"Athfest CD Release Show"
Friday, May 4 @ Tasty World
originally published May 2, 2007
Courtnie Wolfgang
The Empties
Temperatures in Athens rise concurrent with the student-exodus population drop, and each week the city gets closer to summer tentpole event AthFest. Tonight's free Tasty World show celebrates the annual compilation CD that accompanies the June music and arts festival, pulling four acts out of the speaker and slapping 'em onstage.
Recently pared down to just vocalist-violinist Amanda Kapousouz and percussionist Jeremy Wheatley after the departure of multi-instrumentalist Daniel Rickard, Tin Cup Prophette opens the show at 10 p.m. The song "Go Dig My Grave" comes off last year's under-the-radar Calling the Oceans By Name EP, a release showcasing Kapousouz's love of both Celtic traditionalism and forward-thinking arrangements.The Renegadez follow at 11 p.m., offering up one of only a very few live-band hip-hop experiences in town. The group's shows have grown more kinetic over the past year or so as the backing band and emcees have grown more comfortable with one another, and that's evident in their compilation track "I Ain't Wit Dat."
"Oh My God" is the album's offering from The Empties; the ensemble goes on at midnight. The song's an incessant, high-energy trip through the band's crunchy and upbeat rock, and a good look at a group that's been impressing more and more crowds over the past year. Smooth college rock act Beyond Tomorrow closes out the show at 1 a.m. Its song on the AthFest disc, "Here We Go Again," delivers catchy, estrogen-stirring emotional rock, and is one of the album's more mainstream-sounding numbers.AthFest 2007 compilation CDs featuring the above tracks and 16 others, with tunes from Music Hates You to Liz Durrett, and from Travis Williams to Dark Meat, will be available for purchase at this no-cover show. Look for a show at the Melting Point in mid-June to highlight artists off the AthFest 2007 Vol. 2 digital-only release.
"Superfluous Umlaut Weekend"
Friday, May 4–Sunday, May 6 @ Various Venues
originally published May 2, 2007
Mouser's Colby Carter
Local homegrown record label/ group of friends Superfluous Umlaut is putting together a three-day event as a follow-up to a 2006 get-together. "Last year, it grew from basically just a big party to the type of thing where everyone involved just kind of tries to cram as many absurd ideas into the planning as we could," says organizer Matt Hudgins, "and it mostly ended up working out well, or at least being really funny. This year, we're kind of hoping to do more of the same."
Friday at the Caledonia Lounge kicks things off with a happy-hour set from rock-tune reworkers The Folk Yous and an art exhibit by the Farte Barn crew. A show later that night hosted by comedian Pete McBrayer takes things in a more rugged direction with Visitations,PPR, Paper Tanks - and free admission and drink specials for all redheads.
Downtown bar The Max Canada hosts Saturday's "Second Annual Superfluous Umlaut Family Reunion," comprising a Farte Barn ceramics exhibit, a pie auction and a happy-hour show by rough folk duo Bellyache and the DIY pop twosome Christopher's Liver.
The weekend wraps on Sunday at the DIY venue Secret Squirrel. Farte Barn takes part once again, and you'll also find a print display from DadFight Press. Music comes courtesy of experimental pop soundsource Mouser, the hip-hop Voltron Deaf Judges and The Diamond Center, the new band featuring former members of Sleepy Horses and Brown Frown. "Surprise guests" are also promised throughout the weekend.
"On one hand, it's basically all about ridiculousness, acting stupid and having fun," says Hudgins, "and on the other hand, it's an attempt to showcase some of the incredibly talented artists and musicians in this town." The essence of the Athens scene, no?
Eric McFadden Trio
w/ Sleepy Horses
Tuesday, May 8 @ Caledonia Lounge
originally published May 2, 2007
Eric McFadden Trio
The Eric McFadden Trio requires a certain amount contextualization before one can get one's brain around the phenomenon that is the group's bombastic, haunted-carnival-meets-Motörhead poundcake. McFadden alone has played with a dizzying number of heady projects over the last 15 years, including Joe Strummer, The Reverend Horton Heat, Bo Diddley, Keb Mo, Les Claypool and Widespread Panic; and he maintains side project Stockholm Syndrome with Panic bassist Dave Schools. A consummate sideman, McFadden played with George Clinton’s P-Funk All-Stars from 2000 to 2004, and just returned from an Australian tour in support of Eric Burdon’s New Animals. Double Bassist James Whiton is the hellion offspring of a classical bassist and a jazz drummer and has a resume that reads like a porn rag; his inventive percussive style is one of the more innovative developments in bass playing in a while.
The trio pulls from a roster of the West Coast's most sought-after drummers, typically the type of folks who would single-mindedly chomp your brains raw. Somehow, the band has remained an almost exclusively west-of-the-Mississippi deal, and this rare visit to the Caledonia should put Athens heavies on notice. Along for the ride in the drum chair for this tour is Jeff Cohen (though not the Jeff Cohen who played Chunk in The Goonies).
The Trio’s sound is a total hallmark unto its own: driving, fierce, moody, dark and totally meaning it. McFadden’s minor runs and flourishes spark over the brute punch of his rhythm section, and Whiton’s bass playing must be seen to be believed. Somewhere in the south of Spain, there is a gypsy cave where Lemmy Kilmister is getting it on with Sergio Leone in a bunny suit while Iggy and Tom Waits look on. It is the soundtrack to a very special kind of hell. EMT will rock you, fool.
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