John Cougar TrainingCamp in "Rough Draft"

The following is from an interview between Jason Scarboro (Dead Confederate) and Rough Draft's Allegra:

John Cougar Trainingcamp…Where Only The Strong Survive
By Allegra

If you’re all up in the Athens concert scene (that includes more than just Georgia Theatre, trustafarians), you might have noticed that 40 Watt will soon be hosting John Cougar Trainingcamp. If your reaction was anything like mine, you did a double take…and then spent the next few hours (or longer- I’m going on 3 weeks) thoroughly entertained by the name.
…

Jason Scarboro, the founder of John Cougar Trainingcamp and drummer for Dead
Confederate, was kind enough to answer some of our more pressing questions
about the upcoming show:

Rough Draft: First of all, how the hell did you come up with the idea of John Cougar Trainingcamp?
Jason Scarboro: Well I have always loved basically stoner metal, and also liked the bigness of bands with multiple drummers. So when we had a little down time from Dead Confederate, I asked a handful of friends if they'd be willing to put together this set, and lucky for me they said yes.

RD: Are you a fan of the real John Cougar, or was it just a badass name?
JS: Definitely just a bad ass name.

RD: Does the Trainingcamp have rigorous, early morning calisthenics?
JS: Of course we do! Two joints and a jog. What kind of dog and pony show you think I’m running here?

RD: Are there any artists/genres that you guys have a special affinity for?
JS: I'd have to say for me personally, the bands that inspired me to want to do this were obviously the Melvins, Sleep, Black Sabbath, Acid King, you know, the good shit. Anything really sludgy, with just a really badass riff steals my heart.

RD: Have practices been chaotic?
JS: Yeah, it's been pretty intense. The guys of Blue Flashing Light were kind enough to allow us to use their space at Pigpen, filling it with the three drum sets and all the other amps and things. And anytime you have that many musicians playing together, parts have to be kind of ironed out. I'm still humbled and very
thankful that my friends were even willing to try something like this with me.

RD: If the Trainingcamp were America's Next Top Model, would you be Tyra?
JS: I was thinking Randy Jackson. We both wear glasses.


John Cougar Trainingcamp makes its debut Thursday, February 12th at 40 Watt,
doors at 9 PM, $7 (18+) $5 (21+). I can’t think of any reason why you wouldn’t
want to go to this show…it’s got everything. As an added incentive, if you can
find me at the show and tell me John Cougar Mellencamp’s life history, I’ll buy
you a drink. This does not apply to my coworkers.

For more of the interview (which is off to a smashing start) pick up this weeks copy of Rough Draft. I believe it came out today, but I'm not sure. You can pick it up just about anywhere downtown, but here's a few specific paper bins:

Amici's, Mellow Mushroom/Doc Chey's, Pita Pit, Broad St. Bar & Grill, ERC, Walker's, The Grill, Sandbar, Lansdowne, Boar's Head, Wild Wing, Copper Creek, Smoker's Lounge, Clocked, Gameday Pub, GA Bar, Little Italy, Globe...and so on. You can also get it at a few random apartment complexes and some on-campus paper bins.

See you at the show!

Random Miscellaneous Tater Tots of Infinite Wisdom

First off, sorry again for the long hiatus from the blog. Weird times in my life right now. See the relevant posts about trees destroying me and having to move (limited Internet access!) 

Let me catch you up:

Gift Horse is almost done tracking our album and we will be mixing that sucker soon. Good God it sounds like sweet funhouse/old horror film bliss. Nate and Hank have really kicked some asses. See the relevant post a couple of clicks down the page.

The John Cougar TrainingCamp practices have been sounding thunderous. It is as if Death himself commissioned a cover band. The opening bands are now loosely confirmed and it looks like The Cubists from Augusta, GA will play first followed by The New Flesh from Baltimore, MD. We all really like these groups a whole lot and look forward to it with much pleasures in mind. (What?) So don't forget: 

whom? - John Cougar Training Camp, The New Flesh, The Cubists.

locale? - The Fabulous 40 Watt Club in Athens, GA.

whence? - Thursday, February 12, 2009.

what time? - Doors are probably at 9 p.m. I don't know...

how much $? - I don't know that either. Not much. Just come you cheap bastard.

well, what are you assholes playing? - 

1. The Most Unlucky Sound by Federation X

2. The Bloodening by Altamont

3. Indian Bones by Dead Meadow

4. Beezwax by Nirvana

5. Smoking in A Minor by Officer May

6. Greensky Greenlake by Dead Meadow

7. Holy Mountain by Sleep

8. A History of Bad Men by The Melvins

9. Rat Faced Granny by The Melvins

10. I'm Waiting For The Day by The Beach Boys

Sounds interesting to you's? See the relevant previous post and gorgeous flyer made by J.J.

Lastly speaking of JCTC, there will be an interview with Jason Scarboro (of Dead Confederate/John Cougar TrainingCamp fame) in Rough Draft sometime soon. They want to speak with him about the sickness in his mind that made him think up the TrainingCamp idea, so keep an eye out. Also pick up the current issue on news stands around Athens right now. I've got a little thingie in there that I wrote about the 5 Most Anticipated Upcoming Local Releases of 2009. I'll probably reprint it here later.

Bye!

Gift Horse Enters The Studio

That's right, Gift Horse has gone into the studio to make our debut full-length album with Hank Sullivant (Kuroma) and Nate Nelson (Nate Nelson & Cortright) on production duties. We're making the record at Nate's space on the fifth floor of the Michael Brothers building in downtown Athens (it's the one with Doc Chey's and The Mellow Mushroom on the first floor). So far we've got most of the drums tracked and reworked a few songs, and everything sounds very, very promising up to this point. In fact, the drums sound outstanding.

We've only been working for three sessions now, but we have been keeping some pretty harsh hours due to the fact that we are not the building's sole occupants. A typical night starts at 7 p.m. and ends in the wee hours when we turn to absolute mush.

One non-musical highlight that I feel like I must

mention occurred on night two, when the fire alarm mysteriously went off on the empty fourth floor below us. Luckily there was no fire, but the alarm made the building's elevator do some weird stuff. Just before the elevator froze some of the guys "mistakenly" rode it down to the 1st floor. When the door opened they found themselves in the changing room of Toppers, the local gentlemen's club. A stripper and a bouncer ever-so-politely directed them to "get the hell out of here" and they shuffled back onto the Wonka-vator which took them back to the lobby. There it froze with the door open and made a mysterious buzzing sound for hours. Luckily the late-night crew at the Mushroom let us sneak down the fire escape. Thanks fellas.

Of course we will keep you posted with all things Gift Horse, but I just want to say thank you very, very much to the following people: Hank, Nate, J.J. Bower, Matt DeCamp, Jason Scarboro and Patrick Ferguson. From what we have heard so far and based upon the way we all feel we believe that we are not creating just yet another typical album, but something very special indeed. We recognize that we would not be on our way to completion without the help of these people. Stay tuned, we'll have more pics and info on a title and release date later.

So, if you're out at 2 a.m. in downtown Athens and you hear some mysterious sounds coming from the corner of Jackson and Clayton, chances are it's a girl drunkenly smashing a beer mug into another girl's face at Flanagan's. But it may be us across the street.

Be sure to check out all of Matt's photos.

Federation X

And now a look at one of my favorite bands of all time Federation X. I'll let this band speak for themselves, copied and pasted straight from their myspace page:

"Fed X were fortunate enough to grow up in the corner of the US that birthed such punk rock acts as the Wipers, Karp, Mudhoney, Lice, Gas Huffer, Unwound, Godheadsilo, Bikini Kill, Built to Spill, The Rickets, Kicking Giant, Fitz Of Depression, Trumans Water, The Waydowns, Nirvana, Irving Klaw Trio, The Mukulteo Fairies and, perhaps most importantly, Nickleback. We started our band in a small town in the corner of this corner of the US. We thrived in a community that produced such acts as the Narrows, Candy and the Hotdice, USS Horsewhip, The Cheeps, Jayhawker, Monomen, Bar Tabac, Gus and Katie and the Mighty Ghosts of Heaven, Reeks and the Wrecks, B-18, Racetrack, Yogoman, Cicadas, BeNT, The Party Favorites, The Crying Shame, Chuckanut Drive, GNS, Sharpie, and, perhaps most notably, Korky Lenker. We left this corner often and found ourselves in no man’s land with the punk rock acts the Last of the Juanitas, Drunkhorse, 400 Blows, Fleshies, The Cherry Valence, The Whip, Stab City Slit Wrists, The Bananas, XBXRX, C Average, the Friendly Champs, Party Time, Outhud, Monotonix, Japanther, Toys That Kill, Fireballs of Freedom, Shellshag, Big Business, The Pope, Birds of Avalon, Triclops!, Comets of Fire, Juanita Family and Friends, Stars of the Dogon, Early Humans, Red Fang, Mountain High, and, who could forget, The Mooney Suzukis. We like to take this time to take this time off. Thank you. Federaton X."

Anyhow the band is great, and although I have never seen them live I have intravenously injected all three of their albums with monster truck force. Here's a video that does nothing to display their talents:


So, yep...Federation X from Bellingham, Washington (I think). Special thanks to J Scar for introducing me to these guys. Go see them when they start touring again and come through your neck.