originally published March 14, 2007

Each year, the column that falls around this time is a weird one, since half of you are out of town on Spring Break and the other half of you wish you were out of town on Spring Break. Then there are those who are off in Austin at South by Southwest… I’m left with a readership that is half-oblivious and half-embittered. Which may not be far from normal, after all. Just kidding. Honest.

The Who, The What, The Where, Etc.: Check it out! The completely brand-spanking-new Flagpole Athens Music Directory is up and running! This year we're only publishing online, so for those looking around town for a copy, turn your eyes to the glowing screen. This vital resource is where you'll find contact info for local bands, screenprinters, venues, attorneys, record labels, designers, producers, and more! Hit up www.flagpole.com/MusicDirectory and have your desires fulfilled.

Jump On It: Local label Iron Horse Records will release the live CD of Finest Worksongs: Athens Bands Play the Music of R.E.M. in the very near future. How near? Well, if you’re local, as soon as Sunday, Mar. 18 during the annual “A Taste Of Athens” event. but, barring that, on Tuesday, March 20. It’s already available for pre-order over at www.athensmusic.net and will feature 19 tracks, almost all recorded live during the Sept. 12, 2006 benefit show of the same name at the 40 Watt Club . Featured local artists include Liz Durrett , Bain Mattox , Tin Cup Prophette , Modern Skirts , Patterson Hood , The Observatory and Five Eight . The CD’s national street date is May 29, and distribution is being handled by the Atlanta-based do-gooders of Stickfigure Records .

All The World Comes To Athens: The local stars in Russian Spy Camera will host a show over at the Caledonia Lounge on Tuesday, Mar. 20 featuring Irish rock act Oppenheimer and a project by Talia Bromstad (Ice Cream Socialists) called My Unborn Children . Russian Spy Camera has been enlisted as the “backing band” for Bromstad along with musician Elizabeth Hargrett . To encourage folks to get out on a Tuesday, Russian Spy Camera will also give away a free copy of its debut album, You Are A Vulture, to each audience member who pays to get in. Don’t try to grab one if you’ve managed to skeeze your way on the guest list. It doesn’t work like that. This looks like a solid lineup and a fun night, and hey, free album, so head over.

Yeah, That Was Him: By now, many of you have surely seen his face around town and possibly done a double take. Yes, Fred Schneider of The B-52’s has been in Athens for the past week or two and should be here for the better part of the month. So, just in case you were wondering: yeah, that’s him. John Keane confirms that the B’s are at work on recording sessions over at his studio for a details-as-yet-undisclosed recording project. In November of last year, though, multi-instrumentalist Keith Strickland posted on the band's website that the new album will be "Rock 'n Roll-Glam-Electro-Soul for your pleasure zones, and sky blue with the volume turned up to hot pink."

Well, Groovy: Hey bands, before you hype yourself as the first people to do anything, make sure you do some research or you will wind up in the same situation as local band Perpetual Groove . Currently promoting its upcoming album LIVELOVEDIE , the band's publicity company Shimon Presents reports that the album is “…the first to be produced using renewable energies from the recording all the way down to the manufacturing having zero negative impact on our environment.” Well, that’s simply not true. International environmental organization Greenpeace recorded and released the album Alternative NRG (featuring R.E.M. and U2 ) exactly 13 years ago in February of 1994. The entire album was recorded via a mobile solar-powered studio - the R.E.M. tracks were recorded at the 40 Watt Club with the truck parked outside on Nov. 11, 1992 - and featured the same post-consumer recycled packaging as you can find with LIVELOVEDIE . Perpetual Groove’s efforts are certainly laudable, but doing something good and then sending out press releases about how good you are is just insulting. At any rate, the band's next area performances are Friday, Mar. 16 and Saturday, Mar. 17 at Atlanta’s Variety Playhouse and Apr. 6 and 7 here at home at the Georgia Theatre .

Club-wide & Corner-side: Perhaps they’ve done this before, but this is the first club-wide, non-AthFest show I’ve ever heard of taking place at Tasty World , and I quite like this idea. On Wednesday, Mar. 21, $7 will get you into both levels of Tasty World and you can take in six whole bands (and tip two sets of bartenders!). Featured performers are O Brother , Kill Lebaron , Xzamen , The Awkward Romance , Pensive and The Honor Roll , local dudes who described themselves as “extreme,” but the only extreme thing about them is their graphics-heavy MySpace page. Other than that, they’re pretty normal, MTV2 pop punk. Not horrible, but hardly extreme. Also, would it kill folks to at least do a cursory Google search before naming their bands? Honor Role was already a much respected band (which begat Breadwinner, Kepone and Coral, among others) whose career retrospective was released via Merge Records in 1997! The slight difference in spelling (and, admittedly, meaning) still doesn’t change the fact that the names are too similar for comfort. Not really trying to bust balls here, but this just bugs me.

Surprise Honor: Although the band was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame just days ago, R.E.M. manager and general counsel Bertis Downs , an ardent lover of Athens and insatiable music fan, will likely treasure this honor as well. Downs received a special award last week courtesy of the UGA Music Business Program . The award, presented by mayor Heidi Davison , was given to Downs just prior to the class’afternoon meeting time last Thursday. Program director Bruce Burch said, “Bertis is one of the first people I met when I came to Athens to meet Terry College of Business Dean George Benson to discuss the program. Bertis has been there for us from the start.” Dubbed the Noteworthy Award , Downs is the first recipient of the honor and, if I may say so, a damn good place to start.

Critical Additions: Local rock folks The Critical Darlings have finally found a permanent replacement for former drummer Tom Bavis who exited the band two years ago. Earlier this year, the band was auditioning drummers and settled in with Josh Couillard . Frontman Chris McKay says, “[We] pretty much knew that night that Josh was the right guy for us.” Couillard is the second new addition to the band in the past year. Vocalist-guitarist Joe Orr moved from New Jersey to Athens last summer to join the group. In other news, the band is looking forward to a national re-release of its album C’mon, Accept Your Joy! and will finish its newest album Satisfactionista by year's end. Please see www.criticaldarlings.com or www.myspace.com/criticaldarlings.

Drum On: Local drummer Kane Stanley (Cosmic Charlie, Entropy) is running a hand-drumming workshop over at Nuçi’s Space each Thursday in March. Woulda mentioned it sooner, but it’s news to me! At any rate, the workshops run from 5:30 to 7 p.m. and cost $15. Participants should pre-register because class size is limited. Stanley reports he will “teach stretching, warm ups and folkloric songs from Africa and the Caribbean in this beginner/ intermediate class. Some djembes and congas can be provided with advance notice.” All interested people should register via learn2drum@yahoo.com or by calling 706-296-7452.

Yo! Someone Spilled Some Soul Over Here!: On Friday, Mar. 30, UGA's University Union will host Atlanta-based rap duo Ying Yang Twins . The show will serve as the final event for this year's “Week of Soul” and takes place in the Georgia Hall at the Tate Student Center . Tickets for UGA students are $10 advance or $15 on the day of the show, and general admission tickets are $15 advance or $20 day of. Any questions should be directed toward Marc Lamotte via mlamotte@uga.edu. Somebody say hah!

A Damn Good Start: After anticipating its opening for well over a year, I finally got myself down to Detour last week. I wish I had dropped by sooner. Although I was witnessing a rare band show at the dance club - Madeline , Hot New Mexicans and Jerk Alert! - the design of the place, the friendliness of the staff and the overwhelming good mood of the patronage made me wish they’d start booking more shows. Even so, it’s a great place to keep an eye out for local on-the-rise deejays, so maybe that will be its forte and not live bands. Either way, it’s a solid addition to our downtown scene.

And la-di-da! Be sure to keep your news coming in and always mention either Threats & Promises or my name in the subject line of all emails. You know that ain’t no braggin’, it’s a real, well, um, you know 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