New Jamz, New Year

Happy New Year to ya'!

I don't know about you, but I'm pretty fired up about 2009. Despite all the horrible stories you hear on the network news, I'm relentlessly optimistic about the upcoming year. I hope you are too, but if your outlook is slightly more grim than mine there is no better escapism than music. I say keep the positive vibes flowing by taking a look and listen at some new music. Is it possible to listen at music? I don't know, but here's what we've listened to since the last time:

Kuroma - Paris

Cinemechanica - Rivals
Heartless Bastards - All This Time and Stairs and Elevators
Deerhoof - Green Cosmos, Reveille and Milk Man
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever To Tell and Show Your Bones
Deerhunter - Weird Era Cont.
TV On the Radio - Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes
Ween - Live in Chicago
Sleepy Horses - The Golden Light EP
Russian Spy Camera - Mutiny In The Kitchen With Knives
Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?
Elf Power - Back to the Web
Battles - EP C
Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank
Outkast - Stankonia
MEW - And The Glass Handed Kites
Tokyo Police Club - A Lesson in Crime
UGK - Underground Kingz
Peter, Bjorn and John - Writer's Block
Black Lips - Los Valientes del Mundo Nuevo
A Tribe Called Quest - The Low End Theory
Jethro Tull - Extended Versions
Jay Reatard - Blood Visions
Arizona - Fameseeker and the Mono, The Sun and the Room EP
and most importantly,
Slaughter - Stick It To Ya'
and
Space Jam - Music From and Inspired By The Motion Picture

A handful of live comedy discs:
Mitch Hedberg - Do You Believe In Gosh?
Patton Oswalt - Werewolves and Lollipops, Feeling Kinda' Patton
Jim Gaffigan - Beyond The Pale
Todd Barry - From Heaven
Michael Ian Black - I Am A Wonderful Man

A few bits of vinyl:
Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes, Sun Giant EP
Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers - Damn The Torpedos
Fonzi Thornton - Pumpin'
Blue Swede - Hooked On A Feelin'
Lionel Hampton - Soft Vibes Soaring Strings
Ashley Tappen - Plays A Hammond Organ Tribute to Ken Griffin
Bettye Lavette - Tell Me A Lie
Frankie Miller - Dancing In The Rain
Skip Castro - Fast Break
Loverboy - Loverboy
Pat Boone - The Favorite Hymns of Pat Boone
Patrick Juvet - Got A Feeling
Hooters - Nervous Night
Jacki Sorenson - Jackie Sorenson's Aerobic Dancing Encore
(The VHS tape cover picture is all I could find...)
John Davidson - Touch Me
Outlaws - Playin' To Win
Thumbs McDuff and The Boston Baked Beans - The Not-So-Gay 90's
Children of the King - Singin A Song: A Sing-Along for Kids-By Kids
(I really wish I could find this artwork because I'm pretty sure that the cover and group name is the inspiration for Children of the Corn. Sorry it's just too old.)
Firefall - Break of Dawn
Kim Carnes - Voyeur
Brown Bannister - Talk To One Another
Glen Campbell - Bloodline
Mike Douglas - My Kind of Christmas
The Watkinses - Introducing The Watkinses
(I'm pretty sure this is Johnny 5's family band from when he was a youngster before he joined Dead Confederate. Once again, the artwork is impossible to find.)
Marching Band '88 - Exciting New Music

Most of these were Christmas gifts, especially the vinyl. Thanks a ton to Vaughan, Brantley, Mary Katherine, my bro John, my bro Andy, J.J. and others for a great Christmas. J.J. feel free to chime in with anything I missed.

Select a few to seek out and listen to if you please, but be warned: most of that vinyl came from J.J. and is some silly shit. There's some really funny stuff in there that's hard to find. Be sure to check out the links for either a local band/friends of ours, or the funniest album artwork/band name you've ever seen. But as always, there's some good and bad. I wish everyone the best in the year 2009 and I sincerely thank everyone for reading and supporting our bands and Athens music.

Flagpole Writer's 2008 Picks and Reader's Survey

Hey everybody, check out the Flagpole's year-end lists for best local albums of 2008 as chosen by the writers, best musical moments of the year and best local albums according to the readers, and a few other lists here, here and here.

In the "Best Local Albums" category, it's no surprise that Dead Confederate sits atop the list with Wrecking Ball. Also making the list are The Whigs with Mission Control at six and Twin Tigers' Curious Faces/Violet Future at number seven. Some other pals got honorable mention, but take the time read the whole page because it also has a comprehensive list of pretty much every local release of the year, give or take a few. That should help you round out your collection...

Check out the year-end reader's survey to read some comments about what the citizens thought were the "Best Musical Moments of 2008". Comments from the Athens townfolk mentioned great shows from Bambara, Dead Confederate, Gift Horse, Pegasuses-XL, Kuroma and a lot of other bands from the list over there <---.

December 29, 2008-January 4, 2009

Monday, December 29:

The Dumps, Pride Parade, Garbage Island, Rock Star Canyon.

40 Watt. 8:30 p.m. $5. http://www.40watt.com/.

Tuesday, December 30:

Of Montreal, The Gerbils.

40 Watt. 9 p.m. $15 advance. http://www.40watt.com/.

The Whigs, Band Of Horses.

Variety Playhouse (ATL) 9 p.m. $25. http://www.variety-playhouse.com/.

Black Lips.

Club 529 (ATL) 10 p.m. FREE.

(Is this right? This was listed last week too...)

Wednesday, Demeber 31, 2008:

Of Montreal, Brave New Citizen.

40 Watt. SOLD OUT.

Five Eight, Vigilantes Of Love, Young Antiques.

Tasty World. 10 p.m. http://www.tastyworld.net/.

The Whigs, Band Of Horses.

Variety Playhouse (ATL) 10 p.m. $30. http://www.variety-playhouse.com/.

(Marc Mauldin, lighting director for Dead Confederate, is doing lights for The Whigs tonight so you know that's going to look bad ass...)

Modern Skirts, Cracker.

Hyatt Regency Atlanta (ATL) $8:30 p.m. $129.

($129? Apparently you have to get a room for the night to see this show...)

The N.E.C., Gringo Starr, Abby Go Go, Anna Kramer.

Star Bar (ATL) 9 p.m. http://www.starbar.net/.

Thursday, January 1, 2009:

Dexter Romwebber Duo.

Tasty World. 10 p.m. $5. http://www.tastyworld.net/.

Friday, January 2:

Hope For Agoldensummer.

Flicker. 9 p.m. $5. www.myspace.com/flickerbar.

Saturday, January 3:

Divided Like A Saint's, Byron House, Small Pox, Halves and Thirds, Pretzel Logic. Eyedrum Art and Music Gallery (ATL) 9 p.m. $6.

Top Five Music Videos of 2008

Merry Christmas!

Isn't the internet great? When the people largely responsible for creating the music video concept and broadcasting it worldwide decided to "stop being polite and start getting real" the music video had to go somewhere, and here it is.

As my Christmas gift to you here's my top 5 music videos of the year, in reverse order.

Number 5 was created by Atlanta artist/musician Adam Bruneau for the Deerhunter song Microcastle. This is simple and beautiful, please enjoy:


#5 Deerhunter, Microcastle

The last time I saw The Buddy System live it was a while ago and they were plagued by a variety of technical issues. I think they were opening for A.Armada at the 40 Watt for the Anam Cara release party. The Buddy System rely very heavily on the visual components of their show, and that night they were having some problems with it. But when stuff like that happens to a band you just have to overlook it and give them the benefit of the doubt. Their last song, Return to Horse Mountain, rectified any set problems they had:


#4 The Buddy System, Return To Horse Mountain

On November 20th Radiohead released the video for the song Weird Fishes, created by fan/artist Tobias Stretch. It's easy to gush about Radiohead, but it's amazing that a band as big and as unbelievably grand as they are can still be as fan-oriented as they have been with In Rainbows. They really just defined how you are supposed to release an album and stay ahead of industry curves and such. Tobias Stretch was one of the 4 winners of the Aniboom Animated Music Video Contest, and the animation is pretty out of sight and creepy. The videos from the other 3 winners are great too. Most important band you can hear and see live right now? I think so. It's hard to argue against it. Nightmares ahead:


#3 Radiohead, Weird Fishes

This video for Toe Jam by The BPA featuring David Byrne and Dizzee Rascal could possibly be one of the most memorable music videos of all time. The BPA (Brighton Port Authority) is Norman Cook, better known as Fatboy Slim (who always has great videos). Directed by Keith Schofield at Streetgang Films:


#2 The BPA featuring David Byrne and Dizzee Rascal, Toe Jam

And last but most certainly not least, you can always count on Björk for great videos too. Here's the beautiful video for Wanderlust, created by Encyclopedia Pictura and choreographed by Chris Elam. My video of the year was much-hyped and I think it showed up big time:


#1 Björk, Wanderlust

Countdown to Christmas Eve

Well, we made it! The last Christmas shopping day of the year is here, and this is your last chance to give the gift of music. We hope everyone has a great holiday. 

Z is for: Zapp & Roger, All The Greatest Hits (Warner Brothers UK, 1993)

Since J.J. has given Zapp some recent love I figured I would too. Nothing says Christmas like the heart-warming story of Zapp and the five Troutman brothers. 

On April 25, 1999, Larry Troutman shot his younger brother and band leader Roger (pictured) 4 times in an alley behind their Dayton, Ohio studio, killing him because of a money dispute. Then he shot and killed himself. Merry Christmas!

With Kanye using the auto-tuner/Vocoder/talk-box thingie on every track now, everyone thinks he's a dance pioneer or something. But not so fast. Lowrider-driving Cholos and I know that Zapp did it first and better. 

Dig on Computer Love, which is on this greatest hits along with More Bounce To The Ounce and Dance Floor:

Personally, If I'm gonna listen to someone sing through and auto-tuner I prefer Velveteen Pink, who absolutely nailed it in a funky ass set a couple of weeks ago at 283 Bar.

Merry Christmas errbody! If you need some more gift ideas, recap the entire Countdown To Christmas Eve by clicking on the label down below titled "Countdown To Christmas Eve." Thanks for reading.