This Week's Shows (4/4 - 4/10)

This is  a pretty solid week for music here in Atlanta, with a variety shows all through the week at a variety of venues.  You'll also notice that I've drastically reduced the number of listings to only include those that I think are interesting and noteworthy (you might think other shows are worth mentioning, but to quote The Big Lebowski, "That's just, like, your opinion, man").  To be honest, though, while I would like to say that the fewer listings are to not distract the reader from the many fine shows throughout this week with write-ups of lesser bookings, the truth of the matter is that I've run out of time and patience writing up descriptions of each and every show in town.

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 4

The Black Lips, Young Dro, The Difference Machine, PLOYD, Sofa King Evil (Terminal West)

A 404 Day celebration show headlined by Atlanta's own garage-rock band The Black Lips and featuring The Difference Machine, who we saw open for Algiers (see Saturday night) last year at Terminal West.

The Black Lips at Shaky Knees, 2015

The Difference Machine opening for Atgiers at Terminal West, September 22, 2015

TUESDAY, APRIL 5

Ezra Furman, Sleepy Kitty, Slang (The Earl)

Gender-fluid performer Ezra Furman is a thoughtful lyricist taking his poetic inspiration, songcraft ideas, and even a few fashion cues from Bob Dylan.  Furman sings in a nasally style similar to the Violent Femmes' Gordon Gano while making unpretentious indie folk/indie pop that's raw, deep, and achingly sentimental. 

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6

Beirut (Buckhead Theater)

Beirut was originally the solo musical project of Santa Fe native, musical prodigy and multi-instrumentalist Zach Condon, and later expanded into a band. The band combines a wide variety of styles, from pre-rock/pop music and Eastern European Gypsy styles, to the alternately plaintive and whimsical indie folk of the Decemberists, to the lo-fi, homemade psychedelic experimentation of Neutral Milk Hotel.

Beirut at Georgia Theater, September 2011

Sunn O))), Big Brave (Terminal West)

The power ambient duo Sunn O))) (pronounced simply sun) is a drone metal band from Seattle that formed in 1998. The band is primarily known for its synthesis of diverse genres including drone, ambient, noise, and extreme metal, and for its extremely loud live performances.  Comprised of guitarists Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson, Sunn 0)))  took inspiration from the early works of the Melvins (see Sunday night) and Earth (Sunn 0))) actually began as an LA Earth tribute band). Sunn 0)))'s approach  typically incorporates droning guitars, feedback, distorted bass, and other sound effects.

Frankie Cosmos, Eskimeaux, Anna McClellan (Purgatory at The Masquerade)

Greta Kline’s musical output as Frankie Cosmos exemplifies the generation of musicians born out of online self-releasing. Daughter of actors Kevin Kline and Phoebe Cates, Kline initially built a reputation with her prolific catalog of bedroom recordings and as a performer and advocate of New York’s All Ages DIY scene.  Eskimeaux is the recording project of songwriter and producer Gabrielle Smith, who started releasing experimental and noise albums in 2007. and developing the sound over the years into the realm of more structured songwriting, EDM, and more recently, beat-driven and poetic bedroom pop.

Young Fathers (Aisle 5)
Some praise from The New Yorker: "The members of this Scottish troop are rappers, just barely. They squirm around categorization so nimbly that just about any comparison you can conjure—Joy Division, Saul Williams, the Raincoats, the Ronettes—fits if you squint just so. It’s best to take them as they are: “G” Hastings, Alloysious Massaquoi, and Kayus Bankole spent many nights sulking through dance halls in Edinburgh before they formed a group and starting noodling around with karaoke equipment. They soon flash-recorded two demo tapes, employing rattled ragga, tender soul hooks, and snow-static noise to jump from sound to sound with impressive ease. All three members are vocalists and percussionists, a shared versatility that manifests across the pop harmonies and stomping rhythms that seem to glue the avant sounds together. Dead, their 2014 début, snagged the prestigious Mercury Prize and subsequently charted for the first time, a testament to how far ahead the trio just might be."

THURSDAY, APRIL 7

David Lindley (Red Light Cafe)

The ultimate musician's musician and a much-respected session player, David Lindley has added his melodic string playing to albums by a lengthy list of artists, including Bob Dylan, Rod Stewart, Linda Ronstadt, Rory Block, Ry Cooder, Warren Zevon, Terry Reid, David Blue, James Taylor, David Crosby, and Graham Nash. 

FRIDAY, APRIL 8

Stokeswood, Today The Moon Tomorrow The Sun, Brooklynn (Terminal West)

Headliners Stokewood are an alternative pop band from Atlanta, and Today The Moon Tomorrow The Sun are an Atlanta synth-pop band.  Opener Brooklynn performs "soul pop & roll."

Today The Moon, Tomorrow The Sun opening for The Joy Formidable at Park Tavern

They Might Be Giants (Variety Playhouse)

Combining a knack for infectious melodies with a quirky sense of humor and a vaguely avant-garde aesthetic borrowed from the New York post-punk underground, They Might Be Giants became an unlikely alternative rock success story as they reinvented themselves throughout their career. Referencing everything from British Invasion to Tin Pan Alley, John Flansburgh and John Linnell built up a huge following on college campuses during the late '80s. The grouTp retreated to its cult following in the mid-'90s, when they produced children's music and soundtracks as well as albums for their adult fans.

SATURDAY, APRIL 9

Algiers, Moon Diagrams (The Earl)

The bands will play following a screening of Burn To Shine 6, the sixth installment of Brendan Canty (Fugazi) and Christoph Green’s Burn to Shine film series. The film was curated by Lee Tesche of Algiers and was shot on a brutally humid southern day in the summer of 2007 in a blank single-family home in a rapidly changing part of East Atlanta.  Featuring Cryptograms-era Deerhunter, a very raucous Black Lips, an early performance from The Coathangers, Shannon Wright backed by The Shipping News, Mastodon playing acoustic for the first time, and the final filmed performance of The Mighty Hannibal, this Burn To Shine captures some bands at the height of their powers, a few local legends who have since disappeared, and others that have gone on to much wider success.

Algiers at Terminal West, September 22, 2015

Little Tybee, Culture Culture, Night Idea (529)
 Little Tybee is a progressive psych-folk band featuring the lead vocals of acoustic guitarist Brock Scott, the eight-string guitar wizardry of Josh Martin, and Nirvana Kelly's violin and viola.

Little Tybee at The Earl, November 20, 2015

Bleached, No Parents (Drunken Unicorn)

Bleached features sisters Jennifer and Jessica Clavin. After Mika Miko disbanded in 2009, Jennifer moved to New York and spent a stint as Cold Cave's keyboardist and backing vocalist in 2010 and 2011, while Jessica played with the band The Cold Showers. When Jessica returned to L.A., the sisters began Bleached and eventually adopted a cleaner, more structured sound as evident on the band's first full-length, 2013's Ride Your Heart.

Into It. Over It., The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die, The Sidekicks, Pinegrove (Hell at The Masquerade)

Into It. Over It. is the emo-pop recording project of Chicago-based songwriter Evan Weiss, a prolific emo-pop veteran of numerous bands.  The large-ensemble group the World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die formed in Connecticut in 2009, drawing inspiration for their somewhat atmospheric emo/indie sound from giants of the genre such as Sunny Day Real Estate and Cap'n Jazz, but also incorporating some of the drawn-out orchestration of Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Explosions in the Sky. 

Also this:

SUNDAY, APRIL 10

Melvins, Napalm Death, Melt Banana (Heaven at The Masquerade)

If you want your Sunday night to be loud and noisy, consider The Melvins, the first post-punk band to revel in the slow, sludgy sounds of Black Sabbath. Their music is oppressively slow and heavy, only without any of the mystical lyrics or the indulgent guitar solos; it's just one massive, oozing pile of dark slime.  The fathers of grindcore, Napalm Death pushed the envelope of metal to new extremes of ear-splitting intensity, rejecting all notions of melody, subtlety, and good taste to forge a brand of sonic assault almost frightening in its merciless brutality.  Although the music of Japanese noise rock band Melt Banana  sounds noticeably different from any sort of traditional punk, it contains some punk elements: shrieking vocals, overdriven guitars, and one-and-a-half-minute songs. Melt Banana's unique style, however, comes as a result of the distinctly piercing vocals of lead singer Yasuko O., as well as the frenzied, effect-charged playing of guitarist Agata. Searing, intense, and mind-blowingly fast are perhaps the first adjectives that come to mind when listening to Melt Banana's music. 

John Sebastian (Eddie's Attic)

At the extreme other end of the musical spectrum from The Melvins, Naplam Death and Melt Banana, Lovin' Spoonful founder Jogn Seabastian will provide music at Eddie's for those who want their Sunday night to be quiet, gentle and soothing.

The Joy Formidable at Park Tavern, Atlanta, September 6, 2015

As a Labor Day weekend treat for those Atlantans not at DragonCon or the Pride Festival this weekend, Park Tavern provided the penultimate performance of their Sunset Series of shows, featuring Wales' The Joy Formidable.  Because of those other festivities this weekend, traffic was a nightmare in and around Piedmont Park, and it took me over a half hour to advance one block past the sold-out parking lot at Park Tavern before I could find a parking space on the street about a half mile away (and yes, I did get a traffic ticket for parking facing the wrong way for the side of the street I was on). The traffic was so frustrating I almost didn't go to the show, and had vowed that if a parking space didn't present itself to me soon I was going to just keep driving and go on back home, but said space did lure me over at that very moment, and since it was a free concert and I didn't pay anything for on-street parking, the cost of the ticket doesn't seem so bad.

Atlanta's Today the Moon Tomorrow the Sun opened.

We've seen TTMTTS several times before, but buoyed by the enthusiastic audience at the Park Tavern, this was the best show we've seen yet by the band.  They were a quartet in the past but played as a trio last night, and it may he the stripped-down sound of the smaller ensemble that gave the songs more urgency or it might have been the energy of the crowd, but you had the feeling during their performance that this was going to be a special night.

The Joy Formidable have been relatively quiet for the past couple of years,  We last saw them almost exactly two years ago today when they were the headliners (or at least final performers) at the 2013 Bumbershoot Festival in Seattle, and had no idea at the time that the show would be the last that we'd hear from them for two whole years.   

The Joy Formidable at Bumbershoot 2013

Last night, Ritzy Bryan announced that the band would be releasing a new album, their third, soon, followed by a "proper" tour (they're here now for a very limited number of dates, mostly festivals, and we're lucky to have them here during this brief visit).  Most of the familiar trappings of Joy Formidable shows past were gone - the Christmas lights strung over the microphone stands, the anthemic music played over the PA before the band took the stage, etc. - but the band has lost none of the firepower of the past. In fact, they look better and more relaxed and confident than ever before, and I'm looking forward to hearing what they're going to come up with next. 

The band clearly appreciated and was feeding off of the energy from the audience, and several times bassist Rhydian Dafydd came to the edge of the stage to rub the head of one particularly enthusiastic fan at the edge of the stage.

At the end of the cacophonous encore, Ritzy handed her guitar to a young woman in the audience standing right in front of me to let her keep strumming and keep the noise going, and then Ritzy and the rest of the band left the stage (roadies quickly got the guitar back from her after the set). 

And that was that.  The end of the Park Tavern's Sunset Series and the end of The Joy Formidable's brief pre-album tour.  All good, and the best part is that with Labor Day tomorrow, we don't have to go to work in the morning (you can thank a liberal for that!).

Post-Script:  Not that I'm counting or that it means anything, but based on that "Bands Seen in 2015" banner over on the right, I jut realized that The Joy Formidable were the 100th band I've seen so far this year. 

Kishi Bashi at the Georgia Theater, Athens, March 22, 2014

Kishi Bashi performed an energetic and joyful set last night at the Georgia Theater in his hometown of Athens as part of something called the Slingshot Festival.  Slingshot appears to be Athens' way of observing March Madness.  

Spread over four city blocks and dozens of venues, the Slingshot Festival included international, national, and local acts, boundary-pushing artworks throughout the urban environment, and, as increasingly common at music festivals these days, tech talks with leading innovators during the day, so that IT folks can attend and write it off their taxes as "training" and "networking."  Little wonder it's held before April 15.

Slingshot's Saturday night sets at the Georgia Theater opened with Atlanta's Today the Moon, Tomorrow the Sun.

It was our second time seeing TTMTTS, after 2012's Atlanta Film Festival Sound + Vision event (for some reason, it seems we only see them as a part of some larger enterprise).  They put on a good set of their highly danceable, electro-pop music, although the Athens audience by and large resisted shaking their asses and just stood here and watched.

The next band up was Athens' Electrophoria.

I wasn't sure what to expect from Electrophoria.  According to their band bio, "Core members Kai Riedl (Macha) and Suny Lyons (pacific UV) have criss-crossed the globe (mainly to Java Indonesia) recording everything  from bands in darkly-lit nightclubs in bustling cities to bamboo huts way way off the grid."  Here's a sample recording from Kai's Soundcloud page:

Apparently, it didn’t stop there, as Riedl and Lyons then used those recordings to build new songs with the sounds in these field recordings, taking loops, samples and segments of the songs, and remixing, re-imagining, and integrating them with musicians from in and around Athens into a variety of styles, including pop, dance, ambient, electronica, and experimental.  But I didn't hear any exotic loops or remixed world music last night.  Maybe I was expecting to hear a funkier version of the New Age band Deep Forest, but other than some interesting and challenging time signatures by their remarkable drummer, they sounded more like a slightly goth electronica band, which isn't a bad thing at all (they were quite good), but not what I was expecting, is all.

Kishi Bashi took the stage at 11 sharp, after his usual prelude of Ravel's Bolero played over the PA.  

Bashi was extremely animated and energetic throughout the set, dancing around the stage and working the audience up.  His music was as fun and joyful as ever, an explosion of pop melodies and complex loops, supported by the "space banjo" of collaborator Tall Tall Trees (Mike Savino).

Kishi Bashi may not be a household name, but almost everybody knows his music, even of they don't know who it's by, from that ubiquitous Windows 8 commercial from last year:

Bright Whites, the song from that commercial, was the second song in his set, much to the delight of everybody in the Georgia Theater.  So that I don't leave you with just a tease, here's the full version of Bright Whites as performed in the KEXP studios:

Bashi played most of the songs from his excellent debut LP, 151a, as well as several new songs from his upcoming Lighght (his spelling, not my typo).  Last night, he played with a backing band and he also played several songs solo, just his violin, his voice, and his loop repeater, with no loss in the fullness of the sound.

The encore included a very unexpected cover of Paul McCartney and Wings' Live and Let Die of all things.

The set also concluded with confetti cannons, slingshots attempting (not very successfully) to shoot t-shirts and glow sticks into the audience, and Bashi stage-diving into the audience and breaking a pinata with a stick over the heads of the crowd. 

In all, the evening was a joyful celebration of music, life, and the possibility of infinite happiness. 

One last thing: