The nice people at Mint Gallery have gathered together a herd of Atlanta’s fringe (and, arguably, not-so-fringe) musicians to make both visual art and mixtapes to go along with their art.  The line up is impressive: Ben Coleman of Judi Chicago, members of Vera Fang and Sealions, Attractive Eighties Women’s Mack Williams (AKA Phoebe Cates), Bean Summers (musician-ish, right?), and at least a dozen more artist/musicians.

There’s a more comprehensive rundown of the artists and organizations involved in Jeremy’s article at Pine Magazine, which also contains some great quotes, like this one from Ben Coleman:

“The first mixtape I ever made was for a girl named Charlotte Harben when I was about 13 or 14,” said Coleman. “I never snogged Charlotte… [but] I was some kind of god when it came to meticulously arranging Blur, Primal Scream, and Charlatans songs.”

Anyway, the art goes up this Saturday at 8, and it looks like a fun way of answering all the “what are your top 3 b-sides”-type questions you’ve always wanted to ask your favorite Atlanta musicians.

Methane Studios’ 10th anniversary celebration at Alcove Gallery is also this Saturday, but it starts at 7, an hour earlier than the reMIXT show.  Methane have done the album art and show posters for a staggering number of indie bands.  Their work tends to be along the same faux-vintage lines as a lot of the Adult Swim related artists and animators - it’s an instantly memorable style which is made to look good against even the ugliest inner city concrete walls.

The show starts with a performance by Warm In the Wake, who’ve been playing a lot of great shows at Star Bar recently.  (Actually, Star Bar’s music booking in general has been fucking fantastic these past few months)

Warm In The Wake - Joseph Cambell

Warm In The Wake - Tame Thoughts

Here’s something. Did you know that Have You Heard is sponsoring free Monday concerts at 97 Estoria? No cover, cheap Bush beer, and a chance to get closer to Atlanta bands than you’ll have anywhere else (seriously those estoria bathroom stalls are very private).

This week The Barberries will be coming through. You remember them from episode 32 and their session yeah?

Why is Hope For Agoldensummer jumping for joy? I’d like to think it’s not because we fucked up and left off one of the songs we did for their session. Instead, they’re happy because we get to bring you the HYH Session lost track: Fortnight. Check it out, and while you’re at it listen to the rest of the beautiful HFAGS-HYH Session.

Hope For Agoldensummer - Fortnight

The Pack A.D. - Oh Be Joyful

The Pack A.D. - Underground

The Pack A.D. - Wolves and Werewolves

The Pack A.D. - Making Gestures

At a glance The Pack A.D.’s Funeral Mixtape is perfectly disposable and more than ripe for the landfill-indie heap. Similarities to The White Stripes and The Black Keys are overt to say the least. The Pack A.D. is a two piece blues-rock outfit that prefer analog to digital, plays muddied guitar over simplistic drum beats, and has a singer whose voice is either a smooth moan or a calloused howl. Nothing groundbreaking here, that’s for sure. But scratch that. Listen closely. This album is solid.

They’re not doing anything new, but they are certainly doing it well. These ladies know their chops and don’t mind shoving it in your face. Funeral Mixtape offers up gripping, dingy tunes that will have you unconsciously tapping your toes and nodding your head. You may say, “Fuck yeah,” a lot too. The tenacity of this band is intoxicating. When I listened to this record I couldn’t help but come under the impression that Becky Black and Maya Miller couldn’t care less what I or any other reviewer has to say about their album. I find that sort of boldness, fearlessness disturbingly absent from far too many of the bands I’ve listened to lately. The Pack A.D. doesn’t hold back and you’re not going to want them to.

One last note about this album. It’s sexy as hell. Next time you want to get coital, give Mezzanine and Dummy a break for the evening and let Funeral Mixtape be your soundtrack.

Tessa at Drive A Faster Car just posted a comprehensive list of every single Atlanta-related music event happening this weekend.  There’s the free Deerhunter concert at Vacation, Georgia State’s tribute to Madonna (with performances by Attractive Eighties Women), another big Madonna themed party at Mary’s, a few late night DJ things, free admission to Zoo Atlanta*, and a whole lot more.

*  I don’t know what the zoo has to do with music.  Maybe pandas do percussion?

That Handsome Devil - Rob The Prez-O-Dent

That Handsome Devil is a band that revels in debauchery. Debauchery with digestible hooks that keep it dirty, fun, and less intimidating than it ought to be. A City Dressed in Dynamite is an apt title for their latest album, as it really does sound like a city counting down to the apocalypse. That is, That Handsome Devil is successful at setting the intended atmosphere.

A City Dressed in Dynamite, and for that matter the rest of the That Handsome Devil catalog, is defined by a gravely hip daddy vocal delivery with slick guitar licks and a west coast ska/punk spirit. That Handsome Devil give off an anti-establishment urban surfer rockabilly vibe. They strut through gutters in a crime noir urban nightmare. They’re abrasive and dangerously close to annoying.

Godforbid, what the lead singer calls himself, doesn’t sing as much as playfully regales us in rhyme about the hard times while living it up. For example, on “Pills For Everything”, Godforbid does his best Buster Poindexter as he talk sings, “Brimstone Fire and new gold chains / Cigarette lighters and cooked cocaine . . . There’s pills for everything.” It’s hard to tell if they’re looking down at this world or glamorizing it. The only thing for sure is that they’re having a good time.

The members of That Handsome Devil sound like guys who will beat you up for fun, but are smart enough to realize the futility of this behavior. So they drink and drug until they become part of this “Self Destructive Angry at Everybody” world. If that sounds appealing, and I’m sure it does to some people, this could be a fun CD. But, like most albums, and despite quality production along with the band’s best effort, A City does not transcend beyond its intended audience. It’s an audience that is looking forward to the apocalypse, or at least enjoy playing the part.

Negativland - Richard Nixon Died Today

Negativland - Lying On The Grass

Negativland - Two Light Bulbs Flickering

Schizophrenic, ribald, holy – Negativland’s Thigmotactic is the sort of album that turns English majors and music nerds into gooey piles of adjective spewing humanity. The group can be described in much the same way – founded in 1979, the collective is famous for a number of “culture-jamming”-type publicity stunts: packaging a 1987 album with bumper stickers reading “Car Bomb” (preempting This Bike Is a Pipe Bomb by 10 years), creating phony press releases claiming that an axe murderer was inspired by their first album, and almost being sued out of existence in 1991 after releasing an album called U2 which extensively sampled both U2 and radio personality Casey Kasem.

Negativland’s musical compositions tend to follow similar avenues, using extensive sampling and found audio in sound collages to play with the public’s perceptions of what makes music original. While their last album, 2005’s No Business, is built exclusively from samples of other people’s music, Thigmotactic represents Negativland’s return to a slightly more pop aesthetic.

Their first track, “Richard Nixon Died Today” weaves audio from Nixon’s speeches between booming drums and a soaring vocal chorus. As the song continues, comically over-the-top piano notes (they wouldn’t sound out of place in the Top Gun soundtrack) seem to parody the epic sound of bands like Arcade Fire or Wolf Parade.  It’s a fun opening, but Thigmotactic really starts to show it’s brilliantly inspired soul with “Lying On The Grass,” the second track, which features a chorus reminiscent of the surrealist-derived Exquisite Corpse technique:

Like a raven and a crow

fighting over a pinecone

lying on the grass

I wish that I could kiss your ass

At times, the entire album seems built from that cut-up technique; while all Negativland’s songs tend towards a head nodding electronic pop sound, there’s very little to tie one song to another. Take, for example, track nine, “Influential You,” an almost painfully unlyrical mixture of folk and experimental music. From that track’s acoustic guitar heavy sound, Negativland transition to track 12, “Pork In The Store,” which is reminiscent of The Knife (or, briefly, The Faint) – heavy drum machines and synth, tremblingly heartfelt vocals, and a return to the soaring compositions heard in Thigmotactic’s first track. Of course, track 13 drops that style entirely, bringing in almost two minutes of bouncy electronic beeps, boops, and noodling.  And then, track 14 moves towards a less sparse version of The Book’s musical territory.  Made of 17 less than three minute tracks (most of the songs are closer to two), Thigmotactic is closer to a jumble of hilarious ideas than a single album.

Some listeners may see the album’s lack of cohesion as a flaw. Personally, the 17 tracks of high weirdness which make up this thing feel like a soothing balm applied directly to my ADD addled soul. I’ve included three tracks from the album at the top of this review: give them a listen, but don’t imagine they represent anything close to Thigmotactic’s true scope.

So apparently the guitarist from this band made this video himself.  If so you guys should take notice.  Great band, great video.  Enjoy.

Loxly - Lamprey Eels from HaveYouHeard on Vimeo.

 

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup

Bradley and Adam spar on this episode, which has an interview from one of their favorite Atlanta bands Howlies.

Tracks played on the show:

• Sean Morrissey - Manhatten
  
• Brian Eno and David Byrne - Strange Overtones
  
• Lackthereof - Choir Practice
• The Faint - Faciinatiion
• Howlies - Sea Level
• Howlies - Dirty Woman
• The Airborne Toxic Event - The Airborne Toxic Event
• The Preakness - Demons

Aviary Ghost - Somewhere Else

Aviary Ghost - The Brain Is A House

In a late February podcast of “Have You Heard,” Bradley and Adam extolled the virtues of Bon Iver’s For Emma, Forever Ago. For Emma is a beautifully depressing CD that was the result of Justin Vernon escaping to a solitary winter in Wisconsin after his relationships with his band and girlfriend faded away. For my first assignment on this site I was handed a CD with a similar back-story, but without the extra kick in the groin of a break-up. Like For Emma, Aviary Ghost’s Memory is a Hallway is the result of spending isolated winters in the Midwest, Michigan in this case. For Charlie Crimando and Stephen Kemsley of Aviary Ghost, the snowy isolation inspired gloomy topics of conversation, but without the extra groin kickers they retained their folk-rock meets pop optimism. Pretty, but not quite beautiful, Memory is whimsical meditation on mortality.

Aviary Ghost sets an atmosphere beyond simple folk or pop by including subtle experimental tinkering soundscapes in the midst of playful more traditional acoustic ditties. The result is somewhere between Wilco and Belle and Sebastian. Throw in a dose of Badly Drawn Boy and you’ve got a good idea what they sound like.

They can do the sad ballad with the best of them and there are other times when they do a lighter upbeat hootenanny waltz barbershop quartet type thing. It’s the latter moments that keep the album it in the category of good summer time fare, which based on their snowy album cover, is probably not what they set out to do. Memory is a strong and consistent album that has convinced me to check out their live show. It’s too bad that the back-story and certain moments cause a Bon Iver comparison reflex, which is too much to live up to. In the end, Memory is a creative, better than average, pleasant, and friendly listen.