Threats & Promises

Music News And Gossip

originally published June 7, 2006

Once again you’ve turned to this page to get the week's essential information. Then, of course, you’ll let it bleed onto your sweaty palms and find its way across your forehead. With better skin care in mind, please proceed…

Popfest On The March: The full schedule for the 2006 Athens PopFest has been announced, and it’s a killer. Setting up a full five days this year, the organizers have shifted somewhat away from packing all the bills with twee indie-pop, but everything included lands solidly within the pop spectrum. The heavy-hitting headliners, as mentioned first in this column several weeks back, include Deerhoof, Apples In Stereo and Mountain Goats. Notable locals included classic bands Oh-OK and Vietnam, popular heavy rockers Cinemechanica and We Versus the Shark, and fabulous younger Athens punters like My Parents, 63 Crayons, Cars Can Be Blue and Russian Spy Camera. All told, there are 57 (!) bands playing and that makes the ticket prices that much sweeter. The opening night, Tuesday, Aug. 8, is a free show at Little Kings. Wednesday's Little Kings show is included in the four-day pass purchase which is a mere $40. Individual day passes can be ordered for $10 a day, but if you’re really interested in this option, you need to jump on it, homey, because full passes trump day passes if push comes to shove over capacity issues, and individual tickets will be necessarily limited. Get the full lowdown on purchases over at www.hhbtm.com/popfest, but hurry - this will sell out.

The Frown That Is Brown: When they’re not checking your ID at a bar or harassing females at the swimming pool, the dudes in Brown Frown pump out some super high caliber rock and roll. Promising more “retardation and sweaty, violent man-sex,” the Frown looks forward to pumping out some more live action in the near future. The band should be finishing its newest recording, so far referred to as Courage to the Gap, which will feature approximately 10 new tracks. The guys will play some of this stuff when they take the stage at Tasty World on Friday, June 16, with Community Chaos and Electric Eel Shock.

Bowl-n-Panic: Widespread Panic continues its support of the Athens community by having Kingpins Bowl and Brew host a listening party for its newest album on Monday, June 12. The album Earth To America is the band's first studio recording in three years. Admission for the event is free and there will be cool giveaways of stuff like T-shirts. Panic Fans For Food is sponsoring a raffle in which the entry is a can of food, and raffle winners can win gift certificates for products and services from local Athens businesses. It all starts at 7 p.m., so get there on time, have a couple of drinks and smile, smile, smile. Please note that Widespread Panic will not perform.

Insanity!: Tireless promoter Tommy Valentine has hit upon another idea that should encourage some folks to head out on Monday nights. Valentine debuted his new event “Wings and Sings” on Memorial Day over at Tasty World and the plan is for “Wings and Sings” to happen every Monday. The deal is this: every Monday night at 10 p.m., folks can head over to Tasty World upstairs and for a $5 cover they can enjoy free chicken wings from Sherm’s Wings and sing karaoke with Almost Famous Karaoke. One of the great things about Valentine is that he’s absolutely unafraid to try something new, and he’s the kind of guy that gets shit done. So hopefully this will work out.

Live For Today: Local band Beyond Tomorrow just spent a couple of weeks up at Chicago’s Engine Studios recording a debut album. Somehow the band is still milking its one day of fame after winning a Star 94 FM contest to open for Bon Jovi this past January. Currently engaged in the multi-city, multi-tiered Emergenza Festival, the band has found itself suckered into that worst of conditions where the promoters make the band sell tickets to its own damn show beforehand. So if you want to help spread the ooze of radio-ready, car-polish rock, please buy one of these $15 seats from the guys and go see them do their thing on July 15 at Atlanta’s Vinyl. Check out www.rockbeyondtomorrow.com for details.

He’s Got A Gig!: After months of placing ads in this paper’s classifieds section, Glands drummer Joe Rowe has hooked up with local popsters Casper & the Cookies for their latest tour. While Rowe will not permanently replace the Cookies' regular drummer Davy Gibbs, it seems Mr. Gibbs will be laying fairly low most of the summer since he just became a daddy. So congrats from me to Rowe, Gibbs and the band. The band's summer tour is currently being booked and we’ll be sure to update this page with news as it comes in. Drinks all around!

Surfing For Apples: Dance/ electronic musician Paul Wilson, AKA applePaul, has made his cool four-song EP These Walls available for free over at www.applepaul.dmusic.com. Also of note is that applePaul recorded these tracks live and utilized absolutely zero computer trickery. In my initial review of the record, I had assumed otherwise, and gladly stand corrected.

Impeccable Distaste: Athens major dude Jon Lester looks likes he’s finally going to go balls out with his newest project Distaster. Word is that he’s looking for a summer release of the Distaster debut Kountry Kaliphate. His former projects include Radio:Tahiti, Broom Room Annex and Autoscope, and Lester has always been a very creative (albeit understated) personality. His music with Distaster is no different, and leans heavily toward his major influence: Gary Numan. Check it at www.myspace.com/distaster.

(In the Works: The sound masters in Maserati are finally finishing up their much-anticipated new album with engineer Andy Baker at the helm.

More In the Works: Don Chambers is currently finishing his third recording, set for release on a yet-to-be-determined label. He's co-producing the record with Bill Doss (of Sunshine Fix and Olivia Tremor Control) at Doss’ studio just outside of town.

Soon, Yes, Very Soon: It’s only a couple of weeks away and this year's AthFest is set to rock the town. The 10th anniversary edition features headliners Modern Skirts, Drivin’ N’ Cryin’ and Now It’s Overhead, and the main stage will be a flurry of activity Friday, Saturday and Sunday. However, please don’t get so worn out watching bands and eating ice cream in the afternoons that you miss the club shows. These are always great exhibitions of both tested and up-and-coming local acts. This year's AthFest is appropriately well-rounded, also, with its KidsFest, Sprockets Music + Video competition, skate board demonstrations, Artists Market and more. Yeah, this reads like a big fat advertisement, but AthFest is one of the things that makes this place what it is, so I’m bound to get a little verbose. Remember the dates are June 21–25 and all the info you need can be found over at www.athfest.com.

All right, pokey, that’s it for now. Be sure to keep your news coming in and always mention either Threats & Promises or my name in the subject line of all emails. It’s alright, ma, I’m only bleeding via email to music@flagpole.com, voicemail at 706-549-9523, ext. 203, or by post at P.O. Box 1027, Athens, GA 30603.

Gordon Lamb

Gordon Lamb