Terrapin Grand Opening

Saturday, March 29 @ Terrapin Brewery

originally published March 26, 2008

The past year in the life of local beer has been an exciting one, especially for the hophead fans of Athens-based brewery Terrapin. That’s mainly because the company announced last summer that it would finally be moving its brewing operation to its hometown. Because Terrapin started small, originally it could only get its signature ales produced by using contract brewers in Maryland; more recently, the beers have been brewed in Atlanta. Since just before Christmas of last year, though, the new brewery on Newton Bridge Road has been the point of origin for any keg of the stuff you’ve sipped. The first bottles came out of the place in mid-March: a limited-run “side project” brew called Hop Shortage Ale, in commemoration of the bottleneck currently affecting the whole brewing industry. (Warning: there’s apparently no shortage of hops in that particular ale.)

And although the staff started giving well-attended tours of the new brewery last month, plans are for this Saturday’s grand opening to be a big event, says Terrapin sales director Dustin Watts. “We wanted to do this right away, but then we’re like, ’Wait a minute - let us get the kinks worked out first,’” he says. “And now it’s, like, dialed in.” By that Watts means the dozen employees themselves have put sweat equity into key facility accoutrements like, for example, a tasting bar built from recycled brewery pallets. The free party, which runs from 2 to 6 p.m., will feature brewery tours (with tastings!), but the heart of the party is outdoors. Local salsa band Grogus headlines, with Adrian Zelski of stalwart reggae crew Dubconscious deejaying later. Says Watts, “It’s just going to be a nice celebration of beer, and music, and us getting this together.”

Ben Emanuel

The Terrapin Brewery is located at 265 Newton Bridge Rd.

Kimya Dawson

w/ Angelo Spencer, Paul Baribeau

Saturday, March 29 @ 40 Watt Club

originally published March 26, 2008

A group is often greater than the sum of its parts, but Kimya Dawson has generally provided an example opposed to this formula. While her work with Moldy Peaches is good stuff, she may be doing superior work on her own. Dawson always seemed to bring genuine emotion to the table when working with Adam Green, and many of her solo tunes are refulgent with the soft, dark melodic turns of traditional folk music - the folk part of anti-folk doesn’t usually get emphasized as much as the anti, but it’s always there. She also remains a continually challenging artist, willfully immature in many ways and determined not to make art by anyone else’s rules. It’s easy to admire the latter aspect in the abstract, but it’s much harder to concretely reconcile oneself to liking a song that combines a great tune and a real sense of wistfulness with a poop joke. If there’s any other artist comparable to Dawson, it’s probably Miranda July, who inspires the same kind of strong divide between those who love her work and those who can’t fathom it. Like July, Dawson is vested in an examination of everyday life that encompasses much more than the transcendent moments one tends to remember, reaching out to the small embarrassments that come with being human. Her voice is a perfect tool for that endeavor, skating on the edge of cracking while demonstrating a meld of delicacy and raspiness. This early show should bring out a young crowd, the kind of audience that hasn’t yet solidified its tastes, and perhaps Dawson’s exemplification of the need to kick over barriers will sink in. The music starts at 6 p.m. with Paul Baribeau followed by Angelo Spencer.

Hillary Brown

The Gourds

w/ Shinyribs

Friday, March 28 @ The Melting Point

originally published March 26, 2008

Much like their namesake, The Gourds are harder to pin down than it might seem at first, reveling in variety rather than following a single straight path. Kevin Russell and Jimmy Smith alternate songwriting duties for the most part, creating a twangy monster with at least two heads, but even that’s simplifying matters too much. The gourd plant, likewise, is a complicated thing, mostly recognizable but existing in a spectrum of shades, in a number of sizes and shapes and for a great many different purposes, some of them musical and some of them drink-oriented, both aspects mirrored in the band. The Gourds are sort of roots rock. They’re sort of old-timey. They’re sort of "music to take tequila shots to." They can break your heart with an earnest tune like “Steeple Full of Swallows,” which manages to be both clear-voiced and to come at the subject matter slowly, with a rhythm that rolls gently like a big river. They can rush headlong into “All in the Pack,” a modern Irish jig that makes the connection between traditional folk song and zydeco. And then they can turn quicker than Knowshon Moreno into a selection of covers, from a lovely version of Snoop Dogg’s “Gin and Juice” to an impassioned “Ziggy Stardust,” none rendered in quite the way one would expect. It’s certainly easy to compare their overall sound to The Band, in that it’s warm, well-rounded, beautifully produced, thoroughly competent, inspires singing along and makes a Southern accent sound like heaven on the vocals, but that group was more strongly tied to traditionalism and more apt to play in a staid, sit-down environment. The Gourds will no doubt attract as chatty an audience as any other Athens show, but they shouldn’t have any trouble taking control, whether through volume or intensity.

Hillary Brown

Pride Parade

w/ Black Lips, The Selmanaires

Friday, March 28 @ 40 Watt

originally published March 26, 2008

In the formation of a band, “What's in a name?” is the perennial overlooked question by Athens musicians. Dozens of bands form in this town every year, and 90 percent of them name themselves something absolutely ridiculous.

The late Brown Frown was an underrated joy, but when its name was dissected, offered two interpretations: a pot reference or something wholly cringe-inducing. Equally confounding is the year-old Pride Parade, featuring three ex-Brown Frown members. What they're so proud of is uncertain, but hopefully it's the spirited hard-rock pumping on their recent demo, or what's in store on Pride Parade's upcoming record.

This glee club has been playing around Athens and the Southeast since its inception, and its audience has been growing steadily. If you've found Flagpole's past description of Pride Parade as "beery, good times-heavy, thrash rock and roll" a little too vague, just know that fans of Hot Snakes, Queens of the Stone Age and early Foo Fighters will find plenty to like in Pride Parade. You can expect some good ol' Southern hard-rock drawl accompanied by stoned riffing. Hopefully the release of the, as of yet, untitled album will find more Athenians descending from all corners of downtown to witness those beery good times.

Tonight, the quintet opens a free show for two bands coming down 316: Atlanta's worldwide sensation the Black Lips and the junior pups in the Selmanaires. It's a sonically diverse lineup, what with the Black Lips' garage-punk revivalism and the Selmanaires' melodic post-punk, but they have plenty in common, too. Besides playing rock music, all three bands seem to enjoy partaking in alcohol-fueled good times, as well. And if that's not a monstrously important unifier, then what's in a name, indeed?

Scott Reid