"History Remixed" brings Civil Rights legacy to the High
[Above: Detail of Builder Levy's I Am a Man/Union Justice Now, Memphis, Tennessee, 1968]In the 40th year after Martin Luther King Jr.'s death, Atlanta's High Museum of Art is paying an impressive tribute to our hometown Civil Rights legacy with "History Remixed," running now through October 5.... read more
Sugar, We're Going Down Running: Paste:Local Takes On the Nike+ Human Race
[Above: The author celebrates an unlikely accomplishment to the sweet sounds of Fall Out Boy.]On Sunday, 25 cities around the world participated in Nike+ Human Race. Billed as the “World’s Biggest One-Day Running Event,” the 10K jaunt culminated in music concerts held in each city: Chicago got locally-grown Fall Out Boy, while hometown boy Kanye West teamed up with Common in Los Angeles. Joining close to 14,000 other Chicago runners, the largest turnout of any U.S. city participating in the global run, was one of the most exhilarating and intimidating things I’ve done in a long while. For a 30-something... read more
Informer:Atlanta 9/2/08
Welcome to Informer:Atlanta! Each Tuesday, we bring you the best in upcoming 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! Italics indicate an especially recommended event, (L) indicates local artists.... read more
Nike+ Human Race takes off on Sunday, Fall Out Boy to serenade exhausted 10K-ers
On Sunday, more than 10,000 runners are expected to participate in the Nike+ Human Race Chicago, being touted as the "World's Biggest One-Day Running Event"-- and it's not too late to join them. The 10K course flanks the Field Museum campus, routes around Lakeshore Drive and culminates at Soldier Field where runners can see Chicago’s own Fall Out Boy in concert. Middle distance runner Dathan Ritzenhein will also attend the local festivities. While several cities are already sold out, Chicagoans can still register at NikePlus.com.... read more
Live Review: Mahjongg, Yea Big + Kid Static @ Schubas 8/28
Local acts Yea Big + Kid Static brought the funk and Mahjongg brought the noise to Schubas on Thursday night, but the music was put on hold while another Chicago-based act, Barack Obama, accepted the Democratic party's presidential nomination in Denver.“We'd like to thank Obama for opening for us tonight,” Stefen Robinson, aka Yea Big, humbly said a few songs into the set. Yea (pronounced "yay") Big embodies geek hip-hop: His scraggly beard and nerdy glasses are topped off with a sweatband to hold back his thick, short curly hair, while his track short-shorts and tube socks assure you this... read more
Following Paper Trail and jail time, what's next for T.I.?
T.I. has the #1 single on iTunes right now with his latest track, "Whatever You Like." The song is yet another "single" from the much-hyped and much-delayed Paper Trail, which has been pushed back once more from Sept. 9 to Sept. 30.... read more
Gallery 400 offers "A Visual Introduction to Drag City"
Only one year away from 20 in existence, local label Drag City has established itself through both the audible and visual art produced by its roster of musicians. Now through October 4, Gallery 400 hosts "Chances are the Comets in Our Future: A Visual Introduction to Drag City," featuring artwork, album covers and more from Drag City artists new (Singer), old (Gastr del Sol) and eternal (The Red Krayola).... read more
Methane Studios celebrates 10 years of gig postery at Alcove Gallery
When we swung by Alcove Contemporary Arts Gallery early last Saturday afternoon, a chocolate sheet cake from the previous evening's Methane exhibit opening party still lingered on a banquet table in the back room, giving the impression of some child's recently-abandoned birthday party. And the night before had been a birthday party, of sorts: For ten years now, Methane Studios has been gracing the telephone poles, record store windows, venue bulletin boards and-- more recently-- apartment walls of Atlanta and other lucky cities across the US with their vibrant, artful concert posters.... read more
Live Review: Janelle Monae and Gnarls Barkley @ Variety Playhouse 8/11/08
On August 11, Atlanta hosted a combo of musicians who are not only reshaping the city's increasingly diverse music scene, but dismantling preconceptions of popular music as a whole. Gnarls Barkley returned home for a sold-out crowd at Variety Playhouse and, on the eve of her national debut on Bad Boy Records (a extended version of the Metropolis: Suite I she's been selling independently), Janelle Monae teed them up.... read more
Local folks' picks for best of Decatur Book Festival
One of the crown jewels of Paste's hometown, the 2008 Decatur Book Festival, kicks off this afternoon. And, like any self-respecting lovers of beer, corn dogs, funnel cakes, live music, late-summer community gatherings-- and, oh yeah, books-- we're pretty excited about it. If you haven't looked at the schedule yet, do so-- but sit down first, 'cause it's a doozy. As you're plotting out your weekend, make time to swing by the Paste tent, where we'll be offering our Pay What You Want subscription offer to festival-goers. We're also co-sponsoring the closing night festivities, a live performance on Decatur Square... read more
Live Review: Modern Skirts, Y O U and the PleaseRock Review, Trae Vedder @ Star Bar 8/21/08
[Above: Y O U at the beach, apparently.]Trae Vedder of ATL band Death On Two Wheels perched on a stool with an acoustic guitar and an accompanying keyboardist throughout a rare unplugged set that met a full room, but not very much attention. It was too low-key for the party atmosphere that comes hand-in-hand with Pop Death Squad's free Big Trouble In Little Five Points show each month. Vedder himself was in good humor, cracking jokes and wailing out songs in his own gravelly tenor as the audience chatted inattentively and crowded the bar, preparing for the dancing they were... read more
reMIXT meshes art, music, artists, musicians and artist/musicians
A gallery show featuring music that inspired the works on display seems obvious. But actually hanging a mixtape-equipped cassette player below each piece and pasting an artsy, anything-goes playlist next to it, complete with earphones and elbow room? That's a step beyond, and it's exactly what's going down during reMIXT, which opened Saturday night at Mint Gallery.... read more
Live Review: Ezra Furman & The Harpoons @ Schubas 8/25/08
The slight, exceedingly quirky, and often rambling young frontman may have appeared awkward in-between his songs, but Ezra Furman displayed all the confidence and swagger of a pro while playing them. As the final performance of Furman and his bands' month-long Schubas residency, the show, featuring almost all new material, was sold out. Not too shabby, considering that it was a Monday night that began sparsely with opener J-Roddy Walston, who delivered a raucous and revved-up piano-driven set to, unfortunately, only a handful of people.... read more
Andre Williams learning to Deal With It at age 72
Meeting the charming, lanky and surprisingly subdued underground legend Andre Williams, one would never guess the many lifetimes he has lived. At the age of 72, he has spent a half-century making music, with some estimated 300 tracks registered to BMI. Yet, Williams' longtime struggle with drug addiction rendered him homeless in the 80s, stalled the recording of his most recent album and nearly cost him his life.... read more
Informer:Atlanta 8/26/08
Welcome to Informer:Atlanta! Each Tuesday, we bring you the best in upcoming 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! Italics indicate an especially recommended event, (L) indicates local artists.... read more
"The Adventure" leads pack of local shorts at Atlanta Underground Film Fest
[Above: Still from "The Adventure" by Mike Brune]Broad comedy and unexpected bursts of violence characterized the Atlanta Underground Film Festival's collection of local short films screened Friday at the Plaza. These are elements familiar to amateur showcases and turned up often in the nine-film program, but the screening did offer some surprises, not the least of which was its opening act, “The Adventure,” a restrained moral quest that played with its audience through a series of startling tonal shifts.... read more
Live Review: Mike Geier's Kingsized Elvis Memorial Spectacular @ Variety Playhouse 8/16/08
Mike Geier and his Kingsized Orchestra, along with the Dames Aflame burlesque dancers and El Vez (the Mexican Elvis), put on a show that kept the audience laughing and dancing at every minute-- a fitting tribute to the King on the thirty-first anniversary of his death.... read more
Deerhunter adds tour dates, Microcastle to iTunes
Poor Bradford Cox. All he wanted to do was give away some free music, as he often does via his blog, and what happens? The "Virtual 7" No.4" he intended to pass along to fans somehow morphed into the passage of his entire MediaFire account contents, including many unfinished demos and Weird Era Cont., what was supposed to be a surprise bonus disc included with the upcoming release of Microcastle.... read more
Live Review: Deerhunter @ Vacation Gallery 8/15/08
"Where's the Lil Wayne iPod?" Bradford Cox demanded. After a botched attempt at micing someone's iPhone, an MP3 player was ferried in and "A Milli" blasted from the amplifiers. "I don't write shit, cause I ain't got time," Cox growled over Weezy's trademark flow before launching into "Calvary Scars," a track from Deerhunter's upcoming LP, Microcastle.The Deerhunter before us, wedged in a kitschy little DIY gallery in Virginia Highlands, was a different beast than the one manifested on its first two albums. If this (free) live performance was any indication, Microcastle is also a departure from the status quo, gravitating... read more
Live Review: Apache, Electric Shadows @ The Earl 8/16/08
For all the buzz surrounding Atlanta’s rock scene in the wake of the Black Lips and Deerhunter, out-of-town bands on ATLien labels have garnered comparatively little attention. So it was sans fanfare that San Francisco's Apache and New York City's Electric Shadows rocked The Earl on Saturday night in support of The Hiss.... read more
The 20 Best Gadgets of the Decade…
The 17 Best Romantic Comedies This Decade
The 50 Best Albums of the Decade…
The 25 Best Movie Performances of the…
Blind Pilot - The Story I Heard
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B.O.B. - Put Me On
Gregory Alan Isakov - The Moon Song
Punch Brothers - Punch Brothers at CMJ
Anya Marina - Whatever You Like
David Bazan - Hard To Be
