originally published June 13, 2007

Welcome back, folks, to another week of updates and assorted hoo-ha. Take a gander below to catch this week's thrills.

Be There Or Be Square: The 2007 Flagpole Athens Music Awards Show is all set to take place at the Morton Theatre on Thursday, June 21. Doors open at 7:30 p.m., show starts promptly at 8 p.m. Tickets are $6 in advance (swing by the Flagpole office, 112 S. Foundry St., to get yours) or $8 at the door. AthFest wristband holders can get in for only $4. What a deal! There'll be lots of cool live music, crazy locals presenting awards and much fun and frolic. See the back cover of this week's issue for a list of all the lucky nominees and more. For more info, call Flagpole at 706-549-9523.

Wristband Revolution: So you're planning on catching a whole lotta music at AthFest next week, and you want to see as many bands as possible? Remember, outdoor music - including headliners Perpetual Groove, The Whigs and the new lineup of the Drive-By Truckers - is free, but to get into any of the participating clubs, you're gonna have to pick up a wristband. In the past, AthFest has experimented with different wristbands for different days, multi-day passes, etc., but this year it remains boiled down to simplicity. One $15 wristband gets you admission to all official AthFest venues during the Club Crawl on Friday and Saturday nights, and you can also just buy access to one night at any one venue for $5, but just go ahead and buy the wristband. See www.athfest.com for more.

Widespread Artistry: Beginning Friday, June 15, the Lyndon House Arts Center hosts an art show that offers "outstanding visual insights" on high-profile local band Widespread Panic. The display will focus on a variety of media provided by the band and in cooperation with local musicians' resource center Nuçi's Space. The show runs through Aug. 25, and there's an opening reception for the show on Tuesday, June 19, 6–8 p.m. For more info and specific gallery times, point your computer to www.accleisureservices.com/lyndon.shtml.

Alas, We Hardly Knew Ye: Newly formed band The Diamond Center, comprised of the remnants of a previous lineup of Sleepy Horses, played its second-to-last show in Athens last week, but will play one more time before the members split town. Currently, the band is recording over at The Laundry Room with engineer Joe McMullen and plans to leave town immediately upon finishing. Although the bandmembers claim to be likely moving to Canada, it’s not entirely clear that this is true. If you wanna catch them before they move on, head down to Flicker Theatre & Bar on Saturday, June 23, right in the middle of AthFest, when they play at 10:30 p.m.

The Only Constant Is Change: Jacob Hunt, the sole driving force behind Athens band Tracer Metula, will play a solo set of reworked Tracer Metula songs when he performs at The Melting Point for the digital-only AthFest 2007 CD Vol. 2 edition of the venue's “Uncorked And Unplugged” series on Wednesday, June 20. In additional news, the band's revolving lineup has just seen the exit of one guitar player and the full band's AthFest show on Saturday, June 23 at Go Bar, a bill that includes Atlanta band Parade, will feature an as-yet-unnamed pinch hitter. For samples of the Tracer Metula's work, please see www.myspace.com/tracermetula.

Take Note. Hell, Take Several: Premier Athens saxophonist Mike Jones will play with his Tiny Jazz Orchestra on Friday, June 15 over at The Mercury Lounge. The combo, which will play some original Jones material along with some Thelonious Monk and other bop tunes, also features Darrin Cook on bass and Jamie DeRevere on drums. Although I’m unfamiliar with the other guys, I can tell you from experience that hearing Jones play is always a treat. The show is free and starts at 8 p.m.

Take It On The Run: Athens/ Atlanta band S.I.D.S. will be on the road for most of June, traveling all the way to Canada and then back down the East Coast. Easily the coolest date on the tour will be when S.I.D.S. plays with Rockette Morton, an original member of Captain Beefheart’s Magic Band, in Montreal on Thursday, June 14. With a fresh new 7” single, titled "+/-," out now on Atlanta label Rob's House Records, the band's fame and fortune are most assured - at least until member Adam Stroupe heads up to Baltimore, MD, in August to attend graduate school at Johns Hopkins University. After that, unless they wanna do it long-distance, it seems all bets are off. For more information, please visit the utterly obnoxious www.myspace.com/suddeninfantdeathsyndrome.

The List Is In: The videos to be featured in the 2007 Sprockets Music Video Competition have been announced. Fans and other curious folks can see them played at the fabulous 40 Watt on Wednesday, June 20 at 10 p.m. Awards for “Best Music Video” and the “Audience Choice” will be announced the following night at the Flagpole Athens Music Awards at The Morton Theatre. This year's accepted entries are videos for Wilma, Venice Is Sinking, The Inflatable Orchestra, Ginger Envelope, Push!, Nutria, Noogeez, Kite To The Moon, Ken Will Morton, John Stanek, Jeremiah Cymerman, Drive-By Truckers, David Lowery, Dark Meat, Cobra Sex, Blak Thor and Bar-B-Q Killers. In the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that I was personally involved with the Bar-B-Q Killers entry. So there, consider it disclosed.

Tours And Rumors of Tours: Local hot-shit noise/ feedback act Long Legged Woman (along with Better People) will kick off the “Gas Burrito Tour 2007” at Little Kings on Thursday, June 14 with 8-Track Gorilla. The band will then head off through, well, pretty much the whole damn country. One obvious shining moment will be the group's performance at the Olympia Experimental Music Festival in Olympia, WA. Judging from the schedule posted over at www.myspace.com/longleggedwoman,   the whole tour, which runs through July 20 when the band will play a house show here in town, looks to be a total blast.

Laugh, Dance, You Know…: Fans of music and comedy can have the best of both worlds when Athens plays host to the “Pre-Father's Day II Funny Comedy Tour” on Saturday, June 16 over at Diverse Universe. The event will feature music by Travis Williams and spoken word from Celest, with the comedy of Smoke, 2 Loose, Rockin Robbie and hosted by Ice Cream. Diverse Universe is located at 213-B Tallassee Rd., and more information can be had by calling 706-613-8332.

New Band. What, Again?: New-ish Athens band Standard 8 will play Little Kings on Saturday, June 16 with Commander Chameleon and Atlanta band Soul Shakers. Currently working on recording some demos, Standard 8 has posted two songs on the web, one an almost direct rip-off of any late-'70s Talking Heads record you care to mention, and the other is a mock 1950s-style croon, and you can check them out over at www.myspace.com/thestandard8.

Alright, 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. The kids won’t stop 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