Pages tagged “the earl”

[Above: All The Saints take the stage at The Earl.]

[Above: NOBUNNY plays the second night of the Atlanta Mess-Around.] 

[Above: Baby Shakes play the first night of the Atlanta Mess-Around.]

[Above: AIDS Wolf's Chloe Lum]

[Above: Jay Reatard, shown here on the cover of his record Blood Visions, plays this Friday night at the Variety Playhouse.]

As an Atlanta native, I've celebrated a lot of Oct. 31sts here. Accordingly, I find that there are certain things I look forward to every year that say as much about the city as they do the holiday itself. Here, in order, are the top five reasons I can't wait for Halloween to hit Atlanta this year. What are yours?

Oh, Atlanta. Here, any reason serves as an excuse to throw a music festival, and any two-day event can be called a festival. In this proud tradition, The Earl will host the Atlanta Mess-Around Nov. 14 and 15. Presented by Triple D's, Rob's House Records, Douchemaster Records and Die Slaughterhaus Records, it'll showcase the best in ATL DIY, featuring performances by The Spits, Carbonas, All Night Drug Prowling Wolves, Cheap Time, Wax Museums and Gaye Blades the first night, and Gentleman Jesse & His Men, Nobunny, Hex Dispensers, Baby Shakes, Black & Whites and Lover! the second night. Whew!

“The last time we played these songs, I couldn’t grow facial hair,” bassist Jared Swilley joked as PBR cans flew over the heads of the packed house at the Earl, where he and his Black Lips bandmates reconvened as The Renegades for a somewhat-secret show last Thursday night.

It's rare for the The Earl's calendar page to sport no description whatsoever for a particular night's event. But the listing for tonight's show doesn't explain anything because, by all rights, the headlining band doesn't exist. 

"I need a good girl," go the very first words of The Black and Whites self-titled debut, "one who will not make out with her friends." It's a not-very-rock-'n'-roll sentiment from a quintessentially rock 'n' roll band, one that seems to pull equal influence from the poppiest moments of bands like Weezer and Guided by Voices and the punkiest moments of bands like the Ramones and Black Flag. Some of their songs are fast, some of them are slower. Many of them, such as "That Girl Ain't No Good," are about the ladies.

[Above: The Booze play Saturday night at The Earl.]

Atlanta's Other Sound Festival took place at WonderRoot, The Star Bar and The Earl over three days last weekend. Musicians, mostly from the ATL but some from other towns around the Southeast, played on main stages and in club corners, celebrating everything outside of the norm. Behold!

This year's Other Sound Festival takes place over three days in three venues, and promises to be an exploration of the city's truly independent music, featuring the best bands in Atlanta and beyond. Local labels, publicity firms and non-profits have their hands in the mix, including Containment Theory Records, Eskimo Kiss Records, Industrial Strength Promotions, Sopo Bicycle Co-op and more.

We've got the full schedule of events, plus a Q&A with festival organizer Kat Colohan of Containment Theory Records, to start the fest off right.

[Above: The Redcoats]

A typical Saturday night opening act at The Earl often functions as a backdrop for crowd members to consume their first rounds of PBR tallboys and greet friends, but on this night The Redcoats captured the audience in a way that many openers fail to do.

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.

[Photos: Can Can's singer and guitarist in front of their floodlights.]

On the way to the Earl on the night of the 31st, the creepy musical swells provided by Album 88's ambient show eerily coincided with the branching lightning bolts shooting, forking across the clouds above East Atlanta. Inside the venue, the pre-show scene was similar: The low lighting in the Earl's back room revealed a glowing red on the walls and a muffled flurry of browns and grays everywhere else. People traversed the wide floor, ambling back and forth like so many slowed down flashes of electricity in the sky outside.