at Criminal Records, the band will have 8-10 members on hand, a banjo, harmonium, and percussion symphony. The new “Fearless Freaks” |
| Skin jobs headline the Star Bar Main Stage at midnight |
 Skin Jobs are a mix of Lay Down Mains and The Preakness Following the breakup of their former band Lay Down Mains, Rick Moore (one of our favorite DJ’s) and David Lane have been crafting a new project and a new sound. Ready for the unveiling, Skin Jobs are one of Atlanta’s newest and most highly anticipated groups in the past few years and to add to the hype, Brandon Arnold, formerly of The Preakness joins in on bass and vocal duties. Take a sneak peak here |
| Tornado Town lights up the Star Bar dungeon at 10:30pm |
 TIme to break loose and dance |
| Oryx & Crake play Five Spot at 10pm |
 Atlanta band plays a symphony of pop |
Full Schedule to the Event
STAR BAR MAIN STAGE
6 What Happened to Your Fire, Tiger
7 Book of Colors
8 Little Tybee
9 West End Motel
9:40 Author’s Apology
10:15 The Charges
11:15 Abby GoGo
12:15 Skin Jobs
STAR BAR DUNGEON
6:30 Walk from the Gallows
7:30 Starfighter
8:30 Buffalo Bangers
9:30 King Congregation
10:30 Tornado Town
11:30 Odist
FIVE SPOT
7 Meut
8 Jeremy Ray & The Gonzo Orchestra
9 Weapons of Audio
10 Oryx and Crake
11 GPWFLY
12 Omelet
CRIMINAL RECORDS
5:30 Mermaids
4:30 A Fight to the Death
3:30 The Wild
2:30 Back Pockets
JAVA LORDS
1:00 Wes Ables
2:00 Hawkeye Pierce
4:00 Platonic Sex
5:00 The Falcon Lords
For more information on the event, please visit www.theothersound.com.
July 17 – Maggie & her Mistakes, Lonesome City Travellers, Neil Cribbs, The Signallers
Maggie & Her Mistakes, Lonesome City Travellers, Neil Cribbs, The Signallers at Picaflor in Atlanta
Interview with Taylor Hollingsworth
interview by Justin Brooke
Picaflor proudly invites Taylor Hollingsworth on June 5 to our studio as part of The Southeastern Songwriter Showcase. 
Taylor Hollingsworth is a singer, songwriter and guitar-slayer. I
recently spoke to him via telephone. I think he was grocery shopping.
I warned him that I’d never interviewed anyone before. Then we bonded
over the Dexateens (who rule).
JB: Your latest album, Life with a Slow Ear is definitely a much more
acoustic record than its predecessor, Bad Little Kitty. Less of a
garage rock affair. Did you consciously want to distance yourself from
the ‘garage rock’ label?
TH: Yeah, I did. I still really love Bad Little Kitty, but y’know
everything today is: ‘What are you?’ You have to fit into some kind of
genre. But if you keep making the same type thing, it becomes: ‘Oh,
this is what you are’. I just didn’t want to be stuck into that, even
though I still really love that kind of music.
JB: I love your acoustic guitar-playing on the song ‘I Didn‘t Know it
was the Devil.’ Reminds me of a cross between Skip James and Paul
Simon. Do you dig on Skip James?
TH: Yeah, I do. That’s part of what made me want to make this record
– so I could play shows completely solo like Skip James or Mance
Lipscomb did. That was one of the things I didn’t feel I could do
before. I grew this appreciation for somebody who could stand up there
by himself and not sound like he’s missing something. It really made
me want to be able to do that. That’s what led me to the
fingerpicking-style guitar. In some ways it’s more limiting, but in
some ways it’s the opposite. You can do whatever you want if you’re by
yourself.
JB: Do you play the song ‘Assassinate the President’ anymore?
TH: No, not really.
JB: I assume it’s about George W. Bush.
TH: (Laughs). Yeah, you got it. I get a little scared now for some
reason. Like I don’t want to be added to some no-fly list. In some
ways I look at that song as slightly… immature. But really, I just
thought of it one day. I heard Neil Young’s ‘Impeach the President‘,
and I thought, somebody needs to write just fuckin’ straight-up
‘Assassinate the President’. Then I was like, wait… I write songs. I
guess I should be the one to do this.
JB: I like that song.
TH: I like it, too. It’s just sort of blunt. I don’t want people to
get the wrong idea, like I’m gonna go out and kill anybody. But fuck,
that dude seriously is responsible for so many deaths. It pisses me
off. I just hope people don’t take it the wrong way. I don’t want it
to influence killers or anything. But it’s freedom of speech, y’know?
Anybody should be able to make a bold statement, so I decided to go
ahead and take the plunge.
JB: Here’s a really good question: Do you have any nicknames?
TH: Somehow I acquired “Paper”. I don’t really know how that came
about. I think it was a Conor Oberst-coined name, but I never
understood what it meant or where it came from. We used to tell people
it was because I was always on acid, but it’s not true. I haven’t done
acid since I was a teenager.
Watch Taylor Hollingsworth’s video here:
AT MASQUERADE! Aug 13 and 14 – Strange Days -seeking artists
Picaflor is proud to be the arts sponsor for Strange Days!
The Strange Daze Music and Arts Festival is an event with a purpose. For two days this summer, The Moon and Pluto, an Atlanta-based music-centric community, will shine a light on the exemplary musical talent in the region. In an effort to focus on originality, diversity, and substance, meticulous and extensive consideration has been granted to the applicants for this year’s festival.
For more information, visit The Moon and Pluto
June 5 – Southeastern Songwriter Showcase w Taylor Hollingsworth, Young John Goodman, Efren, Corey Pallon
Picaflor Presents: Now See This!
Painter/Carpenter Chris Bell is one of 5 local Atlanta artists showing at Picaflor on March 6th. A SCAD graduate, Bell makes use of his technical training in truly unique and organic mediums.
Untitled by Chris Bell
Feb 3 – Picaflor sponsors Benefit for Haiti at The Earl
Driven by a desire to help in some way, however big or small, with the current crisis in Haiti, Grand Prize Winners from Last Year, Los Buenos, and Book of Colors will perform a benefit show at the EARL February 03, with all proceeds going to the Atlanta-based CARE International and their relief efforts in Haiti.
“None of us have much money and we realized any donation we made personally would be minor and might not make much of a difference,” said Justin Sias, singer and bassist for Los Buenos and a co-organizer of the event. “We wanted to help give East Atlanta and the folks in our small scene a chance to get involved in helping those whose lives have been devastated by the massive earthquake, and all the small ones that have followed, in Haiti.”
A global humanitarian nonprofit, CARE International is dedicated to fighting issues surrounding poverty.
“CARE came to our attention because they are an amazing international group based right here in Atlanta and has been helping impoverished nations and people for years,” Sias said. “They’ve been there for Haitians since the earthquake hit, and we want to support them however we can.”
Aqiyl Thomas will DJ, and there will be an auction of arts and services at the event, including original art by the infamous Gutterpop and photography services from XXX. Pine Magazine, See Through Souls, Picaflor Studio, Containment Theory Records and the Moon and Pluto are among the many sponsors of this worthy event.
“We’re hoping that everyone can make it out and bring a friend ’cause these folks need our help,” said Believe, a member of the Grand Prize Winners from Last Year and a co-organizer of the event. “Help us make this an amazing event.”
Advance tickets are on sale now for $5, and will be $7 the day of show. Go to www.badearl.com to learn more about the show, and learn more about CARE at care.org.
What: Benefit show for Haiti relief through CARE International featuring Los Buenos, Grand Prize Winners from Last Year and Book of Colors
Where: The EARL, 488 Flat Shoals Ave SE, Atlanta, GA 30316
When: Wednesday, February 3, at 9:30 p.m.
How much: $5 before the show, $7 the day of the show
More details: There will be an art auction and raffle, with all proceeds going to CARE Intl. Pine Magazine, See Through Souls, Picaflor Studio, Containment Theory Records, the Moon and Pluto, Gutterpop, ISP, Dry Ink, are helping sponsor the event.
Jan 29 – Pine Magazine Presents a Photography Exhibit with Alana Goldstein, Dave Batterman, Karen Shacham – music by today the moon tomorrow the sun, club awesome, this piano plays itself,
Photographers Alana Goldstein, Karen Shacham, David Batterman and bands Today The Moon Tomorrow The Sun, Club Awesome, This Piano Plays Itself
Little Richard: The Birth of Rock ‘n’ Roll, by David Kirby.
Book review by Justin Brooke
Kirby's enthusiasm for Little Richard can be found in this fun biography
In the introduction to his new Little Richard biography, poet David Kirby lets us know right off what kind of book this is going to be, declaring: “If this book were a car, it’d be a hooptie — an Oldsmobile 88, say.”
Kirby proceeds to take us on a fast and bumpy (yet stylin’) ride through the mad career of The Georgia Peach himself: Richard Wayne Penniman. Along the way we’re treated to Kirby’s witty, poetical musings on pop music, the 1950s, the “Old, Weird America”, Gay Macon, and the occasional Chuck Berry zinger. In fact Kirby drives us right into the heart — I mean the birth — of Rock ‘n’ Roll.
Strangely, it’s not so much the biography of a man, but the biography of a song. “Tutti Frutti” was Richard’s breakout 1955 single. It must have horrified people when it first erupted from A.M. radios. Kirby asks: how exactly did a song like that come to be?
He begins with Richard’s magical incantation: A wop-bop-a-loo-mop-a lop-bam-boom, a phrase born in the dish pit of the Macon Greyhound Station, where young Richard used it as a way to curse out his boss. We see it evolve from there into a bar song about anal sex, and then (as Kirby claims) into the world’s first Rock ’n’ Roll song.
Try as he might, Kirby is never able to nail down an interview with The Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll himself. The closest he gets is a phone conversation with the man at the home of Willie Ruth Howard, Richard’s cousin. Here, in a hilarious exchange, Little Richard tricks Kirby into giving Willie Ruth 88 dollars.
Little Richard: The Birth of Rock ‘n’ Roll is a funny, strange, and totally fitting tribute to a long-overlooked genius. Was “Tutti Frutti” really the “first” Rock ‘n’ Roll song, as Kirby insists? Sure, I’ll buy that. And even if you disagree, I think you’ll love this book anyway. Any musician, music-lover, or lover of weirdness should hop on in.
Justin Brooke is a guitarist and one of the frontmen in the Atlanta based band Howlies
