Eu quis cantar....

Last night I obtained tickets for Os Mutantes in Atlanta---exciting!

Panis et Circenses

Gnarls Barkley in Athens (2008)

I wrote this article about Gnarls Barkley on a super tight deadline, and if I had had more time I probably would have shaped the focus differently, but being on a short deadline (and going back to work the next day), time was the one luxury I did not have. The main thing I regret is not mentioning what a great solo show Cee-lo put on in 2001 at Tasty World. It was all kinds of amazing, and people were actually dancing, really dancing, which is rare here in Athens cuz everyone's too cool or stiff or something....

I'm super excited about tomorrow night's show. It's crazy that those guys are actually playing the 40 Watt (and with Heather McIntosh---one of our own), especially after playing the huge venues they are filling now. It almost makes up for my missing M.I.A. in 2006 (I had to work at the worst job ever!!!).

Athens crowds are notoriously loud---I just hope for once people will shut up (Cayete!!!)and listen to the music and just dance dance dance....

I love the video for What's Going On---especially it's Prince Caspian ending.

R.I.P. Arthur Lee

This week has been crazy busy, but I did want to take five minutes to remember Arthur Lee of Love, who died August 3, 2006 of leukemia.    There's really no point in my regurgitating facts about him; if you're interested, do the research, or better yet, buy the music.  

I found out about Love several years ago when I was flipping through our record collection; my husband had a best of L.P.  with this picture-

I thought Arthur Lee and Johnny Echols were super hot, plus Arthur was originally from Memphis, where I used to spend a lot of time.  I was hooked from the first notes of Little Red Book, and that was at least two months before I heard Forever Changes, one of my favorite albums ever.  Great music and mind-blowing lyrics that completely encapsulate the dark side of the sixties.

Check out Arthur Lee and Love live below.

Dark Meat Live at the 40 Watt July 11, 2008

Most nights when I go out, all I want to do is sdance, dance, dance. And if there’s ever a band that on any given night you can count on shakin' to, it’s Athens, GA’s Dark Meat. Dark Meat’s a band I love seeing because it’s not just a bunch of sweaty unwashed dudes; there’s also lots of lovely ladies providing back up vocals, like Sara J. Ursrey (the Ones, Creepy) Hope for a Golden Summer’s Claire and Page Campbell (also Creepy), and other ladyfriends providing percussion and horns and strings.

Dark Meat also boasts a horn section called the Vomit Lasers, with satyrs on saxophone, foxy boys playing trumpet, feral boys burnishing blasts from their trombone. There’s also several wild things blowing your mind on guitar, and a tall boy trilling away at the keys. Ben Clack thumps out bass lines compelling you to get your groove on, conjoining with the two of Athens’ hardest rocking drummers Jason Robira and Forrest Lefford to propel the whole combustible madness taking place before your eyes, pounding in your ears, your brain, your butt, your gut, taking you from psych to blues to jazz to straight up punk rock, guitarist/ frontman Jim McHugh freaking out on the mike as he belts out each song, at one point pressing his face close against Ursrey as they delivered dueling vocals. Sadly, my batteries died and the image remains imprinted only in my mind (and explains the lackluster quality of these pictures...)

Highlights of Friday’s show included the brand new song they started with whose name I don’t know, a louder harder version of Oh Sh** I F***** Up than I’ve ever heard before, and Freedom Ritual, which begins with the lovely toned lady Page Campbell singing acapello, all the band sitting quietly at her feet, her throaty voice soaring to lovely heights before the song erupted into clamor and chaos.

On any given night Dark Meat boasts between sixteen and twenty-three members, and there’s so much going on onstage that it’s not possible to do the band justice with mere words. It’s something that has to be experienced in the flesh, something you have to see in person at least one time. And when you do make it to see them live, do yourself and me a favor, and remember to let yourself go, freak out, and shake, shake, shake for me.

Folklore Plays the Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society

The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society is in a perpetual tie with Love's Forever Changes for being my absolute favorite album of all time. And since I'll never see either of these bands play (barring a fabled Kinks reunion, which given Dave Davies' health and a host of other factors, I don't see happening), tribute acts are the closest I can get to those songs.



Which is why I'm STOKED that next Tuesday night Athens-based act Folklore is replicating their Athfest show, covering the Village Green Preservation Society in its entirety. I saw part of their set at the fest and was completely entranced.



Hear the magic Tuesday July 22 at the 40 Watt. Folklore is for real playing their very last show, as lead singer/guitarist Jimmy Hughes is soon leaving the South for Philly;(.



With Ham1 and Future Ape Tapes.