Spring done sprang and now Athens is getting ready to settle into another sweltering summer. But before all that happens and you guys get too hot to move, put this news in your peace pipe and read it twice for added emphasis. Look out below!

Why Buy The Cow?: Jeff Montgomery, brigadier general over at Athensmusic.net, dropped Flagpole a little tidbit of information. Seems like the scene promoters are giving away three free sets of tickets to the Vic Chesnutt show going down on Saturday, May 17. Vic's heading back from his nationwide tour - which included a stop at Craig Kilborn's show - and it's been a minute or two since he played a regular ol' show. All you've got to do is head over to www.athensmusic.net, burrow about the Web site for a while, and you should find the information form to fill out - no need to buy anything, no need to put a down payment or pledge your firstborn, it's honest-to-gosh, all-the-way free. And if Chesnutt's not your thing, heck, go fill out the form if you'd rather see Andrew Bird - of Squirrel Nut Zippers fame - cause he's opening the show at the 40 Watt.

What Do We Call This? A Good Start: The hardest-working man in Athens music, Bill Mallonee, has just become the first act signed to Paste Records. The label is a subsidiary of the Paste Music Group, LLC which runs the songwriter-oriented website www.pastemusic.com.

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Paste has also inked a deal with The Telegraph Company to handle distribution and Telegraph, in turn, depends on the mammoth Alliance Entertainment Group to handle the actual shipping, etc. of the distribution game. At any rate, Mallonee, if you didn't know, is simply one of the best songwriters and performers to come out of Athens in the past 20 years. Very few can hold a candle to his sincere delivery, outspoken spiritual insight and incredible tune-smithing. Mallonee and his Vigilantes Of Love have gone through more than a few labels over the years and I, for one, wish him the absolute best with this newest one. His debut record Perfume Letter is scheduled for release on August 5.

Like The Jacksons or Von Trapps, Except With No Money or Toilet: Former Athens resident and current border collie breeder/ musician John Christopher Knight has sent word that his current album is trumping many major artists (including Bob Dylan, Tracy Chapman and Bruce Springsteen) on the Billboard Americana charts. His children, aged six to 25, are all featured on the record also. After moving his family to the religious-leftist fold of a Mennonite community in rural Kentucky in 1980, Knight was told by Mennonite leaders that music was sinful, so he put his guitar away for several years. After being convinced by his brother to get it out again, he started making music and now is becoming quickly revered and heralded in some circles as a Woody Guthrie-type figure. The Knight family has lived without automobiles, electricity (although they do seem to maintain a web site quite well) or indoor plumbing since 1980. While the music may be fine and dandy (and a quick listen to his MP3s will attest to that fact), I'm calling bullshit on this crap. Knight sent me a long and detailed email (!!) that spent more time profiling his stoic and Luddite existence than it did detailing his music. Hype it any way you want, but I've got x-ray vision on this type of stuff. Oh, if you want more info on the Knight family, their music or border collies you can write to info@johnchristopherknight.com.

Love 'Em or Hate 'Em, They got the Game Down: Rarely will I give a shout out to retail shops, but dammit, Athens record stores could sure as hell learn a thing or two from Atlanta's Criminal Records. Their regular in-store performances, tireless promotion and collaboration with local bands and artists, weekly email updates and killer web site (www.criminal.com) all make me wanna go there and spends tons of money. Which I don't have. But nonetheless, Athens rests on its laurels too much when it comes to our little music scene here. Athens old-timers continually get undercut in the taste-making game by young bucks from 60 miles west. Rise to the challenge, folks. You can do it.

Nothing Like Advance Notice: Heeding my call to get news to me in a timely manner, Erik Hinds of Solponticello Records has announced two pretty big label related events. First: "The Butterfly Effect Two" will take place November 14 at the Seney-Stovall Chapel and will be a multimedia/original music performance featuring Colin Bragg, Grady Cousins, Sally Coenen, Kyle Dawkins, Mark Fisher, Erik Hinds, Kevin Hoth,

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Julie Powell and Jason Solomon. The other big event will be the first Solponticello Exchange Festival held at various to-be-announced venues around Athens in April, 2004. This announcement really blows my skirt up because the performers who've already confirmed will be McArthur Foundation fellow Ken Vandermark (he'll also serve as keynote speaker), Hungarian 16-string guitarist Sandor Szabo and Indian sitarist Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, who won a Grammy in 1994 for his collaboration with Ry Cooder on the album A Meeting By The River. Anything else you need to know can be had by writing info@solponticello.com.

Already Gone: By the time you read this The Ultramod Compound will have been rocked by The Capricorns and We Versus The Volcano who both graced the place Friday, May 2. Get more info on both at www.thecapricorns.com and www.wevsthevolcano.com.

Write In Vitamin G!: Ever wanted to really give the local band you love a nice pat on the back? How about a really expensive paperweight? Well then start voting in the 2003 Flagpole Music Awards. We've got every category you can think of and even have one for Best Cover Band, so pretty much anyone local can be voted for. Remember to only vote in the proper category, as ballots with the same band in each category will be tossed away faster than military absentee ballots were in 2000. Ever been to the Flagpole Music Awards show at The Morton Theatre? This years will be on June 19 and I can attest, in all honesty, that it is a lot of fun and often times simply outrageous. You can vote via the ballot printed in this issue or over at www.flagpole.com. Either way, get it done before June 2, 2003.

And there you have it. Another week of news you can't live without. If you've got something up your sleeve, or even something in your pants that you think qualifies to be on this hallowed page then give up the funk 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