This Week's Shows (4/11 - 4/17)

Here's a something-for-everyone week of music in Atlanta: on one hand, we have a two-night stand by Mumford & Son at a hockey rink in Gwinnett County, pop royalty Elle King at Variety Playhouse, and MTV heroes Duran Duran at a downtown basketball arena, while on the other hand, we have the Atlanta debut (as far as I know) of Dan Boeckner's new project, Operators, the reconstructed Mr. Twin Sister, and the first Sunset Session at Park Tavern of the season, with lots in between as you'll see below.

As always, please keep in mind that musicians and night-club proprietors lead complicated lives and I'm prone to errors, mistakes, typos, and fubars; it's advisable to confirm any of the information below on your own before making plans. 

MONDAY APRIL 11

Deerhunter, The Subsonics, Bitchin Bajas (Variety Playhouse)

Deerhunter are an experimental noise rock band from Atlanta, fronted by Bradford Cox. Cox's vocal style blends vocal experimentation along the lines of Meredith Monk or Yoko Ono with a more direct and punky howl inspired by the Fall's Mark E. Smith, while his bandmates churn out an aggressive mix of industrial-grind guitars and fractured dance rhythms that often recalls earlier Georgia art punks like the Method Actors and Pylon.  2015's Fading Frontier is arguably Deerhunter's best effort yet, and if you missed their previous sold-out show at the Playhouse, here's your chance to make up for it.

Deerhunter at Bumbershoot 2013

Lissie, Skrizzly Adams (Terminal West)

Lissie Maurus draws on her blue-collar Midwestern origins to create her own form of indie folk music. The granddaughter of an international barbershop quartet champion, she grew up singing in theater productions, eventually picking up the guitar and playing her own songs at local coffee shops as a teenager. Thrown out of high school during her senior year, she spent a brief period at Colorado State University, relocated to Paris for a semester, and eventually ditched college altogether to pursue her music career. Returning to the U.S., Lissie headed west and settled in Los Angeles, where she became a fixture on the local venue circuit.

Lissie at Bumbershoot 2013

Mumford & Sons (Duluth Infinite Energy Arena)

First of a two-night stand by the British folk-rock superstars.

TUESDAY APRIL 12

The Cult, Holy White Hounds (Variety Playhouse)

One of England's leading heavy metal revivalists, The Cult picked up the pseudo-mysticism and Native American obsessions of the Doors, the guitar orchestrations of Led Zeppelin, and the three-chord crunch of AC/DC, while adding touches of post-punk goth rock.  The Cult gained a dedicated following in their native Britain with mid-'80s singles like She Sells Sanctuary before breaking into the American metal market in the late '80s. However, the band was plagued with off-stage tensions and problems that prevented them from retaining their popularity and split in 1995 following a pair of unsuccessful records, but return on an occasional basis for new records.

Mumford & Sons (Duluth Infinite Energy Arena)

Second of the two-night stand by the British folk-rock superstars.

WEDNESDAY APRIL 13

Elle King (Variety Playhouse)

Pop singer, songwriter, and occasional actor Elle King is the daughter of London King and Rob Schneider of Saturday Night Live fame. Her music mostly exists at some amorphous intersection of blues, country, rock, soul, and big-budget pop and she sings about such time-honored topics as bad men, worse behavior, and bouncing back from both. 

Eyehategod, Fight Amp, Cloak (The Earl)

Heavily influenced by Black Sabbath, Black Flag, and the Melvins, New Orleans' misanthropic sludge metal outfit Eyehategod was formed in 1988 and became an important part of a Southern sludgecore scene.   Eyehategod went on an unofficial hiatus in 1993. In 1996, Eyehategod briefly reconvened; however, the band fell largely silent for some time afterward, with occasional recordings and intermittent tours afterwards. 

THURSDAY APRIL 14

Roadkill Ghost Choir, Polyenso, Walker Lukens (The Earl)

If, for whatever reason, you can't make this show, Americana shoegaze band Roadkill Ghost Choir will be playing The Earl again on April 21, so no worries.

Roadkill Ghost Choir performing in the rain, Shaky Knees, 2013

FRIDAY APRIL 15

Duran Duran, Chic (Philips Arena)

Duran Duran's Paper Gods Tour comes to Philips Arena.  Paper Gods was a guest-filled album released last year that sought to re-capture the sleek pop pizzazz of Rio and earlier efforts, but let’s face it, most people just want to hear the ’80s MTV hits like Planet Earth, Hungry Like the Wolf and Save a Prayer.  Paper Gods, like most of Duran Duran's post-millennium output, has by and large failed to set the world afire, mostly owing to the fact that it will never be 1982 again.  Chic, featuring Nile Rodgers, opens.

Cullen Omari, Living Hour, Man Up Yancey, Joshua Loner (The Earl)
Former Smith Western Cullen Omari had to cancel this date, which is unfortunate as his debut LP, New Misery, is excellent, but the show must go on.  Living Hours, a psychedelic dreampop band from Winnipeg, Manitoba, will play instead.

Wreckless Eric, Gentleman Jesse (Mammal Gallery)
Wreckless Eric is Eric Goulden. He was given the name to hide behind, but after awhile realized he was stuck with it. Onstage, he hides behind nothing, he tells the truth with big open chords, squalls of feedback, lilting enchantment, bizarre stories and backchat. Joining Eric is Atlanta legend Gentleman Jesse. The leader of Gentleman Jesse & His Men, Jesse Smith also comes out to play a rare solo set.

The Coathangers, Paint Fumes, Bad Spell, Paralyzer (Star Community Bar)
The Coathangers are an punk rock band from Atlanta that formed in 2006 as a joke. After playing a house show, they were asked to open for The Hiss on the strength of their performance. Their playfulness continues into their songs, with titles such as Don’t Touch My Shit, Nestle In My Boobies and Shut the Fuck Up.  Over the years, however, they've grown in their abilities and are now a respected band that headlines nationally.

SATURDAY, APRIL 16

Little Green Cars, John Mark Nelson (Vinyl)
Dublin's Little Green Cars play in the amiable rural rock style of the Lumineers, Mumford & Sons, and First Aid Kit.  Offering an Irish take on Americana, they employ generous five-part harmonies over a bed of R.E.M. Fleetwood Mac, and Woody Guthrie-inspired country-folk-pop. In 2016, they released their second album, Ephemera, named after a poem by Irish poet W. B. Yeats about slowly fading love.

Mr. Twin Sister, Hellier Ulysses, Pop Weirdos (Drunken Unicorn)
After the release of their debut album In Heaven, Long Island, New York-based indie pop quintet Twin Sister responded to hardships, including a near-devastating car accident while on tour, by completely transforming themselves. Rechristened Mr Twin Sister, their self-released, self-titled second album is so different from their previous music that it feels like a true debut. Mr. Twin Sister is miles away from In Heaven's bubbly indie pop. Reflecting its genesis, Mr. Twin Sister celebrates music's transformative powers, combining house, industrial, R&B, trip-hop, and more into sultry, glamorous electro-pop.

Andrea Estella with Twin Sister at The Earl, January 25, 2012

Parker Millsap, City Mouse (The Earl)
Parker Millsap is a singer-songwriter from Purcell, Oklahoma playing a blend of blues, country, alt-country/Americaca, and folk music. Parker garnered attention with his popular song Truck Stop Gospel, and plays with childhood friend Michael Rose on bass and Daniel Foulks on the fiddle. Parker's guitar style has drawn comparisons to Elvis, and he also plays the harmonica and slide guitar.

SUNDAY, APRIL 17

Operators, Bogan Via (The Earl)

Dan Boeckner is having a busy year. Not only has he reunited Wolf Parade, his other band Operators released their debut album, Blue Wave, on April 1.  The single Cold Light sounds a little like New Order and a little like The Cure, but is unmistakably a Boeckner original.

Neon Indian (Park Tavern)

Neon Indian is an electronic music band from Denton, Texas, fronted by Mexican-born Alan Palomo. This show is the season debut of Park Tavern's free Sunset Sessions series that run from 7:00 to 11:00 pm.

Acoustic Hot Tuna (Variety Playhouse)

Begun as an acoustic spinoff of the Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna eventually became the full-time focus of founding members Jack Casady and Jorma Kaukonen, emerging as a popular touring act of the 1970s. The two are lifelong friends, growing up together in Washington, D.C., and together they helped lead Jefferson Airplane to massive success during the late '60s.

Darlingside, David Wax Museum, Haroula Rose (Eddie's Attic)

Indie folk band Darlingside formed in 2009 at Williams College in western Massachusetts. A group of string players combining classical, folk, and rock, Darlingside boasted a strong vocal presence from the very start, layering their songs with lush, multi-part group harmonies. Coining their sound "string rock," they quickly established themselves as a dynamic live act, reinventing themselves as a richly layered string band with a crafty pop sound. Tourmates David Wax Museum will provide their unique Mexo-Americana folk rock.  First of a two-night stand, which continues on Monday of next week.

Mr. Twin Sister

A lot has apparently happened to Twin Sister since we last saw them at The Earl back in 2012.  Lead singer Andrea Estella starred in The Veronica Mars Movie, and the band has adopted a new sound and renamed themselves Mr. Twin Sister, although, as you can hear below, Estella is still front and center.

Local Natives & Wild Nothing at The Tabernacle, Atlanta, 9/30/2013

In what is probably the first official set of Rocktober 2013, Local Natives performed last night at The Tabernacle.  Wild Nothing opened.

Wild Nothing play a particular blissful hybrid of dream pop and indie shoegaze, characterized by catchy songs with spacey instrumental passages.  Here's a Wild Nothing song featuring a verse sung by Twin Sister's Andrea Estella.

Wild Nothing's set was a particularly enjoyable warm-up to the headliner, L.A.'s Local Natives.

We've seen Local Natives twice before, both times at the godforsaken Masquerade, once in Hell and later in Heaven (that's the upstairs and downstairs stages for those unfamiliar with the venue).  Since those performances, the band has released a new album, Hummingbird, early this year and their fan base has grown considerably, to the point where they're now packing the large Tabernacle.

Local Natives have been touring extensively since Hummingbird was released, but this is the first time they've come to Atlanta since The Masquerade appearances in 2011.  They kept raving about how much they liked the crazy, enthusiastic audiences at the Masquerade shows, begging the question what's kept them away for two years?

According to the indefatigable Wikipedia, their sound has been described as psych folk, new-fangled folk, and "afropop-influenced guitars with hyperactive drumming and hooky three-part harmonies."  

After a nearly 70-minute set, they ended the show with a three-song encore, culminating in their stand-out Sun Hands.  During the dramatic finale of the song, it looked like singer Taylor Rice was about to crowd-surf the audience, but security kept a hold of the back of his belt and wouldn't let him loose.  

I had a nice spot to watch the show, about three persons back from center stage, but when Rice jumped off the stage the crowd surged forward and I had to do my Charles Barkley move (bent slightly over with the butt stuck out as far as possible) to keep from getting trampled.  That was fun, and capped off an enjoyable evening of music.

For those interested, more pics from this show are posted over at the Flickr site.  

Twin Sister's Andrea Estella to Star in Veronica Mars Movie

Andrea Estella with Twin Sister at The Earl, August 17, 2010

Andrea Estella with Twin Sister at 529, June 4, 2011

Andrea Estella with Twin Sister at The Earl, January 25, 2012

The Veronica Mars Movie, which was funded through a Kickstarter campaign, is currently due for release sometime in 2014. This week, news broke that actress Leighton Meester has dropped out of the film due to scheduling conflicts and has been replaced by Andrea Estella, the lead singer of one of my favorite bands, Twin Sister.

Creator/director Rob Thomas says his reasoning for casting Estella was because the role of Carrie Bishop, the character she will be playing, requires someone who can sing. Thomas was a fan of the band, and saw Estella as a perfect fit. In an e-mail, Thomas said:

One of the reasons I wanted Leighton, beyond her talent/beauty/history in the show, was that we needed a performer who could sing in this important role. Once it became evident that we couldn’t make Leighton’s schedule work, I decided to cast someone from a band I already wanted in the movie.

This will be Estella’s film debut. As a fan of the band, I've always been amazed at the different looks Estella brings to the stage on each occasion she's played in Atlanta, so a theatrical role should suit her well. I’m hoping all the best for her. 

The film will also feature two songs from Twin Sister.

Shit I Missed

So it seems that not only am I not going to be able to catch Local Natives' Monday night gig at The Tabernacle in September, but last night, I missed the first Twin Sister show in Atlanta since 2010 (I saw them at The Earl in 2010, The 529 in 2011, and The Earl again in 2012).

The reason I missed them this time around was NOT because I was at The Breeders concert at Variety Playhouse.

Damn you National Brownfield Conference!!!

New Twin Sister Song

Twin Sister, the pride of Patchogue, Long Island (a little town I once lived in), debuted a new song the other night at Glasslands in New York for a Hurricane Sandy relief effort.  The song's a jazzy little jam with some cool tape loops thrown in the mix, and the chameleon-like Andrea Estella is almost unrecognizable in her I-don't-know-what get up.

Part of the fun of watching Twin Sister is seeing what look Andrea will bring to the stage on that particular night.  Here she is at The Earl in August 2010 as a dressed-in-black femme fatale:

Here she is at the 529 in June 2011 looking like a Mormon Stevie Nicks:

Back at The Earl in January 2012, she had a decidedly preppy look:

There's no telling what she's going to pull off next.