The weeks after AthFest have seen no slowdown in either the news nor my enthusiasm for bringing it to you. You can almost hear my enthusiasm as you read this, can't you? See, I knew you could. My sarcasm is generally only surpassed by my sincerity. And since I've never really been accused of being overly-sincere, I'd thought I'd just go ahead and start the rumor myself. Carry on…

Rednecks, White Socks and Blue Ribbon Beer: Okay, so there probably won't be a whole lot of rednecks hanging around but I always have that song pop into my head when I think of this thing. Which I'm about to tell you about. The dates and venues have been announced for the 7th Annual Big Weekend and Blue Ribbon Ball so get ready to write 'em down. The event is, of course, the annual celebration thrown by local promotion powerhouse Team Clermont. The dates for this annual throw down are August 6—7, and this year's event is slightly different in that the events will not be located at the fabulous 40 Watt as in previous years. This time around, the Friday night show will be held at Tasty World and feature the Los Angeles-based Radar Brothers, North Carolina band The Rosebuds (who also grace the Caledonia on Wednesday, July 7) and Illinois' own Troubled Hubble. Saturday night's Blue Ribbon Ball, affectionately known to locals and others as "The Prom" will be held at The Georgia Theatre this year and features local E.S.G. tribute band Tiny Sticks doing the traditional Team Clermont party music, i.e. '80s covers. There will be a DJ set also, but specific DJs have not been announced yet. (Bands and DJ's please take note: There were thousands of songs written and released in the 1980s. Why do you insist on playing the same 25 over and over? You're starting to remind me of classic rock stations that only play the same batch of songs day in and day out. 1980s disco/ dance parties started happening in Athens around 1992, so take me seriously when I say that "Come On Eileen" never needs to be heard again. By anybody. Ever.) If you've never been to the Blue Ribbon Ball you might want to make every effort to go. It's a hell of a good time and it's nice to see all your scruffy friends dressed nicely and scrubbed up. Most of them clean up real nice. For more information please see www.teamclermont.com.

And In Between All That, Make Time To Do This: August 4—7 are the dates for the 2004 Athens Popfest, organized by Mike Turner. Turner, who also owns the Florida-based-but-recently-relocated-to-Athens Happy Happy Birthday To Me Records and The Bee's Knees zine, has accomplished a huge feat with this one as the schedule features 53 (!!!) acts. Many of the acts on the bills, which are pretty evenly split between venues Tasty World and the 40 Watt, are veterans of the indie-pop scene and old favorites of fans. The indie-pop flag hasn't been flown very high in Athens in the past few years (valiant efforts of local label bumbleBEAR and a few bands notwithstanding). Indeed, the scene has returned to the deep underground from whence it came. Hopefully this will cause a surge in the quality of the bands on the scene. A few years ago, indie-pop had become synonymous with "amateur" and I don't mean that in a good way. Luckily, when I read the schedule of bands scheduled to perform at Popfest, I find very few strictly derivative acts and many, many highly original ones (Bugs Eat Books, The Late B.P. Helium, Boyracer, The Sunshine Fix, Murder Beach, Frankenixon, Breezy Porticos, The Maybellines, Casper & The Cookies, Visitations, Calvin Don't Jump, The Orchid Pool and The Minders). You will notice quite a few Athens area bands playing the festival and this is for good reason: H.H.B.T.M. has enthusiastically released records by Athens bands for several years and featured many local acts on its extremely popular 7" record subscription club. (Which, in all fairness, was based on the model employed by former local label Kindercore Records for its 7" singles club. Which, in all fairness, was based on all previous models of the same.) There will be more news on this massive event as the date nears, but for now you can gather all available information over at www.hhbtm.com/popfest.

Oh, Hell Yes!!: Sometimes I get frustrated when a band gets thrown my way too soon before their upcoming gig and not a whole lot of stuff can be done for them press-wise. Case in point: Austin, TX band The Tuna Helpers. The band, which is self-described as "Cruella DeVille meets Mary Poppins meets Kate Bush," has balanced cleverness with talent and comes up with a sound that in many other hands would sound annoyingly smart-ass. However, in the hands of The Tuna Helpers it's is enjoyable and intriguing. I'm an extremely hard sell on anything that sounds like this and when it comes to The Tuna Helpers, I'm sold. They simply do what they do and kick ass while doing it. As they say themselves, they are "A seamy tapestry of gothy stylings weaved on a silly loom constructed by the wooden values of girly power, gross-out contests and sophisticated musical achievement." Oh, but why is this news? Because The Tuna Helpers will be playing with Flagpole Athens Music Award winners (for best "experimental" band) Garbage Island at The Caledonia Lounge on Saturday, July 3. Come celebrate your freedom. For more information please see www.thetunahelpers.org.

My Two Cents: Try as I might, I couldn't make it to everything I wanted to AthFest weekend. Still, I wasn't disappointed by much except that Fairmount Fair didn't jump on the main stage with Rehab and challenge them right there to a rap-battle. Homeboy woulda' won, I swear. Scheduling snafus seemed to be fewer and further between (with a major exception being a delay of approximately 45 minutes or so at Tasty World on Saturday night which took some steam outta the evening) than in previous years and there was noticeably less industry ass-kissing going on. Or maybe I'm becoming more oblivious to that stuff as I get older. Nah. I did hear more than one person complain about the "family fun fair" atmosphere surrounding the main-stage area. Sure, it was a little cheesy with multiple food vendors, random jewelry and whatnot, but our music scene and its late-night hours make it very difficult for anyone with a real job and a family to participate at any level. I've always thought it was a shame that people pretty much had to drop out of the music scene altogether, or endure incredible difficulty, once they became parents. It is for this reason that I will gladly endure every cotton-candy stand, face-painting clown and hippie dress vendor at future AthFest events. Athens music is a very special thing and I want every single person in town to be able to participate. Kudos to AthFest for making it easier to bring the kids. (Okay, that's as civic-minded as this column is gonna get, so soak it in, folks.)

So, keep your news coming in and remember to always, always, always mention either me or Threats & Promises in the subject line of all emails. To the window, to the walls, 'til the sweat drips down via email at music@flagpole.com, voicemail at 549-2360; or by post at P.O. Box 1027, Athens, GA 30603.
Gordon Lamb