Here's a quick little curiosity. Guitarists Will Hart and Andrew Rieger with violinist John Fernandes and drummer Hannah Jones performed as Vortex Of Withering; apparently this only happens once every few years. This is a brief set of free drone stuff, so don't look for pop songs here.
Maserati return, after another year off; now they've got a record almost ready for release. This show was bassist Steve Scarborough's last "for a while," as he's moving away from Athens.
Jay Gonzalez/William Tonks/Don Chambers @ Flicker 6/4/05
"Songwriter Nights" seem to be an Athens tradition. Here Jay Gonzalez (Nutria), William Tonks (Barbara Cue) and Don Chambers (GOAT) help each other out on stripped-down versions of their bands' songs and some fun covers.
63 Crayons are another band that I have a hard time describing (again, Rolling Stone will never call me to write about music), but as a quick attempt, I'll say frantic arrangements, punk-informed vocals, with just enough pop.
Harvey Milk - "Anthem"/Harvey Milk @ The EARL 7/29/05
The legendary Henry Owings and his staff at Chunklet have just released "Anthem", a 3.5 hour Harvey Milk live documentary (check out the trailer above), covering the band's lifespan with tracks from several Athens/Atlanta venues. I'm proud to have a few tracks I recorded from the 2005 reunion shows included, and also grateful to have a chance to see more of what these guys are about, as I missed out on them in their heyday.
Screenings are scheduled for this week if you're in Georgia, tomorrow (8/22) at the 40 Watt in Athens, and Wednesday (8/23) at The EARL in Atlanta. Go check it out with a full-on PA system, and pick up a copy (it has fantastic packaging and a bonus 3" CD with 4 live tracks never recorded in a studio). If you can't make it, head over to Chunklet and BUY IT NOW (there's also a collector's edition). This is the hard sell folks, 'cause I'm excited about this release.
Today we have a recording from those reunion shows last year, to prime you for the DVD as well as a handful of upcoming shows in October.
Former Audition With Max Reinhardt leader Sanni Baumgärtner has been splitting her time between Berlin and Athens, starting the trans-Atlantic supergroup Panda. Members of Hope For Agoldensummer, The Good Ship, Ave Nada and former Auditioners back up these sung-mostly-in-German pop songs.
Circulatory System has long been working on a second album. This performance at Popfest presumably features songs from that release, which at last word is due out Spring 2007.
Team Clermont's Summer Festival also brought Iron Hero back to the 40 Watt. As usual I'm not great with the descriptions, so I'll use the band's own blurb: "shoegaze for joggers." The album Safe As Houses has been getting good reviews, and after this show I'm looking to pick it up myself.
[I don't intend this to be an exclusively-E6 blog (Optical Atlas does a great job at that), there's just been a lot of activity lately from the associated bands. There's other stuff coming soon as always for the non-E6 crowd.]
Team Clermont held their 9th annual Blue Ribbon Ball with Elf Power as the "prom band." After a set of original tunes and a break for some DJ action, they dug into a bunch of great covers (and a couple of terrible ones) along the lines of what you might have heard at a late-80's/early 90's prom. If your prom had been really hip.
The Late B.P. Helium @ The Secret Squirrel 7/22/06
This show was notable for the presence of Producto's Frank McDonnell, sharing lead guitar duties with B.P., in addition to featuring regular cast members Neil Golden and Aaron Wegelin (both former Elf Power members). Not to mention a sit-in from Doug Gillard, late of Guided By Voices.
