California Wives at Eddie's Attic, Decatur, Georgia, July 31, 2013

Eddie's Attic is a music club founded in 1992 by Eddie Owen.  Located in Decatur, a close-in suburb of Atlanta, it is primarily a venue for acoustic singer-songwriters.  Performers who have developed their fan base at Eddie's Attic include Shawn Mullins, John Mayer, the Civil Wars, and most notably the Indigo Girls, who have become virtually synonymous with the club (many people mistakenly think they own the place).  In November 2011, Atlanta concert promoter Alex Cooley bought the club and six months later fired Eddie Owen, who had remained the club's booking agent.  Many of us had high hopes that Cooley would turn the club into a new rock venue, but since Owen's departure it has stayed a more-or-less all-acoustic club.

In the 21 years that the club operated, I had never been there - that is, until last night.  Acoustic singer-songwriters, aka "folk singers," aren't really my thing, despite my affection for Sharon Van Etten and Damien Jurado, who technically could be considered part of that genre.  In addition, Decatur is off the beaten track, at least my beaten track, and I was never sufficiently motivated to drive across town to hear music in which I wasn't interested.  I mean, come on, would you?

Until, that is, last night.  My friend Leslie wanted to treat me to a slightly belated (by my own request) birthday dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant in Decatur, and while wondering what else to do while in Decatur, I checked out the listings for Eddie's Attic and saw that the band California Wives (all dudes, naturally) was playing that night.

That was a pleasant surprise.  Their song Blood Red Youth had somehow managed to surface on my iPod, where it's resided for a couple years now.  They are a bona-fide rock band, not at all unlike the acts regularly booked at, say, The Earl or The Drunken Unicorn, and not at all the solemn, sincere solo acts typically on the Attic stage. So after dinner, we went over to Eddie's to hear California Wives.

  

It was a 9:30 show and followed an earlier show by a solo, acoustic singer-songwriter (naturally).  I didn't go to the early show (naturally).  The Wives got started at around 10:00 pm.

Eddie's Attic is a throwback to the earlier, cabaret-style nightclubs in which I used to hear live music. It's nice to be able to sit, but since most normal people don't dance to folk music (at least most normal folk music), there was no dance floor or place to stand in front of the stage.  It was just like the 70s (NY's Bottom Line or Boston's Jonathan Swift's) - you sat at a table or at the bar, and a waitress would come by to take your order.  That may not sound strange to some of you, but I haven't been accustomed to that kind of set-up at a rock club since I first went to Atlanta's 688 back in 1981.  However, you really can't complain about the sight lines (no tall dudes standing right in front of you), and it's not unpleasant to be able to sit.

Meanwhile, the band on stage, California Wives, played a terrific set for a small audience. Their music ranged from dreamy Real Estate-style guitar pop to jangle pop to somewhat angular shoegaze.  According to Consequence of Sound, "The four members of the Chicago band are definitive in their style, meshing atmospheric textures with stadium rock guitar parts — a New Wave-inspired outfit who knows that they are just that, and they intend to make the most out of it. In a live setting, it can thrill . . . On record, it’s a band that loves both U2 and the Cocteau Twins’ very different methods of crafting 'big' sounds so much that they naturally decided to replicate both at the same time." 

I thoroughly enjoyed their set, as well as frontman Jayson Kramer's engaging and humorous stage presence. After performing their song Tokyo, a group from a back table shouted out that they were in fact actually from Tokyo, which seemed to impress Kramer greatly.  Tokyo was followed, naturally, by Los Angeles to complete the geographic portion of their set.  It was the band's first gig in Atlanta and followied an evening in New Orleans, and they played their disorientation (and hangovers) to comic effect, wrapping up their set by 11:00 pm.

This year, for some reason, August does not hold much promise for many memorable nights of music, so it was nice to end July on an up note, and it was also nice to finally make it over to Eddie's after all these years. Perhaps last night was the start of the Cooley influence on the club's booking, but even if not, it was still a nice change of pace.

Post-Script: After finishing this post about California Wives, I saw that I got an email from Paste Magazine (based in Decatur) promoting a Wives show in their hometown of Chicago.  According to Paste, "California Wives draw influences from several different genres with a heavy emphasis on songwriting and lyricism, so catching them in a smaller setting is sure to be a treat."  I don't know how small a venue the WXYZ Bar is at the O'Hare Aloft Hotel, but I doubt the crowd will be smaller than the two dozen or so at Eddie's Attic last night.

Little Tybee

This beautifully photographed video has some "Dude, I Was There!" moments, especially the footage from The Goat Farm, but actually traces the development of Atlanta's Little Tybee's new album, For Distant Viewing, from initial conception to album release party.

Nine Inch Nails

So at this point you're probably wondering, "What would a concert from Nine Inch Nails comeback tour look like in South Korea from halfway back in the audience?"  Well, wonder no more, because we now have a  videographic answer to your question.

I like Nine Inch Nails - I bought their first album when it first came out in 1989 - but they're a band I'll probably never see live as they tend to only play big venues like Philips Arena in Atlanta, places I refuse to patronize for a number of reasons (bad acoustics, seats far from the stage, overpriced tickets, extremely young audiences, et cet., ad nauseum).  The only way I can imagine ever seeing them live would be if our paths happened to cross at some festival or another.

But this does look like a lot of fun.  And for what it's worth, Disappointed, the second song in the clip above, appears to be a new NIN number.

The Head and the Heart Cover Iron Maiden In the Desert

This looks like some crazed, Carlos Castanada-influenced experiment in the desert, but its probably just one of the reasons that Seattle boys should be wary of getting too much sun when in the Southwest.

This September, I'll be seeing The Head and the Heart perform in Portland's beautiful Pioneer Courthouse Square during MFNW, and then again in November at the relatively near-by Buckhead Theater.  Thao and the Get Down Stay Down will be opening for them on both dates.  

But between now and then, or at least between now and Bumbershoot on Labor Day weekend, there really isn't much on the musical horizon.  This may not be a drought year, at least for weather (far from it!), but it's close to a summer-long drought in musical terms, with only a few, scattered oases of sound (Cayucas, Kisses).  Maybe its the incentive I need to save my pennies for the Northwest and for Rocktober after that.

Rocktober 2013 - First Announcement

As I speculated last May, Junip have picked up an Atlanta date to coincide with their Austin City Limits set in October, and will be playing Terminal West on October 7 (Rocktober, baby!).  I've already got my ticket, even though I have no idea what's going on in that video.

It's still very early, but the Rocktober lineup for 2013 is already looking pretty strong, with the following dates:

September 30 - Local Natives, Masquerade

October 1 - Boy, Terminal West

October 2 - Fidlar, Drunken Unicorn
October 3 - Those Darlins, The Earl

October 4 - Aimee Mann, Variety Playhouse

October 5 - Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Terminal West

October 7 - Junip, Terminal West

October 8 - Wavves & King Tuff, Masquerade

October 10 - Menomena & The Helio Sequence, Terminal West

October 11 - Mount Kimbie, The Loft
October 13 - Von Grey, Terminal West

October 15 - Noah and the Whale & LP, Variety Playhouse

October 16 - Hanni El Khatib, The Earl

October 17 - Atlas Genius & Family of the Year, Center Stage

October 21 - The Moondoggies, The Earl

October 24 - Neko Case, Buckhead Theater

October 26 - Neutral Milk Hotel, Tabernacle

October 27 - Delorean, Masquerade

October 28 - Crystal Stilts, The Earl 

Of course, more dates are still forthcoming (529 hasn't posted any October shows yet), but even if nothing more is announced, this is already shaping up to be the best Rocktober yet.

Kisses at The Drunken Unicorn, Atlanta, July 25, 2013

Last night, LA's Kisses headlined a very satisfying show at The Drunken Unicorn, but the real revelation of the evening was the terrific set by a new (to me at least) band, Atlanta's Palace Wolves.

Palace Wolves were formed last year by songwriters Ryan Pace (guitars, keys, vocals) and Shannon Small (guitars, keys, vocals), along with Matt Katis (keys, programming).  Last May, they released their first EP, simply called 12 for the year they started.  I don't know how many gigs they've played prior to last night (their web site indicates they've played at least 5 sets before, all at the Unicorn), but if they continue to perform the way they did, word of mouth should quickly propel them to the upper echelons of the local music scene, if not onto the national stage. 

Here's standout song The Desert from 12, which ably demonstrates the band's skills:

You can stream the entire EP at their Soundcloud page, or download the individual songs.

Sealions' singer Joey Patino even gave them a special shout out during his set, much more than the usual "How about that opener, huh?"  I can't recall his exact words, but he expressed his own sincere pleasure at hearing Palace Wolves great set.

Not that Sealions didn't themselves deliver a terrific follow-up set.  We've seen Sealions a couple times before, back in October 2010 opening up for Metric at The Tabernacle and in March 2012 at The Goat Farm for the Atlanta Film Festival's Sound + Vision event ("Dude-I-Was-There!" video below).  As usual, last night they performed a satisfyingly loud set of slightly psychedelic guitar rock with touches of dream pop.

The headliners were LA's Kisses.

Kisses are Jesse Kivel and Zinzi Edmundson, and to say that their sound is anything less than sunny, happy, and delightfully summery would miss the mark.  These guys would make Cayucas sound introverted and mopey by comparison.

Naturally, the entire audience was up and dancing throughout the set, or at the very least swaying in place, and one particularly exuberant couple at the front of the stage set the tone for the rest of us, and even got Zinzi dancing along up on stage. Meanwhile, Jesse projected an extremely likable and engaging stage persona, and I don't think there was a person in the audience who wasn't won over well before the end of their set.

This was the band's first East Cast tour and first time playing in Atlanta, and they weren't sure what to expect.  Jesse asked for the air conditioning to be turned down, a rare request for a Southern California band in Georgia and one you'll never hear at the sweaty Masquerade or even The Earl.  They also weren't sure how they'd be received, so they played their usual encore song to close their set, and then were a little nonplussed when they were called back for an encore and had nothing else prepared. They managed to come up with something, though, a relatively longer song that nicely built up to a hip-shaking finale.  

So, three good sets by three good bands, and the discovery of one new band worth getting enthusiastic about.  Not bad for a Thursday night.