Threats & Promises

Music News And Gossip

originally published March 22, 2006

Okay, now spring is here so it’s time to get happy. There are always a lot of shows the week after spring break, as all the bands heading home from South by Southwest pass through Athens. So let’s get on with it…

Know Your Way Around: The 2006 edition of the Flagpole Athens Music Directory is on the streets now and available for you and yours. Pick up a copy or visit www.flagpole.com/music/md for the best information regarding contact information for bands, venues and services like record labels, screen printers, CD manufacturers and more. Keep things local!

Ebay Can’t Save You This Time: Tickets went on sale last Saturday via Ticketmaster for two recently added Widespread Panic shows that will be of particular interest to hometown fans. The dates are Monday, May 8, and Tuesday, May 9, and the venue is Atlanta’s Fox Theatre. All seating is reserved and tickets are a mere $50 each. The band has beaten the scalpers via a savvy measure in which all tickets sales for these shows are either on-line or by phone. Additionally, a person bearing an I.D. with the same name used to place the order must pick up their tickets at the venue the night of the show. So don’t go getting any fancy ideas, scalper folks. Oh, yeah, there’s a strict limit of two tickets per order, and any other info you need can be had over at www.widespreadpanic.com/ontour.

All Growed Up: To celebrate the release of this year’s AthFest compilation AthFest 10, the folks over at Ghostmeat Records and the AthFest crew want to invite everyone to their listening party. The event takes place Friday, Mar. 24, at Kingpins Bowl & Brew, located inside the Homewood Village Plaza just past the loop on Prince Avenue. Although the event is a private, VIP-type thing from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., it’s wide open to the public after that and folks can bowl, drink a bunch of beer and listen to the as-yet-unreleased record. They will also be giving away a few free CDs, stickers and other AthFest-related stuff, so keep your hands open. If you’re in a band on the record or are someone who just knows that they should have received an invitation to the private party, please send an email over to info@ghostmeat.com and they’ll hook you up. The CD will see an on-line release via AthensMusic.net and Ghostmeat.com on May 1, and will arrive in stores June 20.

A Byrd In The Hand: A number of locals have been wowed by the collaborations between North Carolina folk musician Jonathan Byrd and the local world-music pros in Dromedary, particularly their 2004 joint album The Sea & The Sky. Last time Byrd put in a show in Athens without the Dromedary guys, he performed alongside bassist-about-town Carl Lindberg; you’ll get a chance to catch Byrd once again, this time completely solo when he goes at it over at Farm 255 on Wednesday, Mar. 22.

BYOB (Bring Your Own Bag): Although I really want to admire anyone who does anything for any non-profit whatsoever, sometimes I can’t help but wonder about the roads people take to charity. Case in point: the latest thing going on between Earth Fare and AthFest. Each month, Earth Fare picks a non-profit to help out and for the month of March it’s AthFest, which is an honest-to-gosh private non-profit. The deal is that for every customer that refuses an Earth Fare bag when shopping there, the store will donate 10 cents to AthFest. So if you bring your own bag or just put stuff in your pockets, AthFest gets a dime. Basically, whatever Earth Fare saves in bags will be passed along to AthFest. Like I said, I know AthFest can use the help and it’s appreciated and all, but this just seems like a weird, convoluted way of giving. But, what do I know, right? I’m an ass.

Benefit Worthy: Master percussionist Dr. Arvin Scott will perform with special guest Domingo “Sunny” Ortiz (Widespread Panic) at The Melting Point. The show is a benefit performance for Mr. Scott’s wonderful program “Drumming For Success,” which helps and encourages both high-achieving and at-risk youth to excel academically, socially and musically through goal-setting and working together. The show takes place Thursday, Apr. 6 at 8 p.m. and costs $8. For more info, please see www.meltingpointathens.com. (Presentamos Con Mucho Gusto: The local pop dabblers in Telenovela have some developments in the works. The band’s core members Stephanie Clayton and Zach Smola have performed a couple of times with their backing band, whose members live scattered about the Southeast. To remedy the performance issues, Clayton and Smola have assembled a local incarnation of Telenovela, backed by Mercer West (Mouser) on drums, Jay Henriques (ex-Tracer Matula) on bass, Will Goss (Freeze Tag) on synth and guitar and Jace Bartet (air guitar champ) on real guitar. The new full band may make its live debut in April, but catch Clayton and Smola as an acoustic duo at Flicker on Monday, Mar. 27.

Green With Envy: Those of you who picked up a copy of Tin Cup Prophette’s album Liar and the Thief at the CD release show last week may have something of a collector’s item on your hands. The CD cases were printed a deep forest green rather than the intended turquoise/ teal to match the CD. A new, corrected batch should be printed soon.

More Melting: Have you ever noticed that certain types of music always get presented in a “series”? Jazz, bluegrass and any type of world music seem to always have this happen. So, in keeping with that, The Melting Point is gearing up for a new Thursday night outdoor series on its patio, and kicks it off this week with a performance by Trey Wright. Wright, best known as a member of jazz combo Squat, will perform with his Trey Wright Trio on Thursday, Mar. 23 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Joining Wright in his trio this time are Chris Enghauser on upright bass and Darren Stanley on drums.

Macon, Turner And Morton: Local singer-songwriter and non-stop performer Ken Will Morton recently taped two songs for Turner South’s program “Blue Ribbon.” Morton recorded the songs “Mexican Queen” and “Adelayda” with percussionist Brandon Hicks live at Macon, GA venue The Hummingbird. This episode of the show will feature all kinds of stuff about Macon - including its music scene, which is absolutely vital to the history of Georgia music. Look for it to air in the next couple of months. Information on the show can be found via www.turnersouth.com/network/shows/blue-ribbon/. Morton will perform with Dodd Ferrelle on Friday, Mar. 24 over at Nuçi’s Space. As a side note, Nuçi’s Space would like to remind people that they have ample parking available in the gravel lot just above their neighbor Steeplechase Condominiums. So consider yourself informed.

But Don’t Call It Farm Team: Chalk one up for the early believers! Local label Community B Records has just had one of its artists, New York’s Oxford Collapse, sign to Seattle label Sub Pop. Community B still has a few copies of their 12” release A Good Ground available, so you might finally want to go pick one up. They next perform semi-locally on Wednesday, Mar. 22 at Atlanta venue Lenny’s. In other news, label head and artist in his own right Martin Brummeler should finally have his record out in the fall of this year. Brummeler has recently had to endure almost an entire year of good news and the as-yet-unnamed album will arrive via an as-yet-unannounced label, but I guarantee your heads will turn when you find out who it is. Brummeler still has plans to move up to Washington, DC, but has pushed that back until June in order to tie up some loose strings around Athens. Check him out at www.communityb.com or www.martinbrummeler.com.

Over and out. Be sure to keep your news coming in and always mention either Threats & Promises or me in the subject line of all emails. It’s rock and roll murder via email to music@flagpole.com, voicemail at 549-9523, ext. 203, or by post at P.O. Box 1027, Athens, GA 30603.

Gordon Lamb

Gordon Lamb