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Threats & Promises

Soft Synth, Hard Cheese, And More Music News and Gossip

YOU STAY CLASSIC, ATHENS: The 2025 Classic City American Music Festival happens Saturday, July 5 at The Foundry. This annual event is nicely scheduled and paced such that, if this were the only thing you do that day, you can sleep late, see the whole thing and still get home early. Doors open at 1:30 p.m., and music starts at 2 p.m. In order of appearance, featured acts are MrJordanMrTonks, Comer String Collective, 38 Strings, BorderHop Trio, Norma Rae and Grassland. Tickets are $10 in advance, $15 at the door or $10 at the door with a UGA ID. Kids 12 and under get in free. For tickets, please see bit.ly/CCAMF2025, and for more information, please see facebook.com/AubreyEntertainmentAthensGA and instagram.com/aubreyent

TRUE TO LIFE: Hunter Hoskins just slipped out another single from his forthcoming album The Limiting Factor. The album is expected to come out later on this year and, while I’ve certainly enjoyed the previous tracks he’s released from it, this new single may have sold me on the whole thing. It’s named “Ought To Be,” and it’s a really decent mid-tempo number listeners can easily file between The Replacements and Uncle Tupelo. It features another all-star lineup as well, including Jon Mills, Andrew Hanmer, Nick Robbins and Neil Golden. Find this on Spotify and other streaming services as we speak. 

BROTHERS IN ARMS: The ambient/improvisational collaboration between Jay Gonzalez and George Davidson, Nerve Glyphs, has cause to celebrate. The duo has announced its February 2025 release, Vatic Dream Menu, is now in its second vinyl pressing. After revisiting the record myself, I’m glad to report that my original assessment stands. Nothing here is forced or pretentious. Neither is it lackadaisical or trite. It’s just a very nice record full of discernible melody, deliberate instrumentation and thoughtful execution. Sure, it helps if you already have a taste for unpredictable instrumental music but, even if you don’t yet, this isn’t a particularly dangerous jumping off point. Give it a try at nerveglyphs.bandcamp.com, and keep in mind this second vinyl pressing is limited to 100 copies. 

GOOD SAVE: Primordial Void released the debut album by producer and composer Thomas Willey, who records under the project name Belgium Limp, last week. It’s titled Soft Synth, Hard Cheese, and its very existence is something of a small miracle. According to a press release, Willey recorded these tracks across a number of years, but in 2023 his laptop hit the fritz and took his files with it. The ones he was able to extract seemed to fit together as an album, so he decided to release them this way. Right from the jump, I was quite impressed with Willey’s sense of contemporary throwback. There’s most definitely some 1990s–2000s influences here, but Willey doesn’t wallow in nostalgia as much as he uses it for fuel for the future. Avoiding the academic, which can be difficult in this scene, Willey excels with the down-beat of “Swaths_WIP_2” and the synthy near harmonium sounds of “Cartesian_Saltflat_9_30.” It was the first two tracks (“Voss_Ist_Das” and “Actinoid_Mart_1(1)”), though, which really swept me into this, so maybe they’ll do the same for you. Find this digitally and on cassette tape at primordialvoid.bandcamp.com.

OUTTA CLASS AND KICKING GRASS: Red Line, the stalwart indie space just a little bit out of the way at 1958 Winterville Road, will host its second annual instance of its multi-band event Bored In The USA on July 5. This year’s featured acts are Atlanta’s Running Riot (who get a hat tip for sharing a name with a Cock Sparrer song), Melbourne, Australia’s Solder—who on the show’s poster is listed as such, but in an email to me was referred to as “Solder DPU” so just ask them in person—and then from good ‘ol Athens you get Tears for the Dying, Borzoi, Nothingifanything and Televised by Ghosts. The suggested donation is a sliding scale that runs between $5–$10, so take some cash with you. Doors open at 5:30 p.m., so expect music to start, if everyone’s being reasonable and on-task, by about an hour after that. For more information, please see redlineathens.com and instagram.com/redline_athens.

A DIFFERENT KIND OF TENSION: The new self-titled four-song EP by The Touch isn’t exactly raucous, but that’s not for want of trying. What it has come up with, rather, is a tight and consistently delivering short stack of punk tunes. Even when it veers a little—like the Jefferson Airplane-isms of “Seduce Me”—the band manages to keep its core intact. Even so, the first two songs here (“Touch My Body” and “Chance Of Dying”) are by far the winners, and each contains just enough blippy new-wave knowledge to keep this nailed to the pit but with eyes looking outward. Find it at thetouchisaband.bandcamp.com.

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