KEEPIN’ COOL ON SCHOOL: The Oconee Cultural Arts Foundation (34 School St., Watkinsville) will host Marty Winkler & Friends and Overia on Saturday, Oct. 4 as part of its live music series. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., and music begins at 7 p.m. Joining the jazz/pop/folk singer, who just happens to have a four-octave range, as her band are pianist Neil Golden, bassist Mike Merva, and singers Maggie Mason Hunter and Debbie Hardagree. Local group Overia opens the show. Tickets are $15 in advance for OCAF members and $20 in advance for non-members. These prices increase to $20 and $25, respectively, at the door. For more information, please see ocaf.com and facebook.com/martywinkleractingmusic.
THIS PAINTING WILL SELF-DESTRUCT: MicroTrak (Oliver Domingo, Ava Busby and Aidan Jackson) released its second self-titled EP in as many months a few weeks ago. While the band tags its music as “electronic/ambient/jazz,” this stuff is pretty stylistically jumbled and broadly aestheticized. It opens with the plaintive, bagpipe-punctuated “Km-600 Shark” and then climbs up into the mid-’80s electro-soul sophistication of “Proline.” This continues, albeit to a diminished degree, through “LampShade” before collapsing like a dying star in “Elgnuj.” This paced, even if inadvertent, destruction of style provides a framework of deliberateness that, once encountered, is difficult to ignore. Find this, as well as the group’s debut from August, at streitjackettapes.bandcamp.com.
NOW YOU KNOW, AND KNOWING IS HALF THE BATTLE!: Musician Joe Kubler has certainly been around the block of Athens music. While currently concentrating on the live aspects of his project CGI Joe, there’s also a brand new single out named “I Think You Should Leave (Already).” This bouncy, indie-baroque/psych number is populated by quotes from comedian Patti Harrison with its central conceit being that weirdos and outliers should be placed front and center in society. Far more interesting, though, is Kubler’s years-long project album named Album 88. Yes, that title is ripped from Atlanta’s WRAS radio station, but what else are you going to name an album with 88 tracks? You can find the new single over at cgijoe.bandcamp.com and the album at soundcloud.com/cgijoe. SoundCloud now requires visitors to create a free listening account, though, so if that’s a bummer for you then ignore this.
SET THE CONTROLS…: MikeRobeTheDemon returned last month with a two-track release “Eco in Heart of the Sun” B/W “Half A Wish Away.” If you can get past the first couple of minutes of static of the 18-minute A-side, an evil little voice pops up emanating what I can only imagine are subliminal messages. Although there are slight sonic changes in this, it’s essentially a Gremlin-after-midnight performing gutterally in the middle of a broken television. The B-side is a nearly Stereolab-ish track with stunning use of what I would describe as “Tusk”-style drums. It gets a little squishy towards its end, but for the most part is a cool listen. Find this at majorappliancerecordings.bandcamp.com.
YIKES: Horror Jazz is the name of the new EP by French Exit, the ongoing project of AJ Griffin (Laminated Cat, Olivia Tremor Control, et al). Starting with “Horror Jazz # 2 – The Itinerary is Now Wet With Rainwater,” listeners are in for a surprisingly well-integrated amalgamation of plunky string picking atop multiple layers of horns, pianos and rhythmic instruments. “Horror Jazz #3 – Bunny Eatin’” is slightly similarly constructed but with seemingly fewer devices. It is, however, much more dramatic in its passages. It ends with “Horror Jazz #1 – Horror Jazz for Real Estate Sales,” which actually sounds like it’s being performed backwards. This whole thing is like a painting that gets more and more detailed the longer you stare at it. So start staring over at frenchexit1.bandcamp.com.
HIGHER EDUCATION: David Barbe (Mercyland, Sugar, Buzz Hungry, et al) released a new live EP last week courtesy of Orange Twin. It’s titled Any Better and It Would Be Worse, and it’s a live electric set from his AthFest performance at Flicker Theatre and Bar. He’ll be heading out on tour to promote it, too, with most of his shows seeing him opening for his former bandmate in Sugar, Bob Mould. The five tracks here are from several of Barbe’s releases, and their selection was pretty spontaneous as Barbe does not use set lists for these types of performances. Notable is his ability to wring every bit of emotional heft out of these songs with merely an electric guitar and his voice. Longtime Barbe listeners will be particularly edified to hear “The Grey Machine” from 1995’s Buzz Hungry album At The Hands Of Our Intercessors. Find this online wherever you generally find your music, including orangetwinrecords.bandcamp.com. For more information, please see orangetwin.com.
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