Despite the familiar unsolicited 2020 obstacles that bogged down many a collaborative creative endeavor, Athens goth-pop/new wave worshipers Vision Video managed to complete work on their debut album last year, and now Inked in Red will be coming out April 16th via Kindercore Records. Anyone who got off on the nocturnal, nervy vitality of the… Continue reading Vision Video Ink Their First Album
Tag: Athens
Haunted Shed, Faltering Light. What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
Etienne de Rocher moved to Athens, Georgia from the Bay Area in 2008 but took his sweet time assembling his current group Haunted Shed. As the story goes, Etienne (on guitar, keyboards and vocals) needed a group to provide musical ambiance for a neighborhood haunted house he’d set up in his backyard shed a number… Continue reading Haunted Shed, Faltering Light. What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
Lo Talker Make Themselves Heard
Florida’s Roadkill Ghost Choir were a late entry into the brief “ethereal Southern alt-rock” trend sparked by the emergence of Band of Horses, My Morning Jacket and the like. From that kaput quintet, singer Andrew Shepard has retained his bass playing brother Zach Shepard and traded in the other three for fresh recruits Rhett Fuller,… Continue reading Lo Talker Make Themselves Heard
Another Reissue? Oh-OK
Steered by Linda Hopper and Lynda Stipe, Oh-OK’s simple swirl of minimalist post-punk and danceable dream-pop was a cool and refreshing addition to the early Athens new wave club scene at a time before such genre descriptors had yet to develop palpable meaning. They existed all of three years, releasing only a four-song 7-inch (Wow… Continue reading Another Reissue? Oh-OK
Azure Ray’s Debut Vinylized for 20th Anniversary
January will make it 20 years since the then Athens-based duo of Maria Taylor and Orenda Fink made their recorded debut as Azure Ray. To mark the anniversary, Taylor’s Flower Moon Records will release their first album on vinyl for the very first time on Jan. 16th, 20 years to the day since Brian Causey’s… Continue reading Azure Ray’s Debut Vinylized for 20th Anniversary
Cool Town
Cool Town: How Athens, Georgia, Launched Alternative Music and Changed American Culture By Grace Elizabeth Hale [University of North Carolina Press] Damn, I am old. So why does it blow my mind that 40+ years have transpired since Athens became the nexus of the Southern avant-garde, the wellspring of Georgia post-punk and the cool place… Continue reading Cool Town
Easter Island Takes the Time to Get It Right
Athens/Atlanta group Easter Island washed upon our shores ten years ago with a clustered gust of activity, releasing a debut EP, Better Things, in 2011, a full LP, Frightened, the following year, and a 7-inch single the year after that. Since then, the band teetered on the verge of breaking up, acquired a new rhythm… Continue reading Easter Island Takes the Time to Get It Right
Randall Bramblett Keeps the Fire Burning
Georgia music veteran Randall Bramblett jumps back into action on Nov. 13, when New West Records will release his latest solo album, Pine Needle Fire. By the time the Jesup-born singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist launched his own recording career in the mid ‘70s with a pair of albums on Polydor, he was already a highly… Continue reading Randall Bramblett Keeps the Fire Burning
Pylon
Scene Construction: Pylon Shines a Light on Morning Munchies, Exercising Caution and Getting Put in a Box The city of Athens has changed massively since the early 1980s – for better and worse. The University of Georgia’s national stature has risen, and it’s no longer a given for graduates to leave town in order to… Continue reading Pylon
Drive-By Truckers Unravel Second Album of 2020
The venue and festival shutdowns in the wake of the Wu-Tang Flu hysteria spared a significant portion of the United States and Europe from Drive-By Truckers’ tour stops for their election year meltdown album, The Unraveling, released on January 31. But perennial spokesman Patterson Hood – an absolute mendacious hunk of shit who’s declined to acknowledge… Continue reading Drive-By Truckers Unravel Second Album of 2020
Violets Highlights Picked for New Compilation
The Violets were an Athens rock band that played all over the place for a few years from the late ‘80s through early ‘90s but I don’t recall them releasing anything other than a 45 for their snarky anti-hippie tirade “I Hate the Grateful Dead,” which got some college radio airplay at the time (and… Continue reading Violets Highlights Picked for New Compilation
The Orange Constant: Peel’s Out
Athens-based band The Orange Constant recently did a vinyl pressing of their third and latest album Peel, the digital edition of which came out back in May. Cozy, inviting and mildly psychedelic, the nine songs leisurely traipse through a dewy field of ’70s reefer-smokin’ rock, including a pair of multifaceted instrumental tracks. Touches of prog,… Continue reading The Orange Constant: Peel’s Out
Love Tractor’s First Album Reissued, Plus RSD 7-Inch
Love Tractor’s self-titled debut album, originally released on Atlanta’s DB Recs in 1982, has been remixed and remastered by David Barbe and occasional Love Tractor drummer Bill Berry, and will be reissued on Nov. 6 on Athens-based label HHBTM. The gussied-up edition – on vinyl, CD and digital – will feature revised cover art, and… Continue reading Love Tractor’s First Album Reissued, Plus RSD 7-Inch
The Humms Count Down to Vampire Hours
It’s been ten years since The Humms were a’suckin’ on your brain juice through a cactus straw with their debut album, Lemonland. That far-out freakout established the Athens band’s no-boundaries nature, playing like a weekend at an all-encompassing ‘60s rock festival where there’s hippie country tunes over here, a groovy beat combo in the other… Continue reading The Humms Count Down to Vampire Hours
Feast on This: Pylon Box Details Revealed
We’ve been aware for a while now that a Pylon vinyl box set was in the works. Well, now the full details on the four-album package have been revealed, and it looks amazing! The core of Pylon Box – to be released Nov. 6 on New West Records – will be the band’s first two… Continue reading Feast on This: Pylon Box Details Revealed
The B-52s Share Their US Festivities
Thirty-eight years after the first US Festival took place near San Bernardino, California on Labor Day weekend 1982, Shout! Factory is releasing The B-52s: Live at the US Festival, a concert DVD of the Athens, Georgia band’s hour-long performance that sweltering September day. Sandwiched in between earlier sets that day from the likes of Gang… Continue reading The B-52s Share Their US Festivities
Widespread Panic Drummer Todd Nance Passes
Original Widespread Panic drummer Todd Nance passed away on August 19 in Athens, Georgia from what his family, in a statement released that afternoon, termed “sudden and unexpectedly severe complications of a chronic illness.” No further details were given. Nance, who was 57, met future Widespread Panic founding guitarist Michael Houser while they were attending… Continue reading Widespread Panic Drummer Todd Nance Passes
Unearthed Side Effects Footage Offers Glimpse of Early ’80s Athens
Athens band The Side Effects were just four months past their debut performance (which was headlining the April 1980 party at that old church where R.E.M. also made their live debut) when then-recent UGA grad and future Stomp and Stammer contributing writer Gregory Nicoll and accompanying crew tracked the trio down at a gig at… Continue reading Unearthed Side Effects Footage Offers Glimpse of Early ’80s Athens
Immaterial Possession Summons a Psychedelic Séance
So you’re an eager little lightweight stoner, just outta college, on your first big trip abroad. After surviving Christiania and having found Amsterdam to be no big deal, you decide to hop continents to Morocco and end up passed out on a throw-rug in a questionable hashish den. The debut album from Immaterial Possession is… Continue reading Immaterial Possession Summons a Psychedelic Séance
Shehehe Poops in Your Yard and Leaves It
Athens trio Shehehe bash out big blaring punk anthem after big blaring punk anthem. Out July 31, their new album Pet Songs (via Richmond, Virginia’s Say-10 Records) delivers a sound beating of loud, boisterous, ‘90s-style shout-fests, marked by well-practiced split-second halts ‘n’ launches and call & response gang vocals. It’s bracing for a song or… Continue reading Shehehe Poops in Your Yard and Leaves It
Vincas Spew Plasma on Phantasma
Thoughtful as ever, Athens foursome Vincas went and blurted out some more songs about blood and death just in time for our damnable summer of urban riots and societal decay. Released last month, the band’s third album Phantasma wallows in a festering stew of bad vibes, doomed lives, rotten spirits and polluted plasma. Musically, there’s… Continue reading Vincas Spew Plasma on Phantasma
We Versus the Shark Suck at Goodbyes
We Versus the Shark broke up in 2009, but they didn’t really mean it because six years later guitarist/vocalist Luke Fields, guitarist/vocalist/keyboardist Samantha Paulsen, bass guitarist/vocalist/keyboardist Jeff Tobias and drummer Scott Smith resurrected the Athens math-rock juggernaut for another round of ruckus. Their last album, Dirty Versions, along with the covers collection Murmurmur, both came… Continue reading We Versus the Shark Suck at Goodbyes
The Mendoza Line’s Third Album Gets Expanded Reissue
Are you as sick of hearing that phony cuddly catchphrase “we’re all in this together” as we are? Especially since it becomes more and more clear every day that we are not, in any conceivable manner, in any of this bullshit together, in fact we are more fractured and divided than ever. Then my cynical/realistic… Continue reading The Mendoza Line’s Third Album Gets Expanded Reissue
Widespread Panic Drops Live LP; Studio Album in the Works
Originally slated for release on Record Store Day, in the wake of the postponed and scattered mess that became of this year’s event following Wu-Tang Flu shutdowns Widespread Panic scrapped that plan and released their 5-LP live album Sunday Show outside of any RSD tie-in. Recorded March 24 at Port Chester, New York’s Capitol Theatre,… Continue reading Widespread Panic Drops Live LP; Studio Album in the Works
Georgia Dish Boys Unpack the Suitcase of Life
The nine songs that comprise Suitcase of Life, the forthcoming sixth album from Georgia Dish Boys, are partitioned by audio verité snippets recorded by vocalist/guitarist Seth Martin while on tour out West last year, capturing random, displaced scenes from the road: the van door shutting, the engine starting, the dial being impatiently scanned on the… Continue reading Georgia Dish Boys Unpack the Suitcase of Life
Press the Eject and Give Me the Vision Video
Many in Athens remember Vision Video as a small local chain of movie rental stores that closed its last location in 2017, a victim of the rising convenience and comparative low cost of streaming services and Redbox kiosks. But the name, at least, lives on in the form of an Athens-based post-punk goth-pop band that… Continue reading Press the Eject and Give Me the Vision Video
Luke Haines & Peter Buck – Beat Poetry for Survivalists
Peter Buck always seemed like the Rock and Roll Lifer in R.E.M.’s lineup. His recent burst of creative activity is nonetheless unexpected. He’s certainly not doing it for the money, and his artistic choices (three low-stakes solo albums, The Baseball Project?!) indicate he’s not pining for a return to arena stages, which is refreshing. Beat… Continue reading Luke Haines & Peter Buck – Beat Poetry for Survivalists
Mary Bragg Goes Drivin’ N Cryin’
Georgia native Mary Bragg has enlisted her home state’s resilient rock ‘n’ roll lifers Drivin’ N Cryin’ to back her up for a song on her forthcoming EP. Keeping the connection going, it’s a cover of a tune by Aaron Lee Tasjan, a former guitarist for Drivin’ N Cryin who also produced the band’s latest… Continue reading Mary Bragg Goes Drivin’ N Cryin’