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FORFOR FANSFANS OFOF MUSICMUSIC && THOSETHOSE WHOWHO MAKEMAKE ITIT Issue 11 • FREE • athensblur.com PRIDE PARADE • KINGS OF CONVENIENCE• DAVID MEAD • HOLY GHOST TENT REVIVAL • CLIPSE • WHY? • ROYAL BANGS • MASS SOLO REVOLT & MORE!!! BRAND NEW PATRON Hardly a flower, ten years in Brand New are anything but gentle VOLCANO CHOIR SAINTS Channeling the best of The Badger State FIERY FURNACES How to subvert OF the expectation of unexpectedness A ROYAL PAIN Will a new piece of POP legislation kill for their sixth album, tegan and sara find faith in — and out of — love radio as we know it? HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU >> PATRON SAINTS OF POP 38 For their sixth album, Tegan and Sara find faith in — and out of — love. story by Natalie David photo by Pamela Littky VOLCANO REVAMPING CHOIR MY CHOIR Channelling the very best Fiery Furnaces on how to of “The Badger State” subvert the expectation of unexpectedness by Alec Wooden 28 by Adam Clair 30 EVERY DAISY ROYAL PAINS HAS ITS THORN? A new piece of legislation promises the performing Hardly a flower, ten years in artist new royalty rights. Brand New are anything but But will it kill radio as we gentle know it? by Natalie David 32 by Sarah McCarty 42 CELEBRATING OPEN LATE A DECADE Conan’s got The Tonight Happy Happy Birthday To Show. Leno’s got his own Me Records is still big on show, too. But is America friendship, imagination and being entertained? ingenuity by Ed Morales 46 by DeMarco Williams 54 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 3 music 13 cOLUMNS EDITOR’S PLAYLIST: 7 Ten Tunes Worth Noting THE FIRST WORD: 8 Remembering Nebraska WORTH A THOUSAND: 64 Who says you need words? 19 16 SPOTLIGHTS: 14 Thao and the Get Down Stay Down 10 David Mead 11 21 11 Why? 12 Pride Parade 13 Kings of Convenience 14 Royal Bangs 16 Efren 17 Clipse 19 Mass Solo Revolt 20 Holy Ghost Tent Revival 21 aLSO: EAR CANDY: 22 Album Reviews THIS DAY IN MUSIC HISTORY 26 20 TEN QUESTIONS WITH: 35 35 Drivin’ n’ Cryin’ 17 mUSICIAN’S CORNER MUSICIAN’S GEAR GUIDE 49 Life’s too short to own bad gear REGIONAL REPORT: 51 Jacksonville, Fla. 60 22 aRTS & eNTERTAINMENT 49 UPCOMING ON THE SCREEN 52 cONCert SHOTS 60 THE MONTH IN PHOTOS 52 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 5 BLUR FRO , The Athens Blur Magazine DEAR READERS M T My fame on the airwaves was pretty short lived. When I was in college, I freaked out P.O. Box 7117 HE (literally, almost drove my Jeep into a ditch) after hearing one of my band’s songs on EDI the radio for the first time. The second time was almost as cool. The third time...okay, I Athens, Ga 30604 T don’t think there was a third time. OR The point of the story isn’t to relive musical glory days. Rather, the point is that each Main Office (706) 353-7799 time the broadcasting station was Bulldog 100.1 FM (103.7 on the dial at that point). Sales (706) 207-9091 For that reason, it will always have a special place in my heart. I’m sad to know the Bulldog is gone — but even more sad (and dumbfounded, frankly) over what has taken its place, Top 40 Hits station “Power 100.1.” Did we need Executive Editor a Top 40 station to call our own? Not really. Athens picks up Atlanta joints like STAR Alec Wooden 94, 95.5 The Beat...the list goes on. [email protected] By and large, I just don’t buy the fact that we’re that much of a Top 40 town. Pop- ular music isn’t shunned, nor should it be. But we’re a rock town. Indie-rock, pop- Director of Sales Stephen Simmons rock, punk-rock, post-rock, alt-rock, hard-rock, whatever. There was something special, [email protected] something nice, in hearing that catchphrase — “World Class Rock.” Let’s call a spade a spade. Did I listen to Bulldog very much? No, not very much. Account Executives Classic rock isn’t really my daily bread and butter. But that’s the point — even lacking Jen Allen my favorite artists in their playlists, Bulldog still had something for me, as it did for all. [email protected] I listened in the mornings when afforded the chance, the local music shows whenever I Adrienne Klein could — I never went out of my way to turn the Bulldog off or question why someone [email protected] else had it on. No doubt, I won’t say the same about “Power.” Cole Taylor Something feels like we’ve lost a close friend, a local staple, a dependable (regardless [email protected] of whether or not their playlists were your bag) voice in the community, swallowed into Design a big, stinking corporate mess. Lauren Mullins, Carlye Norton, That said, I have no real reason to wish ill will towards Cox for the decision to re-for- Allison Weiss, Alec Wooden mat Bulldog, other than selfish personal ones (but those are the most fun, aren’t they?). If this move will keep the most employees in the workforce, then hey, more power (no Editorial Interns pun intended) to them. Marie Baginski, But as time goes on, I think we’ll all find that this ain’t no power (pun fully intend- Kristen Callihan, Jessica Cole ed) to the people. Contributing Editors Matt Conner, Jon Ross Contributing Writers Adam Clair, Amanda Cuda, Matt Conner, Natalie David, Alec Wooden Matt Fink, Jennifer Gibson, Executive Editor Tiffani Harcrow, Sarah McCarty, Ed Morales, Phil Pyle, Ned Rauch, Ingrid Sibley, Dylan Solise, DeMarco Williams Contributing Photographers EDITOR’S PLAYLIST Alyssa De Hayes, Stefen Eberhard, MAKE SURE THESE TUNES GET ON YOUR PLAYLIST Wes Elkin, Justin Evans, Sandra Gallardo, Alex Gibbs, Will Gravlee, Daniel Peiken “Husks and Shells” “The Hobo Girl” Volcano Choir Fruit Bats For general comments and inquiries: [email protected] “I Want You To Keep Everything” “These Are My Twisted Words” These United States Radiohead For advertising opportunities: [email protected] “Surprise Hotel” “January Twenty Something” The Athens Blur Magazine issue 11, copyright©2009 Fools Gold Why? By The Athens Blur Magazine, INC. The Athens Blur Magazine is an eight issue/year music and variety publication, proud to be based in the “Classic City” of Athens, Ga. All rights reserved. No “Don’t Haunt This Place” “Calypso Gold” part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or part in any way by any means unless written permission is received from The Rural Alberta Advantage Princeton the publisher. Published monthly except for each summer issue in the United States of America and distributed free of charge (limit one copy per reader, each subsequent copy is distributed at a charge of $4.95). Postmaster send address changes to The Athens Blur Magazine, P.O. Box 7117 Athens, Ga. 30604 ON THE COVER: Tegan & Sara. Photo: Pamela Littky ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 7 WORD T FIRS MUSIC HE T REASON TO BELIEVE BLUR 27 YEARS later, SPRINGSTEEN’S NEBRASKA STILL SHINES A LIGHT Twenty-seven years ago Bruce Springsteen the same line. “Mary Lou loved Johnny with released the most daring, revolutionary and a love mean and true.” Past tense. That love’s rock ’n’ roll record of his career and, perhaps, on ice, too. of the era. He did it without drums, bass, One cut, sort of, qualifies as a love song: saxophone or pretty back-up singers and “Open All Night.” But it’s less an ode to recorded it in his bedroom on a four-track Wanda, the narrator’s girlfriend, whom he tape machine. Then he went and named it met at Bob’s Big Boy, than it is to his car. Nebraska. Springsteen sings the lyrics to this one It’s simple, it’s spare, it’s honest and it’s five times faster than anything else on the haunting, and to hand it into the record record, and it’s the one tune on which we company, at a time when synths and New hear an electric guitar. It, too, is running fast. Wave ruled, took more balls than his peers There’s a frantic, fleeting freedom here. It’s would have even dared to muster. You think the feeling you get when you know where Jackson Browne could have pulled that off? you’re going and why. You’re in control, and In today’s scene, Jack White has made a control is a rare thing for the characters on career out of zigging when people thought this record. he’d zag. Nebraska out-zigs White by a mile, And yet Springsteen is in total control of it. and it’s no novelty act. It’s painfully real. He played and sang every note on it, adding In 1982, Springsteen was at the cusp of Ned Rauch bits of harmonica, mandolin, glockenspiel international superstardom. Born in the USA and organ here and there, fleshing out these was two years away, but Springsteen had Over the course of skeletal songs just enough to give them life. already established himself as the greatest He tried the tunes with the rest of the band, American rock performer. The River, which Nebraska’ s 40 minutes but heard none of the angst and pain in the came out in 1980, produced his first top- new arrangements. ten hit, “Hungry Heart.” He’d toured the are 14 deaths, including a Springsteen, like the people on the record, country’s arenas, but hadn’t yet graduated to would be alone on this one and, in some stadiums, and supernova status was anything death-row execution, ways, barely there.