Club & Wire
Club & Wire
Music News and Gossip
originally published September 26, 2001
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No Rest: Critically-acclaimed Athens band Macha may be taking some much-needed time away from the road and the studio, but multi-instrumentalist and by-default frontman Josh McKay has been staying quite busy. Over the last year or so, McKay recorded some atmospheric "non-Macha" material under the name Seaworthy. According to JetSet Records, the new Seaworthy album, The Ride (due out on Tuesday, October 16) is "completely free of any Eastern influence - not a zither to be found." Guest vocal appearances include a collaboration with Japanese singer Haco, from Osaka's legendary experimentalists After Dinner and the female trio Hoahio.
Freeze: Local songmeister Bo Freeze may be best known among hipsters as one of the no-shit-takin' doorguys at the 40 Watt Club, but he's actually a total rock and roll badass on his own accord. Freeze, formerly of Tractorneck and Gloryfinger, is pushing ahead with a "loud" new project simply called Freeze. "I'm not sure anybody gives a shit," stated Freeze in a recent email correspondence. "But I'm making a record at Elixir with Peter [Fancher] manning the guns." Freeze plays at the Caledonia Lounge on Saturday, September 29.
Walkin' For Your Love: Enthusiastic local promoter Mary Sigalas, known among insiders for her tireless work with recent AthFest events, has organized a great big fund-raising event called "America's Walk For Diabetes" scheduled for Sunday, September 30 at Sandy Creek Park in Athens from 12 noon to 8 p.m. A long list of live acts is scheduled to begin just after noon, with performances from such local rock, folk, gospel and pop acts as Gary Kellam, Sunny Side-Up Band, Barry Sell & The Nectarines, The Walker Brothers, Trinity Choir, The F-Holes, Rites Of Passage, Don't Know Blues Band, The Fountains, Dodd Ferrelle & William Tonks, Neal Pattman, Five-Eight, Scott Kelly & Friends Drummer Circle and the Jennifer Nettles Band. Registration is at 1 p.m. for the 5K and 10K walk and run. "The fund-raiser is a celebration of health and wellness with music, art, an Athens Regional Medical Center Health Fair, community expos, kids' activities and much more," says Sigalas. Proceeds benefit the American Diabetes Association and its mission to prevent and cure diabetes. Attention bands: "Banding Together" is a special promotion for bands which encourages them to come out a participate with their fans as a team and win great prizes including a show at the 40 Watt, studio time wit]h David Barbe, radio promotions with Rock 103.7 and print ads with Flagpole. Contact Mary at (706) 207-0988 or msigalas@rocketmail.com.
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Artists Don't Sell Records; Sales Departments Do: My main man Chuck D. - one of the most influential, straight-talking rappers in the country - is scheduled to speak about Napster, the electronic media and the changing state of the music biz... right here in Athens this week! For those in the haze, Chuck D. (born Carlton Ridenhour) has fronted the socio-politically fiery rap group Public Enemy for years. I saw Chuck practically steal the show during a panel discussion at 2000's South By Southwest Conference while seated with Peter Case, Roger McGuinn, Bernie Worrell, the Small Faces' Ian McLagan and country artist Teri Clark. Chuck spoke eloquently about "bullshit" involved in the modern music business, and everyone on the panel nodded in agreement with nearly every point - most of which stressed artistic independence via the Internet. Chuck D. currently promotes, broadcasts and trades his music and the music of others on his own web site, rapstation.com. "The era of the $15 compact disc is over, people," he stated emphatically. "Radio is in trouble. Retail is in trouble. The Big Brother monopoly of big-label money is over because artists don't have to play by the rules anymore; they can make up their own rules. It's time for a new game - or even a new league. The Internet will allow artists worldwide to choose their own space and connect the way they want with who they want without having to pay some motherfuckin' lawyer or A&R guy. The Internet is going to change everything." Catch Chuck at the Georgia Hall in the Tate Student Center on Monday, October 1 at 7:30 p.m. Free for UGA students and a buck for non-students.
Reap: Fans can catch the best in contemporary American roots music, blues and jazz musicians, influential local folk artists and scores of hybrids at this year's Harvest Music Festival at the "Atlanta's Back Porch" venue set on 100 acres of Christmas tree farmland in Fairburn, Georgia, southwest of downtown Atlanta. The Harvest Music Festival is scheduled for Friday, September 28 through Sunday, September, 30. Headlining the weekend's festivities will be world-renowned bluegrass legends Vassar Clements, Peter Rowan and Tony Rice, in addition to Leftover Salmon, The John Cowan Band, Curtis Burch, Acoustic Syndicate, Donna The Buffalo, Col. Bruce Hampton and several other nationally recognized local bands and solo artists. For more info, go on-line to tdawgstickets.musictoday.com or call (404) 284-3841.
What's Poppin' At 90.5 FM WUOG, You Ask?: This year's Alumni Weekend commences on Friday, October 12. Through Sunday, most of the non-graveyard shifts will be filled by former 90.5 personalities who have graduated, returning for a few open-format hours. Former "Boiling Point" host John Farrar and "Playa's Picnic's" Arvell Poe, among others, are already confirmed. If you once DJ'd at 'UOG and would like a slot on Alumni Weekend, e-mail general manager Beth! Orcutt at alice508@arches.uga.edu, or call 542-4567. Meanwhile, our current crop of hosts (including a few fresh trainees during the next few months, just so you know) will keep spinning Tiger Army, Mercury Rev, Wayne Hancock, Lambchop's new rarities collection, The Albacore Pageant and the usual supply of oldies and slow jams. [Emerson Dameron]
Buck Writing Material... Take Your Time, Take Your Fortune: Billboard reported last week that R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck has been writing a lot of new material and hopes to get into the recording studio "sooner rather than later" to work on the group's 13th album.
Jahwohl: Athens wild-eyed Melted Men finished yet another short tour of Germany and Holland last week. The avant-garde troupe reportedly "constructed a makeshift raft out of bacon strips and marshmallows" which they used to cross the Atlantic Ocean. The men played in Köln and Bremen with Japan's Melt-Banana, and made it to Amsterdam for the Robodock Festival, a yearly festival of mechanical art and strange performance on the Amsterdam docks. Noch eins Bier!
Gabba Gabba: If you missed The Donnas at the Watt back in the winter, here's your chance to catch the not-too-precious, Ramones-ish foursome. The all-girl punk quartet is on its second U.S. tour behind The Donnas Turn 21, which came out in January on Lookout Records. This time the band is taking out three punk sisters from Albuquerque called The Eyeliners for support. The Donnas play an all-ages show at Earthlink Live in Atlanta on Tuesday, October 2.
Please send music news to us by email at music@flagpole.com; by voice mail at 549-2630; by fax at 549-8981; or simple post at P.O. Box 1027, Athens, GA 30603, or just walk on by at 112 S. Foundry St. 30601, at the corner of E. Broad St.
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