Faun & A Pan Flute

Faun & A Pan Flute at The Goat Farm.  Dude, I was there!

Dude, I Was There!

Jungol, at the April 3, 2014 Atlanta Film Festival Sound + Vision event at The Goat Farm.

Dude, I Was There!

@ Faun and a Pan Flute, Atlanta Film Festival Sound + Vision, The Goat Farm, April 3, 2014

Atlanta Film Festival Sound + Vision

Before I start falling too far behind, let's recap last Thursday night's Atlanta Film Festival Sound + Vision event at The Goat Farm.  I've already posted pictures of some of the visual offerings from the event over at the other blog, so here's a summary of the musical portion of the events.

When I arrived, Florida's The Dewars were on stage.

I hadn't heard of The Dewars before and wasn't quite sure what to expect - they describe themselves as "adult sing-along."  What they performed was witty and entertaining folk pop, as in their song Switzerland, the video of which was also periodically projected outside on a large screen.

Atlanta's electronic band Jungol were up next, and they brought a friend on stage with them.

The friend is a character from their short film/extended video Go Softly, which seems to fall somewhere in the Animal Collective-to-Bjork continuum of strangeness for strangeness's sake that doesn't need to be explained.  

Anyway, the friend lent an enigmatic and powerful presence to the stage while Jungol performed.  

Here's the entire Go Softly film, which was also one of the featured "experimental films" being screened in the building across from the band's performance.

Atlanta's eight-piece Faun And A Pan Flute took the stage sometime around 10 pm.  FAAPF play an indescribable brand of music that's equal parts Harry Partch, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, jazz fusion, math rock, minimalism, and prog, and I'm probably leaving out a half-dozen or so other genres that they covered.  It can be pretty adventurous and avant garde stuff at times, and I think it says a lot of good things about Atlanta's musical audience that the band seems to be so well loved and appreciated.

The weather was absolutely lovely the whole night - warm and dry, with a pleasingly low pollen count.  But despite the weather, and despite the terrific performances, fascinating films and videos, and fantastic art installations, I still called it an evening after Faun And A Pan Flute so that I could get home at an early enough hour to get a good night's sleep and be ready for another evening of live music on Friday.    

Meanwhile, Back at the Goat Farm

The Dewars performing at the Atlanta Film Festival Sound + Vision event last night at the Goat Farm.  More on this soon.

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.

Atlanta Film Festival Sound & Vision at The Goat Farm, March 20, 2013

So, how cold was it?  That's the question that dominates any recollection of last night's Atlanta Film Festival Sound & Vision event at The Goat Farm.

The event, held in connection with the on-going Atlanta Film Festival, was billed as a showcase of bad-ass Atlanta bands, a music video stand-off projected on a humongous screen, a screening of experimental films, art installations, d.j. sets by Atlanta musician Cousin Dan, and the usual food trucks.  

What I didn't know until I arrived was that the bad asses were staged outdoors to the west of Building 1.  Most events at The Goat Farm have been staged in The Rodriquez Room (aka, Building 3); this is the first time I've seen an event at Building 1.  Located at the western edge of the property, the building is a low, rectangular, one-story detached structure constructed in 1919 and originally used as a machine shop and later as a crating, storing, and shipping facility. The building has a concrete floor and a flat, plank-on-timber roof with two continuous, full-length, northward-facing skylights. In modern (i.e., post–World War II) times, the building has been used as a metal fabrication plant, although it is now vacant and the roof is in a state of disrepair.  The industrial disrepair of the building provided a funky backdrop to the stage, and also offered great views of the Atlanta skyline over the adjacent railroad yards.

What I also didn't know until I arrived was that the temperatures were going to fall into the low 30s during the course of the night.  I had worked outside all of that day, and although it was overcast for much of the time, by the afternoon, the sun had come out and I was working in shirt sleeves.  I didn't know that the clear skies were a part of a cold front that had moved into Georgia, and I almost headed out to The Goat Farm in just a long-sleeved shirt, but at the last minute threw on a fleece.  As it turns out, I should have worn a hoodie on top of that and another layer of fleece.  It got cold, baby.

Anyhow, this isn't a blog about the weather.  The first band on the Building 1 stage was Shantih Shantih, a relatively new all-girl quartet, playing their first home-town show.  

As you can see, the industrial ruin of Building 1 provided a picturesque backdrop to the stage.  As the sun settled down somewhere over the State of Alabama, the last afternoon light cast silhouettes of the audience and all of the amateur photographers onto the riser for the stage, looking almost like a shadow puppet show.

Shantih Shantih plays a highly enjoyable brand of punk-pop with girl-band influences.  The band consists of Anna K on lead guitar and vocals:

Another Anna, Anna B, on vocals and guitar, and Julia F on drums.

Valentina T plays drums.

Anyway, despite the jackets and sunshine, the band was visibly cold, and commented a couple times about how chilly it was getting.

Cousin Dan, who d.j.'s under the clever name Moreland Brando (Moreland Avenue is the main thoroughfare leading to East Atlanta Village, home of many if not most of the city's rock clubs (The Earl, 529, The Basement, etc.)), provided a pleasing retro-funk mix between sets.  The next band up, second of the night, was Atlanta's Cute Boots.  I can enjoy their country-influenced roots rock but tend to lose patience with the scripted dialogues during their performances, as the corny scripts are usually lacking any semblance of spontaneity and are delivered so woodenly that it distracts from the music.  Fortunately, they kept the dialogues to a minimum last night, possibly just to get off the stage and back to the warmth that much sooner.

By the time Cute Boots finished, it was dark enough out for some of the art installations to begin, the most impressive of which were a series of projections on the windows of the 200-foot-long Building 1.

It wasn't nearly as cold in the rest of The Goat Farm as it was at the Building 1 stage, and between sets I would step into Building 2 for the experimental film screenings just to warm up. Even the outdoor music video show in the central courtyard wasn't nearly as cold as the stage. But eventually, I zipped up my fleece and pulled the collar up over as much of my neck as I could to go see Tikka, one of the bands I was most looking forward to hearing.

I've seen Tikka before, opening for someone at The Earl, although I can't remember who.  Tikka is led by singer and guitarist Asha Lakra, and they play a showgaze-y brand of experimental noise pop, which you can hear on their fine, eponymous EP, avialable on their Bandcamp page.

Tikka put on a great set but due to the cold, before a sparse audience, and I have to admit I was distracted myself by the cold temperatures and a wind that seemed determined to find every opening and seam in my insufficient little fleece jacket.  After Tikka's terrific set, I quickly retreated back to the relative warmth of the other Sound & Vision attractions.  

By the time the band PLS PLS was to take the stage at 9:15, I realized that I had now been outside for over 12 hours during the day, and most of that time on my feet.  Although I had been looking forward to seeing Dog Bite again, it was simply getting too damn cold to be enjoyable.  The alternative of sitting on my sofa in the warmth of my home with a glass of bourbon to warm my insides and watching The Americans on FX seemed preferable to standing around in the cold any longer, and I decided to bag it for the rest of the night.  I'm sure that PLS PLs, Dog Bite and Gringo Star (the headliner) all put on great sets, and I'm sure that I'll get a chance to catch them again some evening.  

I commend IndieATL and the organizers of the Sound & Vision event for putting together a great show, and the selection of Building 1 for the outdoor stage was a great choice - I hope I can get to see bands play there again in the future. No one could have foreseen that blast of cold arctic air sweeping into Georgia on a late March evening.  Hey, at least it didn't rain.