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THESE UNITED STATES • MAD WHISKEY GRIN

• BLITZEN TRAPPER • THE DELFIELDS •
MEIKO • JANELLE MONAE • TRANCES ARC •
DODD FERRELLE • CRACKER & MORE!!!

zero 7
Acclaimed electronic
duo gets haunted on
album number four

tortoise
Inspiration be
damned — Tortoise
soldiers on

When
You’re Hot
HEART
in hand
Bradley Cooper’s
sizzling Hollywood ride

Life at
the speed
of tweet
The latest social media After an eight-year absence, an
outlet is changing the
music industry, for energized Circulatory System
better or for worse returns with a new album
venue
ventures
Four clubs lead the way
into a changing face of
Athens music spots

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 (44)
After an eight-year absence, an
energized Circulatory

Heart
System returns with a new
album.

IN Hand by Ed Morales
photos by Jason Thrasher

(40)
(48) Acclaimed electronic duo
Zero 7 gets “haunted”
The latest social
making album number

Seeing Ghosts
media outlet is
four.
changing the music
by Natalie B. David
industry, for

life
at better or for worse.
by Natalie B. David
the

speed of (42)
tweet Inspiration be damned
— Tortoise soldiers on.

Ignoring the Hare

by Matt Fink

venue Four clubs lead the

way into a changing

ventures
face of music spots

(73)
in Athens.
by Alec Wooden

(48) Bradley Cooper tries to

explain his sizzling ride
through Hollywood.
by DeMarco Williams
When
HOT...
You’re

ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 3

 music
13 COLUMNS
EDITOR’S PLAYLIST: 7
Ten Tunes Worth Noting
THE FIRST WORD: 9
A Hard Thing to Know
PARTING THOUGHTS: 78

11
Ten people you meet in Athens,Ga.

27 17 spotlights
WORTH A THOUSAND: 80
Who says you need words?

These United States

Tyrone Jackson
11
12
14
Mad Whiskey Grin 13
Blake Shelton 14
Blitzen Trapper 17
Dodd Ferrelle 18
Meiko 20
The Delfields 23
Trances Arc 24
Janelle Monae 27
ALSO:
EAR CANDY: 28
Album Reviews

23 20
THIS DAY IN MUSIC HISTORY 32
UPCOMING CD RELEASES 35
TOUR DIARY: 37

63 18
On the road with Cracker
musician’s corner

28
MUSICIAN’S GEAR GUIDE 63
Gear up for fall tours
GUEST COLUMN: 67
“Music Means Business” by Bruce Burch
Regional Report: 68

37
Birmingham, Ala.

ARTS &
ENTERTAINMENT
MOVIE PREVIEWS: Worth your money? 71
UPCOMING DVD RELEASES 75

concert shots

71 76 75
The Month in Photos 76


ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 5
 BLUR FROM THE EDITOR
DEAR READERS , The Athens Blur Magazine
I’ve got a new favorite writer these days, and it’s funny — he’s not a feature
writer for Spin, an acclaimed critic for The Guardian or a hipster blogging ma-
P.O. Box 7117
chine at Pitchfork Media. He’s the genius behind nuggets of wisdom like: Athens, Ga 30604
“I HEARD ROY CLARK SING WHEN I WAS YOUNG IT REMINDED ME THAT
I HAD ANY MORE YESTERDAYS THAN TOMORROW’S”
Main Office(706) 353-7799
or this: Sales(706) 207-9091
“EVERY BODY DESERVES A VACATION BUT IT SHOULD FROM SOME THING
I HAVE NOTHING TO VACATION FROM BUT I AM TAKING A VACATION ANY
Executive Editor
HOW.”
Alec Wooden
or my personal favorite: alec@athensblur.com
“AMERICA WOULD BE BETTER OF TODAY IF THEY HAD RETAINED THE
Director of Sales
ITALIAN WORK ETHIC GEE I’M PREACHING NOW I BETTER QUIT”
Stephen Simmons
stephen@athensblur.com
My favorite new writer is my 98-year-old great uncle, Lawrence Marro,
writing to an adoring fan base via his favorite new social medium — e-mail Account Executives
(heard of it?). Jen Allen
It strikes me how appropriate the timing of these letters, as in this issue we jen@athensblur.com
present an in-depth look at Twitter, the latest social networking craze, and its Zach Greco
effect on the music industry. zach@athensblur.com
Obviously, Uncle Lawrence’s emails aren’t related to Twitter — or music, for Adrienne Klein
that matter — but I’m still in awe of the full circle blanket of the digital age. adrienne@athensblur.com
Here is a man who has lived about 1/6th of his life in the company of the in- Cole Taylor
cole@athensblur.com
ternet, relaying stories (many 80 years old or more) to his kin, many of whom
have lived at least half (and in most cases, more) of their lives in the splendid Advertising Interns
company of instant communication. Elaine Emma Kelch
I may never have heard these stories without this phenomenon of which
Twitter is now the major player. Technological advancements that once seemed Design
so far out of reach — so futuristic — are now commonplace and, in the coolest Colin Dunlop, Lauren Mullins,
twist of all, can actually be a link to our past when used properly. Carlye Norton, Alec Wooden
But gee...I’m preaching now. I better quit.
Editorial Interns
Enjoy, Marie Baginski, Kristen Callihan, Jessica
Cole, Lauren Moot, Sarah Saltzman

Contributing Editors
Matt Conner, Jon Ross
Alec Wooden
Contributing Writers
Executive Editor
Nicole Black, Melissa Coker, Matt Conner, Amanda
Cuda, Natalie David, Matt Fink, Ed Morales, Phil
Pyle, Jon Ross, Ingrid Sibley, DeMarco Williams

editor’s playlist Contributing Photographers

old or new, the songs I can’t get enough of this month Alyssa De Hayes, Stefen Eberhard, Wes Elkin,
Justin Evans, Sandra Gallardo, Alex Gibbs, Will
“Awake” “These Are My Twisted Words” Gravlee, Daniel Peiken, Jason Thrasher
The Color Turning Radiohead

“I and Love and You” “Getting By” For general comments and inquiries:
editorial@athensblur.com
The Avett Brothers Tim Fite
For advertising opportunities:
“Pyramids” “Even The Good Wood Gone” sales@athensblur.com
The Inner Banks Why?
The Athens Blur Magazine issue 10, copyright©2009
By The Athens Blur Magazine, INC. The Athens Blur Magazine is
“Mirrors Don’t Lie But People Do” “Yer So Bad” an eight issue/year music and variety publication, proud to be
based in the “Classic City” of Athens, Ga. All rights reserved. No
The Goodfight The Flying Change part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or part in
any way by any means unless written permission is received from
the publisher. Published monthly except for each summer issue
in the United States of America and distributed free of charge
(limit one copy per reader, each subsequent copy is distributed
at a charge of $4.95). Postmaster send address changes to The
ON THE COVER: Circulatory System, photo by Jason Thrasher of Thrasher Photography. Athens Blur Magazine, P.O. Box 7117 Athens, Ga. 30604

ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 7


MUSIC
a hard thing to know
how much technology should we take with our music?
At a certain point, maybe it was just after
the first of our knuckle-dragging ancestors
began tagging the inside of the family cave,
humans started using objects to make music.
You figure we’d been singing and clapping
since the start of it all. Eventually, though,
some hairy brute wanted to clap louder than
the brute next to him, so he started banging
a pair of sticks together. Voila—instruments
and the introduction of technology into
music.
And then came Les Paul. Before he died
on August 13 at the age of 94, his sonic and
electronic curiosities brought us multi-track
recording, all sorts of effects like delay and
echo, and, of course, the solid-body electric
guitar. He played like a hummingbird —
quick, light, softly aggressive, beautiful. But
it was his behind-the-scenes tinkering for
which he’ll be best remembered. In no one
else were technology and music so thoroughly
— and productively — entwined.
It’s a hard thing to know, how much
technology to take with your music. I know
I think it’s weird to see a guy with a laptop
on stage.
I remember well the first time I saw a CD.
I was in fourth or fifth grade when my dad
came home from work with what I thought
was physical evidence of magic. The way the
disc caught the light and spun it into all
those colors; the fact that it had words on
it, music in it (opera, in this case) and still
worked as a mirror amazed me. That there
were lasers involved floored me. Dad wasn’t
as impressed. He had an enduring affection
for reel-to-reel recordings.
Now, of course, CDs are an inch away
from passé. Records are cool, tapes are funny,
eight tracks are weird and CDs, having spent
the last 20 years as the life of the party, are
standing around with a lukewarm drink and
no one to talk to.
The Beatles, or what’s left of them, are
re-packaging their music for Rock Band,
the video game. In a recent article in the
New York Times, Olivia Harrison, George’s
wife, said in playing the game, “You feel like
you’re creating music.” But you’re not, really,
are you? You’re pushing buttons when you’re
told, causing the game to play music that’s
already been created. Close, I guess.
The funny thing about Rock Band,
which is a hoot to play, is that it seems to
Ned Rauch
“Records are cool, tapes
are funny, eight tracks are
weird and CDs, having spent
the last 20 years as the life of
the party, are standing
around with a lukewarm drink
and no one to talk to.”
get in the way of what playing music, at
its core, is: a chance to do something new.
Something that no one’s ever heard before.
Even performances by the world’s best
symphonies with note-for-note loyalty to the
score are full of unique nuances. That’s why
people still go to the symphony, right? For
the chance to hear something new, however
subtle. Rock Band and Guitar Hero don’t
allow new. Of course, there’s nothing wrong
with that per se. They’re just games, after
all. But with more and more people playing
them, one wonders what the effect will be
on the number of people making their own
music. Will learning songs by playing them
part-by-part in a game lead people to pick
up real guitars? Who knows? They say the
games, by requiring players to interact with
music, give people a deeper, more thorough
understanding of the songs, and that ain’t a
bad use of technology.
BLUR THE FIRST WORD
Here’s what is bad: in the new box set of
performances from Woodstock, several of
the cuts have been re-recorded and spruced
up. In 1969, with all the rain and drugs,
Carlos Santana’s guitar was out of tune. So
the producers of the anniversary package
had him re-record some of his parts. Give
me a break. The whole Woodstock deal, what
keeps people churning out books, movies
and articles about it, is the innocence of it
all. It may have been a mess, but it was an
honest mess. Would Carlos of 1969 approve
of Carlos of 2009 fudging the record? Not
likely.
But people change. And technology
allows them to change what they did. Two
sides to that coin: one of the things that
makes music so poignant an art form is
how malleable, how whimsical and how
fleeting it is. “Our love is like our music,”
Mick Jagger sang. “It’s here and then it’s
gone.” Why not monkey with recordings
of the past? At the same time, performing
music with instruments and voices requires
a level of candor that other forms of art don’t
demand. A painter can work on a piece for
years before unveiling it. Musicians in front
of an audience have one chance to pull
off a tune. After-the-fact doctoring of the
recording undermines that inherent sense of
boldness, of risk.
There are those who say “trick photography”
is redundant. Maybe we should look at,
or listen to, recordings similarly, knowing
that even the purest field recordings are
technological distortions of what was sung,
what was played.
And then you look at Les Paul’s life and
see a guy who found his voice as much in
circuitry as he did in scales and chords. Until
this August, he was living proof that maybe
the technical side of making music is as
much an art form as strumming a guitar.
Ned P. Rauch lives in New York City and
writes for www.tendollarradioshow.com and
plays guitar in the band Frankenpine.
Got something to say about this
column? We’re all ears at
editorial@athensblur.com.
Send your thoughts, along with your
name and hometown!
ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 9
 MUSIC ALTERNATIVE
these states band together
don’t look now, but jesse elliott’s got a steady band
  For a long time, Washington,
D.C.-based outfit These
United States couldn’t really be
described as a band. Well, at least
not a proper, organized band —
not according to singer/guitarist
Jesse Elliott. For a while, he
said, he saw the group more
as a “musical project,” a sort of
informal experiment that he was
at the center of, with “members”
rotating in and out.
But that changed as Elliott
began teaming with fellow
musicians Robby Cosenza, J.
Tom Hnatow, Justin Craig
and Colin Kellogg on a fairly
regular basis. Eventually,
their collaboration went from
“project” to something a bit
more formal, and Elliott could
no longer escape using the “B”
word to describe it.
“As other people have begun to THESE UNITED
have a more constant impact on STATES
both what I write and what the
people we’re playing for hear, it’s
WHO’S WHO COURTESY force field PR
become more of a proper band,” Jesse Elliott (vocals,
Elliott says of These United acoustic guitar, songs),
States’ evolution.  “A band is a
“A band is a hard thing to describe. It’s four fingers
Robby Cosenza (drums,
very specific thing.  It’s a very harmonica, vocals), and a thumb, opposed, which doesn’t make any
strange beast. It’s five headed J. Tom Hnatow (pedal sense, but has got us this far through history against
in our case, or however-many- steel, electric guitars), adversity.”
headed in other cases.  A band is Justin Craig (electric gui-
a hard thing to describe.  It’s four tars, vocals) Colin Kellogg
fingers and a thumb, opposed, (bass, vocals) — Jesse Elliott, These United States —
which doesn’t make any sense,
FORMED Elliott is passionate about — explains it’s worthwhile. “I just
but has got us this far through Washington D.C.
history against adversity, hasn’t though, early in his career, Elliott let it latch on, take over, head
it?” hated performing. Eventually, along for the ride, hope I don’t
LABEL he overcame that displeasure lose my breath often enough
That somewhat labyrinthine United Interests
description aside, Elliott’s because of his intense love for that anyone notices,” he says.
project is quickly making itself LATEST RELEASE creating music, pointing out Letting his love for music
known as a musical force to Everything Touches Every- “there’s not a lot of ways to latch onto him has worked out
be reckoned with. This month, thing (2009) make a living making music for Elliott, as has adopting a
These United States will release without performing.  Well, there more conventional band format.
Everything Touches Everything, ON THE WEB probably are, but I’m not smart He says that, though he and his
www.unitedinterests.com enough with music to know band mates have artists they
its third album in only 18
months. The group’s previous what they are.” admire, their biggest inspiration
two albums, A Picture of the Three Facebook page) “Really Really Elliott calls the drive to create comes from each other, and from
of Us at the Gate to the Garden of Beautiful Inspirational Music music “a bug that bites you at their mutual love of their art.
Eden and Crimes, were critically That Is Awesome to You.” some point. It’s something that “We talk about other musical
well-received, and Everything Indeed, Elliott himself seems you can’t ignore. It’s something acts, all of us, just because that’s
has already garnered a positive hard-pressed to pin down the inside all of us — you know, the language we have in common,
buzz in the months before its band’s sound. When asked if the humming in the shower.  I don’t that translates across place and
release. music fits into a particular genre, know what makes it latch on to time,” Elliott says. “But it’s the
The band’s musical style is he replies, “yes: songs.” some people’s brains just a little people we’re with every day who
hard to define, and has been Whatever name you apply to bit harder than others.” bend our brains the furthest.”
described as psych-folk, rock, the music, his work with These Though giving into the bug
punk and (on the band’s own United States is something “isn’t always pleasant,” Elliott — Amanda Cuda

ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 11


MUSIC BLUES & JAZZ
Fostering a jazz community
Pianist assembles local cast of musicians for sophomore effort
For amateur musicians,
jazz jam sessions give the best
chance to perform standards
alongside seasoned players.
Pianist Tyrone Jackson, a New
Orleans native who has lived
and gigged professionally in
Atlanta since 1997, sees these
weekly gatherings as networking
parties. Alongside the members
of the Joe Gransden Quartet,
he performs in the jam session
house band at Twain’s Billiards
& Tap in Decatur every Tuesday.
Through this event, the pianist
routinely mixes with a few new
people and sees a lot of old
friends.
The artists on Jackson’s
sophomore album, Another
Voyage, were culled from these
relationships. Gransden was
already on hand to play trumpet,
and Kennesaw State University
music professor Sam Skelton
had previously performed with
Jackson. In total, six of the seven
musicians on Another Voyage call
Atlanta their home. “To have
those kind of guys on a project
was really important,” Jackson
says adding that recording with
artists he has known for years
means he can arrange tunes with
specific players in mind.
Jackson illustrates his
versatility on the album by
configuring the local musicians
into three distinct ensembles.
Sensitive ballads are presented
in an intimate trio format, while
trumpet and saxophone are added
for more lively arrangements.
Jackson’s accompaniment of
singers Laura Coyle and Kemba
Cofield is soft but forceful in its
support. “Being a piano player,
you find yourself in a lot of
different scenarios,” Jackson says.
“I could have done just a trio
CD, but I love playing with a
quintet; I love playing with horn
players and writing for them.”
Another Voyage captures
Jackson at a specific point in his
career, playing a specific style
of music. Like his first release,
Dedicated, the new CD is simply
part of a progression. Jackson
12 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE
COURTESY tyrone jackson
TYRONE
JACKSON
WHO’S WHO
Tyrone Jackson (piano)
FORMED
1989 in New Orleans, La.
LABEL
HotShoe Records
LATEST RELEASE
Another Voyage (2009)
ON THE WEB
www.tyronejackson.com
is growing as a musician on his
records, which, he says, is not
necessarily a bad thing. “We’re
supposed to get better anyway,
so why not document that with a
CD?” he says. “There’s definitely
evolution in my playing. My
playing on Dedicated is good,
but in the four years it took me
to do this one, my playing has
definitely gotten a lot better.”  
Jackson came to jazz piano
in college. He had been
“When I lived in New Orleans, the attraction
was that you could find great music there. I
don’t know if people really think they can hear
great jazz in Atlanta.”
— Tyrone Jackson —
surrounded by a rich mixture of
jazz and soul food from birth,
but only started studying the
music seriously when he met
the pianist Ellis Marsalis, a
professor at the University of
New Orleans. After he enrolled
as a student and started private
lessons, Jackson found playing
opportunities around town and
began branching out musically.
“There are a lot of musicians who
are specialists in Atlanta, where
they only play jazz. Within that
framework, they only play a
specific type of jazz,” Jackson
says. “There’s some people in
New Orleans that if they tried
to be a specialist, they wouldn’t
survive.”
This on-the-job experience
proved invaluable for Jackson,
who now makes his living
performing at clubs and
restaurants throughout Atlanta
and as a church pianist. Of
course, the ever-shrinking club
scene means that jazz isn’t as
present as it was when he moved
here a decade ago. But the
pianist is convinced that, with a
little help, Atlanta can be known
as a jazz town.  they were first introduced,
“When I lived in New
Orleans, the attraction was that
you could find great music there.
I don’t know if people really
think they can hear great jazz
in Atlanta,” he says. “The rap
scene and the hip-hop scene is
thriving here. If people knew we
had a thriving jazz community
of musicians, I think they would
come check it out.”
 
— Jon Ross
MUSIC BLUES & JAZZ
Grinning through madness
An Unlikely Pair proves they’re anything but one dimensional
Frank Williams and Nancy
Byron are a series of anomalies.
The duo’s dark and tormented
songs, which are filled with
nearly every tortured emotion
possible, are the brainchildren of
two perfectly cheery and friendly
people. Williams and Byron have
been playing together for less
than a year, but they finish each
other’s sentences and tease each
other like they are brother and
sister. When one writes a song,
the other often looks at the lyrics
and decides to make something
completely different out of it.
“I would hear her sing [a
song], and it would come across
as very jazzy and soulful,”
Williams says. “But when I hit it,
it would become something else
entirely, which is kind of how
that works.”
Williams has been playing
guitar for nearly 25 years; Byron
has barely been singing in public
for one. On stage, Williams PHoto:laurie moot
often forgets there is anyone
out in front of him, while Byron “I would often have trouble singing a song about MAD WHISKEY
couldn’t love interacting with a situation when my answer would be to pick up GRIN
the audience more. Just when something heavy and hit the guy with it until he
you think you know something
stops twitching.” WHO’S WHO
about one of them, the other one
Frank Williams (guitar)
proves you wrong, and perhaps
Nancy Byron (vocals)
it’s because of this dynamic that — Frank Williams, Mad Whiskey Grin—
Mad Whiskey Grin is what it is FORMED
today. the same time, and said, ‘What Williams’ endless curiosity of 2008 in Athens, Ga.
A combination of Williams’ do you think?’” everything the guitar is capable
sarcasm and Byron’s bluntness “It sounded like a rude question of (he often uses an old slide LABEL
brought the two together. to me,” Byron says, laughing.   cut from the barrel of a shotgun Unsigned
Williams was looking for a After their initial meeting, that belonged to a prison guard
the two kept running into each in south Georgia), combined LATEST RELEASE
vocalist to team up with and
Byron had just started singing other. One night, Byron decided with Byron’s dark, soulful vocals, Oiled Smoke Sessions (2009)
in public. The two met through to invite Williams to one of her which manage to linger long
upcoming shows. after the song is over. In the same ON THE WEB
mutual friends, and when www.madwhiskeygrin.com
“I was like, ‘Are you coming fashion with which they finish
Williams wasted no time with to my show?’” Byron says. “And each other’s sentences, they
pleasantries. Frank said, ‘Well, are you coming complete what the other one is
“Part of my idiom is to mine at The Melting Point?’ trying to accomplish on stage. would be to pick up something
interrupting the patterns of and I was like, ‘Sure, what do you “When we were partnered, it heavy and hit the guy with it
people’s lives,” says Williams. want me to sing?’” just floored me how quickly she until he stops twitching. But I’m
“So when Nancy was introduced The two ened up on stage caught on to the nuances of what a good writer of prose and I can
to me as a singer I was like, ‘Yeah, together, and, to their surprise, I was trying to say,” Williams create characters well, so Nancy
well, can you sing the blues while it worked. In fact, it worked so says. “I’ve got a certain way of let me say things that I could not
looking good in a red dress?’ well that Williams says he now approaching the world, and it say for myself that I could let her
And she put her hand on her has a hard time playing some of doesn’t always make for good say, and in fact she’s got stories of
hip, cocked that hip in a way I’ve his songs without Byron singing story telling, so I would often her own to tell.”
never seen before, managed to next to him. have trouble singing a song about
look up at me and down at me at The duo’s sound is a result of a situation when my answer —Laurie Moot
ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 13
MUSIC COUNTRY
red hot bs
a fire that can’t be stomped out
Any man who affectionately
refers to himself as “BS” should
be required to be full of it.
And Blake Shelton definitely
is – full of what, no one’s
sure. But he does have plenty
of good (not always nice)
humor, powerful vocal delivery,
sometimes sporadic TV spots,
an insanely updated Twitter
account, questionably double-
entendred meat marinating
advice and even more suspect
party tips.
“If you’re ugly, buy everybody
a drink. If you’re good lookin’…
take your clothes off,” he kindly
suggests.
That naked truth comes
from one of many videos done
for Great American Country
at GACTV.com. He’s blazing
different territory with the most
recent video foray — to get into
the grills of contest-entrants
everywhere.
July/August’s “Summer BBQ
Sweepstakes with Blake Shelton”
flamed up no doubt thanks to
the meaty music on his current
CD, Startin’ Fires. It also helped
him get in the hot seat as their
“Artist of the Month” for July.
He found himself in a hotter
seat with the George Strait
ACM All Star Concert, a CBS
special featuring select artists
covering George Strait classics.
Shelton, along with Miranda
Lambert, sang the sweet “It Ain’t
Cool.” Funny, given Shelton’s
current album title — plus,
both were probably sweating
buckets (figuratively speaking).
He also told of the first time
he met Strait, complete with
voice inflections; “Damn,” he
[Strait] said of the 6’5” Shelton.
“I thought you were standing on
a step.”
Even more impressive,
Shelton successfully opened
several shows for Strait over the
summer.
“One of the good things that
goes along with this type of
momentum is things like offers
to go out with George Strait,”
he told the crowd at his #1 party
14 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE
for the Cory Batten co-written
“She Wouldn’t Be Gone.”
“Gone” is also the song he got
to perform on this year’s ACM
awards show. Shelton says:
“Man, I was a nervous wreck
performing on that thing…I
had my fingers crossed we
would get to do it. My favorite
part of being an artist is being
on stage. And I’m glad I got to
do the ACM’s that way. One of
my favorite ways to perform is
acoustically.”
But hold the phone! Despite
what acoustic, or his second
single “I’ll Just Hold On,”
might lead some to believe, this
smooth operator shows no sign
of slowing down.
In fact, Shelton has a need
to Tweet something fierce.
Showing he’s too much twit to
quit, he uses his 140 characters to
display such wit as the following
to his “followers:”
blakeshelton “Ok, I’m off to
apply for a loan so I can fill this
MF’n bus with feul!!!!!”
blakeshelton “Then I’m
going to swing by the third grade
and learn how to spell “fuel”......
SON OF A BITCH!!!!!!!
Then there’s this off-color
courtesy blake shelton
comment (fan’s comment first/
Blake’s response): “If the yellow
turtle grabs the blue baloon will
the sun turn green at midnight?
(via @ReverendMichael) And
will you smoke some more
crack?”
Now how’s about that for sexy
talk? Some “People” must enjoy
it. Shelton made the magazine’s
“Sexiest…” list in 2008, clawed
down from the top by Hugh
Jackman.
“I mean, can you believe that?
What a rip-off,” he laments.”
Who is that guy?”
“No, really — that whole
thing is pretty funny to me.
When I look at myself in the
mirror, the last thing I think of
is sexy guy — somewhere along
the way someone must have
taken a really, really, really good
picture of me.”
Speaking of good sides,
another video features Shelton
and GAC host Nan Kelley
singing “Islands in the Stream”
at his 2009 Fan Club party —
his fans surprised her to the
point of tears with their birthday
gift to Blake — an $11,400
donation to the Leukemia and
Lymphoma Society. Something
BLAKE SHELTON
WHO’S WHO
Blake Shelton (guitar,
vocals)
FORMED
2001 in Nashville, Tenn.
LABEL
Warner Brothers Nashville
LATEST RELEASE
Startin’ Fires (2008)
ON THE WEB
www.blakeshelton.com
near to Kelley’s heart, he said to
her “you’re my cause.”
There. Shelton’s “fire” side
manner can melt hearts, too.
“Almost every night someone
will come to me and say ‘Man
— that actually happened to me
[the story of song ‘The Baby’].
It’s shocked me…to know how
much that song means to people
is pretty amazing. I by far get
more sentimental stories. ‘Cause
there’s not a lot of people who
can actually relate to ‘Ol Red.’
It’s always relationship stories,
etc., I hear out there.”
Continuing, he clarifies that
he’s referring to those with a
significant non-canine other,
not the “damndest dog” one’s
ever seen.
“I was shocked to have the #1
Love Song,” the self-professed
“Lord of Love” says of the GAC
Love Songs special he hosted.
“That came out of nowhere! But
my fan base is really active; they
make a war out of voting.”
With all this plus more going
for him and armed with insults
via Tweets that are so low you
could sit on a matchstick and
swing your lovely feet, who
knows what territory Shelton
will set ablaze next. Fire-starter
or not, that’s nothing to shake a
stick at.
 
— Melissa Coker

the earley signs are good
behind blitzen trapper’s front man’s relentless writing
Here’s the romantic version
—  the romanticized version,
maybe —  of the American
songwriter: a scraggly, bearded
dude sitting under a 60-watt
light bulb at 3 a.m., ankle deep
in crumpled lyric sheets, chain
smoking Camel Lights and
taking pulls off a lukewarm gin
and tonic while penning the
next big thing.
It’s perfect, poetic, striking
... but it’s not Eric Earley.
“No,” laughs the songwriting
brains of Portland, Ore.’s sextet
sensation, Blitzen Trapper.
“That’s not me.”
Make no mistake about it,
though, romanticized or not,
Earley is not only an American
songwriter, but he’s quickly
become one of the most
acclaimed of his generation.
Blitzen Trapper’s 2007
effort,  Wild Mountain Nation,
became that year’s critical
darling, and the follow-up,
Furr, was named Rolling Stone’s
#13 album of 2008. These  two
records define a sound Earley
simply labels “American music.”
“I just said [American music]
to deflect the question,” he says,
laughing. “It’s like anything
American. It’s completely
enigmatic and confusing, and
there’s something to it that’s
just uniquely this continent.
The country is so big and there’s
so many people and so much
culture — it’s very vast like that.
But you can draw from all kinds
of areas and have it be American
music.”
The specific culture in which
Blitzen Trapper is immersed is
the proven breeding ground of
the Northwestern United States,
a place rife with legends, labels
and underground talent that
have commanded the spotlight
for the better part of the last few
decades.
“I do hear people talk about
the Northwest a lot,”  Earley
says. “I think that’s just because
of the amount of bands that
live there and the amount of
successful bands that are from
the area,  and yeah, there are
certain sounds that go with
certain environments.”
Is the Pacific Northwest
where bits of Led Zeppelin,
photo: jade harris
bits of Neil Young (“Neil Young
— that’s kind of the ultimate. …
People have said we sound like
Neil Young,”  Earley says), bits
of Pavement and a touch of
Elliot Smith collide? If Blitzen
Trapper’s sound is any clue, the
answer is apparently yes.
“I don’t know.  I just write
songs that end up on records,” he
says. “I just keep writing and
sort of figure out what makes
sense together.”
The above statement
is somewhat of a for pressure and expectations to
contradiction;  Blitzen’s newest
effort, Black River Killer EP, is
actually a collection of songs
that didn’t end up on a record.
“It’s a lot of songs that were
recorded between Wild Mountain
Nation and Furr, and they were
just songs that didn’t go onto
Furr for whatever reason. We’ve
played them all live, but [they]
were never released,” Earley says,
though he doesn’t cast the EP’s
tracks as unworthy of inclusion
on Furr. “The EP is very closely
connected to Furr, and I think
the songs are good — as good as
any of the songs on Furr.”
MUSIC FOLK
BLITZEN
TRAPPER
WHO’S WHO
Eric Earley (vocals, guitar)
Eric Menteer (guitar,
keyboard) Marty Marquis
(vocals, guitar, keyboard)
Drew Laughery (keyboard)
Michael Van Pelt (bass)
Brian Adrian Koch (drums)
FORMED
2003 in Portland, Ore.
LABEL
Sub Pop
LATEST RELEASE
Black River Killer EP (2009)
ON THE WEB
www.blitzentrapper.net
The release of the
B-Side  collection is meant
to feed the public’s apparent
addiction to Blitzen Trapper
tunes while awaiting the
arrival of the band’s next full
length,  something that’s much
closer to a reality than most may
think.
“It’s pretty close to
done,” Earley says. “We’ve got a
couple more to add that should
be done before too long.”
In the wake of critical success,
it’s not hard (or uncommon)
spike to creative-juice-crushing
levels. But if that’s the case with
Earley and his band, it’s not easy
to tell.
“I think our success has been
so gradual that I don’t feel like
we have anything to prove,”  he
says. “Success for me is just
the slow progression of playing
bigger shows for people and
having people buy the record.
That’s pretty simplistic, I guess.
That’s everyone’s goal, isn’t it?”
Everyone’s goal, yes, but it’s
becoming Blitzen Trapper’s
reality. 

—Alec Wooden
ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 17
MUSIC FOLK
mayberry 2.0
From Winterville to the Paradox of a Lonely Parade
Welcome to Winterville, Ga.
Population: 1,100. This leafy
little hamlet is nestled about six
miles from Athens in what could
be labeled as Georgia’s answer
to Mayberry — one main road,
one library, one police station
and one Americana rock star? 
Okay, so maybe this isn’t your
typical Andy Griffith town, but
that same sense of southern
hospitality rings true for Dodd
Ferrelle and his family of artists. 
The Savannah-born musician has
two children — a violin-playing
3-year-old boy and a 2-year-old
drummer chick — and a wife
with a knack for painting and the
arts.
That leaves us with the man
of the house, Dodd Ferrelle, who
just released his seventh studio
album, paradoxically titled Lonely
Parades.
“I just felt like they [the words
‘Lonely’ and ‘Parades’] were
pretty neat because even though
you can be in this crowd of five or
10 thousand people on any given
day, or in a parade, or any march
to work, I still thought that there
was a little sense of loneliness.”
This theme of loneliness that
resonates throughout the album
doesn’t seem like something
Ferrelle really has to worry about
— Winterville just radiates with
safety and love.  But Ferrelle did
find inspiration for his songs from
personal experience and through
the experiences of others.
“Personally, from seeing
someone else go through it
and then once I grab onto that
emotion and start to let it out
it kind of transforms and goes
through this catharsis in terms of
just bigger character and I don’t
know if that makes any sense, but
I guess there is a darkness to a lot
of the songs I write,” he explains.  great.”
“There are a lot of up beat songs
with a lot of dark content, but
there was probably a sense of
loneliness and a sense of some of
the people around me feeling the
same way.”
On the record, Ferrelle
reunites with his old Me’an
18 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE
The Friends of the Georgia Museum of Art Present
T HE
art
F: music
•
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
photo: alyssa de hayes
Mills bandmate Jon Mills, who put some neat studio stuff on it At Stan Mullins Studio, 650 Pulaski Street, Athens, GA 30601
plays bass on Lonely Parades. The DODD FERRELLE and it sounded huge and really
last time the two collaborated on pretty to me and I just loved it.”
an album was back in 2003 on Ferrelle’s experimentation
Grammy Award-winning musician and artist Art Rosenbaum will perform
Sweet Lowland (songs inspired WHO’S WHO with new instruments and his selections of traditional American music with a few of his friends.
Dodd Ferrelle (vocals/
by Tybee Island and Savannah). ability to constantly evolve his
acoustic/electric guitar/
“When this opportunity came glockenspiel) sound is what makes his musical
along to make a solo record he career so successful.  This type Refreshments will be served.
was the first person I called,”  FORMED of commitment to his career
Ferrelle says of Mills.  The two 2001 in Athens, Ga. carries over into his commitment
parted ways shortly after they to his family.  In the backyard
moved to Athens.  Jon went to LABEL of Ferrelle’s quaint Winterville
play with several different bands, Two Sheds Music home, construction is underway
while Ferrelle started work with on a brand new recording space
his band, The Tinfoil Stars.  He LATEST RELEASE that will also provide an art $15 Friends of the Museum, $20 non-members
LonelyCOURTESY
Paradesvanguard
(2009) records
also explains how working with studio for his wife. 
Mills is, in a way, like coming ON THE WEB “It’s hard to get away to paint. 
back home.  “People that play www.doddferrelle.com I think she’s about to get to a For reservations, please call 706.542.0830 by October 15, 2009
with you long enough, especially point where she can.  That’s the
when you’re first starting and reason we did this now. And all
sections.  For example, take
you’re learning your way of of this natural light, we left me in
the steps it took to incorporate
songwriting and what kind of my cave over here so that she can
different instruments into the
songwriter you’re gonna be, they paint in the light out there.”  This event is generously sponsored by Stan Mullins and
walking-drum ballad, “What’s
can kind of guess your next move. So, in a way, Dodd Ferrelle
Another Broken Heart?”  THE ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE.
So when you’re on stage or in the is a lot like Mayberry’s Andy
“We were on the way to
studio it’s just really easy.  It’s just Griffith — loyal, caring and just
Jacksonville and I had the rough
an altogether family man. Except
mixes in the car when the band
Ferrelle’s songwriting process this Winterville resident has
was sleeping and I just had that
is not something that could be something Griffith never had:
in my head [hums melody]
classified as “easy.”  A better word a hauntingly beautiful Robert
and knew it was a trumpet,” he
would be sporadic — ideas for Plant-esque wail and a soothing
explains.  “We got back and we
songs aren’t necessarily mapped country rock sound.  It seems
put the trumpet on there. And
out, but they come to him in this long running parade is far
with the glockenspiel it was the For more information on GMOA on the Move and “The Art of” series, visit:
either the form of lyrics, a melody from being lonely.  
same way, I heard the bells and
or just in single instrument
we doubled it with guitars and
— Jessica Cole www.uga.edu/gamuseum

MUSIC POP
once a georgia girl
always a georgia girl
Since making the big move to the West Coast,
she may have lost her accent — but 27-year-
old singer/songwriter Meiko from Macon,
Ga., hasn’t lost her love for the South.  to go to Spain and I asked for the time off and
Nicole Black: Why did you decide to move to
California?
Meiko: Well, I have an older sister and she
was living in Miami at the time I graduated
high school.  I went through one semester
of college and I didn’t really want to be there
(Georgia) so I went to Miami to be with her.  of traveling and going to all these different
Then I kind of moved to L.A. to kind of take
a break and figure out what I really wanted to
do in life.  I thought I was going to go back
to college but that never really quite worked
out.
 
NB: A lot of people move to LA to get noticed.
M:  No, that wasn’t it at all.  It was super
random.  My sister’s boyfriend wanted to
go there for a bartending job, and she was
following him, and I was like, ‘You can’t leave
me, I just moved to Miami with you.’
 
NB:  What was your first job there?
M: I started working at Gold’s Gym, making
protein shakes at a juice bar, which was the
suckiest job I’ve ever had.  I did that for a
couple years. Then I started waiting tables at
a few random places.  But the coolest place I
worked at was a music venue called The Hotel
Café. That’s when things started to click. That’s
when I really started to focus on playing out
more and performing and making a record.
NB:  Is the staff at The Hotel Café all musicians
who get to play there?
M:  I played there once before I ever got a
job there. I got friendly with the owners and
started hanging out there a lot.  I actually got
fired from this Indian restaurant I was waiting
tables at so when I got fired I called up the
guy at The Hotel Café and said, ‘You have to
hire me,’ and he said, ‘Well, it just so happens
we’re starting to hire waitresses for the first
time.’  They didn’t have cocktail waitresses
before me, I was the first one.  I was the only
singer/songwriter that worked there. It was
a matter of if someone didn’t show up for a
gig or someone cancelled or someone really
big was playing, they would always think
of me, like, ‘Oh, do you want to play in this
slot?’  I got to open up for Patti Griffin one
time, which was probably the coolest person I
opened up for there.   a lot about feelings that come from stuff like
NB: Why did you get fired from the Indian
restaurant?
20 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE
M: I got fired from there because I asked for
a month off because I wanted to go to Spain.  or not being my friend anymore.  I felt pretty crossed by that
And I had saved up my money for a like a year
they said no. It was a combination of quitting
and getting fired.  M:  I think they’re married and have a baby now.  I’m from
 
NB: What made you decide to visit Spain?
M: Well, I guess growing up in a small town in
Georgia; I really never got out of town.  I never
travelled a lot as a kid.  I had all these dreams
exotic places.  When I became an adult and
once that was possible, I took advantage of it.  M:  The whole point of the song “Under My Bed” is the fact that
And I went to Spain because I was in love
with a boy that was from there so I went to
see him.  It was the greatest thing ever.  I was
there for a month and travelled around and
MEIKO
WHO’S WHO
Meiko (vocals, guitar)
FORMED
2007 in Los Angeles, Calif.
LABEL
Lucky Ear/MySpace/DCG
LATEST RELEASE
Meiko (2008)
ON THE WEB
www.meikomusic.com
ate all kinds of crazy food.  It was more than
one blessing because I got to see Spain for the
first time, and then, you know, I got fired from
that Indian restaurant and ended up getting
the cool job at The Hotel Café and my life
kind of changed drastically after that.
 
NB:  What happened to the guy in Spain?
M:  We dated for four years and we actually
just broke up not too long ago.  But it was a
good four years (laughs).  It was a nice run.
 
NB:  So was the breakup a lot of the inspiration
for the album?
M:  Yeah, breakups are inspirational.  I write
that.  But the record is also about kind of
missing somebody.  —Meiko—
COURTESY meiko
“I’m from Georgia, I’m used to like
hanging out with the boys, drinking
beers and talking shit.  I took that to
L.A.  And I love that I’m like that
and I do have a lot of guy friends. 
Sometimes you get a cool guy friend
with a stupid girlfriend and you just
have to deal with it, I guess.”
MUSIC POP
NB:  Speaking of songs, what’s the story behind the ‘Boys With
Girlfriends’ song?
M:  I was really good friends with this guy and he was like my
best friend.  He had this girlfriend that really didn’t like me and
got jealous about how close we were and really got in the way.  I
guess she gave him the ultimatum of staying friends with me or
staying with her.  He ended up just not returning my phone calls
situation. 
NB:  Have you heard from him today?
Georgia; I’m used to like hanging out with the boys, drinking
beers and talking shit.  I took that to L.A.  And I love that I’m
like that and I do have a lot of guy friends.  Sometimes you get a
cool guy friend with a stupid girlfriend and you just have to deal
with it, I guess.
NB:  What is the concept behind the video, “Under My Bed”?
I would be in these relationships, we would break up and I would
be done with it, and I would have all these souvenirs and things
that reminded me of them and I would put them literally in a
box under my bed.  And that’s how I wrote the song.  I realized
that I had all these boxes under my bed, different people I had
been with.  I actually wanted to call up some ex-boyfriends and
ask them to be in the video but I didn’t have the balls to do that
(laughs).
NB:  Do you notice any guy groupies, yet?
M:  (laughs) I do, it’s really cute.  I think it’s adorable that I have
guy fans that come to a bunch of shows.  I usually just have a
bunch of chicks in the front row but it’s cute for me to see boys
there, too.  Some of my fans are really cool.  Like, I have this older
motorcycle guy in L.A. that always comes to my shows, with a
leather jacket with patches on it and I’m like, ‘You’re so cool.’
NB:  Would you ever go on a date with any of them?
M:  No, I try to keep that separate. That’s scary to me.  I try not
to get personal.  The last thing I want is to be cut up in someone’s
freezer (laughs).
NB:  Would you still consider yourself a down-home country girl?
M:  I do.  I appreciate fried chicken, and cornbread, and collard
greens more than anyone else I know.  And I will always have a
love for Bud Light.  I’ve been to a few mud bogs in my life.
NB:  What do you miss most about Georgia?
M:  I miss the comfort of knowing that everyone around you
actually cares about you.  That’s probably the coolest thing about
going home; hanging out with all my friends and family and
just knowing that they knew you when you were little and they
genuinely love you and care about you and what’s going on with
your life.  They’re so sincere there.  In the city, and definitely the
music industry, you don’t get a lot of sincerity. 
 
NB:  Do you ever wonder where you would be now if you had stayed
in Georgia?
M:  You just gave me the willies (laughs).  I don’t think it would
be good.  If I were still in Macon now, I’d probably have a bunch
of kids and could possibly be miserable.  I’d work in an office
somewhere; I don’t think it’d be a good thing.  
— Nicole Black
ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 21
 MUSIC ROCK
An unlikely trio
and a ride of unexpected sounds
The Delfields threw the punk
scene in New Brunswick, N.J.,
for a loop when it formed in
2006 with a distinctive indie-
pop sound: a genre hard to pin
down and, in the Delfields’ case,
one that mixes interesting chord
progressions with melodic twists.
But whatever indie-pop really is,
Joseph Fekete, the band’s lead
singer and songwriter, is happy
to talk about The Delfields’ music
and its eclectic followers. 
“Depending on where we play,
we will see everyone from bearded
intellectuals, to guys who look
like they came right out of the
most glitzy night club in town, to
folks who seem like they would
be quite at home dining with my
parents, all really enjoying what
we are doing on stage,” he says.
Music has always been the
primary focus of Fekete’s life
ever since he refused to go to
COURTESY team clermont
bed unless someone sang him a
lullaby. He later attended college
at Rutgers as a full-time student, THE “The inspiration behind Ogres was essentially to
taught guitar at Lou Rose Music
Center part-time and played with
DELFIELDS turn a lot of really bad things that were happening
into something good that people could enjoy.”
another band in his spare time.
He met his fellow band members
while teaching guitar, and The WHO’S WHO — Joseph Fekete, The Delfields—
Delfields were born.
Joseph Fekete (vocals,
guitar), Ryan Shook (bass/
Fekete didn’t immediately vocals), Kyle Shook (drums) variety of music that might seem performing or something of the
know twins Ryan and Kyle Shook eclectic; he spent time studying like, and I find them to be boring
were perfect for the band. FORMED The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Erik and trite. This video really only
  “The truth is when we began 2006 in New Brunswick, Satie, Tchaikovsky, The Ventures, had one character in it (whose
playing it was a very informal N.J. Beethoven, Debussy and a lot of face is visible). I approached my
thing,” he says. “We went into folk music — all of which you friend Alexander Rioh to be the
it with no preconceived notions LABEL can catch a glimpse of on Ogres. main character in the video, and I
about what would come out of independent As a complement to these diverse think he really did a fantastic job
the experience.” sounds, The Delfields even have a with it.”
Eight months after being
LATEST RELEASE music video to go with the single The band hopes to release the
Ogres (2009)
introduced to the twins, The “Ogres” consisting completely of EP Sooner Than You Think by late
Delfields began making music for ON THE WEB stop-motion animation.  fall/early winter, and next summer,
its recently released album, Ogres. http://www.myspace.com/ “I wanted the video to stand the band will do a few small tours.
A majority of the lyrics on the thedelfields by itself as an idea independent As for now, Fekete and the Shook
album are about relationships of the song that would be further twins will continue composing
gone awry because at the time the enhanced by the song’s presence. songs and sharing their music.
band was recording, the boys were The song goes between a cheerful, “You don’t have the time
struggling to maintain personal and instead of letting it win, we bright verse to a darker and more to engage any preconceived
relationships of their own. made lemonade.” ominous chorus, and I wanted notions,” says Fekete, explaining
“The inspiration behind Ogres The Delfields combine sounds those moods conveyed in the The Delfields’ mantra. “Things
was essentially to turn a lot from all genres, but upon hearing video,” Fekete says. “Despite just pop up in my brain, and I
of really bad things that were the band’s music, a listener might the fact that I was told by many am happy to let them out and
happening into something good be reminded of The Shins or people that we should appear in it, introduce them to the world.”
that people could enjoy,” Fekete Death Cab For Cutie. Growing I decided against it. All too often 

says. “It was a rough time for us, up, Fekete listened to a wide I see videos with footage of a band —Sarah Saltzman

ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 23

MUSIC ROCK
FIGHTING FOR THE HOOK
ATLANTA QUARTET DOESN’T MISS A BEAT ON SOPHOMORE EFFORT
Believe it or not, there are
those among us in the music
industry still fighting for the
hook. In these days of post-
everything where genres break
down left and right into further
subcategories, the enduring pop
elements of a strong melody and
memorable chorus wane from
the mainstream consciousness of
music lovers. But try telling that
to the members of Trances Arc –
crafters of some of the prettiest –
yes, prettiest – hooks you’ll hear
today.
That’s not to emasculate the
Atlanta quartet in any way. On
the contrary, it requires powerful
descriptors like beautiful to
describe the strong pop/rock
sensibilities present with Michael
Dorio, Brad Hagen, Daniel
Silvestri and Eric Toledo. And
though it might run counter-
cultural to today’s musical trends,
that’s just the way the four-piece
likes it.
“Melody has always been the
backbone of our songs mainly
because of our writing process,”
says Toledo, the band’s vocalist
and keyboardist. “Everyone
contributes chord progressions,
rhythmic ideas, tales and starry-
eyed stories, but if it doesn't
inspire a melody, then it’s likely
24 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE
TRANCES ARC
WHO’S WHO
Danny Silvestri (bass),
Brad Hagen (drums),
Eric Toledo (guitar, keys,
vocals), Michael Dorio
(guitar)
FORMED
2001 in Atlanta, GA
LABEL
independent
LATEST RELEASE
Trances Arc (2009)
ON THE WEB
www.trancesarc.com
that little nugget will sit in a
closet until it evokes a melody
worth hammering on. We like to
think that if a song can't translate
with an acoustic guitar and the
melody itself, then it’s crap.”
“At the end of the day, if it’s
not melodically infectious or at
least something that someone
would want to hear more than
once, we generally shove it to the
side,” agrees Dorio, TA’s rhythm
guitarist. “We all grew up on
music like that and it’s something
we want to make for other people.
I’m glad that other people are
hearing that when they listen to
the music, because that’s what
we’re aiming for.”
On TA, the band’s second
proper full-length, those hooks
still stand front and center
even as the band matures. The
instrumentation feels full,
the chemistry more mature,
but the love of the melodic
construction remains. And that
will undoubtedly remain the case,
no matter how far they get into
their career.
“I hear so many bands
interviewed who say, ‘We made
the record we wanted to make
and I don’t really give a shit who
likes it or not,’” says Dorio. “I’m
thinking, ‘That’s cool, I guess.’ For
me, it’s never been about that. I
don’t have any strange behavioral
issues or insecurities that I need
to work out through my music.
We’re all happy people with great
families. So when we go into the
studio, we want to make music
to inspire people, to get them to
love music.”
“We all grew up on songs – song
being the magic word that used
to be made up of a melody and
this thing that nobody likes to
write any more called a ‘chorus.’,”
explains Toledo. “I can appreciate
the no chorus, or the ‘anti-
chorus.’ I loved Kid A and grew
up on Mozart and Bach. But the
chorus is where the connection
happens for me. I won't call it
a hook, cause, well, that's just
selling out isn't it?”
In the end, the members of
Trances Arc hope the songs
resonate with their intended
audience and enable them to keep
moving forward. It’s a humbling
balance of creating melodies
for the world to hear and then
wondering if you’ll even get that
chance. For Toledo, it’s worth the
effort simply for the chance to
make a new record.
“As far as expectations go,
I'm more the realist than my
optimistic band mates,” says
Toledo. “I'm of the mindset that
I'm thankful for the opportunity
to have captured this collection
of songs. This band has been
through a lot and setting high
expectations is just asking for
a disappointment, so I'm just
grateful that Trances Arc had the
opportunity to crank out another
record and hope that people
enjoy it as much as we enjoyed
creating it.”
— Matt Conner
 MUSIC RHYME, RHYTHM & SOUL
Artist in Wonderland
5)3&&
:&"34
Janelle Monae’s world of wonder, excitement and a lil’ hip hop
Diddy probably summed

"/%
8&
"3&
45*--
3&#6*-%*/(
Janelle Monae up best: “She is
a true visionary, with an original
sound and a mesmerizing
presence. I can’t wait to watch
the future unfold for Janelle.”
Contestants on the music
impresario’s MTV reality show
“Make His Band” can only hope
the boss man one day offers
similar thoughts about them.
Mr. Combs shouldn’t feel any
lesser for falling under Monae’s
spell. Numerous other rap acts,
from Outkast’s Big Boi to
Gnarls Barkley’s Cee-lo, have
been equally enamored. And
really, that’s the bizarre part in all
of this: On the surface, Janelle’s
colorful homogeny of funk, pop
and soul seems light years away
from rap’s dank corners. But
leave it to the lively Monae to
make sense of it all.
“I’m just a lover of timeless and
exceptional music,” begins the
Kansas City native who moved
to Georgia partially to follow in
idol James Brown’s footsteps. “I’ll
say it’s about the character. I don’t
just gravitate towards anyone. I
think that my maker put these “I have a responsibility to creating art and coming
individuals in my life, I think, to up with new concepts and ideas. And I have a JANELLE MONAE
help take me to the next point. responsibility to my community, especially young girls.
I also have a relationship with
I really hate talking a lot, so I try to lead by example.”
Prince. I have a relationship with
WHO’S WHO
a few other artists who I admire Janelle Monae (vocals)
and respect in the music industry, — Janelle Monae—
whether it be in hip hop to rock FORMED
‘n’ roll to whatever you wanna been a supporter of me as a young Stump and Panic at the Disco’s 2007 in Atlanta, Ga.
classify it as.” businesswoman and as an artist. Brandon Urie were hand-picked
Monae’s Wondaland Arts He’s helped guide me through. for the job. Subsequent promo LABEL
Society imprint connected But at the same time, he’s left us tours and TV appearances have Atlantic
with Diddy’s Bad Boy early last alone as a production company given the plucky performer
year in an effort to get her re- LATEST RELEASE
and an artist to just continue to even more chances to spread her Metropolis Suites II & III
packaged project Metropolis: soar and soar with our art.” unique sound.
The Chase Suite out to as many Janelle’s musical artistry — “All I have to do is continue to

/&8
03-&"/4
eager ears as humanly possible.
Diddy respected her ingenuity
and eccentricities. Monae had a
similar admiration for Combs’
professionalism.
“He’s been in the business for
a while now,” details Monae. “I
oh, the vibrant musician is
also pretty darn handy with
the paintbrush and easel, too
— is beginning to get noticed
by others outside of hip hop,
too. Coca-Cola began work on
an ad campaign called “Open
stay true to my values,” Monae
adds. “I have a responsibility to
creating art and coming up with
new concepts and ideas. And
I have a responsibility to my
community, especially young girls.
I really hate talking a lot, so I try
ON THE WEB
www.janellemonae.com
myself that people are very open-
minded to new concepts and
ideas, but they don’t know what

HELP THE PEOPLE COME HOME don’t care if you’re in hip hop or
not, if you don’t respect me as
a young woman or respect my
art [we don’t have anything to
discuss]. From the get-go, he’s
WWW.PNOLA.ORG
Happiness” earlier this year and
it needed a spunky, fresh sound
for the commercial. Monae, Cee-
lo, Gym Class Heroes’ Travis
McCoy, Fall Out Boy’s Patrick
to lead by example. I don’t like to
marginalize networks like BET
or MTV, for that matter, or us
as an African-American culture
or a Chinese culture. I always tell
they wanna hear until they hear
it. I feel like I’ll be heard and I
feel like I’ll be seen.”
— DeMarco Williams
ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 27
MUSIC ALBUM REVIEWS
ear candy
Dirty Projectors
Bitte Orca
 
The latest addition to the Dirty
Projectors’ repertoire, Bitte Orca,
may be the most successful
to date at maintaining their
unabashed musical prowess
while welcoming music lovers of
all levels. Throughout the nine-
song piece, each instrument
morphs within its unique
voice: electric guitar clangs and
clamors before invoking West
African landscapes; bass lays
down a warm bed for vocals
which deliver fiercely punctuated
throaty wails before settling
into lustrous legatos that
accent sonnet-like lyrics. The
band’s ladies, Amber Coffman
and Angel Deradoorian, are
allowed space to shine as they
respectively solo on the oddly
juxtaposed 80s-style pop ballad
“Stillness Is The Move” and the
majestic lullaby “Two Doves,”
whose swells and quivers craft
a chilling otherworldliness.
Dave Longstreth’s hallmarked
Indian infused riffs and heady
musicality are in sync with
his bandmates at every turn.
As the Dirty Projectors refuse
to downplay their musical
aptitude, they create a piece
that delights in its proficiencies,
daring listeners to reach above
and beyond the mundane and
towards the sublime. This is a
brilliant addition for seasoned
fans and newcomers alike,
unfolding more like an animist
portrait or an epic theatrical
piece than a mere album.
(Ingrid Sibley)
28 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE
The Clientele
Bonfires on the Heath
 
The descriptors that generally
emerge around The Clientele’s
albums won’t diversify when
referencing Bonfires on the Heath.
“Warm,” “inviting,” “melancholic”
or “subdued” will doubtlessly be
employed by reviewers ‘round the
globe since the London quartet
hardly changed their approach
on this latest. And for the already
convinced, that’s great news.
The same jangling guitars still
propel each track forward as they
have on each recent Clientele
release. The same misty fog still
envelops Alasdair MacLean’s
vocal arrangements. The same
buoyant percussion still unfolds
in the background. Thus, The
Clientele’s dreamy folk/pop still
remains largely intact whether
ratcheting the energy up (“I
Wonder Who We Are,” “Share
the Night”) or choosing a more
somber approach (“Tonight,”
“Bonfires on the Heath”).
That’s not to dismiss the
variations that are present
here. The Sufjanesque horns
and Spanish flair on “I Know I’ll
See Your Face” offer a welcome
change-up on Bonfire’s second
half. The same can be said of
“Sketch,” an up-tempo rock romp
that divides the album in half.
All things considered, Bonfires
on the Heath further cements The
Clientele into their beautiful folk/
pop niche. While some moments
classify as inventive, it’s largely a
four-piece continuing to exhibit
what they already do so well.
(Matt Conner)
The Minus 5
Killingsworth
 
One of the great American
eccentrics, Scott McCaughey
has never quite risen above cult
artist status — not because he’s
too weird, but because he’s too
restless. From leading '80s college
rock faves the Young Fresh
Fellows to working as a touring
member of R.E.M., he never lacks
for work but seems unwilling to
fully accept the spotlight in any
of his projects. Add Killingsworth
to that list, as McCaughey’s
latest release at the helm of The
Minus 5 is as much a showcase
for the talents of his assorted
friends as it is his slightly askew
observational storytelling. Joined
by Peter Buck of R.E.M., most
of the contributing cast of the
Decemberists and the She Bee
Gees (an all girl Bee Gees cover
band), McCaughey proves to be
an expert air-traffic controller,
coordinating his assorted guests
into a perfectly sympathetic
country rock band with pedal
steel, jangly electric guitars, and
girl group backing vocals. The
result is an album that mixes
Gram Parsons’ world weary
atmosphere with Ray Davies’
slice-of-life whimsy, with 14
songs veering from twisted
faux-gospel sing-alongs (“I
Would Rather Sacrifice You”) to
strummy Dylan-esque folk (“Big
Beat Up Moon”) and homicidal
honky-tonk weepers (“Tonight
You’re Buying Me a Drink, Bub”).
As always, McCaughey lets his
songs speak for him.
(Matt Fink )
Radney Foster
Revival
 
Honestly, after the year Radney
Foster’s had—losing his father,
reuniting with his son after 12
years and turning 50—it’s no
wonder he enlisted his road band
The Confessions to record Revival.
And that’s exactly what you feel
like you’ve gone through by the
end of its thirteen tracks. It’s not
preachy — rather like an “Amen!”
to the human spirit.
Between the opening track,
the upbeat and hopeful “A Little
Revival,” and the last, an acoustic
reprise of the same, Radney
gives his takes on faith, love,
redemption, forgiveness, death,
trust and self-assurance. And
as with any revival worth its
salt, the tempo ebbs and flows
from foot-tapping rock to heart-
wrenching ballads, with a stand-
up-in-the-aisle-and-sing gospel
thrown in for good measure.
Radney recruited pals Dierks
Bentley and Darius Rucker to
help out. Dierks chimes in on
“Until It’s Gone,” an upbeat
reminder that half-assing it in
life ain’t gonna cut it. Darius
helps out on the solemn but
proud “Angel Flight,” named
for the journey the Air Force
National Guard makes to bring
fallen soldiers home (a portion
of the album's proceeds will go to
families struck by such tragedy).
By the end, you’ll find that
Radney has left no human
condition untouched. Anyone
with a soul can take something
from this offering.
(Phil Pyle)
Pastels/Tenniscoats
Two Sunsets
There's no telling what's to come from musical collaborations,
which I guess is the point. Sometimes they create enthralling
fusions – De La Soul with Teenage Fanclub, Gorillaz, hell, De La
Soul with anyone – and sometimes the results are tragic – David
Bowie and Mick Jagger anyone?
When Glasgow's The Pastels and Tokyo's Tenniscoats joined
forces, there was room for excitement. After all, The Pastels are
considered the godfathers of twee, while Tenniscoats has a proven
record of forging pop alliances for elegant albums. It sounds like a
perfect match.
But it's not. While Two Sunsets is not a stupefying disaster of pop
minds, it's not a stunning piece of work either.
It slumbers early on, dragging through a five-minute “Song For a
Friend” that feels like forever. “Vivid Youth” awakens the album a
bit, serving as an example of what The Pastels do best yet revealing
little collaborative thought. While evidence of cooperation proves
true as Sunsets progresses — “Boats” is a charming piece, while
Sodone's lilting guitar and Tenniscoats' Saya Ueno's playful singing
highlight the best of both bands — too often the songs become
background. Maybe the bands spent too much time catering to
one another (the album did take three years to make) instead of
stamping Sunsets with a sole identity. The only defined track is not
even their song. “About You,” a Jesus and Mary Chain cover, is a
decent take but feels out of sorts — sounding like a late addition.
On their own The Pastels and Tenniscoats produce both
purposeful and dynamic music, but together they come across as
muted and tame.
And the result is just, well, nice. Not bad, but then again not
good.
(Ed Morales)
Bowerbirds
Upper Air
 
“One morning you wake to find you are shackled to your
bed and bound and gagged. Oh my, what a predicament.”
So opens Upper Air, the second album from Raleigh, North
Carolina’s Bowerbirds, a visceral and often vivid exploration
of love, self and nature. Picking up where 2007’s Hymns for a
Dark Horse left off, vocalist/guitarist Phil Moore and multi-
instrumentalist Beth Tacular construct songs out of soft edges pam.taylor@pptpromo.com
and earthbound metaphors, honing their craft into a series
of musty folk-pop songs that refine but rarely depart from
their template of strummed acoustic guitars and mewing
accordions. Moore remains a captivating presence, using his
softly mellifluous croon to bring to life a cast of stately pines,
diamond houses, nervous coyotes, and wandering minds to
weave together a multi-layered exploration of man’s relationship
to himself, others and the earth. To that end, the expansive
imagery tends toward New Age tropes every now and again,
but Tacular’s bittersweet touches of violin, piano and accordion
help steer Moore back from the edge of freak-folk platitudes.
The arrangements provide remarkable replay value, revealing pens . mugs . bags
new countermelodies and textural shifts with every listen, from magnets . umbrellas
the slowly awakening percussion underneath the gorgeous t-shirts . beach & golf
melodic twists of “Silver Clouds” to the atmospheric rumbling accessories . planners
and autoharp strums on the closing “This Day.” All in all, Upper calendars . executive
gifts . embroidery &
Air surveys a unique internal landscape, one whose words create
a mood of mystery and whose melodies ache with sincerity, an
album that announces its presence in its first moments and screenprint . stickers
continues the conversation until its last. etcetera etcetera
(Matt Fink)
http://pptpromo.geigermall.com
Rachel Williams Lovers & Liars

24-year-old Nashville Star alumna Rachel Williams (no relation to Hank) is a simply sensational live performer who's good at getting her
hooks into the listener early on, and that's proven with the album's opener, a hooky rockin' country number which shows she isn't afraid
to get her hands dirty and plow on through for a chance new love might grow in “Unbroken Ground.” “You Let Me” sees things settle (a bit
more sadly) down to reality with lyrics like “I never would have guessed|That you could be so heartless|How could I have known that you'd
let me let you go?” Things seem to take a turn for the worst again on the next track; however, once one hears the “but” in “What If We Do,”
there soon follows several signs of a possible more positive end in sight.
Another thing to love about Lovers & Liars (her third release, by the way) is an outspoken statement which comes courtesy of “I'm A
Woman,” another uptempo whose hook is “I'm a woman (to love).” The song wraps up with Rachel proclaiming “I'm a woman, I'm a woman,
I'm a woman...” as if there could be any doubt!
Unfortunately she may be loved a little too much — on “In Between” an old flame continues to call her up, though they both know it's not
a wise move. The affecting soulful plea begins with “please don't call me, as harmless as it seems.”
Also, Rachel actually deserves the designation of “performing songwriter” — having co-written everything on this collection (she even
co-produced). Several other writers of note contributed, including Bruce Wallace (“Unbroken Ground”) and Angela Kaset (“Where My Line
Is”) pen behind Lorrie Morgan's smash single “Something in Red,” among others.
No lie — in this case, perhaps some pop-country isn't as bad as some folks think it's cracked up to be.  (Melissa Coker)

A Sunny Day in Glasgow Guy Clark Hank Williams

Ashes Grammar Somedays the Song Writes You 127 Rose Avenue

I'm not one to pigeonhole bands by where
they come from, after all not every band
from Seattle is grungy, nor is every band
from Nashville stuck on country.
But after a first listen of Ashes Grammar by
A Sunny Day in Glasgow, I was rather sure
I had the band pegged as European, maybe
not Scottish (too obvious), but certainly
from the UK. Those Banco de Gaia electronic
interludes, the dreamy Cocteau Twins (easy
reach, I know) lyrics, that overt Sigur Ros
resonance — no doubt they were from
across the pond.
So it makes perfect sense they're from —
Philadelphia. Philadelphia? Rocky Balboa,
obnoxious sports fans, cheesesteaks?
Amazingly — yes.
From the City of Brotherly Love, directed
by Ben Daniels and his sisters Robin and
Lauren, comes an impossible dream of an
album, laid out like a delicate meal. The 22-
song disc moves with purpose, whetting
your appetite with a gentle opening
(“Slaughter Killing Courage and Failure”), a
determined middle (“Close Chorus,” “Shy,”
“Nitetime Rainbows”), and a satisfying
ending (“Staring at a Disadvantage,”
“Headphone Space”). In between are
seamless pauses of sound, some full songs
others instrumental experiments, which
bend and fold like conversations between
courses.
Despite its hour-long run time, Ashes
never lingers nor overstays its welcome —
when it ends it comes as a surprise, which
is fitting. For a Philadelphia band to create
such music is a revelation, evidence the
unexpected comes from the oddest of places.
So give it up for ambient pop and
cheesesteaks.
Only in America.
( Ed Morales)
As a whole, country music artists
have longevity unmatched by those
in any other music category. Rappers
have a career span in the single
digits—how quickly would Dana
Dane get laughed offstage today?
And I doubt we are in danger of
anyone covering W.A.S.P. songs in the
foreseeable future.
But Texas-born Guy Clark is another
story. For those new to the troubadour,
singer/songwriter genre, it’s definitely
an acquired taste. As with John Prine,
Townes Van Zandt, and even Johnny
Cash, their vocals are/were not their
strong suit. Mr. Clark is no exception.
But lyrically, you find yourself
waiting on the next word. It’s not too
far off from listening to an audio book.
On Somedays…, a perfect example is
“The Guitar,” an eerie story of a guy
finding a guitar that empowers him
to play like hell. The last line is the
haunting clincher, told in the same
vein as David Allan Coe’s “The Ride”
(sorry, no spoilers here).
He also reveals his knack for
turning a phrase, as with “Everyone’s
got some baggage/But she knows
how to travel light” and “When she
don’t say nothin’/Man I hang on
every word.” Granted, not every song
is a masterpiece—some would be
better sung by someone else—but
as an artist, Guy can still crank out a
good album after all these years. He
probably won’t win over a truckload
of new fans with this one, but given
the following that Texas singer/
songwriters have, he’ll have plenty of
takers.
  (Phil Pyle)
Every rose has its thorn. And
Hank’s not afraid to show his thorny
side on 127 Rose Avenue, with pow-
erful takes on justice, near-pover-
ty, family trees, bluegrass, women
with over-the-top tastes, and more.
Avenue finds him walking new streets
on his first album of all-new mate-
rial since 2003’s I’m One of You.
The cleverly-titled first single “Red,
White, and Pink Slip Blues,” almost imme-
diately slows things down and takes a long
hard look at financial life, or lack thereof.
Its message is hard to sum up but it’s im-
possible to not be affected in some way.
Apparently it pays to listen up. Seconds
later, Hank loses the cut-to-the-heart con-
viction found on “Blues” and jumps right
into the incredibly catchy “High Mainte-
nance Woman.” Oh, and thank God - this
is NOT the same-named Toby Keith song.
Williams Jr. wrote it himself, and it’s not
hard to believe he’s lived it too (back-
ground singers and all). Single-worthy,
it sings “she’s a high maintenance wom-
an and I’m a low budget man.” Keep your
ears open for the phone ring; don’t let it
lead you to reach for your own (phone).
“It’s like I’m on the Opry, stand-
ing there with Bill Monroe,” says Hank
of “All the Roads,” done with blue-
grass maestros The Grascals (c’mon,
it’s in their name). Rose definite-
ly proves the perfect home to grow well
into the grass on “Roads.” The two acts
sound nature-made for each other.
On “Blues,” he asks “Is anybody listen-
ing?” and if they’re smart they will. Let’s
just hope it’s not another six years before
there’s more…his music brings significant-
ly more than most radio gives it credit for.
(Melissa Coker)

ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 31

MUSIC THIS DAY IN MUSIC HISTORY
September
1 2 3 4
1977 - Blondie signs its first
major deal with Chrysalis.
1995 – The Rock & Roll Hall
of Fame & Museum opens in
Cleveland.
1963 - The Angels become
the first white all-female
group to have a No.1 record.
1971 - The Grateful Dead’s
ex-manager is arrested for
embezzling $70,000.
1942 - Frank Sinatra begins
his solo career.
1955 - Bill Haley & the Comets
refuse the band’s first offer to
tour outside the U.S. because
of a fear of flying.
32 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE
5 6 7 8
1987 – Dick Clark’s
“American Bandstand”
is cancelled after 30
years on television.
1993 - Dave Navarro
joins The Red Hot Chili
Peppers.
1961 - Bob Dylan
makes his debut in New
York City at Gaslight
Café.
2000 – A U.S. District
Judge awards Universal
Music $118-250 million
in damages after ruling
MP3.com had violated
numerous copyright
laws.
1965 - The Who’s
equipment van is stolen
while purchasing a guard
dog at Battersea Dog’s
Home in England.
2002 - Kelly Clarkson
becomes the first “American
Idol.”
MUSIC THIS DAY IN MUSIC HISTORY
1930 - Hoagy Carmichael records 1998 - An American Airlines flight makes an
“Georgia on My Mind,” which had emergency stop when a passenger becomes
already been the state song of Georgia violent after meeting Hootie & The Blowfish
since 1922. on the plane.
1989 - The Bangles call it quits.
1998 – Rapper Coolio is booked and 2003 - David Lee Roth injures himself (to
released for marijuana possession and a the tune of 21 stitches) while doing a very 1996 - Hank Williams III makes his
concealed weapons charge. fast, complicated 15th-century samurai Grand Ole Opry debut at age 23.
move onstage. This eventually causes the
1992 - Howard Stern appears as cancellation of the remaining tour dates.
1953 - Liberace makes his Carnegie Hall
“Fartman” on MTV’s Video Music debut before a sellout crowd.
Awards. 1993 - David Crosby and George
1979 - “Rapper’s Delight” by The Sugar Hill
Gang is released. 1995 - Mariah Carey’s “Fantasy” Harrison appear on the fifth season
1971 - “The Jackson Five” TV series becomes the second single to debut at premiere of “The Simpsons.”
debuts on ABC. 1992 - Barbara Streisand appears at a No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, a feat
fundraiser for the U.S. Democratic Party – her first accomplished by Michael Jackson 1994 – R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe signs a
1987 - Peter Tosh is shot and killed by first such appearance in six years. with “You Are Not Alone.” movie deal with New Line Cinema.
robbers at his home in Jamaica.
9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
1971 - Peter
1976 - Paul 1970 – James Taylor releases his first Frampton leaves 1994 - Eric Clapton
performs on “Saturday 1972 - David Bowie sells
McCartney single, “Fire and Rain.” Humble Pie in pursuit
Night Live.” out Carnegie Hall – his first
commemorates of a solo career. stateside sell out.
Buddy Holly’s 40th 1998 - Vince Gill makes his 100th
birthday with the appearance at Nashville’s Grand Ole 1995 - Natalie 1998 – Aerosmith front
man Steven Tyler throws 1991 – Garth Brooks Ropin’
first “Buddy Holly Opry. Merchant begins her the Wind becomes the first
Week.” first solo tour after out the first pitch at a
Expos-Cardinal baseball country album to debut at No.
quitting the 10,000
game in St. Louis. 1 on the Billboard pop chart.
1996 - Tupac 1988 - Elton John sells costumes and Maniacs.
Shakur is shot in memorabilia at a London auction for
Las Vegas after a $6.2 million. 1964 - “Fiddler on the
Mike Tyson fight. 1970 – 27 year-old James
Marshall “Jimi” Hendrix dies Roof” opens on Broadway,
He dies six days 2006 - Whitney Houston files for beginning a remarkable run
later. divorce from Bobby Brown, whom in London from a sleeping
pill overdose. of 3,242 performances.
she married in 1992.
1983 - The members of KISS 1980 - Geffen Records is
formed.
1974 - Stevie Wonder begins his first appear without makeup on
tour since a near-fatal car wreck. MTV. 1974 - Robbie McIntosh
(Average White Band) dies
1964 - The Beach Boys
1979 - Abba begins its first North of a heroin overdose at the
appear on the Ed Sullivan
American tour in Canada. age of 24.
Show for the first time with
a performance of “I Get
1986 - Headlined by James
1814 - Francis Scott Around.”
Brown, Freddie Jackson and
Key pens the “Star- Melba Moore, New York’s
Spangled Banner.” On 2004 - Phil Spector is
Plaza Hotel hosts an “Anti-
1966 - John Lennon and Yoko March 3, 1931, the charged with murder in the
Crack Rally.”
Ono meet in an art gallery. song becomes the 2003 death of actress Lana
official United States Clarkson.
1998 - Sex Pistol Johnny Anthem.
1973 - Gram Parsons (The Byrds)
Rotten appears as the 1969 – The Beatles release
dies of a drug overdose. 1977 - James Brown’s band walks out on him in Hallandale,
defendant on “Judge Judy” in 1979 - Kenny Rogers “Abbey Road,” the group’s
a case involving a drummer is awarded a star on final album together. Fla., claiming to be underpaid and overworked.
1974 - Max Weinberg makes his
who sued Rotten for head- the Hollywood Walk
debut as the drummer for Bruce 1996 - Alanis Morissette finishes her first U.S. tour with a
butting him during a dispute. of Fame. 1998 - MTV Russia makes its
Springsteen & The E Street Band. show in Houston, Texas.
debut at midnight.
ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 33
 MUSIC RELEASE CALENDAR
upcoming CD releases
8
Release dates are subject to change. Check artists
or store websites as these dates approach.

sept
Amerie: In Love & War
Boys Like Girls: Love
Drunk
The Clean: Mister Pop
Danko Jones: Never
Too Loud
Marie Digby: Breathing
Underwater
Os Mutantes: Haih Or Barauna
Polvo: Prism
Vivian Girls: Everything Goes Wrong
Yo La Tengo: Popular Songs
Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johansson:
Break Up
Hey local bands! Got a release date coming up? Let
us know at editorial@athensblur.com
sept 29
Alice In Chains: Black Gives Way To Blue
Beat Circus: Boy From Black Mountain
Cherry Poppin’ Daddies: Susquehanna
Nelly Furtado: Mi Plan
Kris Kristofferson: Closer to the
Bone
La Roux: La Roux
MadLove: White With Foam
The Melvins: Chicken Switch [remix
album]
Paramore: Brand New Eyes

sept 15 Phonograph: OKNO

Princeton: Cocoon Of Love
Lynyrd Skynyrd: God & Guns
Barbara Streisand: Love Is The Answer
The 69 Eyes: Back In Blood Swell Season: Strict Joy

06
Aluminum Babe: 17
Beastie Boys: Hot Sauce Committee
Part 1
Big Star: Keep An Eye On The Sky [Box oct
Set] Air: Love 2
Butterfly Boucher: Scary Lou Barlow: Goodnight Unknown
Fragile The Clientele: Bonfires On The Heath
Mariah Carey: Memoirs The Gossip: Music For Men
Of An Imperfect Angel Mayer Hawthorne: A Strange Ar-
DD/MM/YYYY: Black rangement
Square Headlights: Wildlife
The Dynamites: Burn It Lake: Let’s Build A Roof
Down Lotus: Feather On Wood [EP]
Fink: Sort Of Revolution Lotus: Oil On Glass [EP]
The Fresh & Onlys: Grey-Eyed Girls The Mountain Goats: The Life of
Kyle Hollingsworth [String the World to Come
Cheese Incident]: Then Music Go Music: Expressions
There’s Now No Age: Losing Feeling [EP]
Ricky Skaggs: Ricky A Place To Bury Strangers: Exploding
Skaggs Solo (Songs My Head
Dad Loved) The Raveonettes: In And Out Of Control
Ryan Starr: 11:59

13
Uncle Cracker: Happy
Hour

oct
Neon Indian: Psychic Charms
Pink Martini: Splendor In The Grass
Those Who Lie Beneath: An Awak-
ening
 NEW STORE
NOW OPEN!

i a r y :
tour d
cracker
8/5 — Neptune Park / Virginia Beach, VA 8/8 — Mountain State
photo: jason thrasher

Brewing Company, Thomas, WV

come check out our expanded
retail & distribution facility
195 Paradise Blvd. * Athens, Ga. * 30607
David and I started Cracker in Richmond in '91, so Virginia shows are
like home games. We've had several great gigs here at Neptune Park but
still the locale always feels a little surreal to me. The stage is near the beach
under what looks like a huge, overturned serving dish or spaceship. Across
the grassy quad is a gigantic statue of the park's namesake, trident raised
fervently, threatening tourists and the oddly mixed cross section of human-
ity that is a Cracker audience. I'm wondering if our song "Brides Of Nep-
tune" would be too obvious but what the hell, we always play it when we
are near an ocean. After sound check I remind the guys that there is splen-
did seafood (my favorite) in the restaurant beneath the swank hotel there
that we can't afford to stay in. The head waiter comes over, shakes my hand
and says "I'm a huge fan Dave! Have a great show." Frank, Sal and I have
This show was really very cool. It was in one of those indoor yet out-
door kind of places, you know, the whole rear wall of the club open to
the elements. The elements were kind to us, a perfect August night in
West Virginia. On the way to the club I was trippin' on how beauti-
ful the scenery was... A perfect vacation spot, beautiful, wooded areas,
cabins on the lakes and such. After the show I was having a conversa-
tion with a local woman who turned out to be a realtor, and she told me
that in all of West Virginia, there was only one natural lake, and all the
rest were man-made. She also told me that she could get me a vacation
cabin rental cheap. I'm seriously thinking about taking her up on that
offer, after the "endless tour" dies down, that is.

Your Vision. Amplified.
CAREER TRAINING FOR THE AUDIO AND FILM INDUSTRIES
a hearty chuckle about his blatantly insincere overtures. I cringe whenev-
er someone refers to my long time song writing partner as "Dave" instead
of David. He is so not a "Dave." The show begins well enough in spite
of warnings of an approaching storm. Great crowd, some very pretty girls
who would soon be drenched when the approaching lightning and thun-
It's been a very busy summer, and thank God for it, but whew! Thurs-
day we were in Richmond, Friday we drove five hours up north to Bor-
dentown and Saturday we drove six hours back down south to Thomas,
WV. I used to get pretty freaked out by crazy routing like this, hopping
up and down like a yo-yo instead of doing shows by proximity, but over

www.sae.edu der eventually drown out the band and the torrential downpour commenc-
es around song number nine. The promoters stop the show. There were ac-
tually a few people who seemed angry at us for being told to stop in spite of
CREATE YOURSELF WITH SAE being in real danger. Beer a factor? The crew helped us drag our damp gear
into the dressing room as we waved goodbye to the fans. Great gig while it
lasted — Neptune has his way.
( Johnny Hickman)
8/7 — The Record Collector/ Bordentown, NJ
After fleeing the stage at Neptune Park in Virginia Beach due to
SAE ATLANTA hurricane-like conditions, we drove to Richmond (our home base) for
www.sae-atl.com a day off. Today, we head to Bordentown, NJ, for an “in-store” at an
404-526-9366 awesome record store called “The Record Collector”.
As we’re loading in, I start cherry-picking some 45’s from their vast
selection. I swoop up some Ronettes, Otis Redding, Bobby Vee and B.
J. Thomas. Being an avid record collector myself, I’m in hog heaven.
We play a sold out show to about 100 diehard Cracker fans in the
store. Afterward, we meet and greet with the fans, and I get back to
the serious business of shopping for L.P.s Yes, that’s right, vinyl. I
score “I Fought the Law” by Bobby Fuller 4 and Van Morrison’s “His
Band & St. Choir.”
(Sal Maida)
the years I have come to realize that you have to take the gigs when you
get the availability... clubs won't just wipe their calendar for Cracker.
So, after a very winding road we arrive at our destination, the Moun-
tain State Brewing Company. We set up and soundcheck in front of
the locals, and the hired soundcrew was on their game — the PA and
monitors perfect for the room. Sounded pretty great onstage, and that's
not always the case. They fed us at the club — a local hippie catering
company prepared the meal, and it was actually fantastic.
The show was really, really good. The band is firing on all cylinders,
having been out pounding the stages since our new record (yes, I still
call them records) came out in the beginning of May. There was a pret-
ty serious film crew there with a camera on a crane and a couple of oth-
er handheld camera folks running around. No Martin Scorcese though.
I wonder what it was for. Local TV? A major motion picture about
Cracker?
Anyway, after the show I tried the local brew, and it was delicious.
Then I strolled across the parking lot to our hotel, past the biker bar
that was just getting started. As a matter of fact, as I walked past, the
song “Start Me Up” came blasting out of the joint. Back in the day, that
woulda been an invitation like a lightbulb is to a moth, but these days
I’m taking better care of myself. Three local pints and I’m down for the
count. The show must go on.
(Frank Funaro)

ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 37


8/9 - Mountain Stage, Charleston, WV
This is a gig I was really looking forward to, the prestigious Mt.
Stage Theatre! Cracker has performed there several times prior to me
joining up in 2006, but it’s a first for me and the whole experience is
extremely enjoyable. The stage amps are already set for each instru-
ment so you just plug in and it’s “ready steady go.”
We play with acts that have a heavy-duty musical pedigree. Cody
Dickinson’s band is like the Allman’s meet early Fleetwood Mac. I tell
Cody what a fan I am of his dad, Jim, who sadly passed away just last
week. Also on the bill is Austin singing legend Marcia Ball, and Don
Dixon is the house band’s bass player. Don Dixon, of course, co-pro-
duced the landmark “Murmur” LP by REM. We play four songs from
our new CD Sunrise in the Land of Milk & Honey, but have to replay
one song due to technical difficulties. After listening to Johnny take
part in the all star jam, we re-cut “ I Could Be Wrong, I Could Be
Right.” Looking forward to climbing the Mountain Stage again!
(Sal Maida)
8/14 – Wisconsin State Fair, West Allis, WI
Ah, the State Fair. The rides, the livestock, the food. Everything is avail-
able on a stick here. I was just told of (no shit) deep-fried, chocolate-cov-
ered bacon on a stick. Served cold. Yum. The weather is scorching, and
we spend much of the day hanging out in an air-conditioned trailer, one
of about five different trailers in the backstage area. Thank God our show
isn’t ‘til 8 p.m. — the 95 degree heat should be gone by then. I spend a lit-
tle while watching the afternoon entertainment, a song and dance troupe
named Kids From Wisconsin, or some such. Quite a show they put on.
There’s like 14 musicians and 20 dancers onstage doing everything from
Abba to ZZ Top (Ok, they weren’t doing ZZ Top, but I needed to get that
“Z” in there).
After every couple of songs the dancers would bolt back to the trailers
for a complete costume change while the band vamped on instrumental
versions of hits from the day. After about an hour of this exhausting-look-
ing activity, they took a well deserved break.
“Over the years, I have come to realize
that you have to take the gigs when
you get the availability... clubs won’t
just wipe their calendar for Cracker.”
—Frank Funaro, Cracker
38 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE
During this time, I was talking to the drummer, who was on percussion
duty that day, since the percussionist’s parents were there to see their kid
play — so he was out front on the drumset, up on a big riser with a plexi-
glass cage around him. The guy I was talking to, turns out, there’s a percus-
sion setup behind the stage, out of view of the audience, and that’s where
he was banging on congas and whatnot. I was watching him play from
backstage.
Anyway, this kid was telling me everyone in the troupe is in high school
or college, and they spend their summer vacation touring state fairs and
high school auditoriums. 60 shows a summer, he said. Turns out, these kids
were appearing at the fair for a couple of weeks, and the previous week,
the band that was in our slot was Night Ranger. Night Ranger set up a
shitload of gear and refused to move it, so this kid was trying to push the
drum riser a little off center so they could set up. He got yelled at, appar-
ently. Boo, hiss, Night Ranger.
After the kids, there were Chinese acrobats, and THAT was a trip. They
were defying gravity in some weird way, kinda lookin’ all “Crouching Ti-
ger, Hidden Dragon” and shit jumping through hoops and over each oth-
er. Wicked choreography. And there was a girl who balanced champagne
glasses on her body while contorted in ways you can only imagine.
Oh yeah, we played good, even without a proper soundcheck.
(Frank Funaro)
8/15 - First Avenue, Minneapolis, MN
This place is an institution and always a great gig for us. The main
man Conrad has been doing a great job there for so long that I imag-
ine him living in a dimly lit yet splendid belfry apartment above this
legendary venue. This is the stage where much of Prince's "Purple
Rain" was filmed, and The Replacements and Soul Asylum forged
their careers here. Dead Man Winter featuring our good friend Da-
vid Simonett from Trampled By Turtles opened the show and lent us
their amps and drums since we had flown in. A strong performance
by them which pleased the crowd considerably. I'd put Cracker's per-
formance at a solid eight out of 10. I was in the mood to go mingle
and enjoyed a few "Caucasians" handed to me by some fellow Big
Lebowski fans. All in all a great day. 8/14 – Wisconsin State
( Johnny Hickman) Fair, West Allis, WI
 Seeing Ghosts
Acclaimed electronic duo Zero 7 gets “haunted”
making album number four. by Natalie David
There are only about 10 countries in
the world that play cricket well, and Sam
Hardaker, who along with Henry Binns makes
up the core of Zero 7, is spending a Thursday
afternoon watching two of those teams duke it
out. “If you can imagine a sporting event that
goes on for five days, that’s what’s happening
now,” he says. “Pretty much anyone who can is
sitting around all day watching it.”
After a brief lesson about cricket — “It’s an
acquired taste,” he says — Hardaker speaks just
as candidly about his band’s new album, Yeah
Ghost. Described as a “haunting process,” the
creation of the electronic duo’s latest release
was far from smooth sailing. Whereas 2006’s
Grammy-nominated The Garden fell together
with ease, Yeah Ghost was an uphill battle from
the start, in part due to the absence of longtime
collaborator and vocalist Sia Furler, who is now
a solo artist. Without their muse, the pair was
left to seek a new voice to fill a growing void.
“Going into things with an unknown
quantity is such a gamble,” Hardaker says,
“because if you start and you don’t have that,
you can suddenly find yourself a year into it
and people will be going, ‘How’s the record?’
and I’ll go, ‘Yeah, we’ve got loads of good stuff,’
but in the back of my mind I’m thinking, ‘Well,
nowhere because we don’t have that person.’”
For Yeah Ghost, that person turned out
40 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE
to be London-based soul/jazz vocalist Eska
Mtungwazi. Although a somewhat obvious
choice (members of the revolving Zero 7 band
had played with Mtungwazi in the past), she
hid right under their noses until the duo was
lost, knee deep in the creative swamps.  was quite desperate, a little bit,” Hardaker
“It was just one of those things where it
was right there but we didn’t really think
about it until later on in the process of making
the record,” Hardaker says, relating that the
experience with Mtungwazi was an incredibly
positive one. “Just with the vocals and the
amazing backing vocal parts … to watch
somebody else’s imagination take off on it,
that’s what we hope for all the time, and it
doesn’t always happen.”
Finding Mtungwazi set the group back on
track and gave the album a masthead. Without
their missing piece, the creation of Yeah Ghost
found Hardaker and Binns charting various
musical tributaries, leading Hardaker to
remark that at different points in the process it
could have turned out as “a number of different
records.” He laughs uneasily about the number
of changes in direction the path to Yeah Ghost
took, and he even admits that everything came
together at the last second when the band
chose to omit songs that once were intended
to be integral pieces to the puzzle.
“Even at the very end of the process, when
it comes to compiling things together, there
was this moment where I slightly crossed my
fingers and I thought, ‘I hope all of this shit
does actually form something kind of cohesive,’
because the way that this album came together
says. “But to me it just shows that you can’t
really predict because the minute you think,
‘Oh! We’ve just gotten the hang of this record
making thing,’ you get thrown something that
knocks you. I’m no more hip to this process
than I was on the first record.”
That first record was 2001’s now-classic
Simple Things, an album that has, among
other accolades, sprouted songs heard on
“C.S.I.,” “House,” “Sex and the City”   and
the soundtrack to 2004’s Zach Braff-directed
soul-searcher,  “Garden State.”  Like Yeah
Ghost, Simple Things was an anticipated release.
Hardaker and Binns had made their names
in London as engineers during the tail end of
the last decade working on albums for names
as notable as the Pet Shop Boys and Robert
Plant. When the duo decided they wanted
to pursue a music career out from behind the
boards, their friend, producer Nigel Godrich,
gave them the task of remixing Radiohead’s
“Climbing Up the Walls.”
But just as Simple Things showed no growing
pains, Yeah Ghost hardly betrays its difficult
photo: sammy green
culmination. Following the brighter disposition shown on The Garden,
Yeah Ghost simply sashays out with a swankier soul. Mtungwazi makes
her presence known, especially on the riotous “Medicine Man,” alongside
other collaborations with English folkie Martha Tilston and electronic
hip-hopper Rowdy Superstar. As with the making of Yeah Ghost, the use
of differing collaborators also poses complications for faithfully touring
in support of the record. The group hopes to reach the United States by
the end of the year, however, Hardaker knows, considering Mtungwazi’s
upcoming solo album and the typical scheduling conflicts of touring, it
could be a logistical nightmare waiting to happen.
“Sometimes it can just be a real pain in the ass. There’s just so much to
organize, and logistically things became so difficult that … that was part
of the difficulties of making the record,” Hardaker says. “Oftentimes we
would be struggling and say, ‘Why can’t we just do this ourselves? Why
don’t we just get somebody and decide that we’re a band and just hang
out and make records?’ But that’s not where we’re at.”
Ultimately, Hardaker and Binns refuse to allow personnel issues to
inhibit their ability to create. The collaborator-fueled challenges actually
offered the duo clarity: a chance to pursue musical endeavors outside
of the Zero 7 moniker. Songs that otherwise would be set aside were
suddenly given lives of their own.
“It made us realize that actually it was really important for us to start
creating different outlets to finish our work, and not for it all to just be
about finding the person who is going to help us make the next Zero 7
record,” Hardaker says. “So we’ve gone back to doing numerous projects,
small things, to give us a chance to breathe out and let things go.”
When things get too intense, Hardaker at least knows how to spend
a slow Thursday.
“If you find an afternoon and you’re not feeling particularly energetic,”
he says, “just put your feet up and enjoy a bit of cricket.”
And keep your eye out for that googly. B

Ignoring The Hare
Inspiration be damned, Tortoise soldiers on
I
nterpol. Arcade Fire. Animal Collective. TV on the Radio.
Every year brings a new album that temporarily rewrites the
job description for an indie rock artist, with a new army of
bands clamoring to remake themselves and release albums that will
inevitably sound dated by the time the next year’s pace-changer arrives.
Though they were so cerebral and an unlikely candidate, thirteen years
ago Tortoise was that band, their Millions Now Living Will Never Die
representing the indisputable cutting edge of underground music,
introducing a jazz sophistication to indie rock and creating a new
genre of ambitiously eclectic instrumental music that was becoming
known as “post-rock.” For that moment, the horizons of rock music
belonged to the Chicago quintet, and for that moment it was hard to
imagine any proverbial hares catching up with them.
But the penalty of being a trendsetter is that your influence is soon
diluted by the sea of imitators that get swept up in your creative surge,
and in 2009 it’s easy to forget how revolutionary and challenging
those records were, how much Tortoise served to sever the relationship
between indie rock’s punk roots and the wide-ranging embrace of
electronic, jazz, dub and avant-garde minimalism that today bubbles
up through the genre’s most vibrant bands. The ideas came fast and
frantically, so fast, in fact, that they had assembled a catalog thick with
so many assorted inspired moments that they had to release a 179-
minute box set just to tie together their years of miscellaneous loose
ends. But when Tortoise sat down to make, Beacons of Ancestorship,
their sixth full-length record, they found it hard to say anything,
inspired or otherwise.
“I’m not really sure why,” says guitarist Jeff Parker, sounding as
baffled now by the band’s creative inertia as he was then. “It was a
very strange feeling. We just felt like we were running in place. It was
stuff that was really conceptual, like making sounds and doing stuff
like everyone playing a drum track and we’d edit it together. But none
of the stuff was really going anywhere. It was a lot of interesting ideas,
42 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE
photo: kurt iswarienkow
by Matt Fink
but we weren’t really creating anything. It wasn’t inspiring us to work
on songs. So then we set up instruments and just played together, and
it was kind of the same thing, just a lot of interesting ideas. But we
weren’t being very productive, and we weren’t coming up with anything
to work on. We were in a rut, because the previous two records, we just
went into the studio and winged it, and we tried it again,” he says with
a pause. “But it wasn’t working.”
So, for the first time in years, Tortoise decided to work outside of the
confines of drummer John McEntire’s Chicago studio and went back
to their rehearsal space, cleaned it out, and started over. After nearly
20 years as a band, they had some baggage and bad habits to unpack,
and a few times a week they did just that, with each member bringing
in long percolating ideas that were pulled from half-remembered ideas
and computer hard drives. Still nothing. Then, McEntire brought in
“Prepare Your Coffin,” a decidedly unsophisticated blast of no-frills
fuzz synths and swirling guitar riffs that was fun to play, even if it broke
no new ground. Soon, the group mind was pulsating in unison, and
they were debuting their new material at festival gigs. A new album
was born, one that moved away from the slow-building electronic
atmospheres of recent albums and onto the sprawling margins of
everything they’d flirted with but never quite consummated.
“Definitely, we felt pressure that, with this one, it had to be a bigger
step from the last two records, because those two are almost a little
connected in that we started to get a little more aggressive and started
using more distortion,” says multi-instrumentalist Dan Bitney of
Beacons. “The minimalism thing that we had going on [with earlier
records] really disappeared. I don’t think we were reacting as much
to what was happening around us, and we steered ourselves toward
a more conventional rock band. A song would be drums, keyboards,
bass guitar, and maybe vibes, which isn’t even that weird anymore.
With this one, it was like, ‘God, it has to be a bigger step!’ There are
abstract references to genres, and there is some slight hip-hop stuff
and some punk rock. You feel relief that you made this music, but it’s
like, ‘Oh my God, we have so many more decisions.'”
Those decisions included just how one sequences an album that
ranges from electronic prog (“High Class Slim Came Floatin’ In”) to
Spaghetti Western guitar instruments (“The Fall of Seven Diamonds”)
and furious blasts of punk rock (“Yinxianghechengqi”). How do you tie
together minimalist blips and bloops (“Gigantes”) with polyrhythmic
time changes and schizophrenic textural twists (“Monument Six
One Thousand”)? But despite the constant stylistic shifts and hard
left turns, it’s a remarkably focused release, one that expands on the
borders of their definitive style while pushing them away from the
improvisational scenes that were previously eager to claim them.
“I remember finishing this record and being like, ‘This one is going
to close the jazz festival door,’” Bitney laughs. “John McEntire would
be like, ‘No way, man! They’re going to love it! We’re still going to get
offers.’ But we have this baggage of the jam band, and I think people
want to not go too far into that, because that’s scary or something,”
Bitney admits. “But when I hear someone say ‘jamming,’ I say, ‘Well,
we don’t jam. We can improvise here and there.’ Somehow, to me,
those are super different things. There’s not a lot of that on the record.
I think that’s something that we could do that could be interesting,
but you have to learn how to do it. You have to create a situation and
then plug away at it. It’s kinda all improvising unless you have a piece
like “Prepare Your Coffin,” where it’s like ‘Here are the chords.’ But
even then I could go in and be like, ‘Well, I’m going to try saxophone
on this,” he laughs. “And everyone would say, ‘Yes!’ or ‘Well, that was a
dumb idea!’ But you have to go for it and try.”
Yet despite their willingness to exhaust every possible creative
option, the members of Tortoise live daily with the knowledge that
they work in an artistic medium where today’s blog sensation will be
wiped off headlines and hipster tongues within six months, one where
intricately arranged instrumental music doesn’t translate for short
attention spans and iPods. In the age of the shuffle mix, Tortoise is a
decidedly awkward fit.
“It’s a great feeling that we’re making music that I think is kind
of strange and it kind of works,” Bitney admits. “But it feels fragile,
too. It only takes your promoter and your agent to have a ticket price
that’s a little too high, and you’re like, 'Why did we let that happen?'
We were just in New York a couple of weeks ago, and there are people
that come up to the merch booth and just give you money, like, ‘I’m
really sorry, man, but I downloaded your record. Here’s 20 bucks.’ I
shouldn’t really say all this, because of the label…”he says, trailing off.
“It’s a weird problem.”
Whatever the case, aside from a slightly larger following and slightly
shorter song times, Tortoise in 2009 isn’t really that much different
than Tortoise circa 1994, still holding a place comfortably outside of
the movements that have tried to copy them, tried to claim them, and
finally just tried to keep up with them. Even if the albums come more
slowly and the creative gears grind with more deliberation, Tortoise
is still making albums that challenge themselves and their audience,
remaining relevant long after most of their successors have faded into
irrelevancy.
“I feel like, as a band, we’ve taken a huge step forward in the past
year or so,” Parker says. “We’ve figured out that there’s another way
to work and come up with stuff. In the world of rock, we’re in such a
youth-oriented culture. I guess we are veterans, because most of us have
been playing in bands since we were adolescents, 12, 13, 14, 15 years
old. But all of us are really thankful that we’ve had the opportunity to
be in a band that is as creatively fulfilling as Tortoise, because a lot of
people, man, they don’t get to do that. So just to be an elder statesman
is a feat unto itself, especially in indie rock, with fickle audiences and
record labels that come and go,” he says with a thoughtful pause.
“We’re extremely thankful.” B
 After an
eight-year
absence, an
energized
Circulatory
System
returns
with a new
album
Suddenly, Will Cullen Hart is talking
about stray cats. And no, not the 1980s rockabilly
band. ∫ “There’s so many of them in Athens, they’re all over the
place,” he said, sitting Indian style in the corner of his couch,
wearing a beat-up straw hat with an orange tabby kitten asleep
in his lap. “In this town there are thousands, thousands of
them. I heard a guy on the radio talking about it and he said it
would be better if we eradicated them. But I understand both
sides.” ∫ Hart counts five cats in his household, not including
the strays perusing the backyard. As he talks, two cats roam
the living room, while two more linger on the outside patio. ∫

R T
“Anything outside are just strays, but I feed them,” Hart said,

EA
laughing. “I tell you, I love cats.” ∫ Before the conversation

H
darted to stray cats, it centered on Signal Morning, the

n d
sophomore album from one of Hart’s other loves, Circulatory

ha
System. But just as the discussion heads back to details

in
about the new release, Hart is off talking about four-tracks.
Thrashe
r ∫ Then tube amps. ∫ Then the power of Twitter. ∫ And then
s o n
orales | photo
s by J a
it starts to make sense — this is why it took eight years. p
by Ed M
44 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 45
 Athens is an odd place when it comes
to bands – they appear to break up and
disappear, but they’re never too far away.
Bands form, disband, reunite then dissolve,
only to return at some later date, playing a
40 Watt gig on a sleepy Thursday night.
It’s like they have nine lives or
something.
So when news came a second Circulatory
System album was actually on its way,
nearly eight years after the first, the
musical collective didn’t think, “Hey, that’s
weird.”
They just thought “Hey, that’s Athens.”
Signal Morning is a 17-track psychedelic
gem gleaned from tapes and tapes of
layered guitars, radio fuzz, electronic parts
and a collaboration of musicians who’ve
been working with one another for more
than a decade. Joining Hart on the latest
ensemble effort are the usual suspects
— John Fernandes, Derek Almstead,
Suzanne Allison, Peter Erchick, Nesey
Gallons, Charlie Johnston and Heather
McIntosh — with assists from Bill Doss
(Hart’s songwriting partner from The
Olivia Tremor Control) and Jeff Mangum
and Julian Koster of Neutral Milk Hotel.
The end result — a sweeping collection
stirring intense discussion and excitement
— would have never happened if not for
the editing ears of two bandmates.
“There were so many different versions
and it was so hard to decide which to
use,” said Fernandes, one of the band’s
founders with Hart. “We had some friends
step in. Charlie (Johnston) who plays in
63 Crayons and Nesey Gallons, who plays
with Music Tapes, and both play with us
now, were the third party that entered the
picture to give us fresh ears and say ‘Let’s
use this one, this one and this one’ and
started piecing it together.”
“We were scattered over seven different
studios using different production
techniques and we couldn’t get satisfied,”
Hart said. “I literally had CD cases full
of different mixes and parts and I just
handed them over to Nesey. It was just
too much. There’s one song called ‘Blasting
Through’ and it could be half a side or a
whole side the way I was doing it. So I told
Nesey, ‘Try to do a pop song, make it a pop
song’ — and he did! He went all in. The
songs became more concise.”
“Overjoyed,” the album’s initial single,
is evidence of this — coming in at a
compact two and a half minutes, it bulges
with sound like an overstuffed suitcase.
From its layered cello start to its grinding
drum center and electronic dirge of an
ending (is that an airplane? A backhoe?
46 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE
Fran Drescher?), “Overjoyed” reveals a
group of musicians braced to burst with
anticipation. Of course, as is the way in
our digital world, the Internet beat them
to it. An early version of the album leaked,
bringing with it platitudes, wonderment
and dueling discussions over lyrics and
song titles.
“The fact that it leaked is a shame,”
Fernandes said. “But maybe it helps. I
remember seeing it was the most popular
download from this one BitTorrent
site — it was Eminem, then Circulatory
System — so there’s going to be people
that see others downloading us and
maybe listening to us who might not have
listened to us before. It’s kind of exciting
people are so interested.”
“I hope it helps us in the long run,” Hart
said. “It’s crazy watching the Internet
grow. There was a mistake on the Internet
for the name of one of the songs, but the
new name was kind of mysterious too,
so we went along with it. One group of
people thought it was “News From The
Heavenly Loom” and another thought it
was “New From The Heavenly Loom” (it’s
news), and people were debating online,
one group saying I hope it’s this, or I hope
it’s that.”
Set for release on Cloud Recordings (the
label founded by Fernandes and Hart), a
CD and digital download version, as well
as 1,500 vinyl pressings (featuring cover
artwork from Hart) await an avid crowd.
Fernandes was quick to point out the
leaked version was nowhere near the final
one, as changes were made to the master
before it was done.
“I think a lot of people are really weird
about quality these days, they still want it
to sound like it’s supposed to sound,” Hart
said. “They’re really into that.”
To understand where Hart and his
Elephant Six Collective bandmates stand
now is to understand where they were a
decade ago.
And quite the decade it’s been.
Circulatory System was an offshoot
formed in 2000 following the breakup of
The Olivia Tremor Control, a seminal band
of grand experimentation and one of the
original E6 projects. While Hart and most
of OTC went one way, Doss and Eric Harris
went on to Sunshine Fix.
Hart’s new band grabbed on lightning
quick, as its self-titled release in 2001
found an assembly of admirers and left
critics in crushes. Pitchfork, the lauded
(and sometimes loathed) web site, named
Circulatory System the fifth-best album
of 2001, remarking the work by Hart and
crew resulted “in an album every bit as
sincere as it is profound.”
The band followed with a good bit of
touring and added Inside Views, a cut and
paste remix of the debut album. While
touring with Sea and Cake in 2003, the
murmurs of putting out the sophomore
effort surfaced, only to be stymied by busy
schedules and indecision.
“We had been amassing a lot of tapes
over many years, we’ve been playing some
of the songs on the new record since the
tours right after our first record since
2001,” Fernandes said. “During the tour
opening for Sea and Cake the songs were
sounding really good. We thought ‘OK,
when we get home we’re going to finish
recording these songs and it’s going to
be out.’ But then we kept doing different
versions and going to a bunch of different
studios.”
“It had become disjointed and more
extreme and stupid in my mind and shit
that didn’t make any sense,” Hart said.
The rest of the band members, as Athens
musicians are apt to do, spread out to their
many side projects. Fernandes recorded
and played with New Sound of Numbers
and Elf Power; Erchick toured and recorded
with Pipes You See, Pipes You Don’t and
The Instruments; Almstead and Allison
joined in The 63 Crayons (with Johnston),
but also recorded with Marshmallow Coast
and Casper and the Cookies, respectively;
and McIntosh played with a host of bands,
including Elf Power, The Instruments, New
Sound of Numbers and Japancakes, and
more recently toured with Lil Wayne.
As Hart struggled to make sense of
the many tracks floating in his mind,
he was struggling with his body as well.
Slowly unable to see out of his right eye,
he went to the doctor and after several
tests discovered he had multiple sclerosis.
After years of wondering what was going
on, Hart had a diagnosis and a daily shot
routine that helped him not feel worse.
And with that, Circulatory System’s
return found fewer pit stops and much-
needed momentum.
In June, Circulatory System took to
the small outdoor stage at Athens’ Farm
255 and played a handful of new tunes to
an appreciative audience, some of whom
travelled from several states away to be
there. It proved a watershed moment for
the band.
“The energy in the live show feels like
we got a really good dynamic,” Fernandes
said. “When we played the Farm, there’s
an amazing part where Will’s sitting and
playing but he’s getting so into it and
excited he starts to stand up, like he’s
saying ‘I’m ready to stand up and rock,’ but
then forgets he doesn’t have his strap on, so
he kinda rocks for a second, then sits back
down.”
“I’ve decided to stand up and play rather
than just sit around,” Hart said. “I want
to be able to project well because it’s more
engaging.”
With 35 solid tracks culled from the
various sessions for Signal Morning, Hart
and Fernandes can see a quick turnaround
for a third Circulatory System album. But
let’s not get too far ahead  — first a fall tour
awaits, followed by the slow release of a
track here and there for those who do buy
the album. After all, all things come in due
time, even if that time lasts the length of
two presidential terms (or 48 cat years, as
it were).
“I was worried that for people who
have been waiting a long time, whether
the album was going to live up to their
expectations,” Fernandes said. “But
everything I’ve read so far was what we
were hoping people would say. Will is not
only an amazing songwriter but an amazing
sound sculpter and the placement of sounds
is essential.”
“I’m ready to sing and not get all prancy
and say ‘I can’t hear myself in the monitors’
and all that dumb shit I did over the years,”
Hart said. “I’ve gotten to the point where
I’m excited to play, and I don’t want to be
like that. I mean, who cares.”
“It’s something that comes with age, I
guess,” Hart continued. “I had a birthday the
other day, and I can’t remember if it was 37
or 38. But really, does it matter (laughs)?”
ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 47
 life
at
the

speed of
tweet
The latest social media outlet is
by
natalie david

changing the music industry, for “When I was a teenager I would have loved if I
could just write Kurt Cobain a message, says Sune
better or for worse photo: camilla stephen
Rose Wagner of Danish Duo The Raveonettes.

T
witter. Love it or hate it, the newly
emerged social networking site has
a stranglehold on current popular
culture. From celebrities and musicians to
news stations and politicians, the entire world,
for better or worse, seems to be atwitter.
For Amanda Palmer, it’s almost a way
of life.  Palmer, solo artist and half of punk
cabaret duo The Dresden Dolls, draws few
lines between herself and her art, her life and
her public persona, blogging and Twittering
everything from love notes to her boyfriend
(fantasy writer Neil Gaiman), to chronicles
of her hectic life and free passes to her shows,
all with an unprecedented level of intimacy
and immediacy.   asinine ideas, inspirational quotes, informed
“There’s something incredibly special
about the fact that Twitter is so immediate,”
says Palmer, who interacts with over 42,000
followers on the site. “People know that I am
listening to them right now and responding
to them right now, in the moment.”
For fans, Twitter functions as more than a
connection to their favorite artists, it’s also a
peek behind the curtain at the Wizard of Oz.
It has the capacity to show artists, musicians,
filmmakers and celebrities at their most
candid, yet in an unobtrusive way.
  “Twitter is like never-ending liner notes
48 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE
and backstage passes,” says social media
expert Chris Brogan. Brogan, a friendly,
funny social media rockstar and president
of New Marketing Labs, has made a name
for himself over the past decade as a social
media veteran and blogger, in addition to
co-penning Trust Agents, a guide for creating
a solid Internet rep via social media. He
continues, “I believe bands are finding success
by showing who they are behind the music.”
Unlike other social networking sites, like
MySpace and Facebook, which can be mostly
static profiles maintained with minimal
effort, Twitter is constant, a never-ending
stream of information, random thoughts,
commentary and personal insights, all in
short, 140-character packages. Messages, or
“tweets,” are then shared with the person’s
followers and compiled in the overall timeline
of Twitter users. In conjunction with services
like Twitpic and Yfrog, users can even share
photos with the world just moments after the
images were captured. Essentially, Twitter is
an endless live blog and, in the words of the
service, it is “what you make of it.”
Publicly launched in August of 2006,
Twitter didn’t catch on like wildfire until
earlier this year. Although technically still in
its research phase (read: it makes no money),
very public use of the service by celebrity
moguls like Ashton Kutcher goaded millions
to sign up for the service in an effort to
become connected with the celebrity elite.   the ability to connect to any number of fans
“Twitter helps cut through the clutter,”
says Brogan, appropriately via email, on why
Twitter has become so successful, in particular
with the music and entertainment industry.
“MySpace is great in that it has a built-in
player and all kinds of other features, but
Twitter is just a message out, and responses
back. It’s simple. That means you can connect
more intimately and with a better response
rate. There are too many distractions on other
social sites.”
With its streamlined approach, Twitter is
simultaneously an information, marketing
and public relations vessel and the site is
putting bands in the public eye more than
ever before. Band members once too busy to
scribe hundred-plus-word weekly blog posts
or tour diaries are now checking in daily,
straight from their cell phones with short
messages to fans, even responding to and
“retweeting” their messages, and then can
quickly be back on their way.    they definitely still do work, but now they’re
More importantly, though, Twitter has
allowed artists like Palmer to run their
careers with a greater degree of independence
through connecting with their fan bases in
real time. The appeal to fans is obvious. Less
apparent is the benefit for the artist. With
at any given time, artists can often look to
their fans for a lifeline.
“It’s not just this constant emotional Q&A
with my fans and an information feed for
my fans, but they’re helping me out. They’re
helping me the fuck out, all the time, and in
very practical ways,” explains Palmer, who’s
fans have come to the rescue with rides from
the airport, keyboard loans for shows, even
keeping an eye on her luggage.  Last-minute
impromptu shows and fan get-togethers,
often dubbed “Tweet Ups,” have also become
a part of Palmer’s repertoire, an activity that
previously would have taken months of
planning and a small army to get the word
out.   Sune Rose Wagner, the shaggy-headed,
“This is, literally, like I can run my life
independently from a phone,” says Palmer,
on the line from the storied Harvard Square
in Cambridge, Mass., “and I definitely still
have managers and agents and lawyers and
available to do a different kind of work while
I fly at the speed of light directly connecting
with the fans.”   loved if I could just write Kurt Cobain a
Palmer has even used the site to virtually
hang out with her fans, most famously
in sessions dubbed “LOFNOTC” (That’s
“Losers of Friday Night on Their Computers”
for the uninitiated), a series of spur-of-the-
moment, Friday night conversations that have
built a greater sense of camaraderie between
Palmer and her fan base, with Gaiman and
cellist and collaborator Zoë Keating even
joining in the Twitter fest.
Beyond granting fans unprecedented
virtual access to bands, and vice versa,
Twitter can also be used to include fans in
the creative process. This past June, Danish
duo The Raveonettes used the service to post
links to full-length demos of tunes from their
upcoming fourth LP, In and Out of Control,
and encouraged fans to respond and voice
their opinions of the tracks.   of admiration.
savant spearhead of the surf-y rock duo,
says it wasn’t a cry for help as some had
misconstrued the exercise, but just a way
to get fans talking about the group’s music
and give them a sneak peak of what was to
come.
“When I was a teenager and I was a huge
fan of Nirvana, for instance, I would have
message, or if he would post pictures of
them being in the studio, or post cool demo
versions of his songs,” says Wagner. “I would
have absolutely died if he had done that. It
would have been so amazing!”  
“So that’s why I do it, just to get people
to feel that they’re a part of something,” says
Wagner. “I wish that my favorite bands would
have done the same. I would have been so
happy, you know?”  
Another lesser seen use for Twitter is
that artists are now able to more easily
connect with each other, without having to
jump through the hoops, firewalls, bells and
whistles that have always been in place to keep
them protected. It opens up opportunities
for artists to reach out to others that they
would like to work with, or just drop a line
“It’s just easier to meet up with people. It’s
easier to collaborate, it’s easier to just kind of
give the cosmic high five to people that you
love,” says Palmer. “And it’s a great feeling.”
But not all artists share Palmer’s enthusiasm
for Twitter. The emergence of fake celebrity
Twitter accounts (real celebs now have
accounts designated as “Verified”) scared
away acts like Kanye West, and a famous
ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 49

there’s something incredibly special about
the fact that Twitter is so immediate, says
Amanda Palmer, solo artist and one half of
punk-cabaret duo Dresden Dolls.
Twitter battle with Chris Cornell alongside
comments from angry fans led Nine Inch
Nails frontman Trent Reznor to publicly
delete his account. Other bands have Twitter
accounts set up as mere publicity feeds, run
by publicists or their record labels, in order to
spread information about upcoming concerts
and album releases. And, of course, there
are bands who abstain from the service all
together.  they want it out there or not. And withholding
Still more see it as a negative influence
on the institution of rock 'n' roll. There’s
no arguing that the mystique that spread
intrigue and interest in the music, its makers
and its mythos throughout the ‘60s and ‘70s
is fast becoming a thing of the past, but
Twitter, to some, is little more than a blue
feathered, yellow-beaked Grim Reaper.
Although he admits that social networking
can be an asset for bands, the EELS’s Mark
Everett (aka E) dismisses Twitter as merely
“empty calories” in comparison to penning
an autobiographical tome, and even goes
so far as to claim that the service ruins the
alluring appeal of music.  personal level was part of her reasoning for
“It’s this kind of thing that’s killing
music,” says E, who tried the service for a
few weeks at the request of his label, Vagrant
Records, before abandoning it all together in
50 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE
photo: martyn foster
deference to his band’s official website. “Do
we really need to know what the singer had
for breakfast and what happened when he
went to the bathroom this morning? I think
it’s undignified.”   were certainly not afraid to be completely
But there is some argument to how
successful retaining the so-called mystique
of rock 'n' roll even is in an age where
information abounds about anyone, whether
information, in some instances, can even be a
detriment to a band when keeping fans happy
often correlates to constantly giving them
something new to hold their attention.
“I think people crave it, actually. And I
think they demand it a lot of times,” says
Wagner on the fans’ appetite for social media
interaction. “There are so many bands out
there and it’s very easy to access any band in
the world by clicking a few times, so I think
it’s something that you have to do. It’s very,
very necessary.”
For Palmer, putting herself out there
as much as possible on an emotional and
going into music in the first place.
“I wanted to expose myself in the most
human and positive of ways, and I felt like
I looked at certain artists who were literally
putting it all out there, emotionally, and
I wanted to emulate them,” says Palmer,
citing '80s superstars Madonna, Cyndi
Lauper, Prince and The Cure as “people who
themselves. Total freaks.”
“They were creating their own worlds, and
those had nothing to do with the myth of
rock 'n' roll and how exposed you were and
how much you talked about and how much
you didn’t,” continues Palmer. “And the whole
fucking beauty of rock 'n'- roll is that you get
to make up all this shit as you’re going along!
Nobody can tell you how to do it. That’s the
idea. That’s why it’s awesome.”
Breaking the rules and discovering new
paths has also never been easier. As the old
ways (major labels, physical sales) continually
capitulate into new ways (indies, downloads)
bands are benefiting from innovation more
and more often, especially by connecting
directly with fans.
“If you’re a band and you’re not visiting
your fans’ pages to talk with them and not
just spam about your band, you’re blowing
the opportunity,” adds Brogan. “There’s some
real opportunity here, but it requires that you
act human.”
Even though Wagner and his band mate,
Sharin Foo, choose to use Twitter more for
band related missives than the free spirited
Palmer, he says they are still available to fans,
even hooking them up with mp3s of hard-to-
Follow Flurry
find demos when asked. But for both Wagner Blur-approved artists get their Tweet on:
and Palmer, connecting with fans is less of  
a job requirement and more of an enjoyable Amanda Palmer: @amandapalmer
experience. Twitter just makes it easier.
“I got into making art because I love Notable Tweet: “I know its 522 in the morning here in london but does anyone know
interacting with people, so for me this is where at heathrow I can buy big fire-roasting marshmallows? Important....”
like a kid in a candy store,” Palmer laughs.  
“For others who are less outgoing or less The Raveonettes - @theraveonettes
exhibitionistic, it’s a tool, and it’s a great tool
to simply spread information in a day and age Notable Tweet: “sune in hawaii celebrating his birthday. hopefully no bad wipeouts.
where the spread of information is basically we're also working on single cover. hush hush (last dance) hushhhhh.”
synonymous with how you’re making your  
living.” EELS - @THE_EELS
And Twitter has certainly helped to keep
Palmer’s punk cabaret force going. During Notable Tweet: “This shit is retarded.”
the initial LOFNOTC meeting, Palmer  
designed a commemorative t-shirt for the Ingrid Michaelson - @ingridmusic
virtual flash mob, using paper and a sharpie.
Almost instantly, her go-to web guy had Notable Tweet: “when i was young, every male singer wanted to sound like eddie
put up a website where the shirt could be vedder. now they want to sound like they are pushing a car up a hill.”
purchased. The result? In two hours Palmer  
made $11,000 profit, more than she had These United States - @theseunited
earned from her 2008 Ben Folds-produced
solo debut. A webcast auction conducted Notable Tweet: “can't remember where I heard this... “War is weak - it cannot destroy
through Twitter several days later also netted everything.” ????? Remind me - or, you know, just Respond...”
Palmer an additional $6,000.  
Although these sales could be written off Blitzen Trapper - @BlitzenTrapper
as some creepy grasp at buying a connection
with a celebrity, Palmer insists that her Notable Tweet: “OK, guess it's more “hugs & high fives & arm waving” than actual
efforts are genuine. She’s been developing a collaboration but hey, that counts in our book.”
relationship with her fans, sleeping on their  
floors, meeting them at shows and conversing
The Delfields - @TheDelfields
with them on message boards since she began
touring with The Dresden Dolls in 2000.
Notable Tweet: “Just because you think you're attractive doesn't mean you can steal my
“We trusted everybody because if they
seat.”
liked our music, they were good people,” says
Palmer. “And I’ve kept with that philosophy  
the entire time.” Ben Kweller - @benkweller
“It’s not like all of a sudden, because there’s
Twitter, out of the blue I trust my fan base Notable Tweet: “Tryin to be healthy ya know? I've had 2 airport salads today and they
and they trust me. It’s been building for years both had long black hairs in them. Why does that happen?”
and years,” says Palmer, who cautions newer  
bands that it takes more than just using fun. - @ournameisfun
Twitter to create a loyal fan base. Although it
can help, the word of mouth it fosters is only Notable Tweet: “Question... What movie would you NEVER see but you know your
as reliable as the product behind it. significant other is gonna drag you to? Me= time travelers wife. Dreading it.”
“Some might look at the model and say,  
‘Oh! My God! If I start a Twitter account, Mindy Smith - @mindysmithmusic
my fans will just start showing up in every
city and people will offer us a place to stay!’ It Notable Tweet: “i can't believe Al Franken is a senator elec...wow! interstinng. maybe
probably won’t work,” explains Palmer. “You Ellen DeGeneres can be one too, she is way funnier!!”
need to actually build the fan base first.”  
As for the naysayers, those wishing to keep Sister Hazel @SisterHazelBand
a sense of mystique in rock 'n' roll, there’s
one simple solution: step away from the Notable Tweet: “Just finished writing an awesome song. I think I'll eat a sandwich.”
computer.
“If you want to read personal stuff, read it,” Asher Roth @asherroth
says Wagner. “If you don’t like people being
brutally honest and being personal, don’t read Notable Tweet: “Remember in elementary school when the nurse use to do the head lice
it.”  check and it felt all good... what's good with a head massage?”
That is, if you can escape the stranglehold.  B
ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 51
 One of the constant
charms of this music
town — of any good
music town — is the
notion that nothing is,
well...constant. Venues
of two decades ago
are long gone,
foreshadowing the fate
of those that stand
today. As many have
done before, and
others will do in the
future, four clubs lead
the way into another
changing face of
music spots in Athens...

venue
ventures by Alec Wooden Photos by Justin Evans

52 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 53

 Adrian Zelski went to bed happy that night. And why not? It was
Thursday, June 18, and he’d just completed an unofficial gentleman’s
agreement with Blur Club owner Mark Bell to convert the Dougherty Street
space into a full scale music venue. It was just what he’d long wanted —
already boasting his own production company and successful band,
Dubconscious, Zelski now had the structure of a good partnership to further
his vision of the future in Athens music. Yep, life was pretty good. 12 hours
later, tragedy struck the town he has called home for almost two decades.
Athens Blur Magazine: I think a lot of people a quality system. I want a really good monitor
assume New Earth opening is a direct reaction board, a really good soundboard.  It’s crucial.  I
to the Georgia Theatre fire. True story? would love every club to have a personality trait
Adrian Zelski: That’s a really weird story, very — we want the band to drive away and say, 'Wow,
interesting.  I have a production company, they did a great job with promotion, hospitality,
Harmonic Productions, and we were putting on good job on production, advancing, good hotel
shows with DJs from the West coast and there was hook-up, had a person ready to load us in.'  I
no where to really put them in Athens. So Drew, want all that. It’s not cool if you spend six hours
the bar manager [at Blur Bar, now New Earth], to get to a venue and there are grumpy people
basically offered this space. I met Mark Bell, the not taking care of you.   
owner of the place, and we just lightly conversed
about it, but nothing serious happened. On the ABM:  What’s been the toughest part?
night before the Georgia Theatre burned down, AZ:  First and foremost its investment capital,
Mark called and said 'I would like to talk to you working the details out, seeing who’s going to
about the club.'  We got the official offer the get what, who’s going to pay for what.  Another
night before the Theatre burned down.  As the thing is trying to make sure that this whole
days passed [after the fire], I started to think idea is right — not stepping on anybody's toes,
'this is obviously needed.' I called the guys at the not offending anyone, and figuring out how to
Georgia Theatre and let them know, 'hey, I think enter the political game of music without being
I am going to buy this club and I don’t want it to bad.  That might be an advantage, though — I
seem crazy or too opportunistic.' I wanted it to know the politics.  I know the demographic of
seem like a positive healthy thing that we would most places. 
be working on together.   
  ABM: What's going to be your goal when you
ABM: Why “New Earth?” come to work here everyday?
AZ: It has an interesting tie-in to Eckhart Tolle's AZ: If a band plays here, I want them to put on
philosophy. He wrote a book called “A New Earth” an event.  I want it to be a unique experience, not
that basically talks about how in the future the just a date filler. We just want to see everybody new earth music hall
world will not be guided by greed and anger really getting along and trying to build Athens
and possessive and dominant, male dominance into a one-of-a-kind music scene. The Southeast
culture and all these things like that. I thought can really establish a support system for a band. located
it was a great idea for a club to expound the It’s a great place to tour and have fun but if 227 W. Dougherty St.
ideas of inclusiveness, positivity, nice people you actually look at the demographics of the
helping nice people. There’s something about Southeast, we should have much more of an formerly
being worldly and having world music, having industry.  I think Athens is a nucleus of many Detour, Blur
international DJs coming down and quality ideas — there should be more booking agencies,
bands that we enjoy. So that’s really cool — and there should be better management companies capacity
it has a connotation of change, and I like that. and team players should stand-out. I want 500
  the music scene to thrive, all band’s to have a
ABM: The past two incarnations of this room home, to be in a place that they are proud of.  opened
have been largely known for housing GLBT I love Athens.  But when I come here I have to August 28
shows. Do you have plans to continue that? do all this myself — promote [Dubconscious],
AZ: Absolutely. We want to be unique and very publicize us, and do everything.  You play in
open-minded..  We are going to continue to have Chicago, San Francisco or New York, you do one age restrictions
the gay/lesbian community do their shows here show of over 200 people you will have 20 people show dependent
and continue to have counter-culture events.  trying to work for you. I would love to have that
  here. Every town has its flaws, but Athens has its type of shows
ABM: How has your perspective as a touring beautiful niche of being a small town.  I would any and all, though

new earth music hall

musician helped you carve out an idea for how love this to be a nucleus for all the stuff I love many nights will focus
the club should function? and support fully.   That’s an ultimate goal, kinda on DJ’s and world music
AZ: I hate a club that doesn’t have good stuff lofty.  I am a big dreamer — I am a musician
(laughs).  If it was me, I would want to play on (laughs). 
New Earth partners (L to R) Matthew Woolley, Drew Meyer and
54 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE Adrian Zelski take a break from construction. Photo: Justin Evans ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 55
 It doesn’t take many trips down the streets of Athens to figure out the
unspoken demarcation line of the downtown blocks. As the stigma goes, west
of Lumpkin Street is packed with “townie” art and music lovers, while the
geographical counterpart is slammed with nothing more than
college hooligans looking for cheap thrills and cheap booze. Murphy
Wolford doesn’t buy that the two need be separate — together with consultant
(and future business partner) Paul DeGeorge, and armed with a boatload of
upgrades and changes, his staple music venue tries to bridge the gap.
Athens Blur Magazine: Of course, we can't ABM: And from a tech standpoint? Is there an
help but notice the addition to the name — actual system upgrade?
talk about the importance of “Uptown.” PDG: We have upgraded substantially to the best
Murphy Wolford: When we were students the of everything that was in the building when we
hipsters would call downtown “Uptown.”  With had two stages.  This room acoustically, just raw,
the way things have transitioned over the years, sounds great and that was the purpose of moving
we're kinda alone over here doing live music. So to the live rock 'n' roll.  We had a sound travel
we want to re-energize the students about music problem and now [by soundproofing between
and capture the clientele available to us on this floors] it's cut by 80 percent so you can have a
side of town.  Uptown is part of that. rock band up here and a jazz band downstairs
and never know the difference.  Also, the [new,
ABM: Speaking of energize…what has kept uninstalled at press time] lighting will play a
you motivated in this scene for over a decade? huge role and it looks like a professional concert,
MW: Music.  Nothing gets me motivated, nothing obviously smaller but it’s a great space.
turns me on more than hearing new bands that
blow me away. You get in the everyday dull of ABM: Let’s not discount the past 12 years, but 
the business, then a band gets on the stage and let’s view this as a fresh start. Why is this room
reminds you what it's all about. going to be successful, particulary as a brand
alongside the new downstairs in Magnolias? 
ABM: Paul, what is it that attracted you to MW: Athens is all about youth and the
Athens? You've had other successful bars wonderment that comes with it — and the
(Pauley's, The Loft), but why now are you mystique and the Athens community has been
trying your hand in the music scene? created by the engagement by the youth with
Paul DeGeorge: I was involved in the film industry music and art.  So, the mission with the free
[in South Florida] — I own my own studio down flow [of the building] and providing tons of
there. Myself and three other artists opened our free shows for the students downstairs [in the]
arms to any local artists or musicians, dance beautiful southern setting with jazz and acoustic
groups or theatre groups that had a good idea — something that they would enjoy  walking tasty world uptown
but did not have the space or the money to rent off the street. That will get them interested and
a space or do something like that.  So we were engaged in music and  that will cause success up
sort of a driving force in South Florida of that here and more success with independent music.
located
independent scene and that’s part of my heart and  
312 E. Broad St.
I truly love that.  But I was getting burnt out, so ABM: You mentioned a free flow between up
I came to Athens more for a business change. The and downstairs — will Magnolias and Tasty
formerly
idea was to create a couple businesses that would World brand each other naturally?
Tasty World
create a good financial foundation to do more of PDG: With the free flow of the venue providing
the creative things I wanted to do. Murphy and I a consistent and reliable  kind of music that they
[sat] down and realized our passions were along want to hear, we have created a solid foundation. capacity
the same lines and how much potential is here As far as the direction, I think it will be dictated approx. 171 upstairs, 193
to recapture and rekindle and revitalize Athens by the students and the music and what bands downstairs (magnolias)
in our minds. we can get to perform.  We are looking forward to
that and this will take a direction and be unique (re)opened
ABM: In terms of taking in a show upstairs, to this town.  Murphy has been fighting with AthFest 2009
what was the most necessary change for the this separation of uptown and downtown and
room? the townie side and the college side, and it is a age restrictions
PDG:  Raising the stage and making it larger little difficult in that sense, but I really think it 18+ or 21+,
wasn’t really necessary, but it was low and it is something that has amazing potential.   It's event-dependent

tasty world uptown

needed a professional appearance — making it our job to find the best music and try to engage
type of shows
high enough so that everyone has a good view.  students.  You want to introduce students to new
wide open booking
No matter where you are in this room now, music but at the same time you want to cater to
upstairs, jazz and
everyone has a good view.  Prior, if you were 10- their desires.  This industry is tough but there is a
acoustic acts downstairs
15 feet back you would not be able to see much. strong foundation set up here and it will take us
some time but I think something will happen.
Murphy Wolford and Paul DeGeorge pose for a shot in the newly
56 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE constructed backstage at Tasty World Uptown. Photo: Justin Evans ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 57
 Bruce Burch knows a thing or two about songwriting. Hailing from the

hotel indigo’s rialto room mecca of all things songwriter — Nashville, Tenn. — Burch has penned
an impressive slate of hit tunes in his career and immersed himself in
the ultimate of songwriting environments. Now that Burch once again
calls Athens home, it’s no surprise to see his support thrown behind a
new club with his favorite past-time in mind and aimed at cultivating the
already rich singer-songwriter scene.
ABM: What separates The Rialto Room apart
from other clubs in town?
Bruce Burch:  It’s a whole different ballgame - a
true listening room experience. A room where
people come to actually hear the music.  teacher (UGA's Music Business Program),
 
ABM: Why does Athens need that kind of
room?
BB:   I love all of the other rooms in town.
Georgia Theatre had a different vibe, 40 Watt
has a different vibe from Caledonia from
Melting Point and Tasty World, you know?
All of them have great, different vibes. I just
think there isn't one like this. I think it appeals
to a slightly older audience, but also think its
good for young people to come to a room like
that, especially when they may have never
experienced it.  used, it's not a total music room: [it will have]
 
ABM:  Athens certainly has no lack of singers
and songwriters — so why has it taken so
long for a room like this to pop up?
BB:  It's just an idea whose time has come. It’s
an evolution and the timing is right.  I think
people now are wanting that more intimate
experience with music.  I think a lot of people
are burned out — not that there is anything
wrong with a big show down in Atlanta, but
I think there is a craving for that intimate
experience more so now. Not only has it
gotten so expensive to go to a show, but all
the pyrotechnics and everything, it's gotten so
overblown that people long for that intimate
experience.  to Bonnaroo or any festival, as they get older
 
ABM:  A different sort of room makes for
different booking challenges, I imagine.
What are the plans for booking Rialto?
Can we expect to see local artists, regional
artists and national artist on the same
stage?
BB:  I think we are going to try to do a little
bit of everything there.  I’m more excited for
the local aspect of it because it will be a place
for songwriters, it will be real songwriter
oriented.  I think it's sometimes hard to find a
venue that makes itself available to that.  I've
seen how Eddie's Attic (Decatur, Ga.) and The
BlueBird Cafe (Nashville, Tenn.) have done it
and how people get their starts there.  Look
at all the people that have come out of Eddie’s
Attic,  all the artists they have started there.
[Eddie's] has a real friendly atmosphere, and
that’s what I hopefully envision this being: a
Assistant Club Manager Emmy Bateman (seated) and Club Manager
58 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE Amy Hibler (standing) pose in The Rialto Room. Photo: Justin Evans
real supporting atmosphere for musicians.
 
ABM:  As a songwriter yourself, I know
you're excited for the musicians. But as a
this is another great teaching tool, right?
BB:  The students are going to get very involved
now that they're back, and we can try some
things out in there that we wouldn’t have
been able to try in any other room. We'll have
professionals operating the lights and sound
but our students will be sitting right there
with them and hopefully as time goes on we
will be able to move right in there and help
with that part of it.  And ya know, promoting a
room — to be able to [get experience like that]
is incredible.  It’s a room that’s going to be
weddings and other events, corporate events.
It's sort of a unique room and I don’t think
it competes with any of the other rooms [in
town]. We are going to keep students working
in all rooms because every one is different. The
more venues the students can work in, the
better off they will be.  No matter what part of
the business you get in, you’re going to work
with different venues, and every one has their
own personality. 
 
ABM:  Coupled with The Hotel Indigo,why rialto room
will the 'music tourism' premise work here?
BB:  [The Rialto] is gonna be a place where the
people who, when they're in college might go located
500 college ave.
— when they get to be, say, 35 — I’m not so
sure they’ll want to go to Bonnaroo.  Their formerly
standards may not be to where they want vacant
to go to a place like that to have a musical
experience.  And I sort of envision them not capacity
only having an experience [at Rialto], but they 125-250
could go to the 40 Watt if they wanted, for
example.  It becomes like a way to, instead of opened
just coming here for a football game, thinkof labor day weekend
Athens as a music destination town.  Music
goes the whole year, and people love to come to
age restrictions
Athens any way.  It just seems kind of obvious,
event-dependent
but I don’t think any hotel has really thought
about that. The whole idea of music tourism is
something I saw happening in Nashville, but I type of shows
never thought of it in Athens. I know people showcases and
come here, but I don’t think anybody really singer/songwriter shows
said 'we are going to be a music destination.'
Now we have a chance to become a part of
that.
ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 59
 The story has popped up as a pretty common one: no one answered
the first phone call just after 7 a.m. Or the second minutes later. Or the
two texts that followed in succession. Wilmot Greene is no exception.
When his groggy hands finally picked up the ringer on the morning of
the Georgia Theatre fire, it started a whirlwind emotional train that’s
been grueling and, for better or worse, quite public. 77 days later,
what’s been sorted out? So much...and so little.
Athens Blur Magazine: Some people don't
understand why it's necessary to "raise
money" for something like this — they
assume it's like a house burning down, where
the insurance company fills your claim and
you start over. Why is this such a different
situation?
Wilmot Greene: Good question, and the house
analogy fits pretty well. Imagine if you had
insurance for what your house cost, but when
you went to build it back you were required by
law to add an elevator, triple the number of
bathrooms, make the whole thing accessible for
disabled persons, reinforce the exterior with
steel, etc. — but it had to look exactly the same
from outside. This gets even more complicated
if you still owed the bank for your house. In this
situation, you have to use the insurance money
to pay the bank and then get a construction loan
to build the new house. The new house will still
serve the same purpose, but your new payment
will be triple what it used to be.
ABM: On that note, I'm also not sure that a
lot of people understand why it was necessary
for you to achieve non-profit status.
WG: The non-profit we are partnered with will put
all the funds raised in a special account. Then as
invoices come in from contractors, the trust will
pay those bills. This adds accountability to the
process so there is no doubt that the money is
going directly to rehabilitating the building. We
will still have to borrow a great deal of money
to buy everything that goes inside the building.
The trust is for saving the building, not the
business.
ABM: Is it frustrating to hear all the
speculation about the future?
WG: No. I'm used to wild speculation. In the
music business people are always "absolutely
certain" of the wildest rumors. It's actually
funny to me. I think the music business is a
really un-understood businesses. After the fire
I heard rumors that were absolutely ridiculous.
People get very emotional about their music,
clubs and bands. This is the double-edge sword
of the business; it's great because people are
georgia theatre 2.0
passionate about it, but that passion is easily
misguided and based on speculation.
ABM: Care to share some of your favorite
highlights from the new blueprints?
Wilmot Greene sits inside the still-rubbled Georgia Theatre. Photo:
60 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE Justin Evans
WG: We have been working on drawings/concepts
with the Davis Group (www.dadot.com) for
about five weeks now. The idea is to make it feel
as familiar as possible while incorporating all the
elements that we have to add. The elevator takes
up a lot of space and the staircases do also. We
are stilll moving stuff around in our heads, but
as of now we plan on putting all the bathrooms
in the basement and a smoking area/patio on
the roof. Those are two exciting changes.
ABM: Okay, dumb question — money aside,
what's going to be the toughest part?
WG: The design itself is really challenging right
now. I bet every part of this process will be
tough until we open. Then I'm sure we will be
faced with new challenges and obstacles — such
is life.
ABM: New Years Eve, 2010. Grand re-opening
of the Theatre. What's your perfect musical
bill?
WG: Wow, it would be cool to have the Glands.
They haven't played in years, but that would
be so fitting and great. MGMT or Ghostland
Observatory or Phoenix would be a great dance
party vibe to kick things off with. But some good
old fashioned rock 'n' roll would be nice too, like
the [Drive-By] Truckers and Bloodkin. I'm still georgia theatre
really into The New Mastersounds, they have
guitars and it's dance music too, so that might
be a good fit. Geez, who knows?
located
215 n. lumpkin st.
ABM: What's the one thing, one relic, that
you'll take out (or have taken out) of the ashes formerly
and keep as your "never forget" memento? georgia theatre
WG: It's funny you ask this question, because I
was just talking about this last night. I never got
my picture taken with any bands, or collected capacity
backstage passes or anything like that. I've TBD
never asked for an autograph in my life. What I
want is for that building to come back to life and opening
be there and be current and relevant for the next new year’s eve 2010
100 years. I'm not trying to sound like a martyr
or anything, but I don't care what happens to me age restrictions
or what I get to keep. I fucking love the Georgia 18+
Theatre and I have got to save it. I'll probably
never have kids or pets or any normal social life
type of shows
because I am married to that building, and it is
wide-open booking
sick and I will do anything to nurse her back to
health. So my keepsake will be the grin on my
face when we accomplish this rebuilding effort
and start filling those walls with music again.
ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 61
 musici
CO
gear guide Aguilar Octamizer
RNER
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’ s

Following the success of last year’s Tone Hammer preamp/DI, Aguilar Amplification is continuing their
foray into the world of bass effects with the Octamizer analog octave pedal. The Octamizer is designed to
give bass players access to a wide range of octave-based sounds with a simple user interface.
Featuring a four-knob layout, the Octamizer has independent volume controls for the clean and octave
sounds so you can dial in the desired amount of each.
The “Clean Tone” control uses a Full Spectrum Tilt EQ, allowing for the boosting of treble while cutting
bass or boosting of bass while cutting treble.  This unique circuit allows you to create a clean sound that
creates an octave doubling effect or to blend the sounds together for a great thick, snarky synth tone. The
Octamizer’s “Octave Filter” control is a multi-pole low-pass Filter that lets you shape the octave sound
from smooth and deep to edgy and aggressive.

SWR Black Beauty Bass Amp

Eastwood
Airline® Town East wood SWR’s aptly named Black Beauty combo bass amp has been
Guitars adds revamped with more power and more features to deliver even
& Country ’59 a new model more tonal muscle and finesse than its popular and acclaimed
Custom DLX to their popular original incarnation. Now, in 2009, the Black Beauty has been
Airline ’59 Custom Se- given a complete makeover that makes it even more powerful,
ries, the Town & Coun- with several convenient new professional features. The classic
try ’59 Custom DLX. full-range SWR tube preamp with Aural Enhancer™ and Sub-
This retro-beauty will be wave™ effect are still there, as are the three-band active EQ,
making heads turn in con- side-chain effects loop with blend control, and solid-state stu-
cert halls and bars around dio-quality line out. New features include front-panel line out
the world. controls, compressor circuit, tuning mute, single rack space for
The Airline Town & Coun- an effects unit of choice, and two-feature footswitch (mute and
try ’59 Custom guitar fea- Subwave on/off ) that also controls an integrated tuner. Standing
tures a unique black rubber alone or as the key component in a combo-based rig, the new-
binding surrounding the en- ly redesigned SWR Black Beauty has the power to handle large
tire Vintage Cream body, which venues and the tonal sophistication to complement the subtlest
replicates the aesthetics of the touch.
original Airline Res-O-Glas gui-
tars. The cosmetic details in-
clude a retro-striped pick-
guard and control guard with
vintage style chrome hardware
and comes with a BIGSBY li-
censed tremolo. This 25 ½” scale
guitar is a players’ dream with a fast
maple neck, rosewood fingerboard
and block markers bolted onto a
tone chambered mahogany body.
These guitars deliver unlimited
tone possibilities with high out-
put Airline Vintage Voiced Single
Coil pickups, a 3-way switch, mas-
ter volume, and individual volume
and tone for each pickup. The Airline
’59 Custom guitars ship in the new Vin-
tage Style Deluxe form-fit AIRLINE hardshell
case with steel plate logo.

ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 63

 Sonor Danny Carey Signature 14”x8” Brass Shell Snare Drum
Danny Carey, best known has the hugely creative drummer for the iconic band
Tool has teamed up with Sonor to create his own signature snare drum.
The Danny Carey Signature Snare Drum is constructed of a 1 mm Bronze
Shell and comes with Artist Series Snare Drum Style lugs. The 2.3 mm Pow-
er Hoops allow the snare to breath open. All hardware comes in chrome
finish. With a diameter of 14” and a depth of 8”, it pays homage to the
“Vintage” Signature Line Snare Drum that Danny has preferred through-
out his career.
The shell is covered by unique talisman symbols between the lugs. Also
engraved around the air hole is Danny’s signature, giving the signature
snare drum his final, personal touch.
Upon playing the first prototype, Danny remarked, “The Snare
Drum has a powerful, but still versatile sound.” The Danny Carey
Signature Snare can be tuned high or low without losing the spe-
cific, warm sound of Bronze sound in combination with the full-
bodied shell sound. When tuned high, a nice crack is added — tune it
low and find yourself immersed in Danny’s sound sphere.

Wechter Nashville GuitarGuard Neverkink Cable Clip

Special Elite Cutaway
Wechter’s Nashville Special Elite Cutaway acous-
tic-electric guitar uses special high-strung, or Nash-
ville tuning, which adds a unique tonality to re-
cordings or live performances. Double a standard
acoustic guitar part with the Nashville Elite, and
you’ve got the kind of spacious, airy sound that no
12-string can touch! Play this comfortable parlor-
sized guitar in an ensemble, and you’ve got a tone
that stands out, while it tastefully complements the
other instruments.
This beautiful, compact instrument is
the first production guitar that’s specifical-
ly set up for high-strung, or Nashville tun-
ing. The Nashville Special Elite Cutaway’s
bottom four strings are tuned an octave Say goodbye to wrapping your cable around your strap and
higher than standard pitch, while the top strap nut, which causes kinks and shortens the life of your
two strings are tuned to standard. The cable. Neverkink attaches to your guitar strap and ensures
result? Breathtaking, spacious sounds that your cables are securely attached with a good connec-
that add dimension to recordings and tion to your input. Never loop again with Neverkink!
performances!

BOSS GT-10: Guitar

Effects Processor
Meet the new flagship of the BOSS
multi-effects family. The GT-10, driven by
BOSS’ latest custom-made DSP and pro-
prietary sound-modeling COSM® en-
gine, is a floorboard powerhouse that of-
fers natural and musical response as well
as a marked improvement in sound quality
from previous generations. It’s also loaded
with an innovative user interface, including
EZ Tone, so guitarists can obtain the exact
sound they desire in the most intuitive way
imaginable.
64 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE

CO
13 letters in music business
and don’t over look the last eight of them
I wish I could claim to have made
up this line, but it’s one I quote quite
often to my music business students
in the University of Georgia Music
Business Program: “There are 13 letters in
MUSIC BUSINESS and 8 of them are
BUSINESS”.  college scene after getting their start in
When I began my career as a songwriter
back in 1977, there was a distinct divide
between the “creative” and “business” sides
of the music industry.  Artists, songwriters,
musicians and producers were the “right-
brained creators.” Songpluggers, A&R
(artists and repertoire) folks, record label
heads and, of course, the “necessary evil”
attorneys were the “no brain” business
people.
I’m not sure when the lines between the
creative side and the business side started
to blur, but it was probably somewhere
around the time when multi-platinum
albums became as scarce as Milli Vanilli
cover bands. As illegal downloading
became more prevalent and the boom
years for the music industry declined,
suddenly bands and artists were not able
to afford as much staff and management
for jobs that had previously been delegated
to the “business gurus.” Many of those
duties had to be taken up by the “creative
types” themselves.
The fact that artists such as Billy Joel,
Leonard Cohen, and even the business
savvy Trent Reznor of the group Nine
Inch Nails had been the victims of theft
by their former managers, with losses
totaling millions of dollars, made learning
the business side almost a necessity in this
day and time.
And why shouldn’t it be that way?  this day and time.”
The tools are out there now and there
is no excuse for not understanding a
piece of paper (yep, that’s a contract for
you remaining “creative types”) you are
signing.  What tools you ask?
Herb Alpert (one of the great musicians
of all time who was smart enough
back in the day to know that owning
and controlling his own record label
and masters made sense and formed
A&M Records with Jerry Moss) began
a foundation which funds a wonderful
website, www.artistshousemusic.org, that
is an excellent resource for those wanting
to learn the business of music.  There
are numerous other websites (www.
musformation.com, www.hypebot.com,
www.starpolish.com) and many excellent
books on the subject (my two favorites
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Bruce Burch
“I’m not sure when the lines
between the creative side
and the business side
started to blur,but it was
probably somewhere around
the time when multi-
platinum albums became as
scarce as Milli Vanilli cover
bands. Learning the business
side is almost a necessity in
being “Everything You Need to Know
About the Music Business” by Donald
Passman who, by the way, was responsible
for the record-breaking “mega” deals for
both Janet Jackson and R.E.M., and
“Music, Money, and Success” by industry
pros and brothers, Todd and Jeff Brabec).
So many bands that came out of Athens
got their start playing sweat stained, beer
soaked fraternity parties and overcrowded
barf bars which line Broad and Clayton
Streets.  R.E.M. made their debut in an
abandoned church and the B52's got
their chops playing house parties later
recounted in the hit song “Love Shack.”
Widespread Panic has carried the banner
for Athens in recent years with the Drive-
By Truckers, Of Montreal, The Whigs,
musici
BLUR MUSICIAN’S CONER
and Dead Confederate being recent
Athens bands to make their “declaration
of independents.”  The DIY method has
been adopted in this decade by country-
leaning artists like the Zac Brown Band
and Corey Smith, who rose from the
Athens.
 So how does being from a DIY scene
support the “music means business” motto
which we have adopted as our mantra
for the UGA Music Business Program?  
Because all of our students are getting not
only the classroom setting to learn the
intricacies of the music business, but they
are also “getting their hands dirty.”  As
part of our program each of our students
works with a music business — a band,
a studio, a PR company, a college radio
station,  a music venue or a small indie
record company.  We firmly believe that
this DIY method of teaching is the most
valuable part of our program and one
which I highly recommend to anyone
wanting to break into the business. The
apprenticeship system is alive and well in
the music industry.
It’s a great time to be a young person in
the music business.   Rick Rubin started
Def Jam from his dorm room at NYU
(along with a lot of help from Russell
Simmons), and being in a college town
is a great way to get your start.  Your
classroom may be the local pub where the
latest band to hit campus may be playing. 
Who knows, they may be the next
Widespread Panic!
A 2003 inductee into the Atlanta Country
Music Hall of Fame, Bruce Burch currently
resides in Athens as the Director of the University
of Georgia's Music Business Program. A former
creative director at EMI Publishing and owner/
operator of two publishing companies, Burch
found success as a songwriter by penning #1 hits
for Reba McEntire, Top 10 singles for Billy Joe
Royal & T. Graham Brown, a Top 20 hit for
Barbara Mandrell and a Top 40 single for John
Anderson, as well as various platinum and gold
recordings by George Jones, The Oak Ridge Boys,
Collin Raye and Dan Seals.
Got something to say about this
column? We’re all ears at
editorial@athensblur.com.
Send your thoughts, along with your
name and hometown!
ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 67
 THE KING OF THE BLUES

Regional
report
Birmingham, AL By Michael Seale

established 1871
population 1,079,089
notable bands The Temptations, Sun Ra, Erskine Hawkinds, Brother Kane, Ver-
bena, Hotel, Lionel Hampton, Remy Zero, EmmyLou Harris, Taylor Hicks, Ruben Stud-
dard, Cleveland Eaton
usEless triviA The illuminated dance floor featured in the film “Saturday Night
Fever” was inspired by a floor the film’s director, John Badham, had seen at The
Club, a private supper club in Birmingham
drive from athens 200 miles
Something Extra “$5 Cover,” a web and television series featuring real City of
Magic, a 16-song compilation featuring Birmingham-area musicians, was released
on August 27. The album, a primarily digital release, will be available on iTunes, and
a limited number of CD’s will be available through CD Baby and Amazon.com.

FRIDAY
OCTOBER 2 SPECIAL GUEST
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THE THRILL IS BACK... IN ATHENS Some have called them an “alt-rock band.” Some have said they are “Southern rock.” And oth-
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lyricist, and can tell you a story through song better than anyone, with little anecdotes and
clever lines reminiscent of Paul Westerberg. McDonald, guitarist Les Nuby (from Verbena),
drummer Jake Waitzman and bassist Keelan Parrish have been playing together as Vulture
Whale for a couple of years now, but they have played together, off and on and sans one or the
other, for over a decade.
Vulture Whale released its second album, Vulture Whale, on Skybucket Records earlier this
year, and has received rave reviews on a national and international level. Mainstays in the Bir-
mingham music scene, Vulture Whale is one of those bands that, when seen live, leaves the
audience thankful that they had a chance to see them up close and personal before they got too
big to play small clubs in college towns.

venue profile on the charts

top 10 songs played
the bottletree on wwmm 100.5 FM
1. “Why I Am” -
The Bottletree (3719 3rd Ave. S) is a relative newcom- Dave Matthews Band
er to Birmingham, celebrating its third anniversary in 2. “1901”
November. It is hip little café by day, with a nice veg- Phoenix
etarian menu to go along with one of the best club sand- 3. “The Great Defector”- Bell X1
wiches in town, among other treats. The artwork and 4. “Maybe”
photography on the wall, from local artists, is for sale, Ingrid Michaelson
but the retro 70’s and 80’s era relics that also adorn the 5. “Precious Love” -
café are not. Guests can also sit in the corner and play James Morrison
a variety of old board games (Monopoly, Life, Stratego, 6. “You Never Know” - Wilco
etc.) or just do some quality people-watching. 7. “Sex and Reruns”
But at night, the place really comes alive. One the best Matt Duke
places to see original live music in the city, the Bottle- 8. “Pitter-Pat”
tree has hosted a plethora of local benefit shows and has Erin McCarley
been a strong supporter of local music. They have also 9. “Never Say Never”
played host to acts such as Vampire Weekend, Southern The Fray
Culture on the Skids, The High Strung and a bevy of re- 10. “Coming to terms”
gional and local artists. Carolina Liar
 A&E MOVIE PREVIEWS
ARTS &ENTERTAINMENT
upcoming on the screen
making sure it’s worth your $9.50
sorority row
(September 11) (Stewert Hendler) They say: When a sorority girl’s boyfriend cheats on
her, five of her sorority sisters set their sights on getting even - but their prank to do so
goes terribly wrong and ends in an accidental murder. The five make a pact to never tell
anyone about what happened and to move on with their lives. Unfortunately, someone
doesn’t want to let them do that. A mysterious serial killer begins to stalk the five girls
and anyone who knows about what they did.  

We say: Here we have «I Know What You Did Last Summer» gone greek. It doesn’t look
like this has much of anything original to offer, but is sure to draw a small crowd who
wouldn’t mind watching a few sorority girls get the slasher treatment.

Whiteout
(September 11) (Dominic Sena) They say: A U.S. Marshal assigned to Antarctica must
investigate the continent’s puzzling first murder, and the mystery grows deeper as
the winter draws closer. Fighting more than the cold, she must figure it all out before
the darkness of winter sets in and she is left all alone with the murderer.

We say: When you combine deadly temperatures, darkness 24/7, total isolation and a
crazed murderer, you’re bound to get a nail-biting, edge of your seat thriller. If you’re
looking for a suspenseful ride, “Whiteout” looks to have all the makings of a great
one.

cloudy with a chance of meatballs

(September 18) (Phil Lord/Chris Miller) They say: An animated film inspired by the famous children’s book, “Cloudy With
A Chance Of Meatballs” is about a scientist who has never had any success with his inventions. Just when the whole town
is about to give up on him, he creates an invention that makes food rain from the sky. It’s a huge hit and the scientist is
back in good graces - until the invention gets a mind of its own and starts wreaking havoc on the whole town in the form
of overgrown food items.

We say: Kids will love watching huge pizza slices and fortune cookies fall from the sky, and the film is full of humor that par-
ents will be able to appreciate too. The combination of humorous animation with the plot from a beloved children’s book
should make this movie a hit.

Love Happens pandorum

(September 18) (Brandon Camp) They say: This romantic dramedy (September 18) (Christian Alvart) They say: The producers of “Resi-
tells the story of a widowed self-help author (Aaron Eckhart) who dent Evil” bring more horrors and bloodshed to the big screen with a
comes to the realization that he’s more messed up than the peo- film about two men (Dennis Quaid and Ben Foster) who wake up on
ple he is helping. After a chance encounter with a woman who at- a spaceship with no recollection of how they got there.  To make mat-
tended his self-help seminar (Jennifer Anistion), he is finally able ters worse, murderous creatures have inhabited the ship and are leav-
to cope with his past demons.    ing nothing alive in their wake.   

We say:  Jennifer Aniston alone has crowd-drawing abilities, and We say:  This sci/fi/horror flick will more than likely gain the top spot
the sugary sweet plot-line will attract those looking for a good opening weekend as long as the masses infatuation with violence hasn’t
date movie.    subsided:  Spaceships, monsters and an R-rating? Cinematic gold.   

ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 71

 HOT...
A&E MOVIE PREVIEWS

fame
(September 25) (Kevin Tancharoen)
They Say: This remake of the 1980 film
of the same name follows students
attending the New York City High
School of Performing Arts and the
trials and tribulations they must go
through to make it to the top.  
We Say:  After the “High School Musi-
cal” craze, it was only a matter of time
before this hit ‘80s film was remade.  have a great week. There’s an especially
With the help of some seasoned ac-
tors like Kelsey Grammar and Megan
Mullally, Fame will be sure to attract
thralls of tweens and teens hungering
for a dancing, singing relapse.   those select few.
capitalism:
A love story When
You’re
(October 2) (Michael Moore)  They Say: Moore cre-
ates a comical documentary about what he says is
“the biggest robbery in the history of this country.” 
He of course is referring to the massive transfer of
U.S. taxpayer money to private financial institutions Bradley Cooper tries to explain his sizzling ride through Hollywood 
- what else?  
by DeMarco Williams
Everybody has a good day. Some people 2009 successes have come overnight, you in common with them. It was guys like me
We Say: Moore isn’t alone in thinking corporate dom-
clearly have forgotten about the New York in the school. I just fell in love with it. We
inance in America needs to be weakened.  Based on
blessed bunch that even has a perfect drama school, roles on Nip/Tuck and Alias were in a little bubble in New York for those
his past success with “Fahrenheit 9/11” and “Bowling
month. But there are very few people who and the supporting stints in movies like Yes three years. If I had any idea how brutal the
for Columbine,” Moore’s documentary has the poten-
can honestly say their year has been one for Man and The Comebacks. business was, I probably would have quit the
tial to shake up the political scene and bring this is-
the record books. Bradley Cooper is one of “I remember renting a U-Haul and moving school.”
sue to the forefront. 
to New York,” Cooper recalls. “It was the best Looking back over this year, and
At the top of the year, the 34-year-old’s thing I ever did, going to that school because considering how 2010 is already shaping up,

the invention of
name started making the rumor rounds it was in New York. I’d never been around Bradley Cooper has got to count his lucky
as a candidate for the sought-after role of guys that wanted to act and felt anything stars he didn’t.

lying
comic book hero Green Lantern on the silver
screen. Then, in late spring, Cooper was
a part of The Hangover, one of the biggest
(September 25) (Ricky Gervais) They Say: In an alternate reality where adult comedies of the year so far. Less than
everyone always tells the truth, one overweight loser (Ricky Gervais) two months after that box-office coup,
figures out how to lie, and discovers that dishonesty can result in Cooper’s name was officially attached to the
very positive outcomes.  (Think Liar, Liar reversed.)  long-discussed A-Team movie, which will
be coming out next June.
We Say:  The cast alone is a knockout —Tina Fey, Jennifer Garner, Jo- Though Ryan Reynolds ultimately beat
nah Hill, Jason Bateman and Rob Lowe.  And with Ricky Gervais serv- Cooper out for Green Lantern, it’s safe to
ing as director, writer and actor, fans of The Office and comedy in still consider the Philly native’s year golden.
general should be in for a side-splitting treat.  “If you would have told me when I was
sitting at a bar in Georgetown,” Cooper says

more than a game

of his recent good fortune, “that I’d be doing
[The Hangover] with Mike Tyson, doing a
play with Julia Roberts and hosting Saturday
(October 2) (Kristopher Belman) They Say: This true-life story deals Night Live, I would be like, ‘Get outta here!’
with the friendship of five young talented basketball players from This is great, man. I certainly have a lot more
Akron, Ohio and their athletic success, while also being faced with I wanna do. I feel like I haven’t even started
great adversity off the court.  As the players continue to improve doing what I wanna do. But, at the same
their skills, one member’s new fame threatens to destroy everything time, I’m very grateful. But, yeah, of course I
the boys have worked to achieve.  have a lot of dreams and I wanna work with
certain people.”
We Say: The rare footage, home videos and personal family photo- Cooper’s next part will be as the title
graphs included in this movie will make this a must-see for sports character in September’s All About Steve.
fans.  In the quirky comedy, Bradley plays a news
cameraman who becomes the apple of

shutter island
Sandra Bullock’s character’s eye.
“He learns really quickly, in the back of his
Bronco, that she’s a little crazy,” Cooper says.
(October 2) (Martin Scorsese):  They Say: A pair of “He pretends that he’s gotta go to Boston
U.S. Marshals, played by Mark Ruffalo and Leonardo to capture this storm that’s happening. He
Dicaprio, travel to a far-away island off the coast of goes, ‘It would be really great if you could go
Massachusetts in search of an escaped mental pa- with me.’ She takes that literally. She quits
tient.  Along the way the two encounter forces of na- her job and proceeds to stalk him around
ture and a prison riot.  the country the rest of the movie. So, it’s
this weird, rogue, stalking Sandra Bullock
We Say:  This film has success written all over it be- movie.”
cause of the movie’s mysterious plot along with Sounds like fun … and yet another possible
Dicaprio’s name on the cast list.    hit for Cooper this year.
If you still think that Bradley Cooper’s

72 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 73

 upcoming dvD releases
08
Release dates are subject to change. Check
artists or store websites as these dates ap-
sept proach.

Crank: High Voltage

Dance Flick

29
Local Color
PC Sales & Support Sleep Dealer

Networking
The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective
Valentino: The Last Empire sept
Friday
Printer Sales & Service Menace II Filth And Wisdom
The Office (Season 5) Management
Phone & Surveillance
Criminal Minds Monsters Vs. Aliens
Systems
The Girlfriend Experience
Website Building
& Hosting
Email Hosting
sept 15 Away We Go
The Brothers Bloom
How I Met Your Mother (Season
4)
Next Day Air
Call us today to see how we can streamline your IT. Nightwatching

(706)-549-6781
Treeless Mountain
X-Men Origins
It’s Always Sunny In
www.netstreamconsulting.com Philadelphia (Season 4)
Grey’s Anatomy (Season
5)
Easy Virtue
oct 06
CSI Miami (Season 7) Anvil
Fame Nip/Tuck (Season 5)
Four Dragons Bones (Season 4)
Grace Year One
Camilie It’s Alive
Nerdcore Rising Chops
Number 23
Bigfoot

sept 22
Adam Resurrected
Battle For Terra
oct 13
Book of Blood
American Violet
Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
Craft
Lymelife
Elephants
O’Horten
Least of These
Wallace & Gromit: A Matter
Monsoon Wedding
of Loaf or Death
Ugly Betty (Season 3)

Rivermill Apartments rivermillathens.com 706.548.1188 newly renovated

close to campus & downtown come in today and we’ll waive your deposit fee!
ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 7575
 concert shots
1 2 3

1 2 3

5
4 5

7 8

6 7 8 9

9 10 11

10
see your
pics
13 here!
12 submit 11
to
14 editorial@
athensblur.com or
let us know when
you’re playing! you
never know when
we’ll show up...

The Orkids @ Caledonia Lounge (Sandra Gallardo) Learn Nothing @ The PS Warehouse (Alex Gibbs) Todd McBride @ Flicker (Daniel Peiken) The Arcs @
Caledonia Lounge (Daniel Peiken) Roam Alone @ The PS Warehouse (Alex Gibbs) The Tom Collins @ Caledonia Lounge (Ed Morales) Winston Audio @ Cale-
donia Lounge (Alex Gibbs) Bill Mallonee @ Ok Coffee (Daniel Peiken) Five Eight @ WUGA (Daniel Peiken) Roam Alone @ The PS Warehouse (Alex Gibbs)
Elliot Lipp @ Tasty World (Wes Elkin) Cinemechanica (Will Gravlee) Megafaun @ The Earl (Alyssa De Hayes) Elliot Lipp @ Tasty World (Wes Elkin)
76 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE
O Brother @ Caledonia Lounge (Alex Gibbs) O Brother @ Caledonia Lounge (Alex Gibbs) John Bell @ UGA Chapel for UGA Music Biz Class (Daniel Peiken)
The Interns @ Pianos in NYC (Alyssa De Hayes) Conor Oberst @ 40 Watt (Daniel Peiken) Akron/Family @ The Earl (Alyssa De Hayes) Jared Swilley of Black
Lips @ AthFest (Stefan Eberhard) Chris Ezelle of We Are The Gold Machine @ Flicker (Daniel Peiken) Boo Ray @ Tasty World Uptown (Daniel Peiken) Da-
vis Causey of Randall Bramblett Band @ AthFest (Stefan Eberhard) Simple Teek @ Stan Mullins Art Compound (Daniel Peiken)
ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 77
BLUR PARTING THOUGHTS
the ten people you meet
right here in the classic city
1. A homeless person whose name is known by
almost everyone.
Only in Athens could someone with hardly a
dime to their name be considered a semi-celeb-
rity. Surviving on the shoestring welfare provid-
ed by strangers gullible and good-hearted alike,
Athens’ beggars have managed to transcend the
common perception of being a nuisance. Now
they’re an almost staple aspect of the scenery.
And so long as they’re not going anywhere, you
might as well operate on a first name basis.
2. Someone in a band you’ll probably never see.
Our sweet little indie haven is indeed the land
of 1,000 bands. Throw a rock down Washing-
ton Street and it’s sure to knick a guitarist. And
that guitarist will surely have a flier. And the flier
PT Umphress
will surely be for an opening slot at a show on a
Tuesday, at 8 p.m. And the venue will surely only
hold 20 people and have a semi-functional toi-
let that looks like a CDC inspector’s wet dream. “Would you be interested
And you will surely not be in attendance. But
hey — when they blow up, you can say you met
in a handmade wicker
the guitarist back before they became sell outs. shower basket? Maybe you’d
3. Someone with a wild agenda. like some wacky folk art
Between Christian fanatics in Tate Pla-
za spitting fiery damnation on all God’s cre-
made out of rusty coke
ations — crazy preachers excluded, of course —
and crunchy hippies snagging 1,000 signatures
cans and used shotgun
from confused freshmen to save the endangered
South American albino lesbian panda, Athens
shells! Or how about a mud
can sure as hell come across as quite the bizarre painting of Jesus? No? Well,
political hotbed. With self-righteous nut jobs
skewing the bell curve so far in both directions, then this poor artistic sap is
most of us — on both sides of the aisle — can
safely count ourselves as “moderates.” going to starve.”
4. Someone in a costume.
Any day in Athens can be Halloween when you get enough affiliat-
ed young people together under the same roof — especially if that day is
Tuesday or Wednesday and the bar is hurting for business. Both an op-
portunity for folks to express their creativity or lack thereof, themed par-
ties and socials provide that rare opportunity to watch a sleazy Little Bo
Peep skipping drunk down Broad with Superman, a commando, and a pi-
rate chasing after her. It’s like a scene from a little boy’s imagination —
except all liquored up and horny.
5. The police.
This funhouse has rules, and those rules are enforced by 58,000,000
(or more) of Athens’ finest. The boys in blue are ubiquitous yet sneaky.
Just when you think you’ve found a small corner of privacy and the coast
is clear to take a quick piss in the parking deck, the sudden squeal of a
Schwinn’s handbrakes tells you otherwise. You just got bike-copped, suck-
er! Enjoy the paddy wagon ride to jail with Superman, a commando, and
a pirate.
6. A bartender.
Do the math. 60 something bars. Each bar has anywhere from two to
78 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE
The 8th Annual
ch
Bruce Burnds
ten bartenders on staff. Add some bar back and
door guys in for good measure and it’s clear to
see how it’s pretty hard to not know someone —
& Frie
or at least someone who knows someone — who
Honor d
r
works at a bar. In fact, how many bartenders an
Athenian knows is a pretty fair measure of their
extraversion. And no, your roommate mixing up
shitty cocktails with bottom shelf in the kitchen
does not count.
7. A walking billboard for UGA. Jo h n Ja r r a
We get it. This is a college town. You’re proud
to go here. Now for the love of all things holy,
ditch the Georgia branded hoodie, hat, belt, tie,
pants, and wallet ensemble. Much like when
someone goes to a concert wearing a shirt em-
blazoned with the name of the band playing, it’s
Concert 2009
Thursday, September 24
just not cool. Either you’re trying too hard to
prove you belong or you’re just that damn un-
original. Unless it’s a game day — in which case,
go crazy — keep that shit in the closet or at least
to a subtle minimum. Maybe a hat. Just a hat.
8. An uber-hipster. 6:00PM - 10:00PM (Gates open at 5:30pm)
This tragic individual, who is likely friends
with that guitarist you threw a rock at, has mas-
The Lawn at Brenau
tered the fine art of looking unique — exactly
the same flavor of unique as all his friends —
by walking that fine line between dressing like
he only buys clothes from Soviet thrift stores
and looking totally homeless. What’s complete-
ly ridiculous about this guy is that he most like-
John was born and reared in Gainesville, Georgia, and
ly bought his ironically retro garb at premium moved to Nashville in 1977 to pursue a career as a
price from a company that merely went down to country music songwriter. Within one year, he began to
the local Goodwill and snagged up anything that experience sight failure resulting from diabetes, and by
looked like it came from a Soviet bargain bin —
or a homeless person.
1979, was totally blind. When country music superstar
Don Williams recorded John's song, "Nobody But You,"
9. A drunk person, at 2 p.m.
taking it to the top of the charts, doors began to open.
While seeing a person drunk at 2 a.m.. in Athens is as common and Over the ensuing years, John's songs were recorded by the
inevitable as death and taxes, witnessing a person completely tanked at 2 group Alabama, George Strait, Diamond Rio, Tracy
p.m. is an occurrence quite unique to this town. A few Saturdays a year, Lawrence, and others, until he had scored eleven number
we have game days to thank for this. Game day drinking commences as one hits.
soon as people wake up, and by kickoff you’re lucky to see people still ca-
pable of walking, much less producing recognizable syllables. Outside of
game days, you still have the loveable bar regular who likes to head out
of work early on Friday. You really have to give it to this guy, because not
only does he play by his own rules, but he also doesn’t seem to give a good
god damn if you come in at 9 p.m. to see him drooling on the bar with a
piss stain in his lap.
10. A starving artist.
For Tickets and Further Information:
Would you be interested in a handmade wicker shower basket? May-
be you’d like some wacky folk art made out of rusty coke cans and used
http://www.johnjarrardconcert.com/
shotgun shells! Or how about a mud painting of Jesus? No? Well, then
this poor artistic sap is going to starve. He’s a part of what gives Athens its The John Jarrard Foundation is a non-profit organization with proceeds going to a permanent endowment fund in John’s
eclectic character, and damnit, he’s banking on your tourist ass wanting to name established at the North Georgia Community Foundation. Proceeds benefit local charities, including the Good News
buy some creative, nifty shit he made with his hands — or maybe he’s just Clinics, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Hall County, Georgia Mountain Food Bank Fund, and one of John’s favorite causes,
another guitarist hoping you’ll come see his band on Tuesday. Good News at Noon.
worth a thousand...
A look inside the Georgia Theatre in late August. Photo: Justin Evans