Live Review: Atlanta Eighties Punk Reunion @ The Masquerade 10/4/08
[Above: The Swimming Pool Q's, shown here playing in downtown Atlanta in the early '80s, performed at the Masquerade Saturday night.] Full disclosure: I am not the city’s leading expert in the ways of punk. I discovered punk as a seventh grader in the early 1980s, first through new wave bands like Blondie and Devo, then later through a local Macon band called Vex. As high schoolers, my friends and I moved on to shows by local Atlanta and Athens bands, and then to records by more established national bands: Black Flag, Social Distortion, The Ramones, Dead Kennedys. And though... read more
My Night as Simon Cowell: Judging the Disc Makers Independent Music World Series
[Above: Act of Congress, one of the evening's performers.] Last month I served as a judge at the Southeast Regional Finals of Disc Makers’ Independent Music World Series, and if there’s one thing I can report to you from the trenches of Unsignedbandville, population 100 gazillion, it’s that optimism reigns supreme.... read more
Live Review: Lindsey Buckingham @ House Of Blues 10/2
Gift Of Screws is Lindsey Buckingham's second solo album in two years following a nearly 15-year gap, and he didn't shy away from showcasing the new material at the House Of Blues on Thursday night, even if most of the attendees were likely expecting his Fleetwood Mac hits (and even if many minds were perhaps preoccupied by the concurrent Cubs playoff game and VP debates, no doubt to blame for the less-than-capacity crowd). ... read more
Live Photos: Atlantis Music Conference and Festival
[Above: The Judies perform at the Star Bar Saturday 9/20.]The Atlantis Music Conference and Festival took place over four days all around Atlanta, and was a chance for musicians of every stripe to showcase their talent. We were there, and caught some of the best performances on camera. ... read more
Listen to Ezra Furman & the Harpoons' "The Stakes Are High"
Ezra Furman & The Harpoons may have been an under-the-radar act in 2007 when they dropped their unexpectedly stellar full-length debut, Banging Down The Doors, but they won't be for much longer. On their forthcoming sophomore release, Inside The Human Body, the band has found a fuller, more cohesive sound, and the 22-year-old Furman’s imaginative songwriting and penchant for poetic, narrative lyrics have grown more assured.... read more
Chicago Artists Month tackles issues that matter
[Above: Detail from "Points Of Views" exhibit at Flat Iron Building]More than 200 galleries in some 40 neighborhoods throughout the city will hosts events and display works by local artists, breaking down the barrier between the creator and creation to give insight into the inspiration behind the work, during the 13th annual Chicago Artists Month, which kicked off yesterday.... read more
Williamsburg's Barack Rock to feature Andrew Bird, Eugene Mirman, more
If American voters valued musical taste as much as political prestige, Barack Obama would win a landslide presidential victory this November. On that note, Andrew Bird, The Fiery Furnaces, Guster and others (including some "special secret musical guests") will play at the Barack Rock fundraiser tomorrow at Brooklyn's Music Hall of Williamsburg to help Obama and VP nominee Joe Biden on their way to the White House.... read more
Live Review: The Stills @ The Music Hall of Williamsburg, 9/18
The Stills neither look nor play like they sound. Saturated onstage in an electronic bonfire glow, vocalists Dave Hamelin and Tim Fletcher didn't resemble the sensitive, love-lorn Canadian art school graduates they portray so well on their three studio albums. Every note they struck accompanied a natural rock god pose or back-flowing hair sweep, and despite the fragile undertones of their albums, the theatrics didn't feel insincere in the least.... read more
Live Review: Ólöf Arnalds @ Lutheran Church of the Messiah 9/16
A prominent figure in her Scandinavian music scene or a number of years, the folk singer/songwriter, guitarist and charango player (and new mother to an 8-month-old son) Ólöf Arnalds took the stage on Tuesday evening at Greenpoint's Lutheran Church of the Messiah with openers Sam Amidon and Kría Brekkan to a crowd of wide-eyed Brooklyn fans.... read more
Live Review: Mugison @ Mercury Lounge, 9/20
When Örn Elías Guðmundsson, a.k.a. Mugison, took the stage at Mercury Lounge on Saturday night, he was not, as may have been expected, covered in blood and dirt, nor was he riding a giant gray horse. No, Iceland’s alterna-rock darling du jour and Paste Best of What's Next artist was just a boyishly handsome thirtysomething in a red cowboy shirt and cuffed jeans, with a bird-crest puff of dark blond hair, clean as a whistle.... read more
Live Review: Hot Chip @ Metro 9/29
There is an inherent, if not unspoken, risk in electronic-tinged outfits performing live. On one hand, they could turn out to be soulless programming presentations; on the other, studio wizardry can fail to produce any real electricity in concert halls, and could even fail to translate at all. Thankfully, such was not the case on the second evening of Hot Chip's two-night stand at the Metro, where the band took the stage to a comfortably full room of attendees in rapt attention.... read more
Avett Brothers headline Chicago's CBGB Festival
It's not quite the resuscitation of that famous Manhattan venue, but a different CBGB is coming this fall to satisfy musical needs.... read more
T.I.: Paper Trail
Tip Harris wrote and recorded most of Paper Trail while under house arrest... read more
Live Review: My Bloody Valentine @ The Roseland Ballroom, 9/22
There's no more enjoyable way to make your ears bleed than to attend a My Bloody Valentine concert. The attendants at Midtown's Roseland Ballroom even gave nonverbal warnings as they passed out free ear plugs to the crowd that flooded the sold-out show. At 10 p.m., the Irish quartet nonchalantly walked onstage and delicately holstered their shiny, pastel Jazzmasters in front of a wall of Marshall and Vox cabinets. And then, without warning, an entire spectrum of distorted guitar and synth assaulted the venue as many learned why a group that has been absent since 1993 would be greeted back to... read more
Informer:Atlanta 9/30/08
Welcome to Informer:Atlanta! Each Tuesday, we bring you the very best in the coming week's music, film and culture events in and around Atlanta. Think we missed something? Wanna tip us off to something cool over the horizon? Let us know! All events are recommended, but italics indicate an editor's pick. (L) indicates local artists.... read more
Live Review: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds @ Riviera 9/28
Each night, Nick Cave aims to knock you on your ass, wait for you to get up, and then knock you down again. For decades now, his trademark intensity has served him well, but it's only been in recent years that he's allowed his subtle sense of humor to sneak out from under all the fire and brimstone of his live oeuvre. Backed by the ever-reliable Bad Seeds (the untamed outback equivalent of the E Street Band), Cave relished the over-the-topness of his Old Testament rants and poetic excursions at Chicago's Riviera Theatre, the first of two sold out nights... read more
Ira Glass, Paul Simon, others to host 826NYC benefit
826NYC, brainchild of McSweeny's wizard David Eggers, will be having its third annual Bookeaters benefit next month to raise money for their children's writing program. The program has attracted the likes of David Byrne, Sufjan Stevens and Feist in years past, and this year's line-up looks no less impressive.... read more
Live Review: Sufjan Stevens and St. Vincent jam out to Phil Collins, more @ BAM Takeover 2008
St. Vincent's Annie Clark modestly announced that she would be introducing new songs during her 45-minute performance at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's 2008 Takeover. It's the "right venue" to "embarrass" myself at, she quipped. Her statement didn't make much sense after rolling through an untitled track with a wicked salsa beat and "Bicycle," a lilting, melodic shuffle through ornate piano arpeggios. No, she was probably referring to her closing number, in which the Takeover curator himself, Sufjan Stevens, joined her on the melodica for a charming cover of Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight."... read more
Live Review: My Bloody Valentine @ Aragon 9/27
The warnings began months ago, with breathless hyperbole: Bring a pair of earplugs. It'll be the loudest thing you’ve ever heard. It’ll be unlike anything you’ve ever heard before. They’re like a rocket taking off. It’s like a deep tissue massage, with no touching.... read more
Decatur native leads Les Miserables cast at the Fox through Sunday
When I heard that, after 23 years, uber-producer Cameron Mackintosh had retooled his great Les Miserables (and was premiering the changes at Atlanta’s Fox Theatre), I was simultaneously excited and horrified. Of all the musicals of our generation, Les Mis is not only easily the greatest and most enduring, but also the most unlikely-- a three-hour-plus show of all original music, based on a French novel over a hundred years old and over fourteen hundred pages long, entitled (loosely translated) “The Wretched,” and which, when not concerning itself with the plight of the urban poor, dwells largely on the fundamental... read more
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