The Flagpole Paper Ball, Variety Show & 20th Anniversary Party!
w/ Five-Eight & Down With The Woo
Wednesday, November 14 @ 40 Watt Club
originally published November 7, 2007
Rich Merritt
Five-Eight
Our town is filled to the brim with creative individuals who bustle and bristle with ideas and schemes that are brilliant, inspiring, curious, disturbing, weird, macabre, unconventional, mad and just plain odd. But Athens can also be a modest town, so few of those individuals peacock around making a big deal out of themselves, happy instead to keep things in the living room and out of the public eye.
Flagpole thinks that’s a damn shame. So to bring some of you beautiful people and your talents to the stage - and to celebrate 20 years of continuous publication - we’re hosting the Paper Ball, a variety showcase, rock show and all-around party! Things kick off at 8:30 p.m. sharp with locals offering up their own talents. Chihuahua juggling? Automobile eating? Musical burping? Celebrity judges! A gong! Show up to witness your friends and neighbors engage in astounding feats of human accomplishment and derring-do (provided they can cram ’em into two-minute sets) for cash prizes.
Following that spectacle, it’s time for some music. Electro-funk trio Down With the Woo brings its elaborate show to the 40 Watt stage, while high-voltage local heroes Five-Eight [see p. 33] close out the night with what should be a furiously fun set.
Oh, and that Paper Ball name? We’re also giving out prizes for anyone wearing Flagpole in the most creative or entertaining way. So fashion a tie, dress, thong or whatever out of copies of this paper and win some loot.
Best of all? This whole thing is free, free, free! Want to get in on the action? To sign up for the variety show, email or call Flagpole Publisher/ Advertising Director Alicia Nickles at ads@flagpole.com or (706) 549-0301. When we say Athens, get your act together, it’s out of love… now come on out!
Dead Confederate
w/ Summerbirds in the Cellar, Warm in the Wake, Twin Powers
Friday, November 9 @ 40 Watt Club
originally published November 7, 2007
Dead Confederate
If one of the goals of this whole music thing is to convince people to give your work a chance, then it’s a little surprising that more bands don’t go the route of making a big deal out of a new CD by offering copies up for free. Sure, some local bands put their tunes up online for free download, but there’s something about the tangible CD with artwork and everything that lends a little gravity to the process. When Venice is Sinking gave copies of their debut album Sorry About the Flowers to anyone who paid to get in to their CD release show in April of ’06, the band ensured that, if nothing else, lots of potential local fans would at least give the disc a spin or two.
Dead Confederate and Summerbirds in the Cellar are going the same route at this weekend’s show, though in limited numbers. Both bands are hitting town with new releases in tow, and the first 50 people through the door will get a free copy of Summerbirds’ new full-length Druids as well as a copy of Dead Confederate’s new self-titled EP.
What’s in store for those who take the guys up on their offer? Druids glistens with studio polish and ambitious rock volume, and though the band has moved back to its native Florida, you’ll hear touches of Summerbirds’ year spent in Athens. Dead Confederate opens with the acoustic lament “Memorial Day Night” before upshifting into the Atlanta/ Athens band’s grinding, grunge-y Southern rock; the guys have a full-length in the works, and that’s due in spring of ’08. Warm in the Wake opens the night, while Twin Powers spins tunes between bands.
Young Jeezy & USDA
Saturday, November 10 @ Classic Center
originally published November 7, 2007
You might have one of the following reactions upon learning that Young Jeezy, at least a strong contender for the most popular rapper in Atlanta right now, recorded 120 songs for his second album, The Inspiration (2006), then picked the best 16 to appear on the record. You might think, “Gee, what a hard-working young man. No wonder a lot of The Inspiration is about making money, in a style Gordon Gekko might admire.” Or you might wonder if Mr. Jay Jenkins is, in fact, a robot, presuming that no human could keep up such a pace, an impression only reinforced by his press photos, in which he never varies his expression.
Either would be valid, but the latter seems unlikely, even though his songs are partially recognizable by the nihilism in his icy voice. It’s strange to see a work ethic combined with a worldview of nothingness (at least 50 Cent comes off as lazy in his CEO pose), but Jeezy makes it work because of the crispness of his delivery. Whether this coincidence of medium and message (his biggest subject is dealing cocaine; he rose to notice partially from kids wearing his “Snowman” T-shirts) is intentional or not, it impresses and provides a contrast to the slow, hot style of most other rappers while simultaneously disturbing in the same fashion as the ingenuities of the drug dealers on “The Wire.”
USDA? That stands for United Streets Dopeboyz of America (I know, better to leave it abbreviated) and consists of Slick Pulla and Blood Raw in addition to Jeezy. Earlier this year the trio released Young Jeezy Presents U.S.D.A.: Cold Summer (The Official Mixtape), heavy with productions by Drumma Boy and Amaz Smith.
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