originally published February 21, 2007

Spring's not quite in the air yet, and as a lover of all things winter, this makes me very happy. All I can say is stay bundled and get moving because there’s lots happening now. View happenings below…

Tommy Luh Da Kids: I had a unique opportunity this past week to join several local musicians and emcees on what, as best I can tell, is the first true collaboration between the rock and hip-hop scenes here in Athens. Tommy Valentine's Lovenotes Family recorded the track "You Gon’ Love Us" in a single day over at Pigpen Studios and the results sound pretty cool. Working from a beat composed by local producer Nobody Famous, the musicians on the record constructed their own parts and recorded one after another. The players included me on guitar as well as Craig Lieske (Garbage Island), Wilmot Greene (Owner of Georgia Theatre), Chris Byron (Bling the Children Back Home), John Edwards (Community Chaos), along with a horn section made of Charlie Estes, Jeff Tobias and some other fellow members of the Dark Meat collective. The emcees included were Son 1, Gus D., Static y Mizza, Elite Tha Showstoppa and Valentine himself. The whole thing was engineered by Daniel Collins with studio assistance courtesy of Patrick Ferguson (Music Hates You). Look for the track to appear on this year's AthFest compilation.

Intimate Details: On Sunday, Feb. 25, ATHICA will host a night of music and film from Jeremiah Cymerman, Matthew Welch and Jonathan Railey. See this week's ABC Box for more info about Cymerman. I want to talk about Welch here. The recipient of two degrees in Experimental Music Composition (who had any idea there even was such a thing?), Welch creates pieces which "range from traditional-like bagpipe tunes to electronic pieces, improvisation strategies, and fully notated works for solo instruments, chamber ensembles and orchestra." His album Dream Tigers was released in 2005 on Tzadik Records as part of its Composer Series. The show runs 7:30–9:30 p.m. and the suggested donation is $6–$9. Because ATHICA proper has this massive art on its floor composed of sand or sugar or, y'know, whatever, the show will take place next-door in the Canopy Studio. For more information on Welch, please see www.myspace.com/matthewtobinwelch.

Bring Some Cash: On Monday, Feb. 26 the Caledonia Lounge can expect a rare early-in-the-week show to be packed. Why? Because it’s Johnny Cash’s birthday, yo. To celebrate the posthumous event, Don Chambers + GOAT, Clay Leverett and Birds & Wire will play a tribute show to the man in black. I can dang near guarantee that this is exactly the type of show to attend if you plan on calling in hung over for the rest of the week. Seriously, though, the bands are topnotch and, when considering who wrote and recorded all the material to be played, it’s practically a can’t-miss event.

First Time For Everything: Visual artist and longtime Athens musician Mark Opel has completed his very first attempt at shooting a music video. The clip, made for the song “Summer Sun” by his band The Savoir Faire, was reportedly “shot, collated and edited in an hour” by Opel, but I hazard to guess it took longer. Visually non-amazing by today’s quick-edit, glossy, pimp-cup standards, the clip reminds me of some of the very first videos made for R.E.M. by local legend Jim Herbert. Herbert has been reinventing the art of filmmaking throughout much of his life and Opel is just beginning, but there’s a similar Southern sensibility at work here and I think it’s great. Check it out over at www.myspace.com/thesavoirfaire .

Nuçi’s Holiday Camp: In a move that further exhibits its commitment to the future of Athens music, Nuçi’s Space is launching its first music-based summer camp this year. The working name of the program is “Camp Amped” and organizer Bob Sleppy says that the idea for the camp has been bandied about for about four-and-a-half years but only recently seemed viable. While the exact dates are yet to be announced, the camp should run for approximately two weeks in early-to-mid summer. “We have a small group including high school students, college students, parents and staff planning this program together," says Sleppy. "Our first step is to pass out surveys in high schools and middle schools and also make them available on the web.” Nuçi’s Space will use this information to determine which type of activities it will feature. He continues, “We plan to offer classes that focus on areas of interest from instrument and ensemble lessons, songwriting, studio recording, road-teching, promotion, music business overview, spinning/ scratching records, building beats and rap lyric composition. Our plan is to hire local musicians as teachers for the classes as well as have special guest speakers. In addition to making the camp affordable, we hope to offer a few financial scholarships.” Nuçi’s Space will also be seeking charitable contributions and working out scholarship possibilities in order to make the program available to deserving kids who could otherwise not afford to participate. For more information, please see www.nuci.org.

Swiftness Of Action Or Motion: The members of local band Celerity report that they have been playing out of town quite a bit, but that the reason they’ve not really played Athens in a while is that they’ve been busily recording a bunch of new material. The band's new EP 180 Nowhere Road was partially recorded with local honcho Eric Friar at Downtown Athens Recording Company. Before heading out on a month-long tour of the East Coast, they’ll jump onstage over at the 40 Watt on Tuesday, Feb. 20 with new local band Darla and then play an EP release party on Wednesday, Mar. 7 upstairs at Tasty World with venerable locals Polemic and Rat Babies. Sample the band's loud-and-grungy sounds over at www.myspace.com/celerity or www.celerityrocks.com.

Funk Like Whoa: Atlanta R&B/ funk act Entropy will enjoy the release of its new album Crawl at a show on Saturday, Feb. 24 at Atlanta venue The Loft. While not exactly blowing the doors off of the classic sound, the formerly Athens-based band is quite adept at interpreting the influence of the classic R&B sounds of the 1970s without sounding like a tribute act. Some of the tracks for Crawl were recorded here in town at New Town Studios and Normal Studios and were mixed by John Keane. Entropy makes its next visit to Athens on Friday, Mar. 23 at Tasty World. Sample all this over at www.myspace.com/entropyfunky.

Collections And Collectives: Local gang The Ivywood Collective, which numbers its current members at two bands, just released a CD featuring both bands. The groups in question, The Leavers and Rockinwood, are both local; the former is a decent sounding group focused on moody melodies and arpeggio-laden tracks, while the latter is a total joke with songs like “I Bang Oprah,” “There’s a Roofie in My Beer” and “I Got a Sock.” Visit both bands via their online portal at www.myspace.com/ivywoodcollective.  

Sorry: The 40 Watt Club tells Flagpole that all tickets for My Morning Jacket's two nights of rockin' on Mar. 6 and Mar. 7 are all sold out. Yikes!

Down The Line: Looks like the Classic Center is stepping up its efforts in bringing big-name musical acts to town. In addition to the previously mentioned Widespread Panic shows in April, the downtown hall can now boast that it's roped in Bob Weir & Ratdog (Mar. 22), the Flaming Lips (Apr. 11) and Bonnie Raitt (Apr. 26). Now if only the venue can tackle the sound issues that left many people disgruntled after last year's Wilco show…

Happy Hour: Just got off work? Want to see some rock-and-roll? The Caledonia seems to have the thing for you on Thursday, Feb. 22. Though there's a show at the club later that night, there's also a full happy-hour show featuring BARR (out of L.A. and with a forthcoming album on 5RC), Marnie Stern (the crazy-shredding solo guitarist from NYC with a brand-new album on Kill Rock Stars) and Megaband (Athens' own Cinemechanica + Mega Man II show). Everything gets going roundabout 5 p.m., so if you want an early show, well, here's one.

Okay, people, that’s it for this week. Be sure to keep your news coming in and always mention either Threats & Promises or my name in the subject line of all emails. Grease is the word 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