Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Women's Work

Women's Work at Criminal Records, L5Fest, Sept. 14, 2013 
Speaking of terrific Atlanta bands that deserve wider recognition - Women's Work.




Monday, December 16, 2013

Spirits and the Melchizedek Children


It seems like a logical follow-up to yesterday's post about Little Tybee by posting the first video by Atlanta's Spirits and the Melchizedek Children, a band which includes keyboardist Chris Case of Little Tybee (and Adron and Samadha), as well as frontman Jason Elliott (guitar, vocals), Joe McNeill (bass), Ryan Odom (guitar), and Bryan Fielden and Andrew Burnes of San Agustin on drums and second guitar, respectively.

Sunday, December 15, 2013

Little Tybee at The Earl, Atlanta


There are mysteries on the Georgia coast.  Out on the islands, there are settlements of descendants from slaves, the Gullah, who've developed their own culture and language, Geechee, derived from English and African dialects.  Legend has it that at Ebo Landing, a group of slaves that had just arrived in America drowned themselves en masse, still shackled together, when they realized what was in store for them.  To this day, blue-shell crabs from the waters at Ebo Landing have strange markings on their back that look oddly like African faces.  There are old, abandoned, antebellum plantations, and homes and lighthouses reported to be haunted. There's even an unexploded hydrogen bomb lost somewhere beneath Wassaw Sound following a mid-air jet collision.

The band Little Tybee are steeped in these mysteries and even titled their first album Building A Bomb in tribute to the Wassaw Sound incident.  But before they took the stage last night at The Earl, Atlanta's The Shadowboxers performed.


The Shadowboxers are fronted by three young men who sing well and harmonize superbly in addition to playing guitars and keyboards.  They're backed by a drummer and as good a bass player as I've heard in an Atlanta band.  Their sounds is well mixed, and they perform as consummate professionals.


I didn't like them.  While they're quite good at what they do - I'll give them that - I don't like the radio-friendly, lukewarm pop-rock thing it is that they do.  I found it all a little too generic and predictable.  Much of the audience seemed to disagree with me, and several young fans by the front of the stage were dancing along from the very first beat.  The band said it was their first time playing The Earl, so the audience must have heard them somewhere else before, and my guess is that since their type of music is ideal for a high-school prom or frat party, the audience was following them from those kinds of gigs.  

I'll put it this way - if you thought Orleans was the best band of the 70s, you might like The Shadowboxers. If you though Hall & Oates were the best band of the 80s, The Shadowboxers might be the band for you.  If Hootie & the Blowfish rocked your 90s, this is the band you'd be listening to now.  To put it another way, The Shadowboxers are the kind of band you like until you start listening to better bands.

Maybe I'm just a cranky old man.  Either way, I had to retreat back to the rear of The Earl until their set was over so that I wouldn't be making pained expressions at the band while they were playing.

After that, Little Tybee came on stage and turned my night around.


Little Tybee are usually classified a folk-rock outfit, and with Brock Scott's acoustic guitar and Nirvana Kelly's violin there's some accuracy to that clasification, but the band moves quite a bit beyond the confines of the folk-rock genre.  Guitarist Josh Martin and keyboardist Chris Case added alternately jazzy and tropical flourishes and took the band at times into near prog-rock territory, with Brock and Nirvana happily tagging along on the journey.

Last evening seemed to be something of a showcase for Josh Martin in particular, as he displayed his new guitar-playing techniques to at times startling effect.


The set included a cover of Paul Simon's Diamonds On The Soles of Her Shoes from Graceland, with Martin's shimmering guitar transcending the afro-pop of the original and taking it into Little Tybee's own special little universe.  Graceland has risen and fallen and risen again in popularity and cred over the years, and as Little Tybee performed Diamonds, I was reminded of the lines from Allo Darlin's My Heart Is A Drummer:  "Do I have to say I'm sorry for my happiness? You see it's like loving Graceland - it's not allowed to be, but we all know it's everybody's favorite, deep down in the place where music makes you happiest, in the place where my heart is a drummer."


In addition to Diamonds and several older favorites, Little Tybee previewed several new songs last night. The band has a new album that won't be coming out until mid-summer or late next year (translation: whenever), but they plan on premiering the songs and their new, more-eclectic approach over the next several months.  

The set culminated in a one-song encore.  


As always, Little Tybee's rhythm section of Ryan Donald on bass and Pat Brooks on drums did a fine job of keeping the songs percolating along.


Extra good-karma bonus points:  Nirvana Kelly announced that the band was donating all of its earnings from last night's gig to a scholarship charity for the school she teaches in, one that caters to underserved and at-risk children.  

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Spark & Whisper



Meanwhile, back in California, here's Marin County's Spark & Whisper performing at a house party in Oakland.

Friday, December 13, 2013

Quiet Hounds' Good Bones


Good Bones, a new song by Atlanta's Quiet Hounds, performed back on October 4 at The Swan House as a part of the Hounds' Phoenix & The Swan performance and captured by IndieATL.

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Joseph Arthur at Eddie's Attic, Decatur, Georgia, December 11, 2013


It's no secret that it can get rather chilly in Akron, Ohio.  It is known.  Given this, it should be no surprise that Akron's Joseph Arthur, who lived for a while here in Atlanta, was able to warm up a cold December evening at Eddie's Attic.


Shreveport's Dylan LeBlanc opened.  A singer-songwriter accompanied only by his acoustic guitar, LeBlanc has an impressively strong voice to carry him through his material.  At times, his voice reminded me a little of Chris Issak  (without the yodeling).  He came across as endearingly sincere, fitting for a singer-songwriter on the acoustic circuit, and played a half-hour or so set without wearing out his welcome.


We saw Joseph Arthur at last September's L5Fest, and were quite impressed with his songs, his guitar playing, and the emotional impact of the set.  There, he was backed only by a very intuitive drummer, Bill Dobrow, who joined him again last night, but this time he added an additional musician on bass - Mike Mills, formerly of REM. 


Arthur gave the audience a splendid, nearly two-hour, tour-de-force performance, consisting mostly of songs from his fine new record, The Ballad of Boogie Christ.  About half-way through, he used a pedal to loop his guitar part, freeing his hands to paint a spontaneous picture on stage while still singing.  It sounds pretentious, but it didn't come off that way - Arthur apparently is something of a noted artist, creating the cover art for most of his entire discography, including 10 LPs.  


There were so many highlights it's difficult to list them all, but just off the top of my head, there was his epic extended guitar solo during Boogie Christ, a cover of ELO's Showdown, and Dobrow's playing on a Brazilian drum for the last several songs of the set.  As per his custom, Arthur had CDs of the evening's performance recorded right off the soundboard available for sale immediately after the show.  My only regret of the evening is that I failed to buy the CD, but I see that most of his shows are available for download at his website, including a two-night stand on February 10 and 11 of 2010 at Eddie's Attic, so I assume this show should be available some time soon.


A number of people were in the audience primarily to see bassist Mike Mills, a sideman who outshines the frontman in terms of name recognition, but played his sideman role well, providing backing vocals in addition to his bass playing.  Apparently, this wasn't just a one-off, as-long-as-I'm-in-town performance - Mills has apparently committed to playing with Arthur for some time, and mentioned during the show that he was now "in the band."

For the encore, Arthur kicked the lead vocals over to Mills for a cover of REM's Don't Go Down To Rockville, before performing several more of his own songs.


It's beyond me how Joseph Arthur has managed to avoid becoming a bigger star for all these years - he seems like an affable-enough guy, he writes terrific songs, sings well, and is a most impressive guitarist.  Peter Gabriel thought enough of him to sign him after hearing a demo tape, he was a member of Fistful of Mercy with Ben Harper and Dhanni Harrison (George's son), and as alluded to before, has released 10 albums of his own.  I've been listening to Boogie Christ today, and it's a great record.  I'm a fan.


Perhaps with the drawing power of Mike Mills in the band, Joseph Arthur will now get some of the recognition he deserves.

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Giant Colors

A Short Vacation cover art

Giant Colors is the solo project of Atlanta's Bret Reagan (DAMS, Triop, Psychedubosaurus Rex, Lotus Quadrant) and well worth your time to experience.



A Short Vacation derives its name from Reagan's previous Planning A Short Vacation by his Triop outfit.