LITTLE LOVE LETTERS: Kimberly Morgan York is releasing her newest full-length album, Fun, on Friday, Oct. 11. That same night she’ll celebrate its release when she and her band open for Stewart & Winfield at Terrapin Beer Co. I’m not gonna go all into who’s in her band, but trust me when I say they’re all on the Athens A-Team. The album was produced by David Barbe. The new album is an economical eight songs long, and the title track and lead single is a grab-life-by-the-horns anthem that scoots along very nicely with its speedy tempo. Honestly, that’s kind of the theme of the whole album. And as poppy as some of this is delivered, there is no mistaking York’s deep country tendencies as evidenced on “My Mama’s Done Lost Her Mind.” This new album is self-released by York and will be available on all major streaming services. For all other information, please see kimberlymorganyork.com.
NO JOKING: JOKERJOKERtv and vhs.or.die are finished booking performers for the upcoming VHS Fest happening Sunday, Nov. 3 at Athentic Brewing, and attendees will see Black Wick, Annie Leeth, Libbaloops, Snotnoze Saleem, Ihlyatt, Corporal Quigg, Bad Straples and Mr. Blank during the annual event this year. The call is still open for vendors, so jump on that if you’re a VHS enthusiast or similarly situated merchant. Believe me, you can probably get as weird with this as you want. If you think your particular vending scheme isn’t in line with what these guys are doing, just ask! They’re a friendly bunch and will sort you out right away. For all other information, please see jokerjokertv.com/athens-vhs-fest.
WHAT’S IN A NAME?: The members in KIT are celebrating the release of their new EP SYZYGY, which is a name that remains as difficult as when Ian Hemerlein first started using it years ago. The band will celebrate with a release show on Oct. 11 at Flicker. Nicholas Mallis and the Borealis and Organically Programmed are also on this bill this night. The EP, a lot of which I’ve already covered as the band released singles, is a great little collection of sweet pop tunes seemingly suspended in time between the twin poles of classic psych pop and synth pop. That said, I really dig what these folks are doing, but for the life of me I’ll never understand why they chose to follow up an utterly unsearchable band name with such a clunkily titled debut. Any questions? Ask them directly over at instagram.com/kit.rocks, and find this EP on Spotify and other streaming services.
GIMME, GIMME THIS, GIMME, GIMME THAT: Currently on a real tear with its new releases, skate zine/label/show promoter Hard Tack returns this week with the new five-song demo from Peter and the Skeeters. This is the first band of its type to come to the Athens punk rock table with what represents a pretty complete working knowledge of what made late 1970s to early 1980s weirdo art punk so compelling and—at least in its time—so seemingly necessary, since Muuy Biien. And they’ve done it all without aping anyone’s sound, instead working with this music as a common language. As such, listeners will hear moody Rollins-era Black Flag in “Not My Problem,” shades of The Screamers in opening song “Slumlord,” and there’s Germs all over “Lick The Floor.” These are just reference points I hear for myself and maybe they’ll help you out, too. This is also the first band I’ve heard recently that could be spiritual brethren with other Athens locals Rubber Udder. This is available digitally and as a limited-edition (25 copies) cassette tape. Find this immediately at hardtackk.bandcamp.com.
AND SINCE I ALREADY BROUGHT ‘EM UP…: Are you in for the 20-track journey of madness that the art terrorists in Rubber Udder plan to subject you to across its new, charmingly titled compilation testes vomit cuddle? Before we get too into it, Rubber Udder is completely unpretentious and knows full well a lot of this stuff is dumb. But, as has been written famously about The Ramones many times, they may be dumb but they’re not stupid. So, to this end, you get a lot of noise punctuated with drones (“WelmfWwelmfDeShmoine”), anxiety inducing feature-length tracks that only give slight relief at their end (“if only my dog could vomit”), the Surfers-meet-Manson freak folk (“Gun In My Rice”) and legitimate psychedelic freakouts (“Chrome”). Look, this is gonna take you a long time to hear, and I’ve already done the preliminary leg work for you. Find this at rubberudder.bandcamp.com, and send best wishes to instagram.com/rubber_udder.
IRIE! IRIE!: It’s been a year and a couple of months since we heard from the master selector Killa Cabbi. This new release, Screwy Chopper Vol. 5, feature’s Cabbi remixing tracks from Tommy Richman, Tinashe, Saweetie and Ariana Grande. Sometimes the good Killa will place a very light touch on his remixes, and other times he can make them completely distinct from their original, underlying tunes. The highest point here is probably his remix of Saweetie’s “Nani.” Killa Cabbi has a back catalog as long as your arm, too, so when you go listen to this just stick around a while. Tuck in over at echobassrecords.bandcamp.com.
HEAR YE, HEAR YE: The World Famous has a show Wednesday, Oct.16 that’ll make other stages in town that night green with jealousy. This stacked bill includes Cult of Riggonia, Dhana Jerra, Atlanta’s Yerfdass and O Key. The show is 10 bucks at the door, all ages, and you can get up to speed ahead of time by plugging into the following URLs: cultofriggonia.bandcamp.com, cloudrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/dhana-jeera, yerfdaas.bandcamp.com and okey.bandcamp.com. None of this music is particularly “easy,” so to speak, but it is all rewarding and, for a mere two and a half bucks a band, if you go wrong with this one then that’s on you.
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