SEPTEMBER’S COMING SOON: A really neat exhibition and event will happen Thursday, Aug. 8 at 7 p.m. at the Richard B. Russell Jr. Special Collections Libraries Building (300 S. Hull St.). Back in 2017 photographer Jason Thrasher, along with his wife Beth, published the book Athens Potuck featuring 33 Athens musicians. This exhibition is that book popped up into artifacts, memorabilia, selected stories and images from the book, and live music, to boot! Featured performers include Charlie and Nancy Hartness and Jill Carnes. This event is free and open to the public. For more information, please see libs.uga.edu/scl.
MERRY BLISS MIST: Primordial Void will release the debut album from Reed Winckler, Gull, on Aug. 9. It is available both digitally and as a cassette tape. The first single is the title track, and it’s lovely, gentle and deeply personal, which is like a lot of Winckler’s work. Check out the single and preorder information at primordialvoid.bandcamp.com, and check out some of her other work at reedwinckler.bandcamp.com.
WATCH OUT, YOU MIGHT GET WHAT YOU’RE AFTER: The magnificently named Doom Ribbons is the years-long and generally collaborative project of James Owen, and he has a new collection of solo work out now. It’s named Burning House Party and features three tracks. The first song, “Sweetest Honey (Rachel was Right),” is a very groove-oriented dark track with goth overtones. “Soaring Sin (For Steven Hopper)” is unsettling and deeply moody. It’s often punctuated by bird crows. Ultimately, it descends into a cacophony that then dissipates, and you’re left with static and crowing. Finally, we have “This House Is On Fire,” which is credited to Doom Ribbons with Boba Fetish (featuring Shane Parish). It’s very much in the acceptably experimental style of the 1980s, featuring heavy drumming, electronics that only sometimes veer from a melody, and some tubular bell sounds at around the 2:30 mark that shift the track towards its end, which resolves its melody and ends in a traditional way. Find this at doomribbons.bandcamp.com.
STAND IN THE PLACE WHERE YOU LIVE: The annual Historic Athens Porchfest happens this year on Sunday, Oct. 20. And while there is absolutely no doubt this event will once again pack our in-town neighborhoods with thousands of music fans, the fact is, they’re going to need some places to pack. As of the end of last month, this was what was needed: 15 porches in the Boulevard Neighborhood, 14 in Normaltown, 16 in Pulaski Heights, 10 in Cobbham, 11 in Buena Vista and 10 in the Reese-Hancock corridor. For more information and details about volunteer opportunities, please see historicathens.com.
GETTIN’ TOGETHER: Killick Hinds has released so much music over the past three decades that it’s seriously impossible to keep up. If you have a year or so to spare, maybe you can spend some time with his massive catalog. That said, a new collaborative release between Hinds and Javelinas members Scott Burland and Ryan Taylor was the result of them asking to collaborate with Hinds. The five-track album is named Invisible Incremental. These are each lengthy pieces, with the shortest coming in at 11:42. Everything is performed with guitar, theremin and Killick on Vo-96 and K’Harp. I suppose I could go deeply academic on this, but suffice it to say that this is an experimentally meditative record that can be jarring but is rewarding by its end. Find it at killick.bandcamp.com, and while you’re there check out Javelinas proper over at javelinas-atl.bandcamp.com.
POPTONES: The debut album from Giant Day, the new project from Derek Almstead and Emily Growden, just released a truncated digital teaser version of its debut album Glass Narcissus, which is officially slated for release Aug. 23. This release contains all the singles that have come out so far. Both Almestead and Growden are longtime members of the Elephant 6 Collective and, indeed, their name is taken from the Olivia Tremor Control song. The four songs here, though, exist in a musical place that shutters the collective’s bohemian, kick around folk aesthetic well outside its sound. The music here is nicely new wave but with a maturity of the kind expressed by Jah Wobble, Kraftwerk, OMD and Ultravox. The best overall track here is “Walk with a Shadow,” which is heavily rhythmic and bass oriented. Close listeners will hear overtones of both Pylon and Immaterial Possession on those bass lines. The digital release can be enjoyed at giantday.bandcamp.com. This is an official Elephant 6 release, and you can order physical products now via elephant6.com.
NEW TUNEZ: Phantom Dan continued to plow new music into the scene last week when he released his newest single “Get So Low.” While this follows in a similar stylistic vein as his other songs (big choruses, catchy guitars, shouts, etc.), this tune itself is musically slightly darker than previous releases. Not like a full U-turn, not even close, but this still all sounds like it’s in a more minor key. Lyrically, this is Dan nearly eviscerating himself over depression, anxiety, manic behavior, etc. Find this on Spotify and follow along at facebook.com/phantomdan88.
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