Threats & Promises

Music News & Gossip

originally published July 19, 2006

Okay, let’s just kick it into high gear this week. Start shifting below…

Look Inward: Just wanted to quickly mention that you should turn back a few pages, like right now, and check out the box in the ABC show listings section highlighting this week's Next To Last Festival. The suggested donation is low and the lineup is quality. For information via the web, please see www.myspace.com/nexttolastfest.

Bitchin’!: Wendy Musick of local rockers Southern Bitch weighed in this week to let everyone know that the band has completed its new album, Strong Medicine, and word is that it should be released in October. For more info, please see www.southernbitch.org, and you can find the Bitch at the Georgia Theatre on Wednesday, July 26 or frontman Adam Musick at the very same place on Friday, July 21.

Overload: Speaking of Adam Musick, you can catch him playing some of the songs off his forthcoming solo album as part of something billed as "The Summer's Largest Show Under One Roof." Going down at the aforementioned Georgia Theatre on Friday, July 21, you'll find a veritable mini-fest of local music and entertainment. Things kick off at 9:30 p.m. with a screening of some "true band stories" animated by Flagpole's Flick Skinny cartoonists, Jeremy Long and Clint McElroy. Kimberly Morgan goes on at 10:15 p.m., followed by magician Kevin O'Neil half an hour later. Musick's card comes up at 11 p.m., and Nutria rocks things at 11:30 p.m. The whole night is closed at 12:30 a.m. by Don Chambers + GOAT (expect to see even more folks on-stage, as at AthFest's "Goat Deluxe" show), and the whole thing's hosted by comedian Pete McBrayer. Five bucks gets you in the door.

Buy In: The local hotshots in Mother Jackson have finished recording their new album, but are seeking folks to purchase it via pre-sale in order to finance its actual manufacturing. Loud and Proud: Soundtrack To Your Damnation will run you a mere $10; for $15, however, the band will throw in a copy of its first album, Suck On This. Please don’t judge these records by their titles, folks, as Mother Jackson is quite a competent combo which deserves your support. For details, please see www.myspace.com/motherjackson1.

Got Grogus?: Grogus is placing the final gentle touches on new EP Sabor de Esperanza over at Tucker, GA studio One Mic. Artwork provided by Tino Garrido is in the finishing stages. The band plans to release the thing over at the Georgia Theatre this weekend on Saturday, July 22. In other news, the band reports that it is currently in negotiations with Tree Leaf Records, with hopes the label will release Grogus' live recording from December 2005 as a full-length in the fall.

Shifty: You may have read a review of Randall Bramblett's newest album Rich Someday in last week's Flagpole. You may have been dismayed to not find it in local stores. Well, that's because the album's release was pushed back two weeks due to some holdups in the manufacturing process. The official release date is now Tuesday, July 25, and you can catch a preview when Bramblett plays the 40 Watt Club this Saturday, July 22.

Push ‘Em Back, Push ‘Em Back, Way Back!: For those waiting on it, you should know that the debut album by Athens love-'em-or-hate-'em megagroup Dark Meat has been pushed back until Oct. 24. Universal Indians will still see its release via local label Cloud Recordings.

New York Stories: Local dude Dan Nettles, via his Kenosha Kid persona, is going to collaborate with Brooklyn, NY-based writer and actor Laylage Courie and a few others next month at New York’s Fringe Festival. The collaborative piece is titled I, Marlena and Nettles reports that it’s a 60-minute story about a woman “whose erotic ruminations about a stranger drive her to imaginatively destroy her office-suite." Um, Dan, I’ve no doubt you can pull this off (no pun intended) but that story sounds horrible. At any rate, the show will run Aug. 11–17 at New York’s Linhart Theater, and those who want to listen to what Nettles has prepared can head over to www.kenoshakid.com, or ask him about it this weekend when the Kid takes over the Mercury Lounge on both Friday and Saturday nights.

So Sorry For Your Loss: Did you know there was a band in town called Trigger Level? Neither did I until it was announced that they have broken up. After playing together for a mere two years in such venues as The Ritz, the Georgia Theatre and Last Call, the band has decided that, well, things just weren’t happening. Trigger Level specialized in a particularly generic brand of what could loosely be called “alternative” but really is plain old rock music. Still, the guys in the band want to thank all their fans and leave them with this message: “The boys of TL may no longer be playing, but the music lives on…The music isn't dead, as new and greater things rise from the ashes like a phoenix.” Oh, sweet lord. Samples over at www.myspace.com/triggerlevel.

Gimme A Screen And I’ll Show It: This past Sunday, Athens-based psychotherapist and filmmaker Jonathan Railey debuted his hour-long experimental film at The Stone in New York City. Entitled Just A Closer Walk With Thee, the screening featured live accompaniment from Jeremiah Cymerman, Christopher Hoffman, Shahzad Ismaily and Matthew Welch. Although the film's subject matter, Vajrayana Buddhism, is something I’m utterly unprepared to comment on, I have total faith in anything the former Athenian Cymerman is involved in. Railey plans to bring a screening to Athens in the fall.

And Speaking of All This…: Thought at least a few of you would be interested to know that former Athenian Matthew Buzzell has recently released his absolutely, no kidding, incredible documentary on the much beloved and now-defunct New York band Luna. The film's called Tell Me Do You Miss Me, and Buzzell pretty much exposes every side of the band from the raw to the resplendent. It's out now on Rhino Video and worth a look.

Loud Legend: The local dudes in Of Legend are just about done with their album. Currently riding a wave of band-created hype that describes this as-yet-untitled baby as “one of the most intense albums to ever come out of the Georgia hardcore and metal scene” the band has set a release date for sometime in the early fall. Since I’ve not yet gotten to hear any tracks, I’ve no real reason to doubt them. Or believe them, for that matter. Still, I absolutely love young, brash hardcore bands that try to take everything by storm. So there ya go.

One Man's Dream Is Another Man's Nightmare: On Saturday, Aug. 19, local promoters B.A.M.F Productions will host The Day The Music Never Stopped Festival at Buckhead, GA’s 4-C Ranch, in the Lake Oconee area. The promoters have assembled this festival as a celebration of the music and legacy of the Grateful Dead and the late Jerry Garcia. No, I am not making this up. The headlining act, Herring, Rodgers & Sipe (featuring guitarist Jimmy Herring, who has done time with Aquarium Rescue Unit, The Dead, Phil Lesh & Friends and the Other Ones) will join the bands Deep Blue Sun, Space Medicine, The Squirrelheads, The Lefty Williams Band,  Big City Sunrise, Stop Drop and Roll and The Ramblers. Free camping is included for Friday and Saturday nights. B.A.M.F. partner Tina Calhoun says via a press release, “This festival will be a psychedelic circus complete with world-renowned and regional acts at an intimate and scenic venue that will allow the show to go on rain or shine under a large music pavilion, and with pre-event ticket prices at $25 this is without question the most affordable event this festival season has seen.” If you’re interested, please go look at www.thedaycelebration.com.

Out of the Frying Pan: After suffering a fire recently, Atlanta Highway roadhouse Safari has plans to have a grand re-opening party, perhaps even this week if everything's back up and running. Visit www.safarigrill.net, email safarigrill@yahoo.com or call 706-353-9328 to see what's what and if the country rock and karaoke is once again flourishing.

And that’s cool 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. TV party tonight 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