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 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 , 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 EDI (literally, almost drove my Jeep into a ditch) after hearing one of my ’s songs on 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 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 T WORD MUSIC HE FIRS Reason to believe

BLUR T 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, 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 , 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. The reverb on his voice ReignSold.com but certain. creates a sense of distance and detachment. In the decade that had passed since the four run-ins of one kind or While his face appeared on the cover of his release of his first record, he’d consistently last four records, Nebraska’s cover shot is just moved toward his rock side and away from another with the police, two a road cutting through the prairie beneath a his folk side, filling his songs with sharp, courtroom scenes, a fist fight heavy sky. The record came out, went gold, chiming electric guitars, pianos and organ but Springsteen didn’t tour behind it. He riffs, explosive drums and sax. Whereas and a fatal explosion. OK’d a video for “Atlantic City” but isn’t in acoustic guitars defined the sound of it — just black-and-white shots of a beat-up 1973’s Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ, they gambling town. appeared on subsequent records only to color Over the course of Nebraska’s 40 minutes Somehow, in the midst of all that darkness, a song or two. are 14 deaths, including a death-row Springsteen shines a little light. It’s dim, but Meanwhile, the '80s were becoming, execution (another character, sentenced it’s there in the refrain of “Atlantic City” well, the '80s. War between Iran and Iraq, to life in prison, asks the judge, instead, to (“Maybe everything that dies someday Russians in Afghanistan, Central America “put me on that execution line,”), four run- comes back.”) and in the title of the last cut, a violent mess. Reagan was elected on a ins of one kind or another with the police, “Reason to Believe.” The song doesn’t offer promise of a new morning in America that, two courtroom scenes, a fist fight and a fatal any reasons at all, but it finds Springsteen to Springsteen’s ears, sounded like a con. explosion. marveling at the ability of people who’ve And so he retreats to a rented Jersey Much of Nebraska is about life’s unforgiving lost it all to endure. “At the end of every farmhouse with an acoustic guitar, a side and the authority patrolling it — and hard-earned day, people find some reason to tape recorder and a bunch of Flannery whether you face it or run away from it. The believe,” he sings. O’Connor stories. Out comes a record word “sir” appears nine times; “road” appears And that’s what makes Nebraska not just about serial killers, organized crime, envy, seven times; “car” and “highway” both appear gutsy but strong: it finds hope in the hardest social stratification, a cop-killer, brotherly six times. This is not a record about romance. of times. love, corruption, Vietnam, desperation, duty, The word “love” shows up just three times on emasculation, pride, cars, love, family and — the whole record. The first time, the narrator Ned P. Rauch lives in and all in one song — a dead dog, a dead man, a admits that his “love may be cold.” The other writes for www.tendollarradioshow.com and baptism and a runaway bride. two times come at the end of the record, in plays guitar in the band Frankenpine. 8 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE SPO MUSIC S G H T T LI

getting down Triumph and tragedy T LI

WITH THE GET DOWN, STAY DOWN david mead’s latest is personal and profound G H T

On a day of unyielding It’s hard to believe David DAVID S MUSIC SPO Georgia rain, Thao Nguyen is in Mead is in a good place. After all, the beguiling San Francisco. “I’m the longtime singer/songwriter MEAD from right outside D.C., so the just emerged from a divorce, his pace is a little bit more intense producer hates his new album title WHO’S WHO there. And people are a little and he scrapped the first batch David Mead more quick to react,” says the of songs for Almost and Always because they were too depressing FORMED native, who fell for San 1998 in Nashville, Tenn. Francisco while volunteering to release. Yet one listen to the at a homeless shelter under a updated version of Almost reveals LABEL college grant. Nowadays, she Mead at his absolute best. It’s the Cheap Lullaby gives of herself in a different way, oft-seen beauty-from-tragedy by pouring her heart into her that marks the 14-song collection LATEST RELEASE music. The cover of her second and finds the lonesome tenor Almost and Always (2009) full-length release with The Get both triumphant and defeated. Down Stay Down, Know Better As Mead describes it, the ON THE WEB www.davidmead.com Learn Faster, represents this trials became a prime place for visually with Thao removing a inspiration to take root. blindfold to witness a dripping “Of course, this is just my perspective, obviously, because heart-shaped piñata: “[ Jones] understands a lot of a lot of people deal with this things that bring a listener joy,” differently,” Mead says, “but no Thao Nguyen: It’s me sort of Mead says. “It's not like he can't matter how you come out of the tongue-in-cheek beating [my THAO WITH THE GET have a couple or three songs that relationship part of all of this, own] heart. But it’s a party are really dark or even an entire DOWN, STAY DOWN it's impossible to avoid a lot of atmosphere and there’s people courtesy thao & TGDSD record of that, but you have to dynamic and a lot of change. watching and exaggeratedly do that really well. Maybe he just That's just going to be inherent. enthusiastic. I guess the you? It’s sort of frustrating and WHO’S WHO keys and everything. And then wasn't impressed with my version That's usually a pretty good time conception of it is more the funny, but it’s not funny. Too Thao Nguyen (vocals, gui- we’re gonna have some cello of it.” tar, ), Adam Thomp- for the creative process to happen. idea of being somewhat self- little, too late, or something guests as well. Once the original tunes were son (bass, keys, guitar, If you get too comfortable, there's destructive and then writing along those lines. We’re excited to go to Atlanta. shelved, fresh material began vocals), Willis Thompson less inspiration to do anything.” songs about it and having people I think we’re playing The Earl? to emerge with Mead’s new (drums, percussion, vocals) Of course, it takes time to lick celebrate that. But I don’t mean it AB: Who all was playing on songwriting partner, Bill DeMain. your wounds and find the proper to be that cynical or dark. Mostly “Know Better Learn Faster”? FORMED AB: Yeah, it’s November 9th I Instead of producing the intensely headspace to even compose a we wanted a high-energy record, TN: The band and myself. And 2005 in Richmond, Va. think. personal songs from before, the song. For Mead, the time didn’t but also, the content is very sad, Eric Earley of Blitzen Trapper TN: Sure, yeah! I don’t know co-writers allowed the songs to last as long as it could have for to me at least. And so that does does some slide guitar. And then LABEL the dates. become universal in nature. others. sort of [become] the paradox. graciously made Kill Rock Stars “I went back to this group of “I was fortunate,” Mead We wanted to juxtapose both a guest appearance…that really AB: How do you think this songs that Bill DeMain and I LATEST RELEASE explains. “I had a really shitty time those ideas. high pitch almost inhuman but album has progressed from We had written. The focus turned out Know Better Learn Faster of it for about six months or so, beautiful note that you hear in Brave Bee Stings And All? to be strangely prophetic, but a (2009) and then some lights started to courtesy david mead Athens Blur Magazine: What the end is him whistling. And TN: There’s a lot more lot of them were torch songs to come on. I had some very good would you consider to be the theme we were all in the studio, and emotional straightforwardness nobody, and I felt like they, in a ON THE WEB help in processing the emotional “ We’re all at the point where we’ve done enough art of the whole album? we were like scared when he did www.thaomusic.com and I think this album has a lot roundabout way, described the side of that, so I wrote several TN: I would say a lot of that. Amazing! more energy from us and from for art’s sake. It’s just not really that interesting unless situation in a better way than batches of songs. I wrote one set the album is about the end me in particular. A lot more of there’s some sort of participatory, interactive element the ugly songs that I had written. of songs that was supposed to be of a relationship. It’s sort of AB: What’s the meaning behind my energy than the last record to it.” Well, they weren't ugly, but they Almost and Always that turned out the audit of what did and did the song “The Give”? and I think a lot of that is over were intense. They were pretty AB: Do you have horns in your pretty dark. I was fortunate to get not happen. There’s obviously TN: Oh, that song, yeah. the last year and a half, however jagged. There was no perspective live shows? some advice that it might not be — David Mead — whatever emotions are involved That’s the song about the end of long we’ve been on tour, we’ve on the feeling at the point that TN: We will for this upcoming a very listenable record to make, in the breakup. There’s a sort of a different relationship. But it’s become more comfortable with they were written.” tour for this record. But normally so I didn't.” underriding current of frenzied written from the perspective of a ourselves as a band. I think listen to,” Mead says with a laugh. that we're trying to tailor-make It’s there in the tension that we don’t. We’ve been a trio for That advice came courtesy of hopelessness. father addressing the daughter. what we’ve found is we like a “We're all at the point where we've music to find some larger audience Mead’s Almost and Always exists the most part. But you know. friend and producer Brad Jones. I think the title track is one more high-energy show. And I done enough art for art's sake. It's — but music, to me, is made to be as a relatable compendium of It’s mostly financial — how big The counsel may seem harsh, but of the more meaningful songs AB: Does it feel personal or is it wanted that same energy to be just not really that interesting listened to. I stopped playing in weathered songs with enough of your band can be when you’re Mead acknowledges it was dead- to me — “Know Better Learn more general? represented on the record. That unless there's some sort of my bedroom a long time ago.” Mead’s personal fingerprints for on the road. But thankfully for on. Faster.” ‘Because you can’t, that TN: Oh no. It’s incredibly was our hope. We’ll see how participatory, interactive element In the end, it was Jones’ one to appreciate both the art and this tour we have the Portland “He didn't want me to put out would be what I found out. That personal. I only said ‘a father and much of it got to the album. to it. So when we make records experience and expertise that the artist involved. Cello Project opening. One of an album, especially with his name by the time you know you should a daughter’ to disguise it, but it’s together, we're very conscious of allowed Mead to trust his their members will be our multi- on it, that would be difficult to have, it’s too late. And how can very personal. instrumentalist playing horn and — Ingrid Sibley an audience — not in the sense judgment. — Matt Conner 10 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 11 SPO MUSIC S G H T T LI

A WOLF ON THE PROWL TAKING PRIDE T LI

WHY?’S FRONTMAN WILL NEVER STOP SEARCHING FOR HIS BEST WORK ATHENS BAND LIKES TO MESS WITH EXPECTATIONS G H T S MUSIC SPO

PHOTO: JACOB HAND WHY? photo: SARA BLUM WHO’S WHO , , Andrew Prater has a dream. It’s two years, and it certainly seems PRIDE listened to the rock that Austin Brown, Doug McDi- a mischievous dream – indicative to have evolved in that time. In PARADE was bursting onto the scene at It’s Yoni Wolf ’s unequaled why. I knew the type of work that if that's even a word. I wanted armid of his deep desire to “fuck with fact, Prater says, he originally that time. But, in general, their blend of honesty and artistry that’s Alopecia needed on it, so I decided it to sound natural, but it almost people’s minds.” The dream envisioned the band “as some tastes are eclectic. Prater says accelerated his hip-hop collective, to pick that one up to finish it sounded too natural. So we went FORMED centers on Pride Parade, the kind of type thing. WHO’S WHO everyone in the band is interested Andrew Prater (vocals), Why?, to the front of critical hip- first. We ended up recording some in and psyched it out a bit — 1997 in Berkeley, Calif. bracing hard rock band for which More country type stuff.” But in different types of music. His hop lists everywhere. Last year’s more songs for Alopecia and then just enough so it had a different Allen Owens (guitar), BJ Prater is vocalist and guitarist, and those early concepts are nowhere Bracewell (guitar), Bubba own tastes are particularly diverse Alopecia delivered one of the year’s that came out in 2008.” flavor to it. We didn't want to LABEL the band’s somewhat whimsical to be found on the band’s latest and have more to do with an McDonald (bass), and most celebrated hip-hop releases “It wasn't about songs or go overboard and make it into name. In his dream, the band and project. Dose is undeniably rock Aaron Sims (drums) interest in quality than a loyalty and placed the Berkeley unit on anything on the surface. It was a an Animal Collective record or its moniker play a role in changing ‘n roll, with elements of punk and to any particular genre. “I've been the map for many new fans. Now, tonal thing, I think. I had gone something like that.” LATEST RELEASE Eskimo Snow (2009) narrow minds and bringing about other genres thrown in. FORMED listening to The Temptations Eskimo Snow provides a quick down to Nashville and mixed it Wolf ’s insistence toward universal understanding. Well, Prater acknowledges the 2007 in Athens, GA a lot lately, [as well as] Willie record to capitalize on a still- with my friend Mark Nevers. He excellence and willingness ON THE WEB kind of. big difference between how he Nelson,” he says. “Anybody buzzing fan base. has this distinct sound that he’s to admit mistakes keeps this www.myspace.com/ “I want some homophobic originally saw the band and LABEL who writes a good song.” The turnaround time is as done with artists like Silver Jews longtime musician focused and whyanticon asshole to have to tell his friends its current style. He says Pride No label Right now, the band is busy startling as the music inside, but and Bonnie Prince Billy, and I sharp. As Wolf notes, it’s usually he saw a badass band last night Parade’s sound changed and touring to promote the new that comes as no surprise when thought this record has that sound the difficult choices that are the LATEST RELEASE called Pride Parade,” Prater says. developed the longer the band Dose (2009) release. As far as the future is considering the two projects or a kinship with those types of ones worth making. stake with each new project,” he Actually, the group’s powerful, worked together as musicians and concerned, Prater says he isn’t are “sister ,” as Wolf calls artists. So I wanted to go to the “Sometimes you have to be continues. “I'm harder on myself unrelenting music doesn’t quite songwriters. In the beginning, he ON THE WEB really sure what it holds, though them. “We recorded Eskimo Snow source to mix with Mark.” honest with yourself and admit with each new record and feel mesh with its sunny, upbeat said, the band didn’t collaborate as www.myspace.com/pride- he’s eager to keep working with his at the same time as Alopecia, and While pleased with Nevers' when it's not working like it that it has to be more and more name. So maybe homophobes much on songwriting. Once that parade69 fellow Pride Parade musicians. they were split up according to work, Wolf explains that should be,” says Wolf. “You have of what it's supposed to be. When aren’t the only demographic that changed, the sound and energy of “The ultimate goal is to write, the sounds and the ideas behind something still tugged at him to admit what needs to change I first made a tape in ’97 or so, Prater and his band mates enjoy their music changed right along record and play as much music the songs. But they come from about the project. There wasn’t a for it to maintain its integrity it was just anything goes. It was messing with. with it. among rock artists. as we possibly can before we the same sessions.” cohesion with Why?’s previous as a project. Sometimes that's a done because there's an hour and The band released its latest “As we kept playing together “I'm inspired by the same start hating each other and quit,” Originally, Wolf says Eskimo work, and more detail work was to bitch and it takes a whole lot of a half of material to go on it and album Dose on September 30 and, and writing songs together we got things anybody else is inspired by Prater quips. Snow was scheduled first, but be done. The question remained: reworking. I didn't want to mix that's all you thought. As time has like previous releases Descendants more and more dark and twisted,” — happiness, depression, social In reality, the likelihood of the some internal misgivings on his What exactly was needed? Eskimo Snow all over again, but I gone on, I've been able to hone my and the EP V, it was self-released. Prater says. The result was “a anxiety disorder, binge drinking, band devolving into a hatefest is part forced the band to consider “Coming away from that had to be honest with myself at editing skills and critical listening The Athens-based band — lot of anxiety music — manic life, the world, [the idea that] pills pretty small. Alopecia instead. experience and listening to the some point and say, 'You know, skills, so I'm harder on things which also includes guitarists depression's a bitch; Hell is real.” are fun sometimes,” Prater says . “We’re pretty good friends,” “I set that material aside for material, I couldn't help but feel it's just not done. It needs a lot than I've ever been in a way. That's Allen Owens and BJ Bracewell, All that darkness is influenced As far as being influenced by the Prater says. “Best friends, actually. a second because I didn't know that it didn't sound like a Why? more work to it,' and we just had a good thing I think.” bassist Bubba McDonald and a great deal by life experience, work of other artists, Prater says We’ll see.” what it needed,” he explains. “It record,” says Wolf. “It sounded to do it.” drummer Aaron Sims – has been which Prater says doesn’t, in and he and his band mates grew up wasn't done, but I didn't know super-raw and under-produced, “I believe there’s more at — Matt Conner performing together for about of itself, make the band unique in the mid '90s, and, of course, — Amanda Cuda 12 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 13 S

G H T THE GEORGIA BAR T LI DARE TO DEPEND ...a good place to drink TOGETHER, KINGS OF CONVENIENCE LEARN TO BE INDEPENDENT DOMESTIC BOTTLES NEW STORE It’s the tail end of a long press $2MON$2  & TUES ALL DAY!

MUSIC SPO KINGS OF day for Kings of Convenience’s  Erland Øye. On the other end of CONVENIENCE OFF NOW OPEN!   PITCHERS the line, it’s a rainy day in New EVERY$2 MONDAY! York City, and the Norwegian WHO’S WHO   red head’s sore throat is just Erland Øye (vocals, guitar),   ANY another sign of the anticipation Eirik Bøe (vocals, guitar) WHISKEY EVERY$4 TUESDAY! behind his duo’s latest album, FORMED Plus Pick Declaration of Dependence. 1999 in Bergen, ANY Alongside Eirik Bøe, Øye Your Own VODKA has been earning so-called LABEL $4WEDNESDAYS!Game On quiet music a whole new respect Astralwerks/Virgin/EMI Our MLB since 1999, creating intricate, delicate and rhythmical tunes LATEST RELEASE Package with just two men and their Declaration of Dependence (2009)

the Universe guitars. Together again for e Secret to its third album, Declaration of ON THE WEB Dependence continues the Kings www.kingsofconvenience. Athens, Georgia of Convenience's crusade for com all things delicate, mixing a come check out our expanded stripped down sound with a retail & distribution facility bossa nova soul to complement helps push their music to its THE GEORGIA BAR its trademark harmonic vocal best, even if it causes battles 159 W. Clayton St. 195 Paradise Blvd. * Athens, Ga. * 30607 bliss. between the two songwriters. Answering questions about “We’re not very respectful (706) 546-9884 the new disc, Øye speaks in PHOTO: ASE HOLTE with the other’s ideas, so there’s purposefully slow, thoughtful a lot of ‘That sucks. That’s ok. responses, but can’t help but “When we started out doing this thing, I was really That’s good. That sucks. This launch himself into a long- dependent on Eirik because he had a good voice, and I didn’t part could be something. That, winded discussion about yet. And he was dependent on me because he didn’t really have that’s boring,’” Øye says. “So dependence, and why it might you kind of have to fight for not deserve the bad rep pop any kind of idea of how to bring his music out of the bedroom But now, through the making of this album, there was no your ideas.” culture has conjured for it. Ultimately, the rigorous “Well, if you are independent, longer this thing that we depended on each other anymore, writing process for Kings of it also means that you are and that made it much more difficult.” Convenience, one seemingly completely free. You have lots based on near-perfectionism, of options. The Western world — Erland Øye, Kings of Convenience — is one well suited to the band’s now, you have so many options acoustic, guitar-and-vocals- that a lot of people are going only sound. And Øye says he crazy,” he explains. “And if you to do it or not, if you want to be through the making of this is drawn to that sound because are dependent on something, with this person.” album, there was no longer this there are no studio tricks to hide you can face the world from Their declaration of thing that we depended on each imperfections or songwriting that wall.” dependence, then, is the decision other anymore, and that made it mishaps. But Øye’s musical relationship to stick together. Always a much more difficult.” “I like the idea of stripping with Bøe is far less based on 50/50 partnership, their divided “We have to discuss down to the bone and getting dependence than it once was. So lines of responsibility have now everything,” explains Øye, citing rid of unnecessary stuff. It’s when they reconvened for album blurred, creating both more decisions from who should play like when you cover with just number three, their partnership options, and greater difficulty the nylon guitar to who should a guitar a very produced song. required an altogether different for the duo. helm lead vocals or take the high And the song is so good that it reason to remain intact: because “When we started out harmonies, since both men are doesn’t really matter; it’s very they wanted it to. doing this thing, I was really now capable of all three. “So it good with just one guitar,” he “Back in the day, when I was dependent on Eirik because he was a lot more choices. Choices, says. “The songs have to be really dependent on Eirik and had a good voice, and I didn’t choices, choices.” really good. The words have to he was really dependent on me, yet. But together we sang really On top of the new decisions be really good if you do it on it was much easier because, well, well. And he was dependent to be made, Øye and Bøe just guitars.” we needed each other,” says on me because he didn’t really aren’t exactly known for their And, from these Kings, that’s Øye. “And when you don’t need have any kind of idea of how cordiality while in the studio. something you can depend on. somebody, well, then you have to bring his music out of the However, Øye admits that the to constantly decide if you want bedroom,” says Øye. “But now, scathing constructive criticism — Natalie B. David 14 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE SPO MUSIC S G H T T LI

marching to its own beep taking the family name T LI

READY TO WORK, ROYAL BANGS IS POISED FOR A BREAKTHROUGH but the name isn’t the point G H T but with other bands. Fast-

How do you promote an artist tracks down which I ended up S

MUSIC SPO forward a few years, and with a who wants to remain anonymous? keeping. You can hear all this name change and the addition Well, okay...the mastermind weird shit in the background. of Stratton, the genesis was set behind Efren doesn’t want to for the home-recorded We Breed remain anonymous, he just wants ABM: From a promotional Champions (2006). Champions is you to not really care who he is standpoint, particularly online, a collection of relentless drums, or, more importantly, who he has Efren has been unavoidable. eclectic clicks and bouncy been. The thing is, you know this E: Everyone I work with is a beats, but at first the trio never guy...but at the end of the day, musician and I’ve been telling expected the album to go much does it matter? All he asks is that them, “Ya’ll if we all blog about beyond the Knoxville borders. you close your eyes and listen... each other’s music, we all do “The whole reason we recorded reviews of each others’ shows; that album is because we thought Athens Blur Magazine: You've that’s more press, more hits, the band wasn’t going to be gone to some pretty good lengths more traffic, more everything.” around anymore,” Schaefer says. to not attach proper names to this I haven’t made a phone call, I “I was moving, so a lot of that was project, particularly your own. Why? have printed a piece of paper, just documenting those songs.” Efren: I needed a moniker to but I mean it’s been all internet; Schaefer moved to France — get away from my name and the just blasting bloggers, too. It’s all “soaking up 90 percent beer and preconceptions that it brings, about this stuff like, if you put it writing new shit,” he says — being my jazz history and what out there, it’s going to happen. while Rusk was using the Bangs’ not. It frees me to do whatever And you can do anything MySpace page to get anyone he the hell I want. Two shows from by setting your intention or could to listen to Champions. And now or when this article comes whatever. I put it out there and then one day, while sitting in class out, people are going to see my artwork by Adam O’day try to be good to people who can at the University of Tennessee, face whenever I’m playing but, help me — more importantly But I was more connected to the courtesy the royal bangs Rusk got an e-mail response from you listen to the album and its so EFREN the fans — and lead them down Carney. He wanted the demo. totally different. It’s so far music than like sterile, perfect the road to find that shit. I’ve hit pro tools with the beautiful pre- You’ve heard them, this new started and ended. I don’t know ROYAL BANGS The 2008 re-release of from anything anyone’s up MySpace, , Facebook, barrage of bands paying homage how you sustain a career making Champions, an epic 2 a.m. seen me play in Athens. amps and all this stuff that make WHO’S WHO and all these big venues to get the to the late ’70s and early ’80s, records that sound like records Bonnaroo performance and an People were like…shocked. it sound so pristine. Like a few some play strings, some name out and people take notice. playing their “wanna sport the that have already been made.” WHO’S WHO added legion of critical acclaim people have said before, it's like sing, some hit drums, and/ I’ve put the work in — and it’s or some use slides keytar” synthesizer pop/rock. To combat this time warp, Ryan Schaefer (keyboard, later, the band sits atop a ABM: They were expecting... sitting on the corner of nowhere. really not that much work. Not naming any names (Empire Schaefer and his four bandmates vocals, beats), Chris Rusk precipice of uncharted territory. Or like, it’s something you want E: Jazzy, funk stuff or whatever. FORMED of the Sun, Passion Pit), these offer up Let It Beep, a crisp (drums), Brandon Biondo Embarking on -a fall tour And ya know, I just got so burnt to sit out in a field and listen to (guitar), Henry Gibson 2009 in Athens, Ga. ABM: That’s got to be cool though. bands are finding fresh fans collection of up-tempo tunes with Drummer (Carney’s side out playing jazz. I mean, this is by yourself and drink freakin’ You've been playing music through even while their sound stays in and electronic flourishes you’d (bass guitar) and Sam project), the Bangs’ roster (with whisky and ginger, sittin’ in Stratton (guitar) my roots — Bob Dylan, LABEL this entire rise of the digital age, the past. It’s as if Marty McFly never hear in a 1980s musical the addition of bassist Henry singers, living out in the country. my yard. You listen to that shit independent really. and it’s like raw, pure emotion. took them back to 1981 and movie montage. Released in FORMED Gibson and guitarist Brandon E: I’ve read some crazy articles, decided to ditch them there. mid-September, Let It Beep is 2005 in Knoxville, Tenn. Biondo) has with it a new level ABM: It is an interesting There’s some bells and whistles, LATEST RELEASE like the gate-keepers in the So it’s no wonder Ryan Schaefer, the Bangs’ sophomore album on of expectations. Expectations name. What's behind that? and I’d say there’s probably less Thunder & Moan (2009) music industry are gone. I mean, the singer/keyboardist/beat maker Audio Eagle Records (the label LABEL it intends to sustain. E: So um, my wife Jenn, her on mine. I played acoustic guitar that is no longer there. Say I ON THE WEB of Knoxville, Tenn.’s Royal Bangs, run by Patrick Carney of The Audio Eagle Records “We’re slowly making the family name is Leon. Her father, and congas on one song, and put together this big business sounds weary discussing those Black Keys) and is generating transition into doing this full everything else is done with www.reverbnation.com/ Efren Manuel Leon, better efrenrock, www.efrenrock. package — send it to Mac “influences” he keeps hearing a steady level of enthusiasm. LATEST RELEASE time, and it’s exciting, but nerve- known by Ben - he really didn’t body parts, beat boxing and Let it Beep (2009) blogspot.com about this. And like, get that about when others try to define “The way we did this album racking,” Schaefer says. “All we go by Efren but, that was his making samples. I’m known shit on the front page of iTunes his band. Even when, it turns was always the way we wanted want to do is work. The only as an electric guitar player, I’m ON THE WEB name. He had passed away, and I music store and what the fuck is out, some of those descriptions to do it, with all the extra pulses, thing we told our booking agent wrote most of these songs during known as a shredder. There are next? Ya know, it’s like I had a www.royalbangs.com dad for like five weeks and I come from a familiar face. extra instrumentation and was we don’t want any days off. a Lortab experiment at a funeral. two guitar solos on this album buddy who got the front page had the house to myself. Woke “I know what the press says percussion,” Schaefer says. “This Every day we can play a show, we and they are so filtered out they of iTunes music store and sold up at the crack of dawn on my about us, with the ’70s influence, record, to me, is catching up on should. A lot of people I know ABM: There’s something to be said, sound like background noise. So like five-digit figures for two one part luck, one part patience day off, its storming like shit. and maybe that comes from me some ground. With the exception like having days off every now especially now in the last decade or this was my way to reconnect weeks. And, that’s a part of my for Royal Bangs. Schaefer and When you listen to the song in too, and maybe I misspoke,” of one or two songs, all songs and again, but we want to play so when so much has been put in to with my audience. plan. Let’s get this album done drummer Chris Rusk formed the the headphones you can hear Schaefer says, laughing. “But I’m were recently written; they all go band while attending high school music. Why spend another day production and this perfect mass and get a nice music package ABM: Any specific examples of the rain pouring down. [On not interested in throwback rock. together. There were one or two in suburban Knoxville under the in a city where we can spend production, track-by-track pristine together and send it off to them how it lends itself to the listener in another song] you can hear my We want to make something new. older songs that were good songs, name Suburban Urchins. The duo money we don’t have? That production. Yet you did this whole and who knows what happens. the final product? son crying in the background. I feel, especially right now, there’s and the recording came out really wrote “really shitty songs. It was doesn’t interest me. I’d rather thing on a little laptop, right? I’ve never really done it this E: Montana Scare is a song that My wife and son are watching a lot of music I can’t get behind. well, but it just made the album a wreck,” Schaefer remembers. play a show. I’d rather work.” E: Ya, I’m gonna see if Mac can way. It’s all new to all of us. started it all, really. My wife cartoons in the other room It’s music that sets itself square in drag. They didn’t seem to fit.” Guitarist Sam Stratton kicked get a big promo on me for doing went out and took care of her and I was just laying scratch — Alec Wooden the middle of a musical idiom that Finding its place to fit has been around the same high school, — Ed Morales this on a crappy G-4 (laughs). 16 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 17 SPO MUSIC

glorious bastards T LI

hate them for content? Try loving the dedication and grind G H T

How does the old saying go? S If it ain’t broke, don’t remix it? A similar premise would apply here. If you’re a part of a beloved musical crew like brothers Gene and Terrence Thornton are, and you’ve worked marvelously during the past seven years with one production team, why on earth would you think of switching gears? You wouldn’t … unless, of course, your insanely loyal followers asked for a change. “It was more so a fan request,” explains Terrence, who goes by Pusha T to everyone outside of his childhood home in Virginia. “Fans wanted to hear it, and we went to the guys that we liked at the time, so we’re giving the fans what they’ve been asking for. I’m proud of how good the songs came out with the new producers. First time stepping outside of the box from The Neptunes. Those songs are hot.” Gene (actually, it’s Malice if you see him on the streets) elaborates on the new direction: “Yeah it’s a couple other producers on the project. We got DJ Khalil and Chin — they’re known for a few things back with Kanye and 50, I’m not for courtesy clipse certain. I wouldn’t quote that one. Nah, but definitely you can 'cuz Clipse are just in a better space that we put out on our off time.” I seen all the 50 plaques at his CLIPSE mentally now. Gone are the Amazingly, the brothers have crib. Sean & LV from American jiving days with Jive Records. The also kept busy with Play Cloths, Gangster notoriety [produced WHO’S WHO present situation at Columbia has their own fashion line (“Four too]. Then The Neptunes came Gene Thornton aka Malice been a lot less strenuous, giving seasons with four sellouts,” Gene in and cleaned up.” (MC), Terrence Thornton the bar-munching brothers more boasts). Gene has even found aka Pusha T (MC) The cavalcade of producers time to concentrate on lyrics and the time to pen a book, Wretched, gives Til the Casket Drops, the FORMED choruses as opposed to lawsuits Pitiful, Poor, Blind and Naked, Clipse’s anticipated third album, 1993 in Virginia Beach, Va. and contract breaches. which is planned for a January an innovative sound folks still “I think we’ve become very release. So, damn right Til the obsessing over the classic Lord LABEL accustomed to the business side Casket Drops has a different feel Willin’ and near-spotless Hell Re-Up/Columbia/Star Trak of things,” Gene says, “especially than the Clipse’s past stuff. Most Hath No Fury won’t recognize with all the label setbacks — of the clouds hovering over the right off hand. Gone are some of LATEST RELEASE if you can call them that. I crew have evaporated. the melancholy percussion and Til The Casket Drops (2009) count everything as a plus. We “Life is good,” Gene concludes. somber strings. Replacing them learned how to take things upon “We have nothing to complain ON THE WEB are a '70s feel (“Kinda Like a Big www.myspace.com/clipse ourselves and don’t just sit back about. Got God. Got my health. Deal”) and a more chill, sonic and wait for the label to motivate We out here. Me and my brother breeze (“I’m Good”). Don’t get it or move out, to move with the we together on the road. Out here us wrong. There’s still dopeboy ones, too. swiftness that they should or doing shows. It’s rough out there, drama and lavish tales of excess; This change of pace is mostly the diligence that they should. so things could be a lot worse.” it’s just that those stories are credited to maturity and a change Hence the [We Got It For Cheap] peppered with less-aggressive in tax bracket. But honestly, the mixtape series. That’s all work —DeMarco Williams ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 19 SPO MUSIC S G H T T LI

alone, together it’s a family affair T LI

THE TRANSITION FROM PERSONAL PROJECT TO GROUP EFFORT holy ghost tent revival finds inspiration in collaboration G H T

the middle of making this record. What is it that makes a family? S MUSIC SPO With the guitarist that started Sure, it means sharing a bloodline, HOLY GHOST with us, he had a couple of really but family is not just something TENT REVIVAL awesome musical song ideas, and we are born into. It is equally I felt a little bit weird just saying, of our own making, of people ‘OK, awesome, now it’s my song, that we invite into our lives. It WHO’S WHO includes those with whom we Stephen Murray (banjo, and I’m going to do what I want guitar), Matt Martin (gui- with it.’ You know? But I got over share our experiences, our loves, tar, banjo), Hank Widmer it quicker than he did. I even our fears, our triumphs and our (trombone, euphonium), forget, now, who came up with defeats- those with whom we Mike O’Malley (keys), PJ the idea originally. But yeah, I have drank and danced and sang Leslie (bass), Ross Mon- guess I do think differently. and laughed and cried. This spirit tsinger (drums) Jim Frye: I don’t think that you of family is what connects the do, as far as the music is always members of Greensboro, NC’s FORMED the music. And your lyrics — he Holy Ghost Tent Revival to each 2006 in Greensboro, NC doesn’t censor it in that way. It other and to their audience. The six-piece band boasts LABEL comes out as is when it comes out. Goodship Records a lineup that includes guitar, COURTESY MASS SOLO REVOLT ABM: Athens is a perpetually young banjo, bass, drums, trombone LATEST RELEASE town — and keys. The instrumentation Family (2009) MASS SOLO Brummeler: And we’re not and arrangements bring to REVOLT young. mind a varied confluence of ON THE WEB musical styles. One hears strains www.holyghosttentreviv- al.com WHO’S WHO ABM: Well, that’s what I’m of jazz, , Martin Brummeler (gui- wondering. There are these country and bluegrass, but the tar, vocals, keys), Jim Frye really well-defined niches in the songwriting and presentation are Hot Starving Street Band, a (bass), Dave Harrison (gui- Athens music scene, and there aren’t thoroughly modern. They sing troupe of N.C. musicians that tar, keys), Russell Sherman a lot of “adult” bands in town. about steamboats one moment includes members of groups There’s an old saying I just his solitary, craggy peak this (drums) Brummeler: Yeah, I know. Really, and break into a spirited Beatles made up that goes, “No good year to record a new album such as Lost in the Trees, the this is one of the things; when cover the next. This embrace of Never and House of Fools. mules around, you’ll have to with a new band of old friends. FORMED I’m in the mood, I’ll drive around different styles combines with haul your own cart to town,” Bend In Time marks not only a 2005 in Athens, GA These friends shared their time and feel sorry for myself because I a passionate stage presence and talent and broadened the and as with most mule and departure from the frontman’s don’t think we’ve ever, no matter and leads to some captivating cart related aphorisms, the solo, mountain-sitting ways, LABEL COURTESY HOLY GHOST TENT REVIVAL palate of a band with an already Independent what age we were, really fit in to performances of a unique brand expansive sound. The result is an adage resonates deeply within but also a shift from the pop where we lived. We do feel old of shambling indie-Americana. “Three of us were theater majors so we understand the the music community. sounds of Easy Mark. I recently album with an undeniably joyous LATEST RELEASE in Athens. I don’t even worry HGTR shows are not merely necessity of performance. We’re all of the mind that there feel. The song “Alcohol” is a See Martin Brummeler. sat down with Brummeler and Bend In Time (2009) about it because I’m going to be attended but also experienced. Referred to locally as one of the long-time friend and bassist Jim has to be a visual accompaniment to the music.” tribute to the glories and agonies probably 50 years old and still “Three of us were theater majors of intoxication that mirrors a most talented Athens musicians Frye to discuss the band’s ON THE WEB trying to make records. It’s just so we understand the necessity of whom you’ve probably never evolution that its paradoxical www.myspace.com/mass- night on the town. It begins with what I do. You can’t worry about of performance,” says keyboard — Mike O’Malley, Holy Ghost Tent Revival — a mellow swagger, progresses heard, Brummeler once sat name so aptly describes as well solorevolt it. I don’t care. I’ve reached a player Mike O’Malley. “We’re atop his towering mountain as the problems associated with to a roiling ebullience and ends certain point when you just don’t all of the mind that there has with a staggering, hiccupping of pop songs and guitar hooks being seasoned musicians in a care. I’ve been here for almost 10 to be a visual accompaniment of pace and energy and the crowd were songs that the band had searching high and low for a band perpetually young college town. goodnight. The track “Goodbye Mass Solo Revolt is that it doesn’t years, so I wasn’t that old when I to the music.” This attention to follows right with them, creating been working on but had not or Goodnight” featuring vocals of kindred spirits to bring his moved here, but I didn’t fit in then performance is what separates a communal frenzy that blurs completely polished. They had personal brand of early Athens Blur Magazine: I was have any rules to it. When I from rapper Tab-One, shows write songs, before I bring them either. ... Now, it’s hard to believe the band from other like-minded the line between performer and fallen out of rotation within that the band is not afraid to to the masses. After years spent reading another interview where how young some of these bands musicians in the Southeast. The audience. the band’s live sets, leaving the casting around for a suitable band you said you’d been searching for to the group, they’re all me, push its boundaries to include and they usually sound like a are. Realizing that when I was band push each other to summon In September, the band will band unsure of how to tap their even a seemingly disparate genre to no avail, Brummeler decided a band for a while, that it hadn’t in what I would consider a real forth every available reserve of release a new EP titled Family. potential. The solution was to to just go solo, and last year, he come together and so you just did character. They’re very different, like hip-hop. It works because and I threaten all the time to put band — not like a teeny band — energy. They sweat and sing and The songs were recorded live with turn to their extended family of everyone is having such a good released Easy Mark under the it on your own. Do you feel this is when I was really in a real band, scream and stomp until the last a minimal amount of takes, and the musicians for help. “The idea was name Mass Solo Revolt. With the realized Mass Solo Revolt? out something and not censor time. And that is what the band myself and go totally off on that. they were, like, 12. That makes me note has fallen to silence. As spontaneity and energy created to get all our friends together is all about. Whether it’s in the all music and lyrics penned by Martin Brummeler: I don’t think feel old. It makes me worry — I such, a HGTR show is just as in this environment imbues the and see what happened. It was Brummeler himself, the record there’s ever a fully-realized Mass studio with a dozen friends, ABM: When it’s more of a group don’t know if worry is the word — much a physical manifestation tracks with a ragged veracity. all very playful,” says O’Malley. or in a club packed with fans, garnered widespread critical Solo Revolt … But yeah, I’m but realize that they’re never going of the emotion behind the music Family is loose and comfortable With a relaxed approach and the acclaim, even landing a feature very happy. I’ve been in a band project, do you ever feel a need Holy Ghost Tent Revival draws to adjust how personal the songs are? to really identify with me, they’re as it is about recreating the songs like an old frayed couch, which perspective gained by allowing strength from family. on National Public Radio. But, with Jim since ’94 or something, never going to quite understand. themselves. At its best, the perfectly complements a batch others to contribute, the songs alas, the single life grew tiresome. on and off, so to be playing with Brummeler: It was weird because we actually changed guitarists in band careens along picking up of songs that at one point held found freedom and a home. —Dylan Solise Brummeler stepped down from Jim is huge. The thing about — Tiffani Harcrow momentum, pushing the limits an uncertain future. These The EP features the Lonely 20 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 21 ear candy Wind’s Poem Advertised in advance as ’s foray into , Wind’s Poem was figured to be a harsh departure from The Inner Banks Mount Eerie’s most recent spate Songs From Disko Bay of eerily quiet releases. But, in keeping with most of his body Cool is an overused word, and I'm as guilty as anyone when it comes to usage. I'll drop the word in of work, Wind’s Poem is actually conversation with the effect of an Altoid — trying to freshen an otherwise ordinary moment. So when more Neil Young than Xasthur, I describe Songs From Disko Bay, the sophomore effort by 's The Inner Banks (married couple as its emphasis on heavy Caroline Schultz and David Gould accompanied instrumentally by a dozen others), as a “cool” album, it's guitar feedback and roaring distortion never gets in the way of a not meant to be a trite assessment because I have nothing better to write. But then again, maybe I don't gentle turn of phrase and stark melody. That said, here Elverum — I'm really on the fence here. clearly favors building texture over flexing his traditional singer- The opening track,“ Lemon Tree,” stirs this indecision. Galvanized by Schultz's angelic voice (a modern- songwriter muscles, as these songs are wrapped in wet sonic wool day Julee Cruise if there ever was one), the music itself limps along at a tepid pace, an indifferent observer and layered in thick clouds of fuzz, from the windowpane rattling to Schultz's soaring lyrics. Midway through, the song becomes a lingering instrumental with the feel of a shards of guitar in “The Hidden Stone” to the reverb-drenched forfeit. “Pyramids” has the same disinterest (dare I say coolness), pulled solely by Schultz's dreamy cords. organ drones of “Through the Trees.” The mood is dark if not exactly But as the music gets much better, with Gould boasting a host of inventive arrangements, Schultz becomes far too commonplace. threatening, a smoldering landscape where ominously corroded “Tournament of Waves” and “Big Bang” are celebrations of sound — playful pianos, glockenspiels and violins — while Schultz, once the wow blasts of static-laden percussion lead to meditative keyboard factor, becomes mundane after six songs of the same cadence and vocal structure. They seem aware of this, as subtle yet strong instrumentals movements, only to be swallowed up by the morass again. The “Blame” and “Coda (Lemon Tree)” close the album. spirit of Young (particularly his work with Crazy Horse) hangs “Disko Bay” is a dichotomy — when one part flourishes, the other fades, and this tug-o-war fractures an album full of promise. And hey, heavy in the album’s musty air, pronounced in the soft harmonies that's cool. and reflective echoes of “Stone’s Ode” and the drifting, dirge-like Or not. guitar tones of “Summons.” No doubt, all those heavy textures add — Ed Morales up to a more massive sounding album, as there’s nothing in his catalog aside from ’ landmark The Glow, Pt. 2 that compares to the monolithic hugeness of the textures he pieces Goodnight Unknown together here. Those clamoring for a sequel should look no further. — Matt Fink Lou Barlow’s playing it fast and loose the second time ‘round. And the music’s all the better for it. For the uninitiated, Barlow’s one of this generation’s under-the-radar pioneers. A founding member Boo Ray of Dinosaur Jr., and Folk Implosion, Barlow’s lo-fi techniques grated counter-culturally and Bad News Travels Fast paved the way for many a future sound. His previous solo foray, 2005’s Emoh, ripped up his rock roots and soaked them in acoustic glory – giving us perhaps our most tender look at Barlow the man. Boo Ray's Bad News Travels Goodnight Unknown finds Barlow harder to pin down, because he’s much more musically interesting. Fast is like a book on tape you'd “Gravitate” stomps a slightly distorted, Caribbean feel with a dreary accordion and industrial percussion like to pop in and never take out filling out the rest. “Sharing” arrests from the outset with a straightforward Killers-vibe, while the title — a most agreeable companion track provides the most plodding two minutes in indie rock. for most any situation. Much like The acoustic guitar returns for “Faith in Your Heartbeat” and “Too Much Freedom,” the latter a Great the songwriter himself, these Lake Swimmers’ confession of sorts that perfectly moves the album forward in tone and instrumentation. As Goodnight Unknown closes with songs are well-travelled and bear the militant crash of “Don’t Apologize” and driving acoustics of “One Note Tone,” it’s clear Barlow’s not a torchbearer found in music’s past, the lofty weight of the southern but a hero to look to for in its future as well. songwriter genre with great — Matt Conner class and ease. At work here is a combination of West coast glimmer, Nashville knowledge and the free-loving grit of the southern blues. TheC olin Linden (“O Brother Lingo Where Art Thou?”) co-penned “Bad News Travels Fast” is not just Through The Scattered Trees the perfect foot-stomping title track, but a perfect summation of everything you need to know about this record's namesake in the If the guys in Lingo were 10, 15, 20 year veterans of jam-rock, this album would be largely overlooked, future. Bad news, good news, it doesn't matter — the news about categorized as a solid collection, but nothing necessarily worth writing home about (oh, the perils of Boo Ray is spreading quickly. Don't miss out. southern blues/jam rock). But they’re not. The ages in the band read 22, 20, 20 and 20— though from the — Alec Wooden music you would never know it. The execution is passable, though it’s not the highlight of the record — that distinction belongs to the arranging and songwriting, two of the most oft-overlooked pillars of this genre. Particularly on the middle stretch of the record (third track “You’re Lost” to sixth track “Agents” showcases the best of the best here), with songs ranging from true southern ballads to damn-near brit What’s in your top 20 -rock, all expertly written and tastefully played. This stuff is rooted in a particular time a place, no doubt (read: four 20-year-olds in Michigan aren’t going to make this record), which is a big selling point of the for 2009? band. They can, and likely will, find a nice home in the southern states if they stick to the pedigree which Athens Blur is collecting reader data on your Top they seem to understand quite well: sing when you need to, play when you need to, and don’t choke the chicken (that’s Southern for “don’t 20 albums of 2009. Review, rank ‘em and submit to overdo it,” right?) Only one song on Trees breaks the 7:00 mark, which is a big deal for a “jam” band. Not overcooked but full of substance, keep an eye out for Lingo in the calendar year to come. [email protected] by November 1! —Alec Wooden (albums MUST be ranked #1-#20, and include a one sentence reason for your choice at #1!) 22 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE No Age Losing Feeling EP

There’s a wave of excitement that accompanies the oncoming layers of No Age’s latest EP, Losing Feeling. The stunning guitar work, ambient distortion, solid percussion and indie rock flavors slowly scroll forward a la the “Star Wars” intro until the familiar sounds from Nouns engulfs the listener fully with the lead-out title track. ’s darling duo deserves every ounce of attention it's received thus far — from its obnoxious

MUSIC ALBU M REVIEWS debut (five different EPs released on five different labels with each covering a different letter of the band’s name — all dropping on the same day) to the heralded LP Nouns. Now, Losing Feeling only continues the journey it's begun, adding a couple unique elements to tide us over until the next release. The aforementioned Losing Feeling conjures The Walkmen at their best, but it’s “Genie” that stands out for its faux acoustic core. The song finds beauty within No Age’s typical distortion and heart within its sometimes cold, calculated layers. “Aim at the Airport” and “You’re a Target” close out Losing Feeling, with the former a fairly forgettable instrumental that’s simply a complex outro from “Genie” and a soothing way into “Target.” It’s here on the last track that Randy Randall and Dean Allen Spunt find their adrenaline rush, make their mark and leave the listener absolutely panting for more.

—Matt Conner

Abby Parks Plastic Ono Band The Homeplace Between My Head and Sky

Give it up for Abby Parks, an artful Arguably the most widely ridiculed writer and guitarist with a voice that musician in the history of popular music, her could very well part the sea of kudzu name shorthand for everything pretentious leading out of Jacksonville, Ala. With and unlistenable, Yoko Ono has experienced her latest CD, The Homeplace, Abby a remarkable rehabilitation over the past doesn’t hang her hat on just one peg decade. Long celebrated in the avant garde but shows this is indeed her album underground for the very qualities that musically, vocally and lyrically—quite made most listeners despise her, a new the trifecta, and she scores on all generation of indie rockers came together in points. 2007 on Yes, I’m a Witch, providing backing Abby’s a storyteller, often throwing David Nail I’m About to Come Alive tracks to vintage Ono vocals and proving in a dash of melancholy, which puts just how ingenious and imaginative her best Homeplace in company with one of my What makes a country artist these days? pop songs actually were. As if rejuvenated most oft-played CDs, All About Eve’s Apparently, good looks, a pair of jeans, a by the experience, Ono now revives the Scarlet and Other Stories, but with a t-shirt and a pouty “lone wolf” cover photo Plastic Ono Band, the act that she co-lead twist of American Gothic. will do the trick. To hell with talent and with John Lennon after ’ demise, Standouts on Homeplace include the originality. Even the title track is a Train substituting son Sean for his late father. The opening title track, an upbeat recount cover that sounds exactly like the original result is startling, a rollicking return to her of exploring an abandoned house (one of my peeves — what’s the point?!) most spirited and immediate '70s work, from that’s rumored to hide a treasure, and Nail has a good voice, but it’s nothing you the scorched earth freakout of “Waiting for “Chantilly,” an acoustic ballad that haven’t heard before. the D Train” to the free form funk of “Ask showcases her mesmerizing vocals and Individually, the songs hold their own, the Elephant!” and the richly textured intricate guitar work — both of which but collectively, it’s a one-note woe-fest freak-folk of “Healing.” Having largely she controls with affecting precision. about lost love or leaving a small town worked in the dance sub-genre since her last The rest of this album ebbs and or both. The standout is “Mississippi,” an full-length, 2001’s hit-or-miss Blueprint for flows with engaging, moody melodies, ode to its musically historical namesake Sunrise, here the 76-year-old Ono sounds SIGN UP AT though she hits on some themes and one worth downloading. “Red Light” genuinely invigorated to be playing with a and metaphors that might raise an has rightfully garnered some airplay, but live rock band, unleashing her infamous eyebrow, as in “Caves.” Then again, two after sitting through all 11 songs a few vocal ululations as if she were Ornette www.game y.com/print semesters of English Lit flew over my times, it finally hit me — this album has Coleman blowing his sax and maintaining head, too, so apparently poetic aptitude no balls! Not a single foot-stomping, beer- a high level of energy as the album drifts ENTER CODE: NEWS65 isn’t my strong suit. But nobody will spilling “Girl, get in my truck!” anthem. through synth-pop, piano ballads and mistake Miss Parks for being part of No fiddles or finger-picking solos that psychedelic riff-rock. As always, there are a the uninspired brood of coffeehouse country fans have come to expect. In fact, number of new agey platitudes and cringe- acoustic acts. Her blend of musicality Mr. Nail doesn’t even play guitar! And he worthy truisms about peace, clean water gives that relaxing sense of something only [co] wrote four songs. But hey, he’s a and love, but even those eccentricities add familiar, but she's original enough to handsome guy, so I’m sure his female fan depth to a thoroughly enjoyable whole, the make you wonder where the next song base will keep him around, just like they sort of album that even her haters should *New members only. Free trial valid in the 50 United States only, and cannot be combined with any other offer. Limit one per household. First-time customers only. Internet access and valid payment will take you. have another almost-talent, Taylor Swift. find hard not to like. method required to redeem offer. GameFly will begin to bill your payment method for the plan selected at sign-up at the completion of the free trial unless you cancel prior to the end of the free trial. Plan prices subject to change. Please visit www.game y.com/terms for complete Terms of Use. Free Trial Offer expires 12/31/2010. — Phil Pyle —Phil Pyle —Matt Fink ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 24

MUSIC THIS DAY IN MUSIC HISTORY MUSIC THIS DAY IN MUSIC HISTORY 1978 - Echo & the Bunnymen makes its debut in Liverpool at Eric’s Club. 1980 - Don Henley is arrested after paramedics treat a nude sixteen 1964 - Willie Nelson makes his 2003 – Augusta, Ga., officials announce 1974 - ABBA begins its first tour of Europe, year-old girl for drug intoxication Grand Ole Opry debut. plans to construct a statue of James the first tour outside of Sweden. at his Los Angeles home. Henley is Brown and rename a music festival in charged with unlawful possession of 1979 - Ringo Starr’s Los his honor. 2003 – At 21 years old, Britney Spears marijuana, cocaine and Quaaludes and becomes the youngest person ever to receive contributing to the delinquency of a Angeles home burns down. a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame. 1960 – On his 13th birthday, Gregg minor. Allman receives a guitar. 1957 - The Miles Davis Quintet debuts 2001 - The musical “Lady Diana - A 1978 - The film version of “Sgt. Pepper’s at New York City’s Carnegie Hall. Smile Charms the World” opens in Lonely Hearts Club Band” opens. In the film, . The Bee Gees, Peter Frampton and Billy 1982 – Japan (the British rock band) Preston all make their acting debuts. announces its break up. 1965 - Velvet Underground makes its debut at a high school dance in New 1998 - Kmart launches Music Favorites, an Jersey. online music store. 1972 – The Allman Brothers’ Berry Oakley November is killed in a motorcycle wreck at age 24. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

1993 – Public Enemy’s Flavor 1991 - Randy Jackson is 1977 - Ozzy Osbourne 1991 - Eric Carr of KISS 1961 - The Everly Flav is arrested for allegedly sentenced to one month in quits . 1991 - Frank Zappa dies of cancer at age 41. Brothers are sworn trying to shoot another 1970 - The Doors make its last jail for violating probation He would rejoin after a is diagnosed with Carr joined the group into the Marine Corps man in a dispute over a appearance with Jim Morrison. related to charges of beating few weeks before later prostate cancer in 1982 as Peter Criss’ Reserves. woman. He is later charged quitting again. his wife the year before. with attempted murder and 1987 - Sly Stone is arrested for replacement. 1966 - The Jimi Hendrix reckless endangerment. 1967 – The first nonpayment of child support when 1994 - David Crosby gets a 1998 - Liam Gallagher 1991 - Freddie Mercury Experience makes its issue of Rolling he arrives for his “comeback” concert liver transplant. of Oasis is arrested on of Queen dies at age 45 London debut at the Bag 1994 - Nirvana’s “MTV Stone hits stands in L.A. charges of attacking of complications from O’ Nails Club. Unplugged” performance is a photographer with John Lennon released as “MTV Unplugged 1987 - U2 opens for itself by AIDS. 1969 - The “Save Rave and damaging his on the cover. pretending to be a country- in New York.” 1986 - Metallica performs its first 1976 - Queen’s “Somebody ‘69” benefit concert, equipment. rock group called The Dalton concert with Jason Newstead. 1889 - The first jukebox To Love” is released. thrown to aid the youth 1998 - Rick James Brothers during a Los Angeles is hospitalized is debuted in at The culture magazine 1974 – Becoming the first 1973 - Gram Parsons’ 2005 – “Guitar Hero” is released in concert. “Rave,” takes place in Beatle to attempt a national after suffering Palais Royale Saloon in 1997 – Singer Bjork is manager Phil Kaufman North America. San Francisco. admitted to an Icelandic London. solo tour, George Harrison a stroke when 1995 - is fined $300 for a blood vessel hospital with a high fever. hits the road for the first time become the first act to 1988 – LL Cool J stealing Parsons’ body ruptured in his 1973 - Jerry Lee Lewis, Jr. is 1998 - Donald Bohana is The resulting diagnosis of a in eight years. broadcast a concert via the performs the first rap shortly after his death. neck a week before killed in a highway accident in sentenced to 15 years to kidney infection forces her Kaufman claimed that Internet. 2003 - Sean ‘P. Diddy’ Combs in . Mississippi. life in prison for her role to cancel most remaining it was Parson’s wish to in the drowning death tour dates. raises $2 million dollars for be cremated. charity by running in the 1997 - The musical “The Lion 1979 - Chuck Berry is released of Delores “DeeDee” King” opens. from a California prison after Jackson — Tito Jackson’s 1968 - The Who releases its New York City Marathon, 1975 - The Sex Pistols doing time for income tax ex-wife. first concert record, “The finishing in 4 hours, 14 makes its live debut at evasion. Who Sell Out.” minutes and 54 seconds. St. Martin’s School of 1900 – American 1956 – Legendary big Art in London. 1995 - Sammy Hagar and 1957 – Jerry Lee Lewis composer Aaron 1990 - Milli Vanilli is stripped band leader Tommy model Kari Karte tie the releases “Great Balls of Fire” Copland is born. of its Grammy because other Dorsey dies. 1978 – Boston (the band) knot. on Sun Records. singers had lent their voices performs its first show in to the “Girl You Know It’s True” Boston (the city). 1990 - The Who’s Pete 1999 – Boy band 1995 - Hootie and the Townshend confesses album. sensation 98 Degrees Hey! You! Ya, you! The one reading this! Be Blowfish and Bob Dylan reach 1998 – Amazon.com forms to Newsweek that he performs and sells sure to check back in the next issue, out an out of court settlement in “Advantage For Music,” a is bisexual. some exclusive band December 1, for a special “all-decade” music a lawsuit over the group’s use tool for unsigned artists and merchandise on the history selection, featuring only the best from of Dylan’s lyrics in their song independent labels to sell Home Shopping 2000-2009. You’ll be amazed at what you’ve “Only Want To Be With You.” music online. Network. forgotten!

26 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 27 method allowed for loads of creative freedom, and stuff. Everyone just kind of went and did “The Volcano Choir record kind of spans but also required a mammoth leap of faith their thing in little small sub-groups. People the spectrum of everything the Bees has done. from both parties. would take breaks and go help other people We’ve been kind of working more recently with “I think where challenges could arise, out. It just ended up being this total party but a super rock, American minimalist idea. There’s obviously, is if you pour your heart and soul this total insanely productive weekend. But it definitely some of that in there, but there’s also into some song and send it off to someone, needed a period at the end of the sentence for some less bombastic stuff, the more spelled- and they come back and put something on it those specific songs. Otherwise we could’ve out stuff,” he says of the record’s appeal. “And I that you can’t stand,” laughs Rosenau. “That’s worked on them forever, because there was no think fans will like it because it really obviously a gigantic issue. But in this situation real goal. does have Justin all over the place. I personally with our kind of friendship, there was just The “period” on the weekend was a simple don’t understand how you can’t love every note always a total confidence about that what we and stark realization that, no matter what such that comes out of that guy’s mouth — I’m in were going to get back we were going to love.” a notion might mean, this group was a band love with it. And everyone seems to be really When the collective finally, well, collected — and the band had a special collection of into what he’s been doing, and they should be. last year, the sessions were informal, meant music. Next step? A name. That said, I don’t think that the record’s not simply to see what, if anything, could be “It was John Miller, the drummer,” he says accessible or inaccessible in any way, but it’s harvested from the digitally-sown seeds of the of the party guilty for the Volcano Choir definitely not For Emma.” last two years. moniker. “I think ‘volcano’ had been stuck in [a The fact is, isn’t easy. It doesn’t come “Nobody knew how many songs we had rejected name], and he just ended up putting to the listener. Rather, it must be sought — started,” laughs Rosenau. “[ Justin] felt that it them together. It was just a total instant like, spun once, spun again and taken at face value was a good idea just to kind of have everyone ‘Yep, that’s what it is.’ So that’s what we ended to be appreciated. It is, as they say, a working in one place and have the goal just being to up with.” man’s collection. kind of aggregate everything we had and just When two established bands — with each “I prefer that over ‘acceptable,’” insists see if there were holes or weak spots or stuff its own established vibe, sound and history — Rosenau with a chuckle. “Both Justin and that we didn’t like or liked — just see what form a new entity, there tends to be a host of the other people involved have done more the last three, or however many, years had landmines for which the group must be wary. ‘inaccessible’ stuff than this, so to us this is a produced. On a Friday night, we just sat there They sound too much like band A, and don’t pretty nice accessible record. But at the same and listened to everything and drank and had attract the fans of band B (or vice versa). Or time we also operate in the real world and a shit ton of fun and everyone shot out ideas. perhaps they don’t sound anything like either understand that people will be approaching For the rest of the weekend we literally — and, while maybe grabbing some new ears, this from different places. Hopefully people it was very weird, man — we set up I think alienate both established fan bases altogether. will give it a bunch of passes and end up on the — PHoto: cameron wittig three different stations in this house that all Rosenau knows all this and doesn’t seem other side, that it’s something more than they had computers and speakers and headphones remotely concerned about walking the walk. started with. I hope that’s how it works.” B Their Neck of the Woods Volcano Choir channels the best of The Badger State by ALEC WOODEN from social norms to the environment to the would be really interesting for a kind of stark, weather. Obviously in the middle of winter vocal idea,” says Rosenau. “So we ended up The age old debate finally has its definitive in northern Wisconsin it’s getting pretty cold sending [Vernon] some of those because he answer: if a bunch of musicians cut a record in outside, as opposed to L.A. So [debut album wasn’t really working on any specific project or the forest, does anyone hear it? Unmap] is definitely one of the sounds of anything at that point. We were just like, ‘Hey, Yes. As long as it’s winter, the woods are in northern and southern Wisconsin.” play with these and send ‘em back, and we’ll Wisconsin and (Bon Iver) is The project made too much sense from the see what you’re doing’.” involved. get go: Collections of Colonies of Bees has The combination of the band seems like a Vernon first channeled the magic of those been around for over a decade and boasts a loyal no-brainer — one an instrumental band, one Wisconsin woods in winter of 2007, recording following, particularly in the upper Midwest, a now-acclaimed “chamber-folk” singer, both his smash breakthrough (as Bon Iver) For while Vernon (as Bon Iver) seems to have slightly off the beaten path. Rosenau insists, Emma, Forever Ago — an album that earned covered a decade’s worth of turf in less than however, that the songwriting was far more him countless accolades and nearly overnight two years since Emma. The whole lot met as far than just Vernon’s lyrics + CCB’s tunes = mainstream fame. So when he teamed with back as 2005, when Bees toured with Vernon’s Volcano Choir’s songs. fellow-Wisconsinites Collections of Colonies then-main focus, DeYarmond Edison. The “Because we’re an instrumental band and of Bees to form Volcano Choir, where else groups stayed in touch and, sometime around Justin is a singer, I think everyone assumes that would the group assemble to record its debut 2007, began informally collaborating through we wrote these songs and sent them to him, collection? the musical equivalent of a long distance and he would say, ‘Okay, I’ll finish the song.’ “It was definitely born and bred here,” says relationship — generation Y’s version of tape But that’s totally not how 80 percent of this longtime Bees’ guitarist Chris Rosenau of sharing, sending files back and forth through went,” explains Rosenau. “We were just super his native state. “I think that there’s different cyberspace, working on tracks after shows or interested in what we could add and how we regional — not to stereotype anything — from home bases on touring breaks. could flesh every idea out, trying to challenge peculiarities or something like that, you know “I had some songs that I had actually just each other to see what everyone else would do what I mean? It’s just derived from the people kind of been playing around with as a kind of with it.” who are living there and you know, everything scaffolding, architecture for what I thought Faceless interaction in this building block

28 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 30 Revamping My Choir Revamping tagtowr, eei o boring, or generic called straightforward, have listeners it, hearing since actually that, summer this record a release —what’sGoing Away abandtodo? from expected people of number small no what that’s album, the heard had fans Furnaces’any before written record newest the of reviews “deaf fan-written the descriptions,” at looking and — unexpected is deserved. the course of over three years, maybe shows that reputation countless from together and narrated geriatrically backmask-laden the Boat, globetrotting like conceptually records of the release the seen far thus has that a career Through quirkiness. for Fiery Furnaces to theexpectation onhow unexpectedness subvert of Fiery ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE f o’e h Fey uncs you Furnaces, Fiery the you’re If the expect to begins everyone when But a reputation have Furnaces Fiery The by te lv” lu cobbled album “live” the Remember, ADAM CLAIR My Rehearsing Bitter Blueberry Blueberry T the ea, I ’m ’m h bn, oeul, tl b fny both funny,amusing andalittle bitqueer.” be it’ll hopefully, band, the know who people for But bad. and that’s good and conventional, very sound will people who have never heard the band, this past,”the in Friedbergermale the says. “To people’smade we’ve records up the with set expectations hadn’t we if record this both thebandandtoitslisteners. to important path, the cleared quirkiness of decade a Nearly done. already they’ve what on solely almost dependent course of — they have to do something new, which is — and “That would be cheating.” says. Friedberger Matthew time,” who hasdabbledinalotofthem. band a for style new decidedly a “casual,” depending on ofacrimony. theirlevel W wud’ hv fl fe t make to free felt have wouldn’t “We So each time the Furnaces make a record every record same the make can’t “We it calls Furnaces the of half one least At I ’m Going Away is the band’s eighth themselves. blanks the in fill to listeners — forcing or — letting and arrangements sparser much On prolix. I lyrically and dense sonically them. rewards ultimately that challenging way a in listeners operandi: modus Furnaces own their imaginations. in Alotofpeopleprefer that.” themselves it elaborate to have says.“They he themselves,”work the do to have people make to unelaborated, to letthelistenersdosome ofthework. too. It’s just that this time, the band wanted depth,somethere’s sure making by also driven he’s superficially, interesting things of beingdifferent.” It’s alsoabitunfair. sake the for “different simply as Furnaces , it has been by offering offering by been has it , Away Going ’m In the past,the In recordsbeen has wereit that Fiery the to key the is seems, it This, be to record this wanted “We keeping on intent is Friedberger While Fiery the like band a label to easy It’s c o ur te sy

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So while the new versions of the songs on the entire album. by Matthew and the other half by his sister Eleanor, so that in total each will have redone arranged songs the half records, with too,two each them into record would they figured itslatestrecord.songs from Friedberger thereasons says thisare for many. that would be strange.” didn’t, time. you each If different little a something try would sincere,you be that would youmessageout,getthe have to it’schange,” traditionalto Friedberger says. what “That’s ground new to cover.for far,so career their Furnacesin coveredFiery have looking the constantly they’re territory the band has — though it definitely has other plans — but he wasclear that despite all the you to them but changes enough to avoid getting stale. 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You have to make things that people making themwork,” hesays on theirpart.” hastobeautomatic orinattentive“It writing Friedberger insistsheisn’t justoutsourcing. hasn’t more,summer. and adding the ready songs out in 16 ruled but or 15 has band The The aptly titled At shows during the past year or two, asked members of the audience If you’re keeping score at home, that’s a fan-reviewed album now, bands to shows thirdarerock because is important thing so “The more important second“The thing is the idea that since a bandcan’t sell audio anymore, we’re not going Again, hehasmore. “Since before the Beatles, part of the rock model is that the composer and the performer This sense of indebtedness to its listeners seems to drive a lot of what the Fiery Furnaces “You play a show and if it’s in any way,” he says, “you have some obligation in reviews write to fans album’sits Further,the asked Furnacesto release,Fiery prior the anyway. performances live for Fortime,songs one,this its rearranges band So they the the rearranging albums of pair a releasing well, as it on elaborating is band the And “Unless you’re a band like the Ramones and you just have this one thing that you do and This, Friedberger says, is the drama of being a fan, hoping the band sticksto what drew “As a rock band, you have to change,” Friedberger says. “You have to be more willing to people, tochallenge Not thathe’s ofalienatingthem. afraid attherisk noteven “It’s not fair to make the fans of the band actually write the songs and send them to you, Democ-Rock — an album by the people, for the people — should be out and that would be fine, too, but too, fine, be would that and Record Silent I ’m Going Away and a fan- I ’m Going B Most Wanted in Athens. PHoto: alexa lambros innocuous Daisy, but this flower has thorns and burrs aplenty. Brand New has never been exactly what you would call a “happy” band with a catalog’s worth of Holden Caulfield-inspired melodrama, loneliness and breakup angst making up their repertoire, and Daisy, too, follows its well-traveled path of dark catharsis. If its preceding album was the sound of the devil and God duking it out, then Daisy is undoubtedly the sound of the former’s victory. Adding to the gloom, mixed in amongst searing guitars, analogies to being broken down cars and metaphors of being burned alive are archival sounding clips of a Baptist minister recorded in the 1960s. Pulled from tapes Lacey found at an estate sale, the snippets of sermons and hymns incorporates a definite sense of creepiness to the overwhelmingly bleak affair. However, unlike many bands that have lengthy tales of woe to precede its darkest discs, the enveloping blackness on Daisy is just as inexplicable to the guys who created it. “It’s interesting because the last record we were all in darker places than we were during this record. The last record we had a lot of things to sort out internally and externally, and this time wasn’t like that at all,” says Lane. “A lot of death wasn’t surrounding us like last time and we weren’t away from home and we didn’t go through living in other places.” He continues, “None of us can probably really explain why it was darker, it just turned out that way.” One option, though Lane seems skeptical, is that lead guitarist Accardi took a larger role in the songwriting for Daisy than for previous albums. Always an integral part of the Brand New writing team, this time around he took more turns at bat, writing lyrics and lending his harsh scream to lead vocal duties more often, most notably on the scathing, blistering album opener “Vices.” Composition-wise, Daisy also stays truer to the sound of Brand New’s live performance. Whereas in the past, songs were written in- studio and figured out live afterward, for Daisy, the band worked backwards, thinking through how the songs would be played live first and recorded them accordingly. “A lot of our songs evolve after we record them and play them on stage anyway, so this time around it was more like, ‘This is what I would do on stage so we might as well record it that way’,” explains Lane. “And I think a lot of the songs translated to what they are Every Daisy Has Its Thorn? because of that.” Hardly a flower, ten years in Brand New are anything but gentle. Sneaking back into the band’s live set, too, are some tunes from the group’s peppier beginnings. Known in the past for shunning their by Natalie B. David trying to prove anything to anyone except for because last time we made the mistakes.” early material, Brand New has uncovered a new-found outlook on ourselves. We always want to please the other A smoother experience this time around, their back catalog. Easily understandable that as grown men with The members of Brand New have come a three people in the band, no matter what,” Lane describes the recording of Daisy as houses and responsibilities it would be hard to revisit and relate to long way from their pop-punk beginnings, says Lane. “And that’s what always ends up “a lot more comfortable than any other songs moping about teenage heartbreak, Lane admits that the band but, when you think about it, a decade is a happening.” recording process,” and it’s easily understood is, in fact, more comfortable with their fan-favored beginnings than pretty long time. Since banding together in Daisy, the band’s fourth album and second why: for one, the album was recorded in the ever before. 2000, Brand New has never been afraid to for major label Interscope, was recorded with band’s hometown, and two, because working “It took us all time to come to grips with what we did. It took us evolve, and their latest disc, Daisy, again finds long-time collaborator, producer, engineer with Sapone rather than an outsider meant all time to be just like, it’s okay that we did that because that was 10 the band exploring new stylistic terrain. and unofficial fourth member Mike Sapone. working with a producer who is as integral a years ago,” says Lane. “And I think we’re all a lot more comfortable On the phone from his home in Long A homecoming of sorts, although the band part of Brand New as Lane, Lacey, Tierney now looking back on it, being like, you know what? That was good Island, NY, drummer Brian Lane sounds returned to Sapone’s Long Island basement or Accardi. for the time that it was, so it’s okay to play those songs, or it’s okay to pleased with his band’s latest dark odyssey but studio for at least one song on every album, “He doesn’t only get sounds and stuff. He listen to them and go ‘Ah, that one part is really cool,’ you know?” candidly admits it may not be as immediately it was the first time since their 2001 debut writes with us also. He comes up with ideas For a band that has evolved with each new release, from the pop- accessible as the band’s earlier output. “It’s Your Favorite Weapon that they worked with for vocals or ideas for drums, or anything punk of their debut to the emo leanings of 2003’s and definitely one of those records that takes a Sapone for an entire album cycle. along those lines,” explains Lane of the band’s the moody rock that emerged on Devil and God, Lane explains that, while to sink in,” he says, “for sure.” “Everything comes back there, so this time relationship with Sapone, which extends more than anything intentional, it all stems from the band members But his band is far less worried about this around we just decided to start it there and back even to Lane, Lacey and Tierny’s band simply getting better with age. album’s reception than they were for any of finish it there,” says Lane explaining that for prior to Brand New, called The Rookie Lot. “You change as a musician as you grow up,” Lane remarks. “Your the three that came before it. These days it’s 2007’s The Devil and God Are Raging Inside “He’s someone that no matter what is a part influences usually change. This band has been going on for 10 years. all about making fellow band members Jesse Me, the band burned through two or three of Brand New. He’s a member of Brand New, I definitely don’t listen to the same things that I listened to 10 years Lacey, Garrett Tierney and Vincent Accardi producers before returning the project to almost the same as all of us. He just doesn’t ago, and I’d imagine that happens to a lot of people. proud. Sapone’s comfortable hands. “We just went go on tour with us.” “Things happen that way just because we change as people, and B “At this point I don’t think that we’re straight for it because we already knew, The title of the new disc may be the that’s really the bottom line.” 32 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE [email protected]

pens . mugs . bags magnets . umbrellas t-shirts . beach & golf accessories . planners calendars . executive gifts . embroidery & screenprint . stickers etcetera etcetera http://pptpromo.geigermall.com ten QUESTIONS: Drivin’n’ by Jennifer Gibson photo by ruth letiman Cryin’ Athens Blur Magazine (ABM): First thing's first: was a really big proponent of being American made, back when Sam Drivin’ n’ Cryin’ hasn’t released a full-length Walton was running it. When he passed away it became a Chinese record of new material since 1997. What took clearing house, basically. I took my granddaughter to the Dollar so long? Tree one day, and we were looking at bubbles, and it said, “Made in Kevn Kinney (KK): Well, we didn’t think anybody was really China.” And I thought, “Wow, these bubbles came a long way. 'Made waiting. I’d been making solo records, everybody kind of went in China.' Why can’t they make these in Dalton, Ga.?” So it’s just a their own way for a while. I had a band with Dave [V. Johnson] the conversation about how it’s obviously cheaper to make automobiles drummer. I wanted to try some different things. I just really didn’t and televisions across seas, and maybe the technology over there feel like it was ready until we all had some presence in it. I really for what they do will make it more economical for us to own things wanted to do it right. I really wanted to have a publicist. I wanted to like that, but what about garments? The millworks, the garment have some sort of machine behind it. It just took a while for interest factories of the South. I was talking to some buddies, and I said I’d to be definite and to see that it’s a big deal, because it’s a big deal to pay an extra $15 or $20 for a shirt to be made in South Carolina of do this. I want to treat it with the proper amount of respect. I don’t South Carolina-made cotton. It’s about, you know, bringing back want to just keep churning records out just to do it. So this fellow in some place to work in this country besides just Googling and doing Atlanta says, “Hey, man, we’d love to help you pay for a record. We the best we can to sell our services. There’s got to be more to do want to go full bore on it. We want to hire a publicist and hire a real than just bartending, or singing songs on stage. There’s got to be company to distribute it.” I was like, “OK cool.” I didn’t just want to something. pay for it myself. I could do that. I could pay for it myself. We could make a cover and we could let it trickle out there and sell it at shows, ABM: You’ve said that this record is “the but I didn’t want to do that. I wanted to wait until we had some sort perfect crescendo to a long 20-plus year of support system in place. career of Drivin’ n’ Cryin’. I think we’ve found the true essence of what we started to build ABM: The title of your new record is The Great back in 1985.” What is it about this record that American Bubble Factory. What exactly is gives you that feeling? that? KK: It goes back to what we were doing. The musical styles are KK: It’s the starting point of a conversation I had with somebody back to what we know, some hard rock mixed with traditional about factories and corporations in America not making things in Americana. We had a couple in the '80s and '90s that I think were America. If you can remember back when Wal-Mart first started, it self-help kind of records, I guess like armchair psychology, end of

ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 35 side and back when nobody was watching, back in the early 90s. We just struggled with having a limited amount of fame for a year. We were on MTV for a week or so. I think that taught us a lot about “we didn’t think anybody what our main objective was and why we were doing this. It makes you evaluate the importance of what it is you want to do, and how was really waiting!” popular do you have to be until you’re satisfied. Here’s what I was Kevn Kinney on DNC's 12 year recording absence like: my friend Col. Bruce Hampton, he’s one of my best friends, the bar psychology. Our records Scarred But the Gulf War. It’s hard for me to have all these things in America, I write all these he’s like, “You just did not look comfortable.” And I really was not Smarter, Whisper Tames the Lion, Mystery these feelings around. I thought that the different types of songs, so it was like “what comfortable being even remotely famous. The thing is, I’m not Road, Fly Me Courageous, those are all topics hierarchy of our government was pretty, I if I write a country song, or country pop trying to be your favorite band, and you don’t have to come see of conversation. And it was good rock n’ roll, don’t know, oppressive. I’m not really sure. song, or 70s country song or a hard rock every show I do, but here’s what I would love: if you’re the kind good songs, had a cool melody to it but then I didn’t really want to write about it until it song?” Let’s see what happens if we put of person who goes to see 30 shows a year, please come see one of it said something inside it that might bring was over, and then write about it frankly. I them on the same record. When people are mine. If you’re the kind of person who buys 30 records a year, please up some conversation or feelings. That was just wasn’t ready. A song like “I Stand Tall,” like, “There are a lot of different styles going just try one of mine out. That’s kind of my mantra, because I’m just kind of a tradition we had. We hadn’t made it’s a great song. I didn’t write it. Personally on on that record,” I’m like, “Well, it’s kind doing what I do. I’m not trying to compete with anybody but myself. a record in 12 years. Right after we finished I stand tall, but I would hate it if anybody of like a record collection.” I’m trying to write the best stuff I can write and have fun with it. the last record we regrouped and I made a understood that as a right to go to war. My band’s records are a conversation between band members. Mac solo record, Broken Hearts and Auto Parts, ABM: Speaking of different styles writes his own guitar parts, Dave comes up with his drum parts and with this band. It takes a while for a band ABM: Another record of yours, of music, “Don’t You Know That I Tim comes up with the harmonies and bass parts and all that. I’m to become a real band instead of just my Whisper Tames the Lion, has some Know That You Know” is a great really proud to be in this band. I think we’re in a place now where side band because I’m the singer and main notoriety, too. It was the lowest song. Not a huge rocker, but we’re a true brotherhood and we’re really good friends and we dine songwriter. For it to be a real record you have charting debut on the top 200 infectious. It’s been stuck in my together and have fun together and we stop at Wal-Mart on the road to be a real band. Dave, Mac [Carter], Tim charts when it was released in head since I first heard it. What’s and nobody gets in fights and nobody’s screaming at anybody, and [Nielsen] and me, we’ve all been through 1988, actually knocking Dark Side the inspiration behind it? all those things that happened to bands in the past. We’re like, “Let’s seven or eight years of playing together and of the Moon off the charts for the KK: The inspiration behind it is, well, there’s not do that. Let’s let life be life.” We all have kids now, we all have getting to know each other to where it’s first time since its release. That’s a group I thought had written a song about obligations. That’s where the screaming and yelling can come in, but not the Kevn Kinney backing band — it’s a a great story to have. What does it me at one time, and I was like, “Well, that let’s not make music part of that. Let’s make music be the fun part. true band where everybody has a say so and feel like to topple ? kind of sucks.” It kind of hurt me. I thought Let’s not be so serious. We’re not going to change the world. It’s just everybody has some great ideas. That’s kind KK: Well, we’re trying to let people know, they were talking about me in a song, maybe. a little bit of a distraction for someone, and we can do it well. You can of what I meant. let people drink it in and know. It felt pretty I don’t know. But then again, what it must just kind of tell your story, and I think people will buy it. Well, buy it good. Mac’s a huge Pink Floyd fan, so he be like for girls or guys to date musicians and as in, “I think they‘re trying to be pretty true to their essence. That’s ABM: You’ve mentioned before that doesn’t take it well. I think he would not then they wind up with songs about them. cool.” But we’re not putting on any airs. I looked really stupid when you started the demos for the new bring it up with Roger Waters if he ever met They have to go see them and they’re like, I tried to do that. I looked really horrible. Trust me, I tried. Luckily, record on September 10, 2001. Aside him. But hey man, if you’re going to make “That song's about me!” There’s this friend I’m surrounded by really honest friends who were like, “Dude, what from putting off recording for a just one small impact on the world, the one of mine who has a record, his name’s Bobby the hell was that?” But that doesn’t answer your question, does it? while longer, how did that affect little thing Whisper Tames the Lion did was Bare Jr. He has a record out and at the very That rant. the final product, if at all? humble Pink Floyd. But then they came back end of the record it says, “And don’t call me KK: It just made us not want to put it out. on the charts and I don’t think we’ve been no more, blah blah blah, and don’t write no ABM: At the end of the day, what is your favorite record It made us reevaluate what we were doing. back on since. So if you can look at the charts, more songs about me!” And I thought how you’ve made, and why? See, when I write and I sing, when I come how many weeks has it been on the charts I’ve never dated a musician before, or a talk KK: I don’t know how to answer that. I’m supposed to say my new to your town, I’m coming to Greenville or now, that’s how long it’s been since I’ve been show host, or a comedian, but I thought it record. It’s the one I’ve been listening to the most now, and I like it. I’m coming to Athens, and I get there at on the charts. So if it says they’ve been on must suck to date them and then break up But I’ll tell you I think the best solo record is Broken Hearts and Auto three or four in the afternoon, and I wander the charts now for 500 weeks or something, with them and wind up in their routine. And Parts, and I think this new one is the best sounding Drivin’ n’ Cryin’ around and I get dinner and I do things, that’s how long it’s been since I’ve been there. it’s kind of about that. I don’t remember record. It’s got the best sound to it. I really love “Detroit City,” and I and what happens in that time affects which record it is. I do know they made him really love the song “Let Me Down” that Mac does, and I love “Don’t what happens in the show. We never do the ABM: Back in 1985, before your take it off on some versions.I ’d be too afraid You Know …” I love “Train Wreck.” I love the whole thing. Yeah, this same show. I’ll go to record stores, look at triumph over Pink Floyd, you said, to [put it on a record]. I’m married now, but is my favorite one of the Drivin’ n’ Cryin’ records, and Broken Hearts posters, see what kind of bands you like or “We are a band that’s like your I dated very strong willed women, so I can’t and Auto Parts is my favorite solo record. But that doesn’t answer I talk to people I meet in coffee shops. In record collection.” How so, and imagine what they would do. your question. My records are like my children! They get pissed off saying that, there are times when it’s really have you held true to that? at me when I start picking sides. They come into my dreams and ask, hard … I don’t like to write topical music, KK: Yeah. When I was a kid, I had a lot of 45 ABM: You don’t seem to be a band “What about me?” and I’m like, “Hey, I like you, I like you. I do!” I’m you know? I don’t like to write specifically singles, and I would sit there and play some that’s full of drama or full of a little afraid to answer that. about a certain issue because in 20 years no Rolling Stones, or , or some John themselves, but this is a really one’s really going to get it. And right then, Denver thing, or “TheW reck of the Edmund good, thoughtful rock record. ABM: Finally, I want to know: I saw a posting on your there was the build up to the war and those Fitzgerald,” something like that, you know? How have you remained a real solid Web site announcing, “Looks like we have some friends things. I made a solo record in that era, after And I’d kind of make this little set-list up, band for 20 years without giving in in the Georgia General Assembly,” but the link to the [Hurricane] Katrina, but I didn’t mention make mix tapes and stuff.I want my records to the dark side? Or have you? story was broken. It sounds ominous. Any weird story Katrina specifically and I didn’t mention to be like mix tapes. I’m influenced by all KK: I think we probably went to the dark behind that? KK: Our friend that was in the assembly is not in the assembly any more. He retired to raise his kids. He’s a juvenile court judge now in Ringgold. We were a big supporter of his; he’s a big supporter of us “we never do and there was another fellow from Atlanta, too. But that’s why we had that linked up there. But that was a while ago. Sorry. No story the same show” there. B Kevn Kinney on dnc’s touring philosophy 36 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE People are so ‘‘ afraid PATRON to write torch songs SAINTS or love songs ...and I FOR THEIR OF SIXTH ALBUM, hate that TEGAN AND SARA because I FIND FAITH IN love love – AND OUT – OF LOVE. songs. POPby Natalie B. David

photo: pamela littky

ust like with her music, it’s difficult not to be Imagining the petite, raven-haired rocker a surprising variety of revered acts, including life, Sara found herself ready to write an album and Sara’s willingness to be upfront about the carried away by Sara Quin’s catchy efferves- sporting a pop diva’s mic is certainly a stretch. Ryan Adams, Alkaline Trio, Amanda Palmer and and was completely unattached, a romantic free nature of their songs is a refreshing and welcome cence. Calling from L.A., she says it feels like Tegan and Sara are responsible for some of this , who recorded the duo’s 2004 agent. change from most indie rock bands, who tend Jshe’s on vacation. In reality, it’s the middle of decade’s best tunes, but overdone pop single “Walking With a Ghost” for their own “Since I was 14, which was when I began to regard the L-word like a specially branded day-two of a weeklong press-capade behind stars? They’re definitely anything but. 2005 EP of the same name. songwriting, I’ve been engaged in some form hipster repellant. Tegan and Sara’s sixth album, entitled Sainthood, Calgary, Alberta natives Sara and her identical All in all, it’s not a bad resume for a band of a relationship, whether it was the breakup of “Oh my god! I know! It’s like an epidemic in and Murphy’s Law is in full effect. twin sister Tegan have earned a following by whose bread and butter is the much decried love one, or the dissection of one from within,” she indie ,” Sara enthusiastically inter- She speaks fast, her demeanor almost crafting genuine songs about falling in and out song. With a title lifted from the lyrics of the explains. “I’ve obviously fully written about that rupts. “People are so afraid to write torch songs hummingbird-like, mixing thoughtful insights of love and everything in between, all combined Leonard Cohen song “Came So Far For Beauty,” and deconstructed that process and that experi- or love songs because it’s seen as embarrassing with quirky quips and unabashed honesty. But with perfectly catchy melodies and indelible, Sainthood centers around an “obsession with ence and I was suddenly, like, really single.” or being overdone, and I hate that because I love first, due to technical difficulties, she’s saddled delectable hooks. What began as two 14-year- romantic ideals.” In short, it’s 13 tracks about “And I wasn’t just writing about my own love songs.” with a headset. olds writing songs and playing talent shows has love and the crazy things we do to get it. pursuits at getting out of a relationship and As with the throngs of us who have belted “Just imagine it for a moment. It’s not as turned into a bona fide musical career that most Although both Tegan and Sara, who typically getting back into one,” she continues. “I was also our hearts out to a sappy serenade at one time seamless as Britney’s, for example. That’s more up-and-comers would envy. Signed by certified write their songs separately, have covered matters thinking about what am I even looking for? And or another (c’mon, admit it), in her single status, skin toned, matched to her hair,” she laughs. rock legend Neil Young in the duo’s home of the heart more often in their songwriting what do I even really want?” Sara found herself longing to hear genuine love “This is more Janet Jackson, Rhythm Nation country to his Vapor music label in 1999, Tegan than not, Sainthood tackles the subject from a Unafraid of the stigma that comes along songs in all of their over-the-top glory. Pushing over here.” and Sara have since seen their tunes covered by new perspective. For the first time in her adult with fessing up to penning love songs, Tegan rock and indie rock out of her personal listening 38 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 39 you would hold in your hand, a piece of art if you will, and that the experience wouldn’t be the tegan same thing for a free download or a digital PDF of the thing. It actually is something that you could put in a room or on your bookshelf and it would be really substantial.” With Sara tied up doing A&R for indie buzz band An Horse, the project was conceived and spearheaded by Tegan, but ultimately became a collective project. Choosing to self-publish, the books became a team effort between Tegan and Sara, their management and close friends, with For some everyone taking turns writing, copyediting and finessing the minutiae of publishing. “We all learned a ton about publishing and reason, if shipping and the differences between copyright and publishing in the written world and the music world,” says Sara of the experience. “I a woman or mean, we’re geeks. We basically decided that this was fascinating and we really sort of immersed ourselves in it.” an indie rock The three books chronicle the past year in the lives of Tegan and Sara: “ON” and “AT” similarly document a U.S. tour from October 2008 and an band sings Australian tour from January 2009 with photos, essays and journals written by tour mates and repertoire, although not apparent on Sainthood, members of the band, amongst other goodies. she began to almost exclusively listen to the ‘‘ about love or The middle book, “IN,” captures a songwrit- sounds of Motown, old French records and hip ing experiment that took place in New Orleans

hop acts like The-Dream. last November. Like fellow identical-twin sister “I wanted to hear people singing like they gets a bit too act The Watson Twins, Tegan and Sara both were — broken hearted and crying,” says Sara, contribute songs to their albums, but never citing a specific childhood rediscovery. “All of collaborated. a sudden I started listening to Patsy Cline like emo about love, Until now. I would die without it. And every song is a love Spawned from a conversation with a musician song. Every Supremes song is a love song. Every friend undergoing a rather difficult recording

hip hop song is a love song. And I started to feel it’s sort of process, Sara looked back at her own songwrit- like, you know what? There is nothing embar- ing past, realizing that it had been years since rassing about wanting to sing your heart out she had felt intimidated or challenged by the about your heart.” assigned a creative process having rarely strayed from her It’s true, the love song has been maligned as solo ways. the ultimate rock ‘n’ roll cliché. A subject both “It occurred to me that the scariest thing I accepted and expected in mainstream circles, in lesser value could do was put myself in a room with anyone other genres, especially in indie rock, wearing ‘‘ and write; it didn’t have to just be Tegan,” she your heart on your sleeve in flashing, neon lights clarifies. “I realized that I had gone about 10 is often considered an ultimate taboo. Sure, most than if you bands do it — they just don’t talk about it. (CONTINUED ON PG. 56) “For some reason, if a woman or an indie rock band sings about love or gets a bit too emo about sing cryptically love,” she says, “it’s sort of assigned a lesser value sara than if you sing cryptically about love in this way that is seen as more heroic or more stoic or about love in something like that.” Tegan and Sara’s offbeat-yet-user-friendly take on love has certainly resonated with a wide- this way that ranging flock of music fans. As a special treat to please Tegan and Sara devotees, the duo also created a three book boxed series to accompany is seen as Sainthood. The project, entitled “ON, IN, AT” was created as an alternative to a more video-cen- tric endeavor (the duo has two DVDs — 2006’s more heroic. touring documentary “It’s Not Fun, Don’t Do It” and 2007’s “The Con — The Movie”), and a way for the sisters Quin to offer fans an experi- ence that, quite simply, wouldn’t fit on a circular, 4.72-inch piece of plastic. “With music now, having the actual tactile experience of unwrapping a CD, for a lot of people, is gone and it may never come back,” explains Sara, “and there was this idea that we would still be able to give an actual product, something that

40 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE w

Evolution of a Medium: The story of radio’s survival and continued fight

By Sarah A. McCarty

itting in an office surrounded by gold and platinum RIAA Sales Awards, Sitting in an officethanking surrounded radio for selling by gold millions and andplatinum millions RIAA of recordings Sales Awards of artists, thanking radioKevin for selling Steele, program millions manager and millions for Athens of radio recordings station Magic of artists, 102.1 sends Kevin an e-mail explaining why he thinks the current actions of those same record Steele,companies program and managertheir artists for who Athens once showed radio gratitudestation Magicare now 102.1 threatening sends the an radio emailindustry correspondenceS – an industry withexplaining a dynamic why history he fullthinks of ups the and current downs. actions of those same recordNearly companies one-hundred and years their since artists the first who U.S. once licensed showed commercial gratitude broadcasting are now threateningstation hit thethe airwaves,radio industry proposed – legislation an industry that calls with for a radio dynamic stations history to pay performing full of ups artists could change the face of the industry once again. and downs.“Now that we’re in the digital age, all those years of support from radio stations don’t seem to matter anymore,” Steele said of the players on the other side of the line who Nearlysupport one what hundred he calls years the “potentially since the detrimental first U.S. legislation.” licensed commercial In February, Representative John Conyers, (D-MI) introduced HR 848 Performance PAIN broadcastingRights Act intostation Congress, hit the which airwaves, would requireproposed radio legislation stations to pay that artists calls when for theyradio House resolution 848 stationsplay their to pay music. performing artists could change the face of the industry once again. According to opencongress.org, the Performance Rights Act and the similar S. 379 in the Senate, would amend federal copyright law to grant performers of sound recordings performing equal rights to compensation from terrestrial broadcasters. For broadcast stations with “Nowgross that revenues we’re ofin lessthe thandigital $1.25 age, million all those and foryears noncommercial, of support from public radio broadcast stationsstations don’t such seemas University to matter of Georgia’s anymore,” WUOG, Steele the act said would of theestablish players a flat on annual the fee rights act otherin sidelieu of of payment the line of whoroyalties. support An exemption what he from calls royalty the “potentially payments would detrimental be granted for broadcasts of religious services and for incidental uses of musical sound recordings. is looking out legislation.”Although the act has been considered by committee and recommended to be considered by the House, it has not yet been put to a vote. If the bill does eventually get passed, In February,some say it Representativecould have serious Johneffects Conyers, on radio stations (D-MI) throughout introduced the country,HR 848 which is for the artist. causing a lot of controversy and pitting people like Steele against many organizations and Performancefamous recording Rights artists. Act into Congress, which would require radio stations to but does it have pay artistsBacking when the they proposed play legislation their music. are several organizations, politicians and recording artists including the Recording Industry Association of America, the American Federation the potential to of Television and Radio Artists, the American Association of Independent Music, AccordingThe Recording to opencongress.org, Academy, Georgia the representative Performance Hank Rights Johnson Act and and the themusicFIRST similarcoalition S. 379 supported in the bySenate, a wide would range ofamend performers federal such copyright as Bruce Springsteen,law to grant Dave shut down performersMatthews of Band, sound Jay-Z, recordings Andrea Bocelli equal and rights Amy Grant.to compensation from terrestrial broadcasters.In a press For release, broadcast Rep. Johnson, stations like with many gross supporters revenues of the ofperformance less than royalties, $1.25 the airwaves? said it is merely an act of fairness. Radio stations currently pay writers of songs royalties, millionbut not and performers. for noncommercial, “This bill is not public an attack broadcast on broadcasters. stations Thesuch reality as Universityis that artists of Georgia’sget paid for WUOG, the use of thetheir act music would on all establish other platforms, a flat suchannual as the fee Internet, in lieu satellite, of This is the paymentand cable, of royalties.but they do Annot getexemption any compensation from royalty when their payments work is played would over be AM granted and FM radio stations,” Johnson says. for broadcastsIn the same of religioussense, the musicFIRSTservices and (Fairness for incidental in Radio usesStarting of musicalToday) coalition sound recordings.says on its website it is “committed to making sure everyone, from up-and-coming artists to our favorites from years-ago, is guaranteed Fair Pay for Air Play.” story of Although the act has been considered byth committee and recommended to In committee hearings before the 111 Congress, Billy Corgan of The Smashing be consideredPumpkins testified by the on House, behalf ofit hasmusicFIRST not yet andbeen said, put “I toam aa vote.big fan If of the radio, bill and does am radio’s fight eventuallyvery interested get passed, in its continued some say health it could and well-being. have serious Terrestrial effects radio on has radio helped stations me throughoutto discover the many country, of the artistswhich that is becamecausing influential a lot of controversyto my life and andartistic pitting pursuits. I for survival by no means see them as the bad guy. The change to the law we are here to discuss only peopleredresses like anSteele outmoded, against unfair many practice organizations that favors one and participant’s famous recording needs over another.artists. This legislation is simply a form of restoration to artists long overdue.” Corgan went on Backingto explain the howproposed many performers legislation on hitare songs several may notorganizations, be big name artists politicians who can andprofit by sarah A. recordingfrom tours artists and theincluding sale of merchandise the Recording and they Industry deserve Association compensation ofin America,the form of royalties. mccarty the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, the American Association of Independent Music, The Recording Academy, Georgia representative Hank Johnson and the musicFirst coalition supportedcontinued by a wide range of performers such as Bruce Springsteen, Dave Matthews Band, Jay Z, 42 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE Andrea Bocelli and Amy Grant. ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 43

In a press release, Rep. Johnson, like many supporters of the performance royalties, said it is merely an act of fairness. Radio stations currently pay manager of programming at 95.5 “The composers of music to get their fair share During this Golden Age, non-musical Beat,” another Cox Radio station in the since they cannot earn with performing shows were more popular than live and Atlanta/Athens market, agreed that the bill or promoting, which is how the system recorded music. Most families would could cause changes. “In the case of 955 currently works today. gather around the radio and tune into to The Beat, it’s difficult to tell the exact effect Others opposed to the performance their favorite programs from one of the because we don’t know what the fees would royalties include the Free Radio Alliance, first radio comedy series “Amos ‘n Andy” to be. However, some adjustment would need Greater Media, Inc., National Association the CBS drama “Suspense” to the old-time to be made including playing less music of Broadcasters, College Broadcasters, Inc. radio detective show “The New Adventures during some time periods. In some cases for and a few state broadcasting associations. of Sherlock Holmes.” Some faithfully smaller stations in smaller markets, I have Georgia congressman Paul Broun, who listened to the big soap operas, which are heard from several owners and operators represents the 10th district that includes now synonymous with daytime television that any increase in expenses would put Athens, also opposes the proposed but actually began as serial broadcast on them out of business,” Kidd said. legislation. According to govtrack.us Broun radio with soap manufactures as sponsors When asked to give the perspective joined more than 240 politicians who co- and producers. One of the most famous of a non-commercial, independent station, sponsored the Supporting the Local Radio of these soaps is “Guiding Light,” which Rock 100.7 FM General Manager Xavier Freedom Act that opposes the Performance launched on radio in 1937, but eventually Elkins said further fees would obviously Rights Act, but he could not be reached for moved to television in 1952 — a sign of the be taxing on any organization like 100.7 response. changing times and upcoming trouble for particularly because it is already non-profit. While the outcome of this proposal radio. Steele supported the claim saying, “Even could cause drastic changes to radio, it’s not With the advent of television, and though the House amended the legislation the first time controversy, technology and later cable, people began watching shows to protect smaller, non-commercial culture have altered the medium. instead of listening to shows, and radio had broadcasters by creating a sliding scale fee, Commercial radio first hit the scene to devise a plan to stay relevant. many of these stations will still not be able in the 1920s when it became licensed and “As audiences shifted to television, to afford any increase in royalty fees.” picked up advertisers and sponsors along radio had to really change its format,” While many debate the fairness of with original content. said Ann Hollifield, Ph.D., Head of the the issue, Elkins brought into question the From the 1920s until the 1950s radio Department of Telecommunications relevancy of royalties. “The notion of an artist- had its heyday. During this Golden Age at the University oriented royalty fee seems a bit outdated of Radio stations produced a variety of given that the economic engine of the broadcasts including music industry has shifted gears. In music's heyday, artists toured to promote

“All radio stations pay publishing companies millions of dollars each year in royalty fees;

Kevin Steele sits in his office at Cox Radio. photo: Wes Elkin monies that are distributed to the songwriters and owners of themusic. On the other hand, those opposed million Americans, promoting both new millions of dollars each year in royalty The performance tax would be an added fee that many to the Performance Rights Act, including and legacy artists and generating more than fees; monies that are distributed to the outspoken organization Cox Media Group a billion dollars in CD and download sales songwriters and owners of the music. The that owns Magic 102.1, say that it threatens for record labels annually.” performance tax would be an added fee that broadcasters can’t afford to pay. the industry and claim it is not fair Though recording companies and many broadcasters can’t afford to pay,” he many music formatted stations will either compensation but actually a tax for airing many performers say that while it is still said. “Therefore, many music formatted free music. important, traditional radio broadcasts of stations will either go to syndicated talk go to syndicated talk formats or just goof Georgia. dark.” In Many people in the radio industry their music is not as significant as it once formats or just go dark.” the beginning, most stations went to a refute the argument that it is only fair to was. During his testimony, Corgan said, Some supporters say the fees won’t music strictly music format, with some news and pay for the use of songs the artists perform “If the performance of a song has value force any stations to close, but Steele programs, serial soap operas, sports talk programs, but there was a lot of because the airplay received is beneficial to a particular terrestrial radio station disagrees. “These added fees will no doubt albums mysteries, dramas, comedy shows and overlap as more and more stations came on to the artists. Some radio supporters recall in its airing, I believe it is only right to bring many independent broadcasters (the music was the product). news. Although music was not the primary the scene, according to Hollifield. “As TV the infamous Payola scandals, saying record compensate those performers who have to their knees, virtually shutting down Now, artists distribute music in order product in early radio, some record became a more powerful competitor, radio companies depend on airplay so much created this work. If a station plays a song, many local and community oriented radio to drive demand for their tours (the live companies reportedly feared the medium really reinvented itself in the late 1960s and they once reportedly bribed and paid disc both the author and the performer should stations,” he said. performance is the product). It won't be at the onset as competition providing early 70s to a format-type in very narrow jockeys to broadcast the songs of their be paid. These particular performances must While Magic is a larger station, Steele long before most music is free, or nearly a free product while others saw it as a niches such as top 40, classical and jazz artists to promote the music. National have value to the stations or they wouldn’t said he did believe if the legislation passes, free anyway,” Elkins said. Large touring acts means for promotion of music. A court stations as opposed to just general mixes of Association of Broadcasters Executive Vice be playing them.” many of the community services provided will still make the big bucks, which makes ruling eventually granted copyright owners music,” Hollifield said. She said when cable President Dennis Wharton touted airplay However, Steele says the royalties by the Cox stations would be greatly the idea of royalties seem disconnected compensation and the American Society TV entered the game and there was of songs in a press release when he wrote, would put many stations in danger. “All affected by the added cost. and trivial by comparison, according to of Composers, Authors and Publishers (continued ON PG. 57) “Every week, radio airplay reaches 235 radio stations pay publishing companies Tony Kidd, vice president/market Elkins. He said he sees fees as a method for (ASCAP) began collecting licensing fees. 44 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 45 t’s been a wild decade – terrorist attacks and wars, cities an ideal place for us.” lost to hurricanes, presidential elections decided by courts, Turner encapsulates his mantra on the label’s Web site: “HHBTM afternoon naps * bearsuit * boyracer* bunnygrunt * the first African-American head of state – but perhaps the bands help each other out. If you don’t think you can help a fellow most fascinating aspect of the aughts is the loss of personal labelmate out with booking a show or two for them, or a place to crash connection.I The onset of the Internet, and the electronic tools it for a night while on tour, then this is not the label for you. We all treat cars can be blue * casper & the cookies * elekibass * fosters, has made the world flat (as one Pulitzer Prize-winning writer each other like family, and always try to do the best for each other.” noted) but also distant. Admit it, you have no idea who your neighbors And that means righting fallen toms. are, even while you glom their wireless. “The thing I like about Mike and Eric and the rest of the HHBTM So while a 10-year anniversary is but a blip in the realm of time usual gang of idiots is that they take what they do seriously without eux autres * fishboyHAPPY * forever HAPPY * hotpants romance * (even Donald Trump had a taking themselves seriously,” marriage that lasted 10 years), said Matt Harnish of in today’s detached, 24-hour Bunnygrunt. “They realize keith john adams BIRTHDAY* lolligags * TOlovely YOU eggs * marshmal- news cycle world, it’s a heady that the alternative to doing achievement. Especially for stuff is not doing stuff and an independent who cares about people created as a lark by a guy who’s who don’t do stuff? They low coast * oh ok * patience please * red pony clock job before starting it was have a respect for us but at running a rather efficient frame the same time Mike has no shop in the Florida Panhandle. problem punching me in the “Ten years? I didn’t expect balls if he feels like it. That’s * smittens * sourpatch * superions * titans of filth * it at all,” said Turner about the kinda label we wanna the aluminum anniversary of be on.” HHBTM. “The first CD was tunabunny * velcro stars * afternoon naps * bearsuit meant to mark the last issue of my zine Bee’s Knees. The t’s not just a twee label, original Happy Happy Birthday OK? To Me Volume 1 was meant “A lot of people put * boyracer* bunnygrunt * cars can be blue * casper & to be a joke because there was I tags on things because it’s not going to be a Volume 2. I easier for them to describe,” thought it would be funny if Turner said. “I did the same the cookies * elekibass * eux autres * fishboy * forev- someone really dug it and then thing when I wrote so I wondered if there’d be a Volume understand when people 2 only to find out there wasn’t.” say ‘Well it’s easier to put Volume 1 was released in the things in this little category er * hotpants romance * keith john adams * lolligags summer of 1999 and featured or section and describe it Mike turner’s little label is big on songs by , this way’. The label has had and . The a wide variety of stuff. I’ve * lovely eggs * marshmallow coast * oh ok * patience collection of 15 singles was never really put out a noise friendships, imagination and culled from contacts and friends record or a hip-hop record, Turner made in the four-years but there’s been enough ingenuity as it reaches the 10 year mark previous while working on his other kind of things where please * red pony clockby *ed smittensmorales * sourpatch * su- zine, but proved a harbinger it’s not just a twee label. But as the ’90s came to an end. once you get that tag it’s Turner not only tapped into hard to get rid of.” perions * titans of filth * tunabunny * velcro stars a sound people sought but a The twee moniker will musical aesthetic defining what happen on a label with his venture was to become. bands named The Smittens, t’s an August night in Athens’ Caledonia Lounge as the crowd, amid their delight, can see what’s And now, a decade later, the Afternoon Naps and The one-off “joke” has grown to an Lolligags, but a closer look and Holly Ross, lead singer/guitarist of UK’s unfolding. With each hit, the tom leg inches closer industrious enterprise. HHBTM Lovely Eggs, is holding court atop the dimly- and closer and closer to the floor. at the catalogue shows claims more than 100 albums, elements of Americana, lit stage. With a drum mallet in one hand and There’s trouble ahead. a stable of bands of various MIKE TURNER POSES AT WUXTRY RECORDS, HIS OTHER ATHENS LOVE 1960s and aI PBR in the other, she watches fellow bandmate Standing near the stage is Nate Mitchell, drummer musical genres, an annual five- photo: wes elkin psychedelic-folk reminiscent (and husband) David Blackwell set an unstable, rust- for Cars Can Be Blue. Just as the tom topples, he day festival featuring 80-100 of . colored floor tom aside the front monitor. rushes over and holds it steady as Holly keeps bands from all over the world, “The first CD I put out was by the artist Birddog, which was more and a belief that taking chances and cherishing a personal, homemade “This is a song about an amazing guy we know who blasting away. Two other people lend a hand, and the Americana,” Turner said. “The record had Elliott Smith on it, Paul K feel can not only attract a fan base, but grow one as well. from Paul K and the Weathermen, Edith Frost, Glenn Kotche from draws octopuses and owls,” she says while swigging song, lasting less than a minute, is saved. “Everyone I’ve met associated with HHBTM have been really nice , so the first actual artist CD that I put out was Americana music. the beer, “it’s called ‘Jon Carling’.” And she’s off, Mike Turner, the founder of Happy Happy and genuinely enthusiastic about our band and the other bands on The second one was The Visitations with Davey Wrathgabar, who I banging the mallet against the tom with all her Birthday to Me records and the man who made this the label,” said Tom DeChristofaro, whose band Afternoon Naps knew because of the E6 connection, so I really got into that scene. might. moment possible, watches a few feet away. He smiles. is a recent addition to the HHBTM family. “He’s actually releasing Then the Gwens were kind of another sub E6 affiliate band . . . and “I know an artist and he draws about owls/He Bands helping bands. That’s what this 10 years is our debut, and as with all the current releases, Mike has pre-order then as things went on I had an Ashley Park record, which is more ’60s specials the early bird fans can order and in return they get something pop. knows about birds/He draws about owls” she croons all about. special with the album. We pitched him the idea of wrapping it in a silkscreened pillowcase and he loved it. Little things like that make it continued 46 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 47 musician’s

“There’s a time from 2002 to 2003 where all the things that came dance music, and by the third year it’s Mountain Goats, and CORNER out were Americana,” Turner continued. “It wasn’t Elephant 6, it Apples in Stereo. None of the people fit the thing, but to a wasn’t pop, it was very much roots oriented acoustic music — folky rock audience, it’s very much a twee festival. To an indie pop or twee ’60s based. And right after that there may have been more like pop element, this is a rock festival, which is really frustrating because stuff, which led to the twee pop.” I like a lot of stuff. But you can’t change the way people think about it And it was at the time of more twee when Turner, living in Panama or write about it so you just have to let it go.” City, Fla. decided to take a chance gear guide on creating a music festival — 400 he music business as it is miles away in Athens. Set to play Tnowadays, sometimes having at Tasty World and the 40 Watt a label doesn’t make much sense. Fender Sub-Lime Bass Fuzz Pedal Club, Popfest 2004 saw the 50 or For this reason, Turner takes a so bands (including Sunshine Fix nontraditional approach in who The Fender Sub-Lime Bass Fuzz Pedal resurrects classic Fender fuzz tone from the 1960s and the Rosebuds) play four days he chooses to work with, and once and ’70s—a distinctively dirty sound that fueled a thousand garage bands and put buzz-saw bass and nights in early August. they’re onboard, how he markets and tone beneath everything from Bowie-esque glam to the most snarling punk. In short, it’s the re- Turner moved to town just in introduces them to the world. turn of an epic rock sound. time for the festival’s festivities. “It’s always up in the air,” he said. Added to the signal path between your bass and your speakers, the Sub-Lime Bass Fuzz Pedal gives you “I thought, you know what, “If someone doesn’t like how it easily dialed-in classic Fender fuzz ranging from the barest hint of buzz to an all-out seismic roar. A ma- I’m just going to put together a goes, they’re free to go. There’s no jor modern touch is that the tone can be tailored by setting the crossover frequency wherever you want the ef- festival,” Turner said, laughing. real signing on, there’s no contract. fect to happen—low-frequency fuzz, high-frequency fuzz and anything in between—without sacrificing all- “I’d been visiting Athens and I fell Sometimes I wish there were — important low-end muscle and fundamental bass tone. in love with it . . . I made friends there’s been times where I wish with people who were putting I would have had that because at out records at that time. So I just least the interest of the label would moved up here and put together a be protected. But at the same time Monster Turbine PRO High Performance In-Ear Speakers festival with no real job. The first at times it’s good there weren’t year of the festival was a success contracts signed. It’s so easy for Whether you’re a professional or a demanding audiophile, attaining perfect sound reproduction in that it went off.” bands to do it on their own anyway, doesn’t matter a little—it’s all that matters. That’s why Monster brings you a higher level music listening expe- With Eric Hernandez at sometimes I don’t even know where rience with Turbine Pro professional in-ear speakers. Turbine Pros were engineered to deliver bass so deep, it’s his side as the festival’s stage the label exists at some point.” like a subwoofer in your ears, plus reproduce the clarity, detail and dynamic range of manager (he also does artwork for When the label started, he added the finest studio monitors or audiophile reference loudspeakers. the label), Turner knew he had a musicians and bands he met while Turbine Pro reproduces all genres of music with incredible musicality and accuracy: Whether good idea, but with several kinks putting together Bee’s Knees — it’s the deep rhythm sounds of hip hop, the intimacy of a jazz trio, or the thunderous power of to work out. Birddog, Visitations, Kingsauce. But a full-scale orchestra. You’ll rediscover your favorite music, hearing things that you didn’t even “I learned everything not to now Turner — aside from getting know were there. do, then it was trying to fix that a healthy host of letters and MP3s and make back the money that via e-mails (which he promptly was lost,” Turner said. “It was deletes) — brings bands into the fold frustrating at the end because it after being impressed with their live really wasn’t local.” show, following recommendations Roland BA-330 Portable Digital PA System Undaunted, Turner set sights by friends, or by pure kismet. He for 2005, moving to the Little also leans on Hernandez and his The BA-330 is the all-in-one portable PA solution for music venues, worship events, conferences, seminars, business meetings, and much Kings bar from Tasty World wife Leslie (who is a member of The more. The BA-330 has a four-channel configuration, with two channels dedicated for microphones or instruments, and two other channels (“moving all that stuff from Lolligags) to find the best fits. for standard 1/4” stereo inputs. Each channel has its own independent tone adjustment and effects switching for built-in effects, such as EQ, Tasty World to 40 Watt was a “With Tunabunny I went to see reverb, delay and widening. A Stereo Link function allows for a pair of BA-330s to work in tandem to provide an extra-wide stereo spread. big hassle,” Turner remembers), them and was blown away with how Powered by a high performance digital stereo amplifier, the BA-330 features four custom-designed 6.5” stereo speakers and two tweet- and getting a huge boost when unaware of themselves they were,” ers, positioned for wide stereo dispersion. While the built-in tilt-back stand enables the unit to Athens’ favorites Pylon and he said. “It was really like they were be angled up for better sound monitoring, the BA-330 also can easily be mounted on a speak- Of Montreal signed on to be playing and doing what was right for er stand. headliners. Later years saw The them and whatever else was going on The Roland BA-330 PA System features a unique Intelligent Anti-Feedback Mountain Goats, Deerhoof, Ted didn’t really matter. Instantly I had function previously unavailable in self-contained portable PA sys- Leo and the Pharmacists and a to sign them. Then there’s this band tems. During use, the BA-330 can automatically detect breakthrough performance by Sourpatch. Friends of mine who I potential feedback possibilities and eliminate it imme- Black Kids etch the festival into really trust went to see them at San diately. This is a huge advantage over manually adjust- minds of music bloggers everywhere. Francisco Popfest and said ‘We met this band, they’re so nice, they fit ing volume levels, as it allows performers to place the PA “We met Mike and the gang when we were asked to play the Athens the label, they’ll help bands out with shows they’ll give people a place system behind them and easily hear themselves without Popfest,” DeChristofaro said. “Needless to say the whole Popfest to stay, their music fits in, we know you already love their influences.’ experiencing feedback. experience was amazing and quite eye-opening.” So I got these demos in and one night was listening to it eight or nine Designed to deliver high-quality stereo sound for au- A rough economy had Turner shut down Popfest for 2009, but he times and I thought, 'yeah I can see this working.'” diences of up to 80 people, the BA-330 can run on stan- plans to return in 2010 with a few new surprises. Surprises to further “I booked a show for this band TacocaT which I was really excited dard AC Power or eight AA Alkaline or Ni-MH re- dispel the twee image. about seeing, and Forever was touring with them,” Turner continued. chargeable batteries. The switchable output power allows “With Popfest there’s a certain community that looks at it as ‘Oh, “Though I was excited about TacocaT, when Forever played I was the user to switch between the maximum power and the this is tender twee pop type stuff,’ but it’s not really,” Turner said. instantly into them, and by the time they got home from their tour I energy-saving Eco modes to preserve battery life. The “Maybe the first year it was indie pop, but it wasn’t specifically twee sent them an e-mail and said we need to put this out on a real CD and BA-330 is also amazingly efficient, delivering a sound pop, and there all different kinds of pop. By the second year the pressure level of 109 dB, comparable to much larger addition of Pylon and Of Montreal moved to more electronic and (continued on page 58) mid-range sound systems. 48 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 49 BOSS e-Band JS-8 Audio Player with Guitar Effects Regional

The BOSS eBand JS-8 Audio Player with Guitar Effects is the portable audio player designed for guitar- ists who play and practice at home. eBand is the audio player that combines playback of full songs, backing tracks, or rhythm loops with high quality BOSS guitar effects and a Jacksonville,report Fla. By Julie McCollum built-in stereo speaker system. This all-in-one solution is ideal for guitarists who want established 1832 to learn songs, solos and riffs, practice new songs outside of band practice, play along population 807,815 with any of their own collection of music, or create new songs while jamming with notable bands Claude “Butch” Trucks (drummer of the audio tracks. Loading music onto eBand couldn’t be easier, with direct playback Allman Brothers Band), Derek Trucks, Pat Boone, Limp Bizkit, from any standard USB memory stick or SDHC memory card up to 32GB. eBand Lynyrd Skynyrd, Yellowcard, Shinedown, Red Jumpsuit Appara- also has the ability to import songs from any audio CD using the included utili- tus, J.J. Grey and Mofro ty software. usEless triviA Michael Jackson donated his elephant, Ali, Unlike traditional audio players, eBand lets guitarists interact with their to the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens in 1997. music by changing the pitch and tempo independently, or using the advanced drive from athens 363 miles Center Cancel function to remove guitar or vocal parts. eBand comes with Something Extra CD Connection, an independent record 300 backing tracks and rhythm loops which also include pre-programmed store in Jacksonville Beach, has a vast collection of CDs, DVDs guitar effects. and vinyl, as well as t-shirts and posters (and an online store for lazy music lovers). There is also a DJ section upstairs with Not only can players jam along with eBand, they can record their musical thousands of 12-inch singles available to spin, complete with ideas as well using the included USB audio interface. 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He creates an alternate persona named Francois who is the antithesis of the nerdy Nick – in short, he is a no-rules bad ass. making sure it’s worth your $9.50 But how far is too far in trying to win the girl?

We say: Michael Cera playing an awkward, quirky guy in pursuit of a cute girl? Never seen that before – or maybe just in four or five oth- er movies. But his alter ego Francois does add something new – and something funny – to the mix. The Private Lives of Pippa Lee (OCTOBER 23) (Rebecca Miller) They say: After her much older hus- band forces a move to a suburban retirement community, Pippa Lee (Robin Wright Penn) engages in a period of reflection and finds her- self heading toward a quiet nervous breakdown. (Read: impending suicide). We say: Drama, drama, drama. Get your tissue box, or your Xanax— whichever you prefer. men who stare at goats 2012 Where the Wild Things Are (NOVEMBER 13) (Roland Emmerich) They say: The end of the world ar- (NOVEMEBER 6) (Grant Heslov) They say: Journalist Bob Wilton rives – just as the ancient Mayans predicted – in the year 2012. The (Ewan McGregor) meets Lyn Cassidy (George Clooney), who (OCTOBER16) (Spike Jonze) They say: An adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s classic children’s story, where Max (Max Records), a disobedient little Earth’s 6 billion inhabitants are left to battle it out against the apoca- claims to be a member of a secret “psychic warrior” branch of the boy sent to bed without his supper, creates his own world—a forest inhabited by ferocious wild creatures that crown Max as their leader. lyptic events that ensue. Volcanic eruptions, massive avalanches and U.S. military. Based on a story that seems too weird to be true but tidal waves tear the world apart while John Cusack’s character and his is, this dark comedy follows Wilton and Cassidy as they embark on We say: There are two directions this could go. Good—i.e. “Horton Hears a Who,” or terribly bad—i.e. “The Bridge to Terabithia.” People hoping family fight to survive. for a little nostalgia are sure to fill the theater’s seats despite the critics. an adventure and delve deeper into this secretive military unit. We say: All this world coming to a horrifying end, everyone run for their We say: This movie is prime to be a hilarious success with a cast lives business is enough to give us nightmares. This film from the di- The that includes George Clooney, Ewan McGregor and Jeff Bridges as rector of “Independence Day” will delight doomsday and action lovers Step the hippie leader of the “warrior monks.” alike. father fantastic mr. old (OCTOBER 16) (Nelson McCor- Fox mick) They say: Do you know dogs who your family is? Michael (NOVEMBER 25) (Wed Anderson) They Say: (NOVEMBER 25) (Walt Becker) They (Penn Badgley) returns home Based on a book by Roald Dahl, the animated Say: Robin Williams and John Tra- from military school to find his film follows sly Mr. Fox (voice of George Cloo- volta star in a comedy about two mother happily in love and liv- ney) who steals chickens from his neighbors friends whose lives are flipped up- ing with her new, skeptically and must protect his family from the men he side down after they learn they too-nice, boyfriend. stole them from. must take care of two 7-year-old

kids. We say: Your typical 1987 thriller Amelia We Say: Director Wes Anderson’s unique ad- remake. Watching Penn Badgley aptation and previous films (The Darjeeling We Say: With the generational gap all hot and bothered by his new (OCTOBER 23) (Mira Nair) They say: A look at the life of legendary American pilot Amelia Earhart, who Limited, Rushmore) point to a more mature bridged with the help of Seth Green “daddy” won’t take away from disappeared while flying over the Pacific Ocean in 1937 in an attempt to make a flight aroundthe animated adventure that will surely satisfy and Justin Long, this PG-rated film the thrill of the tell-tale story of world. an older crowd, and will go over the heads of should prove to be entertaining for falling for the wrong — possibly children who are just entertained by a talking all ages, though competition will be evil — guy. We say: Should be an appealing movie surrounding the mysterious nature of Amelia Earhart's fame. No fox. steep this holiday season.

52 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 53 Conan O’Brien’s Jay Leno’s hosting The got his own Tonight Show. show too.

But is either really showing America a good time? by DeMarco Williams

he numbers don’t lie. Last July, history. Yes, its rival, “Late Show with Jay many O’Briens, Lenos, Jimmy Fallons and “The Tonight Show with Jay David Letterman” is kicking its butt right Leno Show” in mid-September. Chelsea Handlers out there, there may Leno” earned about 4.6 million now. But no, Conan’s not losing a wink Jay staying with the network and going to “Another [magazine] is coming out next not be enough top-shelf guests to keep nightly viewers. This July, “The of sleep over any of it. Remember: the “ week.” Maybe so, still, there’s no denying viewers entertained. “There are really only TonightT Show with Conan O’Brien” got man had his own show, “Late Night with 10 o'clock has made the transition particularly the things said in the magazine about about 18 people that make a difference,” about 2.6 million visitors. There could be Conan O’Brien,” successfully run for 2,725 Leno revolutionizing broadcast television insists Leno. any number of factors as to why O’Brien’s episodes. He knows what he’s doing, easy for both of us.” are pretty darn bold. o’Brien still doesn’t seem the least bit ratings paled in comparison to Leno’s, but geeeeez. A 10 o’clock talk show is rather troubled: “I think the guest thing has sort for the sake of conserving editorial space, “Look,“ says the 46-year-old O’Brien, (Conan O'Brien) kooky, right? Can’t knock NBC for trying of been over-blown. I got terrific guests we’ll just blame it on growing pains. A new “there's no denying that the media likes whatever it can to get some revenue going. on “Late Night.” And I was farther down face in a new place. Hell, numbers like Jay’s conflict. It's a better story. But one of the while, just trading stories about guests and happy. And, you know, that's actually been Plus, as Jay points out, three episodes of the totem pole than I am now in terms would be hard for anyone to replace. things that's been really nice is that Jay and jokes and things like that. We've always kind of a Godsend.” his show cost as much as it does to blow of booking, so, I'm not worried about And it’s with that line of thinking that I have always — I mean, really going back gotten along really well, and he's been very At press time, Leno’s mug was gracing up one helicopter on the new drama the guest situation. To me, it's not about Conan O’Brien trudges on. Yes, “The to 1993, when I got started — gotten along kind to me about this whole transition. Jay the cover of Time magazine (As if Conan “Trauma.” funny he should bring up who gets a guest first; it's what you do Tonight Show” is a late-night institution really well. I just saw Jay; we did this up- staying with the network and going to 10 needed that thrown in his face!). But truth disasters. Conan O’Brien doubters feel with that guest. My chemistry with them that has matured into the third longest- front show in New York, and we hung out o'clock has made the transition particularly be told, “It’s not that big a deal,” shrugs one may be hard for the guy to avert. With might be different than other people. I running entertainment program in TV in the Town Hall Theatre at rehearsal for a easy for both of us. Because he's happy, I'm the 59-year-old Leno, who launched “The so few Brad Pitts and Tom Cruises and so don't think it’s going to be a problem.” B 54 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 55 own music that I won’t really do much other than a background additional competition from all the new <> vocal or guitar part or something,” she explains. “For the first time I <> players in the market, every media outlet has continued from pg. 40 was really a part of arranging her songs and playing some of the core continued from pg. 45 suffered a decline in its particular share of the parts, like the main guitar part on ‘The Cure’ was something that I years without stepping outside of my solitary writing process and audience,” she said. “I think radio is facing the came up with and played, whereas in the past that was something even more competition for audiences and same kind of hurdles that all legacy media are invited someone in to collaborate and so I suggested it to Tegan.” that Tegan would have taken the lead on.” advertises, radio moved into micro-niches The sisters decided to try it out on neutral territory (Tegan facing - audiences are being fragmented.” More teamwork made for a stronger arsenal of pop tunes, where listeners could choose from country An ever-growing number of content currently resides in , while Sara lives in Montreal) to compiled into one of the year’s best pop albums. Period. And, if rock or classic country instead of just a general negate any creature comforts or distractions and went with New choices now provide what academics call you want to call them out on being a pop band, really, that’s ok station. gratification opportunities (to consume Orleans. The aim was to keep the sessions as stripped down as with them. Not only is the content of current radio possible, meaning no overdubs, and the songs would be fully media where and when you want), according “More and more, I don’t care what people call us. I like pop different than when it began, but so is the to Hollifield. Traditionally, radio has always written from scratch, no prewritten sketches allowed, in order for music. I like making pop music. Pop music can be Kelly Clarkson. It business model. the sessions to be fully collaborative. been a much more mobile media, but now can also be The-Dream. It can be Grizzly Bear if that’s what turns “When radio was first started it was an ipods and other forms of technology provide The seven songs written in New Orleans helped to complete the your crank,” she illustrates. “I think whatever has a strong melody intensely local media before regulation really package of 50 demo songs that were handed over to Chris Walla, more mobile music. and resonates with a lot of people, that to me is pop music.” came on board,” Hollifield said. Regulation She said people’s patterns of media who also co-produced 2007’s The Con and is most well-known as a Creating music that resonates with as many people as possible, brought order to what was chaos resulting guitarist for fellow relationship dissectors . consumption appear to be undergoing some Sara says, is one of her goals. Recalling powerful childhood experi- from overcrowded airwaves. According to changes, but not as much as some people Although the New Orleans sessions turned out too incompatible ences at concerts by Bruce Springsteen and Depeche Mode where Hollifield, radio began to expand and changed from the rest of the material that would become Sainthood, during think. The difference between radio and other the electricity generated by hearing tens of thousands of people from a local model to a new layout with radio media is that radio’s market share compared recording sessions in L.A. Tegan and Sara continued to write singing along together left all the hair on her arms standing on end, networks providing national programming to together, albeit in a more natural way. Of Sainthood’s 13 tracks, two to other media has dropped significantly, and Sara fully admits that she wants to experience that feeling from the local affiliates. Eventually the Federal Radio radio’s advertising share nationally has been co-writes made the cut, as did three songs co-written by Tegan with stage. Commission was created to control and AFI’s Hunter Burgan. surpassed by online sales. “Who the fuck doesn’t want 75,000 people to sing along to the regulate commercial radio, which was replaced “The radio industry is really struggling But the collaboration didn’t just end there. On Walla’s sugges- chorus of their song? Who doesn’t want that?” she asks. “Sometimes by the FCC in 1934. tion, Sainthood was recorded live in the studio. The assembled band financially. The revenue is dropping at a really when I’m writing music, I’m not necessarily thinking about what Hollifield said one of the biggest rapid rate and no industry can sustain that for featured Tegan and Sara on vocals, guitars and keyboards, Walla on will be popular or what the audience will like, but there’s definitely changes in radio came at the hands of the bass, Death Cab’s Jason McGerr on drums, and longtime touring long,” Hollifield said. Given the incredible a part of me that’s like ‘Would 70,000 people sing along to this Telecommunications Act of 1996. “While financial challenges that radio faces right member Edward “Ted” Gowans also on guitar and keyboards. The chorus?’” it was ostensibly designed to allow for group, Sara says, would play songs multiple times back to back, now, the Performance Rights Act could be After a few shows in October gracing stages in New York and competition for telephone and cable, it had dangerous for the industry. Hollifield said she record the performances, and then critique what they heard. L.A, a full U.S. tour looms ahead in February. Although Tegan and the most impact on the radio industry,” she “I really enjoyed it and it made me feel, ultimately, more attached could not take a stance on the proposed act Sara may not be playing stadiums and arenas just yet, this act of said. One provision in the act lifted a previous without more information. to what Tegan was doing because sometimes she’ll be so into her B sainthood will only take them closer. ownership cap on the number of stations Hollifield said executives constantly look companies could own nationally. One of for new business models like all competing the major and most immediate impacts was media, but is not sure what the future holds. to set off an incredible wave of mergers and She said despite what happens with the acquisitions that resulted in radio industry Performance Rights Act, major markets will becoming one of the most consolidated be around for a while, but where stations have industries in the country. While many people been and will be most vulnerable are local, were worried that radio would be controlled small markets. by these companies, Hollifield said the The fact is, radio is tightly woven into the consolidations were “the saving grace of radios lives of Americans. Although it may be fading, because in 1996 a large percentage of stations the love affair with radio is forever etched in were in financial trouble.” Once again radio American culture from Eric Carmen singing prevailed and the industry was really strong in “Turn The Radio Up,” to Kenny Chesney’s the 1990s and in the early part of this decade. “Road And The Radio” pairing to Regina Now, she says radio is facing financial Spektor hearing Guns-n-Roses “On the challenges again, and some blame it on Radio.” Just as Corgan testified that radio a host of emerging technologies. While broadcasts cultivated his musical life, all types technological advances in the early history of of people throughout the country have an radio like moving from AM to FM improved appreciation for the medium. the industry in the late 1930s, technological While the death of radio has been advances in this century have proven to be predicted many times before and some say the less beneficial. The Internet, ipods, music current tech-savvy culture renders the medium downloads and satellite radio provide music archaic, it has survived and still offers a much- lovers more options — some say better options. needed service to music lovers throughout With the launch of satellite radio, terrestrial the country. As the debate continues over radio proved it still had more fight. Using its whether or not it’s fair to offer that service local appeal and touting its free broadcasts, without paying performers, the question it has been able to fend off threats. While remains if many stations will prevail over many terrestrial station managers, including dwindling revenue income and this possible both Steele and Kidd, say satellite radio has new legislation. And if it does prevail, will it not really had a major impact, Hollifield said be the same radio loyal listeners are used to, it would be hard to argue that radio has not or could this be another opportunity for radio lost audience. to adapt to the perpetually changing world of “If you look across all media, with the music? B

<> continued from pg. 48 do this right now and it just worked. I like the way they were working toward what they were doing.” “It’s been really great getting to know everyone on the label and getting to know and work with Mike,” said Joel Lopez of Forever. “Recently, we got to hang out with him again at AthFest 2009 which ended up being such a good time. The label showcase we played was well attended, air conditioned and ended up being a really great time. We got to see Tunabunny who were radical and ended up putting us up for the night in their big beautiful house just outside of Athens. I read some good material in their bathroom. We’re also stoked about our friends Sourpatch who will be putting out a release on HHBTM. Stay tuned, it’s gonna rule.” Connections. Bands helping bands. See, it’s working. — “This is where I find myself to be more of a chump than a record mogul,” Turner said with a grin. “I’ve got this band called Lovely Eggs coming over from the UK, and I think, 'You know what, I’ll make them a bunch of buttons and I’ll mail them to them so when they start their tour, they’ll have this bag of buttons.' Then they say ‘Hey can you silkscreen some shirts for us?’ OK, I guess I can, when you get to Athens you can pick them up. I find myself making T-shirts, posters — it’s a nonstop thing to where I’m sure no one in Matador or Merge are in the little details of things.” The little details. Whether it’s sleeves made of fun foam (Red Pony Clock), a coloring book based on song lyrics (63 Crayons), or a specially-designed reference dictionary (Patience Please), the individuality of the label is what keeps Turner’s business going. Moving past the 10-year mark, Turner has designs for another 10 years, and has ideas of how to achieve that. One way is to get more bands on tour — with booking agents. Right longtime HHBTM band Casper & the Cookies has an agent (although Marshmallow Coast is close to having one as well), but a band such as Cars Can Be Blue with a booking agent would break new territory (“they would stay on the road – all year long. I wish I could get them on a Warped tour because I know the people who would really dig what they do are probably a bunch of 14 and 15 year old kids,” Turner said). Another aspect to continued success is having bands in constant “go mode.” “I would love to see bands be able to get out and create a fan base or meet their fan base or discover that fan base and keep the records in print,” Turner said. But while Turner would like bands to take more control over their destiny, he knows part of his destiny is helping them achieve that goal. For Turner, continuing to be a “record mogul” is staying connected with the people you work with, and the music you love, because it makes you a part of something bigger than yourself. “The beginning of the label was very much me being hands on in an arts and crafts background of making sleeves and hand-doing stuff,” he said. A“ nd then it led to manufactured goods, where everything was done at a processing plant and there was shrink wrap around everything. But in the last year it’s changed. I looked at the amount of records we’ve done, and I love these records, but I’m completely detached from some of them. Sure I put them out, photography I was involved with the distribution or manufacturing end, but I’m not attached to them in that I actually had a hand in helping them www.alexgibbsphotos.com more than just getting them to the store. So I sat down and said ‘what part of the label did I enjoy?’ And it instantly became I enjoy [email protected] doing the handmade end. It’s where I want to be.” B 404.310.5039 concert shots concert shots

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The Felice Brothers @ 40 Watt (Laurie Moot) Still Flyin’ @ 40 Watt (Alyssa De Hayes) Crowd Shot, Baller’s Ball @ Athens Arena (Wes Elkin) Greg Holden The Felice Brothers @ 40 Watt (Laurie Moot) Tom Goss @ Little Kings Shuffle Club (Wes Elkin) The Lovely Feathers @ Tasty World Uptown (Alyssa De @ Melting Point (Stefan Eberhard) Greg Holden @ Melting Point (Stefan Eberhard) Timi Conley @ New Earth Music Hall (Daniel Peiken) Leon Russell @ Melt- Hayes) Sister Hazel @ The Classic Center (Wes Elkin) Workhorses of the Entertainment & Recreational Industry @ 40 Watt (McGinnis Leathers) The Dirk ing Point (Daniel Peiken) Prefuse 73 @ New Earth Music Hall (Wes Elkin) The Rural Alberta Advantage @ Tasty World Uptown (Alyssa De Hayes) Howell Band @ Ashford Manor (Daniel Peiken) Sister Hazel @ Classic Center (Wes Elkin) 60 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 61 concert shots concert shots

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Amon Tobin @ New Earth Music Hall (Wes Elkin) Pretty Lights (Baller’s Ball) @ New Earth Music Hall (Wes Elkin) Still Small Voice & The Joyful Noise @ 40 T8RTOT @ New Earth Music Hall (Wes Elkin) The Black Hollies @ Caledonia Lounge (Alyssa De Hayes) Missing Cats featuring JoJo Hermann (Widespread Pan- Watt (Daniel Peiken) Keegan Kell painting during Pretty Lights @ New Earth Music Hall (Wes Elkin) Corey Smith @ Classic Center (Wes Elkin) Constellations ic) @ Melting Point (Alex Gibbs) Missing Cats featuring JoJo Hermann (Widespread Panic) @ Melting Point (Alex Gibbs) Ingrid Michaelson @ Melting Point (Wes @ Tasty World Uptown (Daniel Peiken) Elkin) Ingrid Michaelson @ Melting Point (Wes Elkin)

62 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 63 worth a thousand... A look inside the Georgia Theatre, September 2009. Photo: Justin Evans. Ad Name: Bud LightGolden Wheat Closing Date: 10.8.9 Trim: 8.375 x 10.875 Item #: PGW20099668 QC: RR Bleed: 8.5 x 11 Job/Order #:611111-210076 Pub: Athens Blur Live: 7.875 x 10.375