For all you folks going out to shows during these frigid times, in addition to tipping your bartender, throw some love down for your local doormen who are spending the night shivering their skin off. At any rate, here's the scoop this week. Remember, I don't know the definition of "hearsay."

Setting Sail on a Good Ship: Rob Lomax (Now It's Overhead) informed the Flagpole last week that his band The Good Ship will release a CD "imaginatively entitled The Good Ship," he says, on February 4 on local Orange Twin label. Secretly Canadian Distribution describes the band's sound as such: "Fans of early Drag City material will no doubt find some sonic reference points, but the more eccentric strains of sixties/seventies singer-songwriter fare are equally noticeable." You can visit www.scdistribution.com for more. [Sarah Lee]

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It's Surf Music, Not Beach Music: On Wednesday, Jan. 29 at the Engine Room and on at the Georgia Bar on Saturday, February 1 you can see Athens' only surf rock band The Curl. Guitarist Brian Smith (The Ones, Thread, Ordinary Germans Like Yourself) will be joined by drummer Brian Head (Sci Fu), bassist Jason Lansing (Thumb Attack) and guitarist Peter Keane (Ordinary Germans Like Yourself). Smith says the idea for the band (who pull influences from The Ventures, the Safari's, Tremelo Beergut and Man... or Astroman?) was formed when he began surfing the Oconee River after purchasing a motorized surfboard. "I'm the only active surfer in Athens," he notes. That has got to go without saying. Thumb Attack and Flood City Shootout are also sharing the bill at the Ga. Bar gig. [SL]

New Venue In A New Building: All you admirers of, and I count myself among you, the fairly new Bottleworks on Prince Avenue, there's now an actual reason you might want to go there. T'Cakes Bakery And Café is now hosting live music, mainly light-jazz and acoustic acts, 3-4 nights a week and has open mic nights on Wednesdays. Check ABC for listings and contact Theresa Sundt at 543-8330 for the lowdown.

This Assembly Is Required: Athens electronic musician Start Dixon, who records under the name Assembly, has finished mixing down a couple of tracks at Atlanta label 404audio's studio. Dixon, who is a member of the Sleuth Empire DJ Collective, will see one of the tracks become the A-side of the next vinyl-only release by the label. For an early taste you can download the tracks via this horribly long URL: www.shadow-law.com/404audio/forum/viewtopic.

Still Our Homeboys: Recent visitors to Kindercore.com have been surprised to see that the address for the label is now in Lawrence, KS. Never fear, all of you who still want to be able to give noogies to label heads Ryan Lewis and Dan Geller, I've been assured this is all part of sticking it to the man. Apparently the label's distributors, The Telegraph Company, know a thing or two about tax law and warehousing is a whole lot cheaper in Kansas than in New York where the marketing is handled. In other Kindercore news, the European tour, which The Agenda was to undertake this month, has been postponed to March. Makes sense to me. Who wants to go to Poland in January?

Triple Elimination At The Flicker: Giving Kindercore a solid run for the money to see who can release the most records in the shortest amount of time is Erik Hinds and his Solponticello label. The local label, specializing in "other" music for lack of better terms, will release three albums on Saturday February 22 at The Flicker Bar. The guests of honor will be Kyle Dawkins, Hinds himself and Julie Powell, who will each have their new records launched that night. Boogie on over to Solponticello.com and get informed but quick.

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Neat, Neat, Neat: Athens pop and soul group The Neat Stripes have released their newest record The End of That and it is currently available at Wuxtry and SchoolKids record shops. Keeping with the tradition of incestuousness in Athens, the album was released on the Tell Me Later label which is run by Athens band The Eskimos. Paul Walker, leader of The Neat Stripes, also plays keyboards with The Eskimos and plays drums with Casper Fandango And The Cookies, with whom the Stripes were scheduled to play their CD release party at the Caledonia back on January 25. Find the family tree over at neatstripes.com.

The New Gods Of Thunder: The schizophrenic metal-space rock madmen behind Sci Fu have informed me that they just finished up their new album to be released on their self-owned Kung Porn label. Kung Porn has been home to such previous crowd pleasers as the first Sci Fu record Built And Blew Up. The whole thing went down over at Elixer Recording and was engineered by Peter Fancher. Apparently the new songs clock in at between three and four minutes each which shows a new emphasis on the "rock" side of the band. If you doubt me, then just take the band at their word when they informed me that they "ain't fuckin' around with this slab of hot and heavy licks." Word up.

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You Don't Have To Go To Illinois To Get Clemency: The Athens band that could have rested on their laurels but refused to do so is Summer Hymns. It is simply staggering how the songwriting by this band continues to grow and become more and more wonderful. The band recently finished up recording its third album for Misra Records entitled Clemency. Rumor is that the first 100 copies will come with a bonus live disc of their show a few weeks back at which they shared the stage with bizarro-coat-of-many-colors-band Aqualove.

Nuçi's Space Gives A Helping Hand: One of the best venues to emerge in Athens in recent years is giving a helping hand to this year's Mental Health Benefit. The good guys over at Nuçi's Space will be hosting a portion of the event from 12-6 p.m. on February 1. Featured performers are Winslow Willard, Julie Powell, Audition With Max Reinhardt, Gunnison and Parakeet Nelson. There will also be kid's activities and depression screening available. This is a great cause, guys, and a very important one. Check out the story on p. 11 in this issue or learn all about it over at nuci.org or fightthestigma.com.

Stop Talking Now: Atlanta/Athens supergroup The Shut Ups have been kicking new life into the three-minute-pop-song lately. With already one album under their belts, the band is back in the comfy recesses of Jason Nesmith's Bel-Air Studio working up another one. Led by the charismatic Don Condescending, the band has a solid riff-ripper by way of guitarist Ben Spraker who shakes a leg with these guys when his own rock powerhouse Ceiling Fan isn't taking him around the world. Find out more over at casperfandango.com.

Don't Pitch That Tent In Here: Athens home girl and singer/songwriter, although apparently she's spending good amounts of time in Decatur, Kitty Snyder has released her newest album Trips To The Oddities on the local Pitch-A-Tent label. Snyder, who has an angelic voice and more than a cursory knowledge of guitar playing, is going to be touring extensively for this release. If you missed her most recent show at The Caledonia you can still catch her locally at The 40 Watt on February 3 as part of the Women In Music symposium. See p. 25 for more.

Next Stop, College Square: Way back on November 9, 2002, Bill Doss' A Sunshine Fix, who are undeniably one of Athens' best live acts, had the unique experience to open for Athens' legends Widespread Panic in Alabama. Besides getting to play for the largest crown in their career, apparently drummer Dave Gerow really got into things by not only joining in a "drum break" during Widespread's set, but reportedly getting into it so much that the other drummers on-stage started following his lead. Oh, my, my, my. Hopefully the band sold a ton of merchandise to pay for Gerow's deprogramming.

Remember Kids: the deadline for getting your band/music service in the Flagpole Athens Music Directory 2003 is coming up fast. Fill out the form in this issue or visit our website at flagpole.com to submit your info. It's that easy! And that's all for this week. Keep the news coming and stay warm. Fight the power via email to music@flagpole.com, voicemail at 549-2360; via fax at 548-8981; or by post at P.O. Box 1027, Athens, GA 30603.

Gordon Lamb